Holroyd Gardens · Site Study

Explore how virtual site studies bridge the gap between classroom teaching and real-world environments. By leveraging immersive digital media, educators can deliver engaging, curriculum-aligned geographical and historical investigations without logistical barriers.

Holroyd Gardens: a place with a hidden past

Step into Holroyd Gardens, Merrylands, land of the Durag people — a leafy park with a duck pond, gardens and open lawns. But it wasn't always like this. Over a hundred years ago, this exact spot was the Goodlet & Smith Brickworks, a busy industrial site that helped build the very suburb around it.

This resource takes students on a journey through time, then asks a simple question: who looks after this place today, and how can we help?

ABOUT THIS STUDY

Why An Ordinary Local Park?

This study focuses deliberately on a local parkland in Sydney rather than a distant tourist landmark. It demonstrates that meaningful, outcome-aligned place-based learning can be built from an ordinary community setting, pitched precisely at Stage 1 primary learners to explore both natural and built features.

Over a hundred years ago, this exact spot was the Goodlet & Smith Brickworks, a busy industrial site that helped build the very suburb around it.

FOR TEACHERS

What Does This Resource Target?

 

Designed for Stage 1 (Years 1–2), HSIE — Geography strand, under the NSW HSIE K–6 Syllabus (2024).

No excursion needed

A genuine local-place learning experience without transport, permission slips or funding approvals.

Outcome-ready

Every activity is already mapped to HS1-GEO-01 — the syllabus translation is done for you.

Right for the age group

Simple photo comparisons and guided noticing tasks, pitched at what 6–7 year olds can genuinely do.

One lesson, ready to go

Fits a single 40-minute Geography lesson, or splits neatly across two shorter sessions.

INVESTIGATE

Then and Now

Holroyd Gardens sits on the site of the former Goodlet & Smith Brickworks, one of the industries that helped build Merrylands from the 1870s–80s onward. Compare what the site was used for then, and what it's used for now.

 

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Simple, Hands-on Tasks

 

Photo Pairs

Look at a "then" and "now" picture together. What's different?

What's stayed the same?

Listen and Wonder

Pause at each stop and close your eyes for a moment. What can you hear — birds, water, wind, people talking?

Made-by-people or made-by-nature?

Sort simple picture cards from the park (pond, bench, tree, path, duck) into two groups.

My Caring Plan

Students draw or say one thing they could do to help care for a shared place like this.

 

Video of Holroyd Park 

https://youtu.be/ej4uAUj7TSI?si=gt3RtUqydzpvDNsu (Best Sydney Parks, 2020)

Watch and Wonder: The Old Brickworks

This short video takes us to the old Holroyd Brickworks in Merrylands. People started making bricks here in 1878, more than 140 years ago! Today the old kilns and the tall chimney sit right beside Holroyd Gardens, the park where families play.

Before students watch

  • What do you think bricks are made from?
  • Have you ever seen a really old building?

While students watch, look for…

  • the tall brick chimney
  • the old kiln, a giant oven that baked the bricks
  • things that are old and things that are new

After students watch, talk about it

  • How were bricks made long ago?
  • What is the same and what is different at this place now?
  • Why do you think people kept the old chimney?

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