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'Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law', 1850

This is a black-and-white print showing four African Americans attacked in an ambush by six armed white men. One of the white men is firing as two others reload their guns, and two of the African Americans have been hit. The print is a denunciation of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, its effect reinforced by two quotations ...

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Second atomic bombing of Japan at Nagasaki, 1945

This is a black-and-white photograph showing the mushroom cloud rising from the explosion of an atomic bomb with an estimated force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT, 560 m above Nagasaki, Japan, on 9 August 1945. Part of the wing of the camera plane that accompanied the bomb-carrying plane can be seen at bottom right. The image ...

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My Place - Episode 25: Before Time: Bunda, Fishing

At the creek, Bunda's father tells him and his brother to catch a fish. Each uses a different method of fishing and Bunda's method of building a small dam proves to be the most successful. Their father is annoyed that they are not working together.

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Australia's heritage, 2009: Wattie Creek

'Wattie Creek' is an episode from the series 'Australia's heritage - national treasures with Chris Taylor', produced in 2009. In the clip, Taylor talks about the Wave Hill walk-off. He asks the viewer to imagine being asked to work for little or no money while being given only flour, sugar and tea for food, and only a tin ...

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Rogue nation, 2009: NSW in 1819, convict gulag or place of opportunity?

This clip is an excerpt from the 2009 documentary 'Rites of passage', the second of a two-part series entitled 'Rogue nation'. The clip begins with historian Michael Cathcart providing contextual information about England in the early 1800s. He says that in the midst of the industrial revolution, millions of people were ...

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National treasures, 2004: Gallipoli boat

'Gallipoli boat' is an episode of the series 'National treasures' produced in 2004. The episode features Lifeboat 6, a small lifeboat that was retrieved from Gallipoli five years after it had landed at Anzac Cove. The boat is now held at the Australian War Memorial. Warren Brown describes the difficult conditions on the ...

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Pipe dreams, 2007: O'Connor's dream for water

This clip is an excerpt from the 2007 film 'Pipe dreams' (55 min), the second episode of a three-part series entitled 'Constructing Australia'. Over black-and-white photographs and dramatised video of the key players, a narrator describes the significant challenges of supplying water to the WA goldfields in the late 19th ...

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'Am I not a man and a brother?', 1837

This is a black-and-white illustration of a kneeling male slave in chains. It appeared on a broadside (a poster, often with a poem or news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations) published in New York. The broadside also featured John Greenleaf Whittier's anti-slavery poem, 'Our countrymen in chains' and two quotations, ...

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My Place - Episode 24: 1788: Dan, Cat-o'-nine-tails

Dan prepares to endure a flogging after disobeying orders and leaving his post. However, his punishment is abandoned after Waruwi appears with a puppy for the governor.

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'The abolition of the slave trade', 1792

This is a hand-coloured cartoon print showing an African girl being hoisted by the ankle for a flogging on board the British slaving vessel Recovery. The vessel's captain John Kimber is seen on the left, whip in hand. The cartoon was drawn by Isaac Cruikshank and published by S W Fores in London on 10 April 1792. The alternative ...

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'The parting - "Buy us too"', 1863

This is a colour lithographic card showing a shackled slave being taken away by his new owner as his wife and child beg to be bought as well so the family would not be separated. The owner gestures them away with his whip. The card was the fourth in a collectable series of 12 album cards entitled 'The slave in 1863. A thrilling ...

Interactive

Discovering democracy: Federation timeline

Use a timeline to find information about significant events and ideas in the establishment of a federated Australia. Nominate specific years or scroll from 1788 to 1901 to see what steps were key in determining the nature of government in Australia.

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Sketch of Moreton Bay penal settlement, 1835 - item 2

This detailed pencil sketch, attributed to Henry Boucher Bowerman, depicts Moreton Bay (Brisbane) penal settlement from present-day South Brisbane. The panoramic landscape view takes in the river in the foreground and existing government buildings necessary to a convict settlement, spread across the land behind. The buildings, ...

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Portrait of political activist Emma Miller, c1910s

This posed black-and-white portrait photograph of Emma Miller, probably taken in Queensland in the 1910s, shows a thin and elderly woman, fashionably dressed for the time, sitting on a chair in a studio. She is staring straight at the camera with a resolute look on her face. Her dark clothing includes a richly embroidered ...

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Bob Brown recalls the launch of the Blue Streak, 2006

This is an edited sound recording of Bob Brown recalling the excitement in Woomera in South Australia at the intended first launch of a Europa Blue Streak rocket from the nearby rocket range in June 1964. He tells how hundreds of families gathered to watch, only to be let down when the launch was cancelled with just seconds ...

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US soldier and air-raid shelter, Brisbane, 1942

This colour photograph taken in May 1942 shows a US army officer posing at the entrance of an underground air-raid shelter in Brisbane. The photo was taken in the grounds of Somerville House, an exclusive girls' boarding school requisitioned by the US forces in the Second World War as one of their headquarters in Brisbane. ...

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Panning for gold on the Mulgrave River, c1888

This is a black-and-white photograph showing five miners prospecting for alluvial gold on the banks of the Mulgrave River in Queensland. Two of the men hold shovels and stand by a sluice, two others pan for gold and the fifth rests on a wooden wheelbarrow. Several other mining implements are in evidence - a pan, pick, shovel ...

Interactive

Fish market

Buy and sell fish in trading markets in a range of Australian and New Zealand cities. Compare market prices, supply and demand. Get to know other traders to find the best deals and discover new markets. Find a rare fish. Maximise your profit and reputation as a smart trader. This learning object is the last in a series ...

Interactive

Biography: Federation people: Edmund Barton

Find out more about Edmund Barton, Australia's first prime minister and drafter of the constitution. Examine two different types of biographies of Barton: one short and the other more detailed. Inspect examples of how he was visually depicted in his time. This learning object is one in a series of objects in the 'Biography: ...

Interactive

Biography: Federation people: James Howe

Find out more about James Howe, the father of the Commonwealth old-age pension. Examine two different types of biographies of Howe: one short and the other more detailed. Inspect examples of how he was visually depicted in his time. This learning object is one in a series of objects in the 'Biography: Federation people' series.