Skip to main content

Thinkabout, Talkabout: Australian children during World War II

Posted 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Children swim in swimming pool
Thinkabout, Talkabout: Australian children during World War II

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10


What was life like for Australian children during World War II?

From 1939 to 1945 Australia was at war. After Japan entered the war in 1941, this conflict became a total war, which affected almost everyone and almost every aspect of life in Australia.

Listen to two people who lived through this time sharing their memories of growing up during the war years.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Both narrators in this video clip had fathers who were sent to fight in the war. What do you think the greatest fears would be for such children? In what other ways might the war have impacted upon their lives and the lives of other Australian children?
  2. 2.What evidence can you find in the clip that the war changed the types of work done by Australian women and children? What were some of the key newspaper headlines from the early to mid-1940s shown in this clip? In what way did the radio play an important role for Australian children during the war?
  3. 3.In what ways were the childhood experiences of the presenters similar? In what ways were they different? What might this suggest about the experiences of Australian boys and girls during the war? Research how work changed for women and children during World War II. In your research, which might include an interview with someone who remembers the war, find at least one case study (detailed example) that you can share.
  4. 4.Do some research to compare the experience of children in Australia during World War II with the experience of children in a nation that was invaded on a large scale. Some examples that may be of interest include Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Greece, the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.



Date of broadcast: 27 Feb 1973


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Posted