Understanding the period
Do a Google image search on such terms as
'clothing/homestead/hut/women/men/children/Aboriginal/Australia 1890', and choose
three or four contemporary photographs from each category save each of these in a
word document (each image to be a full page; so if it pixelates you will need to find
another).
Working in the same word document and looking at all the pictures speculate about what
it could have been like as a woman in this period and complete a response that
addresses the following (to be at least three paragraphs):

dressed in these costumes doing physical work/in the heat/engaged in social activities

living in these dwellings

encountering racial and social difference.
In a separate response refine these notions by researching the effects of the Australian
Depression and long drought of the 1890s using dot points to consider such issues as:

the lives of the rich and the poor

the roles of men and of women

the nature of class, race and ethnic distinction.
Having made notes on these issues, now find passages of these aspects in the novel and
write reference numbers against the dot points.
Submit your word document via Dropbox regardless of whether or not you are finished.