Nellie Melba

These individual and group projects build on your research of Nellie Melba 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 Nellie Melba.

Use a combination of text and images to create a timeline of Melba’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 Nellie Melba.

Watch 3 minutes with the Dame, a short performance by Louise Page and Phillipa Candy.

Create your own performance based on the life of Nellie Melba.

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 Hugh Ramsay’s portrait of Nellie Melba.

Write a list of words in response to the portrait.

Use these words to compose a poem, story or song about Nellie Melba.

The Canberra suburb of Melba is named after Dame Nellie Melba. The streets names in Melba reflect the suburb theme ‘Musicians’.

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.