History / Year 10 / Historical Knowledge and Understanding

Curriculum content descriptions

Significant events and campaigns that contributed to popular awareness of environmental issues, such as the campaign to prevent the damming of Australia’s Gordon River, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl and the Jabiluka mine controversy in 1998 (ACDSEH127)

Elaborations
  • investigating a range of environmental impacts (for example, the flooding of Lake Pedder in Tasmania, deforestation in Indonesia, the decline of the Aral Sea, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the whaling industry)
  • explaining the struggle over French nuclear weapon testing in the Pacific 1966–1996 (for example, the sinking of the ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in 1985)
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural understanding
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Activism,  Environmental management,  Conservation (Environment)

Video

This Day Tonight: Fighting for Lake Pedder, 1972

How far would you be prepared to go in defence of a principle you felt strongly about? Enter a tent on the shores of doomed Lake Pedder in 1972 and listen to three determined people explain why they are protesting against the plan to flood Tasmania's Lake Pedder. The clip includes environmental activist Brenda Hean who ...

Video

Nationwide: Franklin River campaign

How important is the environment in an election campaign? In this clip, explore the issue that changed Australia's conservation landscape forever: the fight to save the Franklin River. Watch how the Tasmanian Wilderness Society used political and media strategies to influence the outcome of the 1983 federal election in ...

Video

ABC News: The fight to save Kelly's Bush, 1971

Discover why a determined group of residents in one of Sydney's wealthier suburbs stood up to their local council, the New South Wales government and a big property developer. This ABC report explores the controversy surrounding the planned development of Kelly's Bush, situated beside Sydney Harbour at Woolwich, and the ...

Video

This Day Tonight: Lake Pedder's future, 1972

How do you measure the worth of a beautiful natural site - in terms of the hydro-electric power it can produce or the beauty, stillness and grandeur that it affords people who visit? This 1972 clip from 'This Day Tonight' focuses on the physical and aesthetic attributes of Tasmania's Lake Pedder. Reporter Peter Ross stands ...

Video

Four Corners: Coal-waste conflict, 1973

Watch this confrontation between a conservationist group and a coal-mining executive in 1973. The coal mine in Coalcliff was given the all-clear from the State Planning Authority to dump coal-mining waste on the Illawarra escarpment. This happened before a planned official inquiry into the issue.

Interactive

Discovering democracy: getting things done

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore how change can be bought about by people taking action and putting pressure on their elected representatives. The issue of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania is used as a case study. Complete a related task.

Video

Indigenous Australian Activism in 1974

For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have sought to regain custodianship of the land taken from them since the arrival of Europeans in Australia. In the early 1970s, protests and demonstrations signified the beginning of the Land Rights movement. In this clip, Indigenous Australian activist Sam ...

Video

Calls for recognition of Indigenous Australians

Discover why many Australians believe the time has come to change the Australian Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories. This program from January 2012 examines the debate about how this change might be achieved. It looks at the growing call for our constitution to recognise and advance ...

Video

Four Corners: Surf culture hits Australia in the 1960s

How did surf culture change Australian popular culture? Rock music and the concept of the 'teenager' had arrived in Australia in the 1950s but in the 1960s the surfboard gave rise to a new youth subculture. This clip from 1964 explores conflict in the water and cultural changes that came with the rise of the 'surfie'.

Video

Four Corners: African American salary disparity, 1968

How does it feel to be paid less than another person doing the same job, because of the colour of your skin? During the 1960s, this was the plight of many professional African Americans who were not paid equally for doing the same work as their white counterparts. Listen to David Dinkins, a New York lawyer, share his experiences.

Video

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 ...

Video

Four Corners: Margaret Valadian interviewed in 1967

What is the role of interviewers who explore social issues? In this 1967 clip from Four Corners, Margaret Valadian is recognised as the first Aboriginal Australian graduate of the University of Queensland. Here, in the middle of the panel discussion she is questioned by Robert Moore about her personal and professional life.

Video

Reflections on ending the White Australia policy

Why was the abolition of the White Australia policy so important? Steps taken by the Whitlam Labor government in 1973 signalled the end of the legislation behind the policy. Find out which event first led to the new multiracial policy being put into practice. In this clip, you will hear from former prime ministers and ministers ...

Video

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 ...

Video

This Day Tonight: Germaine Greer and women's liberation, 1972

Discover what it was like for women who spoke up for equal rights in 1970. Germaine Greer's 'The Female Eunuch' was first published in that year. It would inspire many to challenge traditional views of female and male roles. Listen as, in 1970, Greer expresses her ideas and several Australian women and girls say what they ...

Video

Weekend Magazine: US race riots, 1968

Imagine a country arming its police force with tanks, heavy weapons and chemicals to combat its own people. This extract shows the escalation of violence and the results of racism in the USA in 1968. Army, police and fire units are shown practising new riot control activities in preparation for expected violent demonstrations ...

Video

Four Corners: Defending civil rights: an activist's perspective, 1968

What happens when the members of a society feel like they have no hope? This is the situation faced by members of Harlem's African American community in 1968, who find themselves in a cycle of poverty. Civil rights activists like Al Cook offer a solution to the problem: fight back.

Video

Four Corners: Surfies, clubbies and a changing way of life

What effect did the rise of surfboard riding and its accompanying surf culture have on surf lifesaving? In the early 1960s, surf lifesaving was regarded as a model of the values that underpin the Australian way of life. This clip from 1964 explores the collision between the new surf culture and the traditions of the surf ...

Video

Why Australia wanted a White Australia policy

The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 was designed to limit non-British immigration to Australia. It came to be known as the White Australia policy. In some quarters, people of non-British (and especially non-European) heritage were regarded as being inferior, greedy or unable to fit in with dominant Australian society. ...

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Four Corners: Balancing opposing views on native title

The Mabo decision of 1992 created uncertainty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as for the mining and pastoral industries. Public and 'leasehold' land was subject to native title claims. Listen to the responses of Indigenous leaders and the mining industry as the effects of the High Court decision ...