HASS · Year 5

Active learning ideas

Squatters, Selectors, and Rural Life

Active learning works for this topic because students must grasp the human realities behind land use policies. Debates, simulations, and writing tasks let students feel the stakes of decisions made 150 years ago, turning abstract laws and dates into lived experience.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9HASS5K01

• 30–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Simulation Game
• 45 min · Small Groups

Role-Play Debate: Squatters vs Selectors

Divide class into two groups: squatters defending large holdings, selectors arguing for access. Provide role cards with arguments based on primary sources. Groups prepare 3-minute speeches, then debate with teacher as moderator, voting on strongest case.

Differentiate between the roles and experiences of squatters and selectors.

Facilitation Tip

In the Role-Play Debate, assign clear roles—squatter, selector, government official—and provide each with a one-page brief so they argue from specific policy details rather than feelings.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a selector arriving in the 1860s, what would be your biggest fear and why?' Allow students to share their fears and justify them based on the challenges discussed. Follow up by asking: 'How might a squatter respond to these fears?'

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Simulation Game
• 50 min · Small Groups

Bush Challenge Stations

Set up stations for farming hurdles: drought (measure water rationing), pests (sort damaged crops), isolation (build a slab hut model from recyclables), and transport (design bullock track paths). Groups rotate, journaling solutions.

Explain the challenges of land ownership and farming in the colonial bush.

Facilitation Tip

For Bush Challenge Stations, rotate groups every 6 minutes so every student tests at least two roles: farmer, shepherd, or drought survivor.

What to look for

Provide students with a short primary source quote from either a squatter or a selector. Ask them to identify which perspective the quote represents and provide one piece of evidence from the quote to support their answer.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 03

• Simulation Game
• 30 min · Pairs

Land Policy Timeline

Students research key acts like 1861 Selection Act in pairs, plotting events on a class timeline. Add impacts with sticky notes from squatter and selector viewpoints. Discuss how policies changed rural life.

Analyze the impact of land policies on rural communities.

Facilitation Tip

When building the Land Policy Timeline, give each event card a color-coded border so students visually group cause-and-effect relationships across decades.

What to look for

On an index card, have students write two differences between squatters and selectors and one challenge that both groups might have faced in establishing rural life.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 04

• Simulation Game
• 40 min · Individual

Rural Life Diary Entries

Individuals write first-person diaries as a squatter or selector, detailing a week's challenges. Share in a class 'fireside' reading circle, peer feedback on historical accuracy.

Differentiate between the roles and experiences of squatters and selectors.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a selector arriving in the 1860s, what would be your biggest fear and why?' Allow students to share their fears and justify them based on the challenges discussed. Follow up by asking: 'How might a squatter respond to these fears?'

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

A few notes on teaching this unit

Start with the Rural Life Diary Entries to anchor the topic in human experience before policy analysis. Research shows students retain land laws better when they first imagine walking miles for water or repairing a slab hut after a storm. Avoid beginning with statutory dates; instead, let students deduce how laws responded to what they already feel. Use primary sources sparingly but strategically—one squatter letter or selector diary entry can shift a whole class’s empathy toward evidence over stereotypes.

Successful learning looks like students explaining the pressures on squatters and selectors with evidence, not just repeating facts. They should compare daily life demands and articulate how policy shaped choices, using precise terms such as ‘lease,’ ‘crop failure,’ or ‘isolation.’

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Role-Play Debate, watch for students labeling squatters as simply ‘thieves’ without noting their economic contributions or eventual legal recognition.

  Use the debate roles to force students to cite specific occupation licenses or wool profits when they call squatters ‘thieves,’ turning broad accusations into evidence-based claims.

• During the Bush Challenge Stations, watch for students assuming selectors ‘quickly succeeded’ after reading only the colorful station cards about new land laws.

  Have each station include a failure card—e.g., ‘Your wheat crop failed; mark your debt ledger’—so students collect hard evidence of struggle before they generalize success.

• During the Land Policy Timeline, watch for maps or timelines that omit Indigenous land management practices before 1788.

  Add a pre-colonial layer to the timeline with Aboriginal seasonal calendars and fire management notes so students layer Indigenous knowledge onto colonial land policies.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Simulation Game