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Digital Classroom

Explore Australia's history at the National Library's Digital Classroom, aligned with the Australian Curriculum. With over 10 million items, we support diverse learning styles, fostering inquiry-based learning for students to analyse sources and draw conclusions about the Australian story.
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A black-and-white photograph of a statue of Captain Cook on a tall pedestal. The statue shows Cook standing with one arm raised and holding a rolled document in the other hand. Trees and part of a lamppost are visible in the foreground.

Frank Hurley & Thomas Woolner, Captain Cook's Statue, Hyde Park, Sydney, 1, 1910, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-160162538

First Nations perspectives on Cook

Topic

Examine a range of First Nations peoples and communities perspectives on Cook’s legacy in contemporary Australia in this lesson for senior secondary students.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Australian history
Explorers
First Australians
A landscape showing a group of people gathered around two campfires. Some sit and lie near the fires, while others stand. Smoke rises from the fires into the night sky. A body of water and distant cliffs are visible under a moonlit, partly cloudy sky.

Joseph Lycett & Joseph Lycett, Aborigines resting by camp fire, near the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle, New South Wales, 1817, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138500420

Colonising the environment

Topic

Learn about the environmental legacies of Cook's voyages including the impact on Australia's natural resources, Aboriginal land-management practices and connections to contemporary environmental activism.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Australian history
Explorers
First Australians
An Aboriginal person dressed in a red coat with white breeches and black boots stands on a beach, just at the edge of the water. They wear a tricorn hat with a red naval officer jacket and holds a scroll. In the background, a large, multi-masted sailing ship with white sails is anchored on calm waters under an overcast sky.

Michael Cook, Undiscovered #4, 2010, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-708299938

Reshaping narratives of Australian history

Topic

Examine how increasing recognition of First Nations cultures and perspectives is reshaping the national conversation about Australia's post-European settlement history.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Australian history
Explorers
First Australians
Painting of five men, thought to be Dr Daniel Solander, Sir Joseph Banks, Captain James Cook, Dr John Hawkesworth, Lord Sandwich.

John Hamilton Mortimer, (1771), [Captain James Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Sandwich, Dr Daniel Solander and Dr John Hawkesworth], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135646842

Science and strategy: The Enlightenment

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Modern History for Senior Secondary students, with specific reference to content descriptions for Unit 1: Understanding the Modern World, and specifically those that fall under the topic elective ‘The Enlightenment (1750–1789)’.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
Science and technology
World cultures and history
illustration of man walking with magnifying glass and drawing of a Australian flora

The botanic Macaroni, 1772, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135987238

Science

Topic

During the Enlightenment, social and scientific thinking began to change. Enlightenment thinkers pushed for social change through the separation of church and state and the establishment of constitutional government. 

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
painting of many indigenous people interacting with Cook

Antoine Phelippeaux and Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook & de la Perouse, 1798, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135227083

An enlightened world

Topic

The British colonisation of the Americas began in 1606 with the chartering of the Colony of Virginia.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
etching of the Endeavour in Botany Bay

Geoffrey Chapman Ingleton, H.M. Bark Endeavour, 1937, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135348965

Voyages of discovery

Topic

For centuries, explorers had been funded by their governments and by private investors to set out into unknown parts of the world. Many of these adventures were driven by the potential for profit and resources.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
watercolour reproduction of pacific island

William Hodges, Otaheite, 1773, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135152176

Transit of Venus

Topic

Officially, Cook had been instructed by the British Admiralty to observe the transit of Venus, at Otaheiti (now Tahiti) for the benefit of the Royal Society.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
handwritten letter

James Cook and Great Britain Admiralty, Cook's voyage 1768-71, 1768, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-229102048

Instructions from the Admiralty

Topic

Before sailing from England, Cook had been handed a series of secret instructions by the Admiralty.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
painting of ship at sea

Samuel Atkins, (1794), HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135273911

Indigenous responses to Cook and his voyage

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Modern History for Senior Secondary students, with specific reference to content descriptions for Unit 2: Movements for Change in the 20th Century, and specifically those that fall under the examination of ‘Recognition and rights of Indigenous peoples’.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
This illustration from 1865 showing Captain James Cook's arrival in Australia. Cook is depicted with his crew raising the British flag as they take possession of the land on behalf of the British Crown in 1770. Indigenous people are shown in the background observing the scene. Ships are anchored in the bay, while a variety of people, including soldiers and sailors, are engaged in various activities.

Calvert, Samuel & Gilfillan, J. A., Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British crown, AD 1770, under the name of New South Wales, 1865, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135699884

Essay: Unkept promises

Topic

Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians, based at the University of Sydney.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history
A black-and-white photograph of a statue of Captain Cook on a tall pedestal. The statue shows Cook standing with one arm raised and holding a rolled document in the other hand. Trees and part of a lamppost are visible in the foreground.

Frank Hurley & Thomas Woolner, Captain Cook's Statue, Hyde Park, Sydney, 1, 1910, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-160162538

Essay: ‘I’m Captain Cooked’: Aboriginal perspectives on James Cook, 1770-2020

Topic

Professor John Maynard is a Worimi man from the Port Stephens region of New South Wales.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Explorers
World cultures and history

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