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Outback House: Meet the participants

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Man and woman pack bag in bedroom
Outback House: Meet the participants

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  5–6


What was life like in outback Australia in 1861?

How would you adjust to life without electricity, running water, motor transport and modern technology?

In this clip from Outback House, meet some of the participants and find out what job they will have on a sheep station. Discover how their lives are about to change.

The Allcorn family and those who will be their domestic servants and station workers prepare to make the journey to Oxley Downs, a sheep station in outback New South Wales.

Everyone on Oxley Downs will have a job to do to help run the sheep station. But first they need training to prepare them for 19th-century life in outback Australia.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Imagine leaving your home to live on a remote sheep farm where there is no electricity or running water, and where there are no schools, shops, cinemas or motor vehicles. What will you pack? What will you miss most? What would daily life be like on a farm in the 1860s?
  2. 2.Observe the sheep station. What materials have been used for the buildings? What might the different buildings be used for? How are the large wooden wheels used? Why was the station owner called a 'squatter'? Who were the 'landed gentry'?
  3. 3.The Allcorn family needs training to take part in this project. What are five things they will need to learn? If you were taking part in the project, how would you feel about living as people did so long ago, in the 1860s? What questions would you ask about life on an 1860s sheep station? What jobs might you do on the station?
  4. 4.Make a list of all the things you do in one day that would not have been possible in the 1860s. Find out what sort of clothing you might wear. What things might you do in your spare time? Write or record a reflection about how your life would be different from your life today.



Production Date: 2005


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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