Humanities and social sciences / Year 5 / Knowledge and Understanding / History

Curriculum content descriptions

The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of the inhabitants (including Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples) and how the environment changed (ACHASSK107)

Elaborations
  • investigating colonial life to discover what life was like at that time for different inhabitants (for example, a European family and an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language group, a convict and a free settler, a sugar cane farmer and an indentured labourer) in terms of clothing, diet, leisure, paid and unpaid work, shopping or trade, language, housing and children’s lives
  • mapping local, regional and state/territory rural and urban settlement patterns in the 1800s, and noting factors such as geographical features, climate, water resources, the discovery of gold, transport and access to port facilities that shaped these patterns
  • discussing challenges experienced by people in the colonial era and the enterprising or sustainable responses made to these challenges (wind energy, food preservation, communication, accessing water)
  • exploring how the colony was governed and how life changed when Governor Macquarie established the rule of law
  • investigating the impact of settlement on the local environment and its ecosystems (for example, comparing the present and past landscape and the flora and fauna of the local community)
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural understanding
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Social history,  Lifestyles,  Human impact,  Colonies,  Human settlements

Interactive

Gold rush: level 1

Dig for gold on the Ballarat goldfields in 1865. Try your luck at alluvial or shaft mining. Buy a miner's permit, tools and enough supplies to last a month. Discover how hard life was on the goldfields. Explore a map showing the countries migrants left to join the gold rush in Australia. Find out which towns developed due ...

Interactive

Australian coin history

This interactive slideshow from the Royal Australian Mint provides a series of high resolution images and brief descriptions of currencies from Indigenous barter systems to modern Australian currency. A downloadable fact sheet on Australian coin history is accessible from selected pages within the slideshow.

Interactive

The Orb

The Orb is a collection of multimedia learning resources about Tasmanian Aboriginal histories and cultures. It explores the interconnections between people, Country, culture, identity, and the living community. The multimedia resources have between three and five sections in which Tasmanian Aboriginal people share their ...

Interactive

Decimal currency

This interactive slideshow from the Royal Australian Mint provides a series of high resolution images and brief descriptions of the transition from pre-decimal to decimal currency in Australia.

Interactive

Sites2See: The Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples

This resource links to video coverage and key websites related to the apology to Indigenous Australians by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008. Selected sites provide background information to the apology and personal stories about what happened to members of the Stolen Generations, with a focus on reconciliation.

Interactive

Environmental and Zoo Education Centres – primary school resources

A collection of digital resources for primary school teachers and students to support teaching and learning from home, with a particular focus on geography, science and history. The resources were developed by Department of Education teachers from 25 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres in NSW and include Google Sites, ...

Interactive

Standing on Country

The purpose of this resources is for students in Stages 2 and/or Stage 3 to create meaningful Acknowledgements of Country collaborating with your local Aboriginal community; local Aboriginal Language group and/or Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG). The Standing on Country resource includes lessons with comprehensive ...

Interactive

WeCommemorate

WeCommemorate is a series of challenges for teachers to use with students to commemorate Australia's involvement in the First World War. These project-based challenges have been designed to engage students from Early Stage 1 to Stage 5 in the production of creative multimedia works and to develop 21st century learning skills. ...

Interactive

Endeavour – eight days in Kamay

This learning and teaching resource provides a range of viewpoints and works to challenge current perceptions of the arrival of Captain James Cook and the HMB Endeavour at Kamay Botany Bay in 1770. It is an inclusive resource, placing value on the Aboriginal perspective to "balance the history books" by looking both from ...