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

Text

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 ...

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Mary Watson and the Sea Cucumber Tank

These four activities are contextualised by the stories told about an iron tank, acquired by Queensland Museum in 1882. This tank tells the stories of the Dingaal Aboriginal people and of European settlers; it also highlights the impacts of colonisation.

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Notable colonials

In this learning sequence, students investigate the significance of colonial painter Tom Roberts. With strong links to visual arts, students reproduce part of a Tom Roberts painting and explain its significance. The second activity is an independent inquiry into an individual who had a significant part in shaping the colony ...

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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Work sample Year 5 HASS F-6: Establishment of a new colony

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 5 HASS F-6. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation of ...

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The Australian Colonies: Gold

This inquiry-based unit presents students with a range of visual primary sources to spark curiosity about life in the 1800s. Each activity introduces a new concept related to the Australian Gold Rushes.

Video

The historical legacy of John Glover

English artist John Glover emigrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1831. He settled on a generous land grant called "Patterdale", near Deddington in northern Tasmania. Many of Glover’s artworks provide historical records of the people, plants and animals who lived in the area, as well as the changes wrought by European settlement.

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Race, rights & rivalries

This resource explores the history of Broome and the rich multicultural community that supported its pearling industry. The site features a virtual museum providing a range of primary source material including photographs, newspaper extracts, historical documents, video and audio recordings. The site explores the history ...

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 ...

Video

Life As a Female Convict: Cascades Female Factory

The Cascades Female Factory was both a prison and a factory for female convicts in early Hobart. It was a place where convict women were forced to undertake labour in slave-like conditions to support the fledgling colony. Learn what life at the Female Factory was like for the inmates. What sort of work did the women do? ...

Video

The British arrive in Tasmania

Learn why, in 1803, the British established a colony in Tasmania, at Hobart Town. Find out about the hardships faced by the convicts and early colonists and the early industries that helped some of them prosper. Find out about the effect that displacement had on the local palawa people.

Video

Gold rush

Walk through the streets of 1850s Ballarat at Sovereign Hill and learn about how the discovery of gold shaped the development of this region. What were the three distinct but overlapping eras of gold mining in Ballarat? How do staff at Sovereign Hill know what life was like for people during this time? Find out how the ...

Video

The Perth Mint Starts Making Currency: The gold rush era

The gold rush of the 1890s, which started in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, prompted a rush of hopeful prospectors to Western Australia. Perth Mint exhibition supervisor Greg Cooke talks about the reality of life in the harsh outback with little water and no roads. Would you have risked your life to try to find your fortune ...

Online

Royal Australian Mint: units of work

This suite of teaching and learning units of work related to Australian currencies for middle and upper primary students. The units explore the role coins play in commemoration and the history of Australian currency from colonial times to post Federation. Lessons are supplemented with a range of cross-curriculum lesson ideas.

Online

The gold rush

This collection of 5 activities explores life on the NSW and Victorian goldfields in the 1850's. Using primary sources from the State Library of NSW's collection (diaries, artwork and a satirical cartoon), students investigate the everyday activities of the gold sush. Read an eyewitness account of the first gold escort ...

Video

Tour of NSW Government House

This resource is a YouTube playlist containing a series of videos taken as a group of senior high school students are given a guided tour of NSW Government House in 2010. The tour covers primary sources such as architecture, furniture and images significant to the history of Australia and NSW.

Online

European settlement

This lesson sequence explores European settlement in the Murray-Darling Basin and the establishment of western farming and irrigation. It includes a teacher PowerPoint presentation, separate teacher notes and a student worksheet. This lesson sequence is one in a series exploring aspects of the Murray-Darling Basin and is ...

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 ...

Assessment

Year 5 history assessment - Investigating the colonial period in Australia: Shaping the Australian colonies

This is an assessment package that uses the Year 5 Australian Curriculum history achievement standard to gather evidence about how well students have demonstrated what they know, what they understand and what they can do in relation to the topic 'The Australian Colonies'. Students develop and deliver a multimodal presentation ...