History / Year 10 / Historical Knowledge and Understanding

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Curriculum content descriptions

Overview of the causes and course of World War II (ACDSEH024)

Elaborations
  • outlining the contributing factors of World War II (for example, the outcomes of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations; the rise of Hitler and Japan’s imperial ambitions)
  • identifying key events in the European theatre of war (for example, Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939; the Holocaust 1942–1945; the Russians reaching Berlin in 1945)
  • identifying key events in the Asia-Pacific theatre of war (for example, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941; the fall of Singapore in 1942; the American victory at the Battle of Midway in 1942)
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Invasion,  Military campaigns,  World War II,  International relations

Interactive

Discovering democracy: a democracy destroyed

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore, through the demise of democracy in Germany in 1933, how the justice system can be used for undemocratic purposes. Complete a related task.

Text

Objects through timeline: 50,000 years before present

This is a 26-page fact sheet that provides a comprehensive overview of migration to Australia from the first arrival of humans to 2006. It includes details about the major waves of international and internal migration, key events and policies, and individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to the development ...

Online

A democracy destroyed - unit of work

This is an extended unit of work for the mid-secondary years about how the Nazis destroyed democracy in Germany and how democracy is protected in Australia. The unit contains four focus questions that are explored through sequences of learning with student activities and assessment tasks. Teacher notes, assessment criteria ...

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. ...

Image

Harold Holt, prime minister 1966-67

This is a black-and-white photograph of Harold Holt, Australia's seventeenth prime minister. It shows him alongside Lyndon Baines Johnson, the first US president to visit Australia, and 'First Lady' Lady Bird Johnson in October 1966.

Image

Gough Whitlam, prime minister 1972-75

This is a colour photograph of Edward Gough Whitlam, Australia's twenty-first prime minister. It shows him attending a United Nations convention during a tour of the USA in 1974.

Interactive

Interactive map of Auschwitz

This interactive map is about the evolution of the concentration camp complex at Auschwitz in Poland. It outlines the racial and biological basis of Nazi persecution, and traces the development of the camp established at Auschwitz. A series of maps and explanatory text describe: German territorial expansion by 1942; anti-Jewish ...

Online

Indigenous Stories about War and Invasion

This is a website about Indigenous experiences of invasion and war during the British invasion, World War I and World War II. The resource is presented in three sections: Introductory information; Story Objects; and Story Education Resources. There are eight story objects that tell the stories of individuals, events and ...

Image

Indigenous Australians defending their land, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm watercolour showing about 40 Indigenous Australian people attacking a rowboat carrying five colonists. Most of the warriors are on a steep, rocky headland and those close to the water have spears raised. Two appear to be picking up stones while those further up the cliff watch on. About ten Indigenous ...

Image

'The claim disputed', c1852

This is a watercolour, measuring 19.4 cm x 25.4 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows a well-dressed man - presumably the Gold Commissioner - arbitrating a dispute over a claim involving three diggers, probably on the Victorian gold fields. Two of the diggers are in animated discussion ...

Video

Cold War games,1999

'Cold War games' is an excerpt from the documentary 'Lies, Spies and Olympics', produced in 1999. 'Lies, Spies and Olympics' studies the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, which have become etched in Australian mythology as a watershed in the nation's sporting, cultural and civic history. But behind the myth is a far more revealing ...

Interactive

Site study – Ypres Salient

This resource is a digital site study of the Ypres Salient, using videos made with modern footage of Ypres and contemporary footage and images from the First World War. Each video has before, after and extension activities designed to meet the Stage 5 History: Core Study – Depth Study 3 outcomes around the scope and nature ...

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Sheet music cover for 'Australia draws her maiden sword', 1885

This is the damaged front cover of a three-page score for the song 'Australia Draws her Maiden Sword'. It depicts Australia as a maiden drawing her long sword and preparing for imminent conflict. Behind her, troops are shown marching out of their encampment. On the bottom of the cover in copperplate are the words 'WRITTEN ...

Image

Ophir gold diggings in 1851 - asset 3

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made by Thomas Balcombe (1810-61), measuring 27 cm x 47.5 cm, and based on a sketch made on the spot by J Korff. It depicts gold diggings at the confluence of Summer Hill Creek and Lewis Ponds Creek at Ophir in New South Wales. A horseman is shown approaching miners standing near the creek, ...

Video

Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, c1942 - item 1 of 2

This clip from a silent black-and-white home movie shows Torres Strait Islander servicemen undertaking army training drills on Thursday Island (Weiban) during the Second World War. It opens with a long shot of barefoot uniformed men marching in formation, and passing behind a squad of stationary men. It then cuts to shots ...

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Panning for gold on the Mulgrave River, c1888

This is a black-and-white photograph showing five miners prospecting for alluvial gold on the banks of the Mulgrave River in Queensland. Two of the men hold shovels and stand by a sluice, two others pan for gold and the fifth rests on a wooden wheelbarrow. Several other mining implements are in evidence - a pan, pick, shovel ...

Image

Air-raid shelter in Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows two women and two uniformed servicemen in a backyard featuring a homemade air-raid shelter during the Second World War. The two men, Private Dick of the AIF and US soldier Tom Squires, are standing in the shelter with Anthea Dyke while Doreen Smythe is jokingly pointing a hose at them. ...

Interactive

Invictus Games Sydney 2018 – HSIE/English Stage 5 – Veteran wellbeing

This Stage 5 HSIE/English resource examines Australia’s roles in war, including their involvement in WWI and WWII and highlights Australia’s role in the global context during the twentieth century. Students will examine the historical context of the wars and the perceptions that existed during the twentieth century regarding ...

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Enrolling in the Land Army, c1944

This is a posed black-and-white photograph, measuring 24.7 cm x 19 cm and taken around 1944 in Drouin, Victoria by Jim Fitzpatrick. It shows a formally dressed young woman seated in front of a desk labelled 'War Agricultural Committee'. A man, seated behind the desk, is handing her a book entitled 'Food front'. The furniture ...

Image

The German Club in Adelaide decorated for Hitler's birthday, 1939

This is a black-and-white photograph that shows the German Club in Adelaide decorated for a celebration of the 50th birthday of the German Fuhrer (leader) Adolf Hitler. The photograph, which was taken on 20 April 1939 just five months before the start of the Second World War, shows a flight of flower-adorned steps leading ...