HASS F-6 / Year 5 / Knowledge and understanding / History

Curriculum content descriptions

the role of a significant individual or group, including First Nations Australians and those who migrated to Australia, in the development of events in an Australian colony (AC9HS5K03)

Elaborations
  • investigating an event or development and explaining its economic, social or political impact on a colony; for example, the impact of Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson travelling across the Blue Mountains in 1813 on the expansion of farming; the impact of the exploration of the interior by figures such as Mitchell, Oxley and Sturt on frontier conflict; the impact of the introduction of merino sheep on economic development; the impact of the Eureka Stockade on the development of democracy; the impact of internal exploration and the advent of rail on the expansion of farming; the impact of Bennelong as a mediator between two cultures
  • creating “what if” scenarios by constructing different outcomes for a key event; for example, “What if Peter Lalor had encouraged gold miners to pay rather than resist licence fees?”, “What if Arthur Phillip had not captured Bennelong?”, “What if Chinese immigrants were not allowed to land in Robe, South Australia, during the gold rush?”, “What if Governor Macquarie had not been removed by his enemies in 1821?", "What if he had not opened the Parramatta Native Institution?”
  • examining the roles of key women in the Australian colonies, such as Elizabeth Macarthur, Edith Cowan, Maria Lock, Mary Bryant, Mary Reiby, Mary MacKillop, and Truganini
  • investigating the experiences and contributions of a particular migrant group within a colony, such as the Germans in South Australia, Japanese in Broome, Afghan cameleers in the Northern Territory, Chinese at Palmer River, and Pacific Islanders in the Torres Strait
  • examining the roles and impacts of key administrative and political figures, such as early colonial governors, and First Nations warriors such as Windradyne
  • examining the development of at least one primary industry sector of the economy during the 1800s, such as wheat, wool, meat, whaling, sugar cane, pearling or mining, including the involvement of First Nations Australians
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and Creative Thinking
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Migration,  Significant people,  Aboriginal history,  Colonies,  Torres Strait Islander history

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Pacific Islander women working in cane fields, c1890

This sepia photograph shows eight indentured Pacific Islander female labourers preparing to hoe weeds in rows of cane at Hambledon Mill, near Cairns in Queensland. The women and girls, some barefoot, stand at the edge of the cane, which is above head height. The foreground is bare soil and a thickly wooded hill rises in ...

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Pacific Islanders at irrigation channels, c1905

This sepia photograph shows around 20 Pacific Islander men posed on either side of a narrow irrigation channel in a cane field at Bingera Plantation near Bundaberg in Queensland. Some are holding long-handled hoes or shovels. A junction of the irrigation channel is visible in the foreground with equipment necessary to divert ...

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Pacific Islanders harvesting cane on Bingera Plantation, 1884

This sepia photograph shows around ten Pacific Islander labourers in a sugar-cane field at Bingera Plantation near Bundaberg in Queensland as the cane is being harvested. A well-dressed European man and two young children pose in the cleared foreground, while in the mid-ground stands a fully laden horsedrawn wagon with ...

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Pacific Islander women planting sugar cane at Bingera, c1897

This black-and-white photograph shows several indentured Pacific Islander women planting sugar-cane stalks, or setts, in freshly made furrows in a large field at Bingera near Bundaberg, Queensland. The women, dressed in Western-style clothes, are following directly behind a horsedrawn plough that is worked by indentured ...

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Pacific Island labourer recruiting ship 'Para', c1880

This is a drawing of the two-masted brigantine 'Para', probably completed by Master Mariner William Wawn during a successful five months voyage to the Solomon Islands in 1894. One of a series of sketches of his impressions of the islands in pencil, ink and watercolour, it shows the recruiting ship offshore at anchor, as ...

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Pacific Islander workers on a coffee plantation, c1900

This black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islander labourers manually gathering coffee beans from lines of bushes on a Kuranda coffee plantation on the Atherton Tableland in Queensland. This image shows male, female and child labourers standing among the shoulder-high coffee bushes. The Pacific Islanders ...

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Former Pacific Island indentured labourers waiting for deportation, 1906

This black-and-white photograph shows Pacific Islanders mustered at the Cairns Court House in Queensland awaiting a medical examination prior to their deportation under the Australian Government's 1901 Pacific Island Labourers Act. The group, including a woman, some children and an Islander holding a bicycle, would probably ...

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Pacific Islanders arriving at Bundaberg, 1895

The black-and-white photograph shows Pacific Islander men and women arriving in the sugar port of Bundaberg after being recruited to work as indentured labourers on Queensland's sugar plantations. The posed shot shows more than 60 Pacific Islander men, women and boys and one European on the deck of a schooner at the dock. ...

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Pacific Islander labourers in the Mackay District, late 1800s

This posed black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islanders by their grass hut homes, probably on a Mackay sugar plantation in Queensland. Some are seated on logs or rough timber benches and one woman can also be seen. They are dressed in Western-style clothes. More huts can be seen on the cleared rise in the ...

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Pacific Islander labourers hoeing a cane field, c1902

This black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islanders methodically hoeing weeds from a large sugar-cane field at Herbert River in north-eastern Queensland. They wear Western-style clothes and hats. A white man, only just visible on the left and facing the Islanders, stands in front of the line of labourers, ...

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Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895

This is a black-and-white photograph showing nine Pacific Islander men using picks and axes to clear undergrowth and small trees from a clearing in a thickly vegetated area at Farnborough in central Queensland. The men are bare-chested, hatless and barefoot, with some wearing sarong-like garments. A white man stands in ...

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Pacific Islander labourers outside slab-hut dwellings, late 1800s

This is a black-and-white photograph showing indentured Pacific Islanders and their families posing by their slab-hut homes, probably on a coastal Queensland sugar plantation. They are wearing Western-style clothes, with the women in long skirts and the men wearing jackets and trousers. The huts appear to have been constructed ...

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Pacific Islander labourers planting sugar cane, Mackay, 1870s

This is a black-and-white photograph showing large groups of poorly dressed indentured Pacific Islanders planting sugar cane on a plantation at Mackay in Queensland. Fourteen or more Pacific Islanders are manually placing sugar-cane cuttings at regular intervals in long furrows. Two mounted white men oversee their work ...

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Journey’s end

This website focuses on Port Phillip Bay and tells stories about the perilous voyages of ships who entered the bay in the 19th and early 20th century. Students learn that the combination of the bay’s narrowness, rapid tidal currents, and an underwater reef made for dangerous travel. The resource contains a video and primary ...

Audio

Hey History Episode 4: Gold fever

What were the Gold Rushes? Why did people from all over the world get ‘gold fever’? What was life like on the Ballarat goldfields of Victoria, on Wada Wurrung Country? With so many different groups of people, how did everyone get along? Did First Nations people mine gold too? What was the Eureka Stockade? How did the Gold ...

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Sikh and Indian Australians: Year 5 Teaching Resource

and experiences of a range of ethnic groups, especially Indians living in Australia during the nineteenth century. The resource is framed to support an inquiry into the actions and motivations of this cohort who contributed to the shaping of the Swan River Colony in Western Australia.

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Colonial Australia: defining moments, 1788–1900

This module provides resources and interactive classroom activities for studying colonial Australia in the nineteenth century. Students engage with texts, images, and objects to learn about the significant events and people that shaped the Australian colonies, and the effects of colonisation on the environment. The resource ...

Video

Meet the Fremantle Port Hostesses

In the 1960s, Marie Novak and Pauline Noble worked for the Fremantle Port Authority as hostesses, welcoming new migrants who arrived by ship. Why were hostesses needed? How do Marie and Pauline describe their time as hostesses? Compare the migration experiences of Marie's and Pauline's families. How did their backgrounds ...

Interactive

Gold – shaping our identity

This is a task-based resource for students to explore the social, economic, political and environmental impact of the gold rush in Australia in the 1850s. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets and links to further interactive resources. It includes support notes for teachers and/or supervisors in distance ...

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Looking after the land

This is a resource about the environmental, climatic, natural disaster and pest challenges faced during settlement in Australia. It includes details about land management techniques; extreme and unique weather conditions, including floods and droughts; bushfires; animal and plant pests; and water management. Text, images, ...