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Celebration and Satire

This lesson plan guides students to compare and contrast different perspectives of the French Revolution as depicted in two works of art. They will discuss the use of satire and caricature to comment on historical and current events and will create satirical cartoons based on contemporary issues.

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Waters of Kamay

This learning sequence explores the salt and fresh waters of Kamay Botany Bay, its importance as a life source and the cultural connection it has to the Aboriginal people living at Kamay. Water is essential for life. It nourishes our bodies, our lands and supports all life on earth. It is home to wondrous and significant ...

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Who lived here first and how do we know?

In this lesson students explore the importance of country and place to Aboriginal people, with a focus on the Darug proper of the North West Sydney region. Students examine a range of evidence about the Darug to help answer the questions ‘Who lived here first?’ and ‘How do we know?’.

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Kamay – looking up

This resource explores the navigation techniques used during the journey of the Endeavour and contrasts these with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander navigational and astronomical systems that have been in place for many thousands of years. This learning sequence contains activities suitable for Year 7 - Year 10 science ...

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Pocket Compass, Ep 5: An immigration nation

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull once described Australia as an 'immigration nation'. What do you think he meant by that? Do you agree? |Watch four very different people speak about their experiences as first- and second-generation migrants. What were some reasons they or their parents migrated to Australia?

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Flashez: Teenage drinking in the 1970s

Do you think that Australian teenagers drink too much alcohol? If so, do you think this is a new problem? Discover what teenagers thought about such drinking back in the 1970s. This ABC program from 1977 looks at the issue of teenage drinking, some possible reasons for it and some of the social problems arising from it.

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Thinkabout, Talkabout: Rations and coupon shopping

Discover what it was like to go shopping in Australia during World War II. See how people in the 1940s had to live with restrictions on how much they could buy (rationing). Find out how rationing was an attempt to make the distribution of necessary goods, such as food and clothing, equal for everybody.

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Four Corners: Adoption of Indigenous Australian children

Imagine being taken away from your family and forced to live with people from another language, place and culture. This interview, recorded a week before the 1967 Referendum, captures an the perspective of Margaret Valadian, a prominent young Aboriginal Australian, on the practice of adoption and the removal of Aboriginal ...

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BTN: Nuclear tests at Maralinga

Can you imagine nuclear bombs being exploded in Australia, over your home? Between 1953 and 1963, the Australian Government led by Robert Menzies allowed Britain to test nuclear bombs in the open air at sites in Australia. These sites included Maralinga in South Australia. It was the land of the Maralinga Tjarutja people ...

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Journey into Japan: The end of Japan's isolation

Under the shoguns, Japan was deliberately isolated from the outside world from around 1600 CE. However, by the mid-19th century, Western imperialism was entering a new phase of expansion that no Asian state was able to resist. Discover what happened when the West came beating on the doors of a closed society. This clip ...

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Life As a Female Convict: Cascades Female Factory

The Cascades Female Factory was both a prison and a factory for female convicts in early Hobart. It was a place where convict women were forced to undertake labour in slave-like conditions to support the fledgling colony. Learn what life at the Female Factory was like for the inmates. What sort of work did the women do? ...

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Thinkabout, Talkabout: Getting around town during the war years

During a fuel crisis, how do most people get around? In Australia during World War II, fuel was rationed (restricted so that people could buy only limited amounts), as it was in very short supply. Car parts were also in limited supply, so they were hard to replace. Hear some accounts of that time and watch footage from ...

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Welcome to Bonegilla Migrant Camp

Following World War II, the Australian government was eager to increase the country’s population. The war reminded Australians that their small population would not withstand an enemy invasion. Further, a larger workforce was needed to develop the postwar economy. European people, many displaced by the war and the spread ...

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Four Corners: Harlem co-op supermarket, 1968

What would you do if you found out that you were being sold inferior groceries, at higher prices, just because of the colour of your skin? Harlem resident Cora Walker explains that this was the situation faced by members of Harlem's African American community in the late 1960s. See how the residents joined together to address ...

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Chinese Anzacs in World War I

Among the 420,000 Australians who served in World War I, 300 people were of Chinese descent. This was in spite of the introduction of the Commonwealth Defence Act in 1909, which stated that soldiers had to be of "substantially European origin". George Lee Kim was one such soldier. He received the Military Medal for his ...

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Weekend Magazine: Vinyl: the Australian record industry, 1963

Discover a time in Australia's past when the vinyl record industry was thriving. Today you can download your choice of music at almost any time or place. But in this clip from 1963 you will experience life before music downloads and compact discs (CDs): the age of vinyl records. These records created a teenage mass market ...

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ABC Open: World War I: The dead man's penny

Imagine the feelings of a family when they learn of the death of a son during World War I. How might they react to receiving a giant penny for a life sacrificed? This ABC Open program explores the role of the 'dead man's penny', the token given by the British government to many families of British and Commonwealth troops ...

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Archaeology unearths a mass-murder site

Discover a historic site that could reveal new evidence of the first recorded mass murder on Australian soil. The site is Beacon Island, a small island off the coast of Western Australia near present-day Geraldton. In this clip, reporter Mark Bennett visits the island with two members of a 1963 expedition that first investigated ...

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Untold Stories, Ep 14: Who was the first Anzac to step ashore the beaches of Gallipoli?

Since 1915, there has been debate over who was the first Australian soldier to step ashore at Gallipoli. The people of Maryborough, Queensland, claim it was Lieutenant Duncan Chapman. What evidence is there that Lieutenant Duncan Chapman was the first Anzac ashore? How has the community of Maryborough commemorated his life?

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Foreign Correspondent: The Battle of Hastings, again!

How was England changed forever by one battle in 1066? In that year, a Norman army led by Duke William of Normandy sailed to England and defeated the Saxon army of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Visit the site of the battle during a re-enactment by medieval history buffs. This is the first of two clips.