Burnie Regional Museum
Early Burnie
An exhibition exploring the history of our region before 1900
Journeys, Objects, Stories
Education Kit
CONTENTS
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Teachers’ notes
How to use this education resource
Curriculum links
Program outline
Map of the exhibition layout
Activities
Additional resources
School group visits
TEACHERS’ NOTES
The exhibition Early Burnie explores Burnie’s beginnings as a privately owned
enterprise and follows its progress through the 19th century. Students will learn about
early exploration and the exploits of the Van Diemen’s Land Company; life in the
region for early settlers; and the events which led to Burnie’s transformation from a
rural backwater to the shipping hub for the booming West Coast mines.
Two of the activities in the education kit require the use of items that are not available
for download from our website. These items are: 1) A copy of a map drawn by Henry
Hellyer; 2) Three addressed envelopes. These items can be picked up from the front
counter at the time of your visit.
The exhibition utilises significant objects drawn from the Burnie Regional Museum
collection to interpret the major themes. To help you find your way around the
exhibition, below is a list of the major themes and the titles of the exhibition panels
where each theme is interpreted.
The North-West landscape prior to European settlement
Explored through panels:
 A Changing Landscape
The exploits of the Van Diemen’s Land Company
Explored through panels:
 The Van Diemen’s Land Company
 Where in the North West?
 A Nice Piece of Pasture?
 Making tracks
Life in the North-West for early settlers
Explored through panels:
 A Ripple in the Backwater
 Good Red Dirt
 No Place for a Lady
West Coast mining and Burnie’s consequential development
Explored through panels:
 Progress at Last
 Linking the Mine and Port
 A Port City
From the Early Burnie exhibition students can walk into the Federation Street and
discover how ordinary people lived in Burnie at the turn of the 20th century. It is
recommended that the Early Burnie exhibition is viewed prior to the Federation
Street, as the Federation Street explores the next phase of Burnie’s history, when the
town was at the height of its first economic boom.
HOW TO USE THIS EDUCATION RESOURCE
This resource is intended to be used as a starting point for teachers and primary
students to explore the exhibition Early Burnie. The questions and activities have
been designed to address a broad range of study design and curricula in relation to
the Australian Curriculum for History; however, opportunities to relate to other subject
areas of the Curriculum are also provided. It is suggested that teachers use this
resource as a basis for their own exhibition response worksheets or as a launching
pad for further investigation.
In addition to this education kit, many of the exhibition panels include some KIDS!
interpretation – look for the silhouettes of children!
The information that is provided on the two iPads in the exhibition also encourages
interaction and incorporates a KIDS! component. Look for the same symbol of
silhouetted children.
CURRICULUM LINKS
This education kit acknowledges the introduction of the Australian Curriculum and
identifies with some of the Focus areas and explores a number of the Key inquiry
questions that relate specifically to the History Curriculum for Years 2 to 6.
AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM - HISTORY
Foundation – Year 2
Focus Areas
 Personal and Family Histories
 Present and Past Family Life
 The Past in the Present
Inquiry questions
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What is my history and how do I know?
What stories do other people tell about the past?
How can stories of the past be told and shared?
How has family life changed or remained the same over time?
How can we show that the present is different from or similar to the past?
How do we describe the sequence of time?
What aspects of the past can you see today? What do they tell us?
What remains of the past are important to the local community? Why?
How have changes in technology shaped our daily life?
Year 3 – 6
Focus areas
 Community and Remembrance
 First Contacts
 The Australian Colonies
Inquiry questions
1. Who lived here first and how do we know?
2. How has our community changed? What features have been lost and what
features have been retained?
3. What is the nature of the contribution made by different groups and individuals
in the community?
4. How and why do people choose to remember significant events of the past?
5. Why did the great journeys of exploration occur?
6. What was life like for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples before
the arrival of the Europeans?
7. Why did the Europeans settle in Australia?
8. What was the nature and consequence of contact between Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander Peoples and early traders, explorers and settlers?
9. What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and
how do we know?
10. How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
11. How did colonial settlement change the environment?
12. What were the significant events and who were the significant people that
shaped Australian colonies?
PROGRAM OUTLINE
The self-guided pathways for Years 2-6 are designed to assist students to make the
most from a visit to Early Burnie.
The recommended duration of a visit when using these materials is 40 minutes.
Activities have been suggested under the headings Journeys, Objects and Stories to
provide a variety of pathways to interact with the exhibition.
These are starting points for initial engagement with specific objects and themes of
the exhibition while considering links with the curriculum.
Pre-visit Activities
The following key inquiry questions can be used to engage students in the exhibition
and provide a focus for their investigations and learning.
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How can stories of the past be told and shared?
What aspects of the past can you see today? What do they tell us?
How have changes in technology shaped our daily life?
What is the nature of the contribution made by different groups and individuals in
the community?
What was life like for the Aboriginal people living in Tasmania before the arrival of
the Europeans?
How have methods of transport changed over time?
What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and how
do we know?
How did colonial settlement change the environment?
Some of the following activities could be included in pre-visit lessons:
1) Brainstorm the challenges of starting a settlement on the North-West Coast.
What would be the first priorities? How might the first settlers have gone about
meeting basic needs? What would have been the most significant challenges?
2) Students form 4 groups to research what the place we now call Burnie was
like in:
 1826 (when the first Europeans arrived)
 1842 (when the first tenant farmers arrived)
 1871 (when the mineral boom began)
 1900 (when Burnie was experiencing its first economic boom)
Who lived here? How did they live?
Student groups give a presentation to the rest of the class on their topic.
During the visit
Groups will be met by Museum staff in the entrance foyer at the booked time.
Please note that this is a self-guided program. While a Museum staff member will be
available to assist teachers with questions, it is expected that teachers will be fully
prepared for the excursion.
After the visit
Some of the extension activities can be completed post-visit.
The following activities could be included in post-visit lessons:
1) As a whole class create a timeline using everybody’s answers to the timeline
activity. Students can work in groups to research some of the significant
events on the timeline in more depth and present their findings to the class.
2) Students choose a character from the exhibition (not necessarily a famous
person) and conduct research into their life and times, so that the life story of
the character is fleshed out.
Students could present their findings in role from the period, via a series of
journal entries, or in an interview format.
ACTIVITIES
Journeys, Objects and Stories
Journeys
1. Seasonal migration of Tasmanian Aboriginal people
Image source – McFarlane, I. (2008) Beyond Awakening – The Aboriginal Tribes of North West
Tasmania: A History. Fullers Bookshop, Launceston, p.226
During the summer, where did the Aboriginal people of the North-West travel to?
Why did they travel to different places at different times of the year?
Can you find a mention of one type of food Aboriginal people ate?
Extension
• What was the North West like before the Europeans arrived?
• What impact did the arrival of the Europeans have on Aboriginal life and culture?
2. Van Diemen’s Land Company explorers
In a small group, look at the map drawn by Henry Hellyer. (You can pick up this map
from the front counter of the Museum when you arrive for your visit).
Can you find Burnie’s location? What was it called?
Can you find three places on the map mentioned in the exhibition? In your group
discuss what happened at each of these places to make it important to region’s
history. Write down your answers.
Extension
• Why did Europeans settle in Australia? And more specifically, why did the Van
Diemen’s Land Company settle in Tasmania?
3. European migrants
Can you find William Moore’s wooden sea chest?
William Moore was born in the Isle of Man, near the United Kingdom. He moved to
Canada and from there sailed all the way to Australia in 1853, where he finally
settled in Wynyard. Small sailing ships and whaling boats were the only way to get to
the North West Coast at that time and the journey was often dangerous.
Make a list of all the things you think William would have brought in his chest on the
long sea voyage to the isolated North West Coast of Tasmania.
Extension
• What do you think were some of the hopes and fears of those who travelled to Van
Diemen’s Land?
• Imagine you were moving to a new country and could only take a small suitcase
with you. What would be in it? What would be the most important item? What would
be the hardest thing to leave behind?
• How long do you think it took William Moore to travel by boat to Van Diemen’s
Land? Did he stop anywhere on the way? What were conditions like on the boat?
Objects
1. Tasmanian Emu egg
Image source - http://www.mdahlem.net/birds/1/emu.php
Photographer - Michael Dahlem
This is a photograph of an Australian Emu egg.
How is the Tasmanian Emu egg in the exhibition different to this one?
What does the word extinct mean?
Why is the Tasmanian Emu extinct? Can you find a reference to another extinct
animal in the exhibition?
Extension
• What impact did the Europeans have on the environment in this area?
• How was this landscape different to the one they were familiar with in England?
2. Mailbag
Here are three addressed envelopes containing letters that may have been found in
the mailbag on display. (You can pick up these envelopes from the Museum’s front
counter when you arrive for your visit).
What do you think may have been written on them?
Rev. Dr. Zachary Pearce Pocock
Preacher
St. George’s Church
Emu Bay
Van Diemen’s Land
Mr.Joseph Gardner Stutterd
Storekeeper
Araucaria House
Table Cape
Van Diemen’s Land
Mrs.Edward Curr
Wife of VDL Co. Chief Agent Edward Curr
Highfield House
Circular Head
Van Diemen’s Land
Choose one of the envelopes and write what you think may have been in the letter
inside.
Explain who you are in the letter and why you are writing to the person whose name
is on the chosen envelope. What are you telling them in the letter? Are you asking
them any questions?
Extension
• How were letters delivered before there were roads in the North-West?
• How long might it have taken for a letter to come from England to Tasmania?
• Do you write letters? What other ways do we have to communicate with each other
today?
3. Circumferentor
Can you find an object that helped explorers find their way through the thick bush?
What is it called?
Can you tell which way is north?
What do we use today to help us with finding directions?
Extension
• What are some other items we have today that would have been helpful to Henry
Hellyer that weren’t around back then?
4. Agricultural tools
Draw an outline on your page of each of the agricultural tools that are displayed on
the wall. Inside the outline write down what the tool was used for.
List 2 crops grown by early settlers. Are those crops still grown in the area today?
How can you find out?
Extension
• Find the ‘Working the Land’ button on an iPad and watch the film footage showing
horse ploughing. Can you find a single-furrow plough in the Federation Street?
• In what other ways might farm work today differ from farm work back then?
Stories
A picture tells a thousand words...
1. Family life
Can you find this photograph in the exhibition? Imagine you are one of the children in
the photograph.
Write a story about what you have been doing that day. Have you been to school?
Were there jobs you have been doing to help around the house or on the property?
What games might you have played?
Extension
• In what ways is your family life different or the same as the family pictured?
•Think about the impact of changing technology on people’s lives. In what ways
might our household chores differ from the household chores of this family?
2. The Port
Can you find this photograph in the exhibition? Imagine you are one of the people in
the photograph.
What is your job? What are you doing at the jetty that day? Write a story about the
events of that day...
Extension
• Name two types of goods you can see waiting for shipment at the port in the
photograph. What are Burnie’s main exports today?
• How were large ships loaded and unloaded at the time this photograph was taken?
How are they loaded and unloaded now?
• What changes have taken place at the port to allow big ships to berth in Burnie?
3. The Emu Bay Railway
Can you find this photograph in the exhibition? Imagine you are one of the people in
the photograph.
Write a story about your work building the Emu Bay & Mount Bischoff Railway. What
are your work conditions like? What tools do you use? Where do you sleep at night?
Extension
• Before the iron railway was built, bullock and horse teams were used to transport
goods. The iron railway was a big improvement on bullock and horse teams. How are
goods transported long distances today?
• What modes of transport do you think will be used in 100 years time?
Draw a timeline
Pick five events mentioned in the exhibition and put them in sequence along a
timeline. Draw a picture to illustrate each event. Which event do you think was the
most important? Why?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Pink, K. (2000). Campsite to city. Burnie City Council, Burnie.
Pink, K. (1990). And wealth for toil: a history of North-West and Western Tasmania
1825-1900. Advocate Marketing Services Pty. Ltd., Burnie.
McFarlane, I. (2008). Beyond awakening: the aboriginal tribes of North West
Tasmania: a history. Fullers Bookshop, Riawunna, Community, Place & Heritage
Research Unit, University of Tasmania
Thomas, B. (ed.) (2011). Henry Hellyer’s observations: journals of life in the
Tasmanian bush. North Down Press, Latrobe.
Haygarth, N. (2004). Baron Bischoff: Philosopher Smith and the birth of Tasmanian
mining.
Mercer, P. Gateway to Progress: Centenary History of the Marine Board of Burnie
Rae, L. The Emu Bay Railway – VDL Company to Pasminco
SCHOOL GROUP VISITS
Booking
Please book your visit by emailing museum@burnie.net or phoning (03) 64 305 746
Please provide the following information at the time of booking:
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Your preferred date and time (BRM is open Monday to Friday 10am-4:30pm)
Number of students
Grade of students
Name of supervising teacher, email address and phone number
Contact details for the school or organisation
Preparation
Brief students about the aims of the excursion and what they can expect to see at the
museum. You may also wish to undertake some pre and post-visit activities.
Talk to your students about appropriate behaviour in a museum, including voice
volume, touching exhibits and respecting other visitors.
Students will need to bring their own clipboards, pens and pencils.
At the Museum
There is wheelchair access available via the Main entrance to the museum.
School bags should be left on the bus, however, if necessary they may be left in the
foyer area of the museum.
Ideally the class should be divided into small groups, with a supervising adult, and
each allocated a different starting point in the Museum.
No food or drink is allowed in the galleries.
Cost
Student entry is $2.50. Teachers and accompanying adults on school excursions are
free of charge.
Acknowledgements
The production of this education kit has been assisted through Arts Tasmania’s
Roving Curator Program.
These materials were developed by Arts Tasmania and the Burnie Regional Museum
for use in schools and at the Burnie Regional Museum. They may be reproduced for
teaching purposes only. Permission to reproduce images or text for other purposes
must be obtained from the Burnie Regional Museum.