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Building the Sydney Opera House

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Old photo of man welding steel
Building the Sydney Opera House

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10


Construction of the Sydney Opera House began in 1959.

The Opera House was intended to be more than a building; it was meant to be a landmark that would put Sydney on the world map as a centre of culture.

In this short, silent clip, discover some of the work that went into constructing this huge, unique and very complex building.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What steps go into constructing a small building, such as a house? How different do you think it would be to construct a building like the Sydney Opera House? When we research the history of a large building or monument, whose views do we learn most about, those of the people who designed it, or those of the workers who built it?
  2. 2.Using what you can see in this clip, identify the different tasks being undertaken by people on the building site. What reasons can you think of to explain why the building process was documented in this footage? How do you think residents of Sydney at the time would have felt at the sight of this work taking place?
  3. 3.Search for and use appropriate sources to help you find out how many people and how much money it took to build the Sydney Opera House, how long the project took to complete, and any major construction challenges that had to be overcome.
  4. 4.Knowing what you now know about the construction of the Sydney Opera House, write your own commentary track for this clip. You will need to view the clip slowly as you do this. Your commentary should be expressed as it would have been in 1959. That is, as you describe the work shown in the footage, try to convey some of the enthusiasm commonly expressed in voice-overs at the time.



Date of broadcast: 2 Mar 1959


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).

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