Getting started

Research process

We looked at the mural on the outside of our school and discovered the school had been open since 1895 and that everything was very different now.

• We wanted to know how it had been 100 years ago and what caused the changes.
• We made a timeline so we could see when each thing had happened.
• We looked at old pictures and buildings and then we decided on what topics we were interested in finding out about e.g. jobs, school, hotel, church, shops etc.
• We each decided on a topic from the history of Motu.
• We visited the places that are still here like the old Post Office building, hotel, church, scenic reserve, Whinray Reserve, the railway bridge and looked at old maps.
• Then we each chose a topic and talked to people who had lived in the area to comment on the topics and we looked at books and websites and took notes.
• We collated all the ideas and photos and wrote notes about each topic in our Living Heritage story.
• We applied for permission to copy photos and text from the texts we used.