Thank you for your interest in booking an education program at Lanyon Homestead. Please see below for details of the programs we offer at Lanyon Homestead. To book a program, please select the corresponding ticket type relating to the program you wish to attend, as well as the number of expected children. Exceeding the number of maximum children will require booking over more than one day.

If you have any questions or require any assistance, please email our programs booking officer here.

2024 bookings available here.

JAMES' DIARY (Yrs F-2) (60 children max per day)

How did children live during mid-19th century pastoral Australia, and how does this compare to contemporary childhood?

Reading James’ Diary before the excursion, students will discover the historical figure of James Cunningham and his life growing up at Lanyon Homestead from 1859. Through the on-site program, students experience James’ story by playing games and doing activities from this era, exploring the main homestead and gardens and considering human settlement of the site including Aboriginal occupation and the Cunningham era. Students will make sense of their own childhood by empathising with James’ story, evaluating and reflecting upon their experience in comparison with children from the colonial period.

(4 hours duration)

CONVICTS (Yrs 3-6) (35 children maximum per day)

Want to experience a day in the life of a convict?

A convict was a person who committed a crime and was sentenced to transportation from their homeland to a penal colony on the other side of the world. They were required to work as labourers and servants for the duration of their sentence. In the Australian colonies, convicts were assigned to work for the government and free settlers.

Become a Lanyon convict in this role play program that provides hands-on experience of convict life. Students are introduced to historical enquiry skills, such as examining and exploring different perspectives and different information sources in relation to the 1830s convict era. Imagining and empathizing with the convict experience, students will relate their personal experience to life as a convict at Lanyon Homestead.

(1.5 hours duration - can also be booked in conjunction with Who Were The Convicts. See double program listing below for more details.)

(optional) AND

WHO WERE THE CONVICTS (Yrs 3-6) (70 children maximum per day)

What skills do historians use to understand how people lived in the past? This program introduces students to practical historical enquiry skills to analyse the landscape, convict era buildings and historical objects. Students explore how historians use evidence to interpret the past. Students undertake enquiry-based learning to research, analyse and evaluate the natural environment and material culture at Lanyon Homestead, reflecting upon how knowledge of convict histories are constructed.

(4 hours total - only delivered in conjunction with the CONVICTS program)