Ben Chifley

These individual and group projects build on your research of Ben Chifley and encourage a range of creative responses.

The National Portrait Gallery invites you to share your projects online by uploading images, video, audio and text to the Portrait of a Nation: Australian Schools Portrait Project website.

Visit the projects page for more information on how your school can contribute.

Explore the biography and links to find more information about Ben Chifley.

Use a combination of text and images to create a timeline of Chifley’s life.

The National Portrait Gallery collection includes paintings photographs, drawings, sculptures, prints, textiles and multimedia portraits.

Experiment with a range of materials to create your own portrait of Ben Chifley.

Create a short performance about Ben Chifley.

This could be a play, a song, an interview or a dramatisation of an event. Make a video of your performance or document your activity in a series of photographs.

We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labor movement would not be worth fighting for.

These words are from Ben Chifley’s famous ‘Light on the Hill’ speech delivered to the NSW Labor Party Conference on 12 June 1949.

Compose a speech, poem, story or song based on the life of Ben Chifley.

In Canberra, the suburb of Chifley and Chifley Place are named after Joseph Benedict Chifley.

What do you know about the place names in your area? Select a town, suburb or street name and write a news article about what you discovered.

Suburbs in Canberra are named after Australia's local and national high achievers, its geography, heritage and history. Each suburb also has a theme by which its streets are named.

Imagine your group has the opportunity to plan a new suburb. Create a map of your suburb with street names based on your chosen theme.