TEACHER RESOURCE 3: PENINSULA FARM (TRANBY)

How did the free settlers in the Swan River Colony spend their daily lives?  

A visit to Peninsula Farm (Tranby) by the Swan River at Maylands will engage students with the daily lives of the early settlers. Students are encouraged to understand how life would have been for the Hardey family who arrived in the settlement in 1830 and their 'workers'.

At Peninsula Farm (Tranby) a National Trust Education Officer will meet the class and present a brief talk about the place and its heritage significance. The class will then undertake a tour of the house and hands on activities to help them learn more about this period of Western Australian history. Suggested size per group 5 – 10 students with adult school supervisor for each group.

VISITING PENINSULA FARM (TRANBY)
To organise a visit contact the National Trust of Australia (WA).
Phone: 08 9321 6088
Email: trust@ntwa.com.au

Resources in this inquiry include:

1.    Links to year 5 Achievement Standards

2.    Peninsula Farm (Tranby): Location.
Land belonging to the Hardey and Clarkson families

3.    Peninsula Farm (Tranby): Daily Life.
Joseph Hardey’s daily routine on Peninsula Farm (Tranby) and the houses

4.    Peninsula Farm (Tranby): Hardey Family.
Information about the Hardey family, their religious beliefs and the farm

5.    Peninsula Farm (Tranby): The Role of Women.
A farmer's wife. Ann Hardey’s role

6.    Peninsula Farm (Tranby): Using Heat to Cool.
The Coolgardie Safe and the Cellar with instructions on how to make a safe

Student Activities include:
PRE-VISIT ACTIVITIES – 
  Vocabulary Review
  Peninsula Farm (Tranby) - the Children
  A visit to Peninsula Farm (Tranby)

DURING THE VISIT –      
  Heritage Detectives

POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES – 
  Joseph Hardey’s Superstore was in his backyard
  Life on the Farm, Crafts and Christmas
  National Trust Photography and Story Competition

1.    Links to Achievement Standards

• Record information from a range of sources and identify points of view and attitudes from the time.
• Understand cause and impact of developments as well as motivations and feelings of individuals and groups from the 1800s.
• Write narratives using appropriate historical source material.
• Use appropriate terms and concepts (such as empathy) in communication.
• Use a range of formats to present historical findings.

During their visit to Peninsula Farm (Tranby) students may:

• empathise with the challenges of living at that time and consider the changes between then and now;
• explore the property as a Heritage Detective looking for evidence of how the Hardey family lived in the 1840s. Please read the National Trust Teacher/Parent Guide Tranby, Heritage Detective as preparation for the excursion.   This includes: Themes to reinforce features of life in the early colony; Questions and Discussion points for each room in the house; Clues to determine mystery objects that the student “detectives” will locate.
• find information about the lives of Joseph and Ann Hardey and their children as well as others associated with the farm;
• consider the different historical perspectives of the place e.g. free settlers, women and children, Aboriginal;
• find out about the rules Joseph Hardey expected people to live by and his religious beliefs;
• play games such as quoits, hoops and knucklebones;
• participate in activities to give them a better understanding of how early settlers lived and worked during the mid 1800s;
• see and touch some of the artefacts similar to those used by the family and work out what they were used for;
• consider the significance of the place and its heritage values.

PRE-VISIT ACTIVITIES

See TEACHER RESOURCE 3: Historical Vocabulary
Prepare students with historical language they may encounter during their visit.

See STUDENT ACTIVITY 3:  Children of Peninsula Farm (Tranby)
Students read the chart showing birth dates of the Hardey children and answer questions. Teachers lead discussion about:

• why families had so many children
• why babies died
• why there was so little time between the birth of children
• what would their daily lives have been like? etc.

See STUDENT ACTIVITY 3: A Visit to Peninsula Farm (Tranby) to prepare for your visit. Students consider historical questions to ask and rules for visiting a heritage site.

POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES:

Suggested STUDENT ACTIVITY: Joseph Hardey’s Superstore was in his backyard
We visit a supermarket to buy our food (or a fresh farmers’ market if we are lucky!). In this activity students imagine they were one of the Hardey children living on the farm in 1845. Ann, the oldest daughter who was named after her mother, would have been 15 years old by then, but your students would have been closer in age to Suzannah who was 11.

Students write a list of all the food that could be collected from the farm to make three meals in a day.
Either   Write a menu remembering that all you had to keep food cool was a cellar under the kitchen. (See TEACHER RESOURCE 3: Peninsula Farm (Tranby) – Using Heat to Cool).
Or        Ask students to “pack a lunch” to take to Mr Hardey working in the fields.

See TEACHER RESOURCE 3: Peninsula Farm (Tranby) Post-Visit Activities include Life on the Farm, Crafts and Christmas at the Farm
After their visit, students look at these questions again to consider aspects of daily life for early settlers and families. Present their findings in a short play format to the rest of the class.

The National Trust of Australia (WA) holds a Photo & Story and Multimedia Competition for school-aged students each year. Students write an historical narrative set in a place that has heritage value to them and illustrate it with their own photography or produce a multimedia presentation. The competition closes on the last day of term 3. Information and Australian Curriculum Links are available.

Students’ stories from their visit to Peninsula Farm and East Perth Cemeteries (or other heritage places) may be eligible for entry to the competition.