History / Year 8 / Historical Knowledge and Understanding

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The Great Barrier Reef is facing many threats, and a new uranium mine in Queensland might add to the pressure. This clip from early in 2013 looks at what uranium exports from a proposed uranium port in Townsville could mean for the Reef. It presents views about the management of pressures placed on this World Heritage Site ...

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Imagine a tiny beetle causing the defoliation and even death of mature elm trees that have been growing in Tasmania for up to 150 years. Watch this clip to discover how the elm beetle is wiping out these old trees within Tasmania's heritage gardens. Find out also what arborists are doing to try to minimise the damage and ...

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Like other early civilisations, the rise of Ancient Egypt was dependent on the fertile land around a river. By learning about and adapting to the conditions of the Nile River, ancient Egyptians were able to increase their agricultural productivity to support a large population. Why was this vital for a civilisation to flourish?

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Discover an ancient Indian civilisation that was excavated less than a century ago. This clip focuses on archaeological sources from the Indus Valley cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and discusses theories about why these ancient cities were deserted around 1600 BCE. This clip is the last in a series of four.

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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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The discovery of Mungo Man in 1974 rewrote history by revealing that Aboriginal people had been in Australia twice as long as previously thought. Named after the location at which it was found, the skeleton is around 42,000 years old. When discovered in 1974, Mungo Man was moved to a university in Canberra for scientific ...

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A willow tree removal program in the ACT has erupted into a war of words. At the heart of this clash of ideas are different opinions about the best way to protect the landscape. While the government sees the willow as a weed, others view it as an important environmental resource. Which environmental world view will prevail?

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A rock shelter in the Flinders Range, called Warratyi, has proven to be an important prehistoric site. Learn how dating of artefacts and fossils from the site has changed our previous conceptions of human settlement and technology, and even our interactions with megafauna.

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This 10 minute video in three parts offers an overview of what life was like in the ancient world. Part 1 introduces the Palaeolithic era, marked by the use of stone tools, focusing on Homo Sapiens, and the tools used to study this era - archaeology and anthropology. Part 2 discusses human foraging and the specialist techniques ...

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This short video offers an overview of why civilisations expanded, by looking at the past for commonalities and patterns. The need to expand is one such pattern with massive empires growing then collapsing. Expansion was necessary to pay for increasing infrastructure, government and the military, and internal resources ...