Investigating the penal settlement at Sydney Cove

Different historical sources help your students to uncover and understand the past.

In this resource, your students will use evidence from:

• written information
• expert videos 
• artworks
• artefacts (objects) they excavate

To investigate the following syllabus content points:

• How people lived in the first penal settlement in Sydney Cove.
• How colonisation affected Gadigal people.

To complete their investigation, students will:

• engage with rich, evidence-based source material
• use critical thinking to categorise artefacts and justify their choices
• create a written response that connects their ideas to support their understanding of the past

Student activity worksheets

Artefact picture cards
Categorise and justify worksheet
Sources of evidence