Ellen Stirling

These individual and group projects build on your research of Ellen Stirling 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 Ellen Stirling.

Use a combination of text and images to create a timeline of Ellen Stirling’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 Ellen Stirling.

Create a short performance about Ellen Stirling.

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.

Look closely at the portrait of Ellen Stirling.

Write a list of words in response to the portrait.

Use these words to compose a poem, story or song about Ellen Stirling.

The Canberra suburb of Stirling is named after Ellen’s husband, Sir James Stirling. The street names in Stirling reflect the suburb theme ‘Western Australian Pioneers’.

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.