William Morris (‘Billy’) Hughes

These individual and group projects build on your research of Billy Hughes 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 Billy Hughes.

Use a combination of text and images to create a timeline of Hughes’ 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 Billy Hughes.

Create a short performance about Billy Hughes.

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.

Oh! the man Australia's proud of
Is little Billy Hughes:
We love to read his speeches
And listen to his views,
And what Billy asks old England
We know she won't refuse,
For all Australia’s right behind
Our little Billy Hughes.

These words are from the song Little Billy Hughes, performed in J.C. Williamson's popular pantomime, 'Mother Goose'.

Compose your own speech, poem, story or song based on the life of Billy Hughes.

The Canberra suburb of Hughes was named after William Morris Hughes. The street names in Hughes reflect the suburb theme ‘World War I armed services personnel and contemporaries of William Hughes’.

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.