Digital Classroom

A torn buff coloured page with the words 'Draft of A Bill to Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia', with handwritten notes at the top and bottom of the page.

Sir Edmund Barton, Papers of Sir Edmund Barton, 1827-1940, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-225140407

Documenting Federation

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: HASS for Year 6 students.

Humanities

Year 6

Australian history

Nelson Illingworth, Cast of Henry Lawson's hand, ca. 1922 [realia], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139632985

The poet of Australia

Topic

Henry Lawson is celebrated as one of Australia’s greatest poets. The Library’s collection of Henry Lawson realia helps contemporary Australians understand Lawson’s popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Humanities

Year 6

Australian history

Literature and writing

woman leaning against glass partition smiling at camera

Professor Kim Rubenstein, photo courtesy of Michael Silver

Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens

Topic

Women lawyers stand at the forefront of women's participation in Australian civic life.

Humanities

Year 10

Australian women

Law and legislation

A photograph of a smiling woman seated in a wheelchair in front of a large bookcase and desk. She is wearing a white tshirt. The wheelchair has a control stick which sits just below her chin.

Rosemary Kayess, 2015, photo courtesy of Kim Rubenstein

Rosemary Kayess - Human rights lawyer

Topic

Rosemary Kayess has devoted her career to the study and promotion of human rights and discrimination law in Australia and internationally.

Humanities

Year 10

Australian women

A portrait of a smiling woman wearing a black cardigan over a black top and a grey sweater. She is also wearing a colourful brooch shaped like a tree with colourful leaves.

Lannon Harley, Photograph of Jane Connors, 2014

Jane Connors - International lawyer

Topic

Jane Connors has had a distinguished academic career in which she has dedicated her scholarship and work as an international law practitioner to the betterment of United Nations (UN) treaty mechanisms and the rights of women and children.

Humanities

Year 10

Australian women

A person with long brown hair and glasses stands behind a wooden lectern, speaking into a microphone. The background features a screen displaying partially visible text and graphics. To the left, green and blue from the flag of the Torres Strait Islands is visible.

Irene Dowdy & National Library of Australia, Professor Megan Davis, Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation, presenting the 2022 Kenneth Myer Lecture, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3135627148

Megan Davis - Constitutional and International lawyer

Topic

Professor Megan Davis is a leading Indigenous Australian whose work influences law and Indigenous policy in Australia, particularly advancing constitutional reform and recognition for Indigenous Australians.

Humanities

Year 10

Australian women

Black and yellow uniform made up of a long-sleeve button up jacket on a mannequin

Convict uniform and two caps [realia], 1830, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2398685

Convicts, conflict and confrontation

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: HASS for Year 5 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills as historians.

Humanities

Year 5

Australian history

Wolfgang Sievers, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne - Forecourt with Rodin's Balzac, 1968, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-160765377

Documenting modernity

Topic

Sievers’ work is a pictorial timeline showing Australia’s social, technological and industrial transformation.

Humanities

Technologies

Year 5

Year 6

Architecture and design

Photography

Science and technology

A portrait of a man. He has dark skin and hair. He is an Australian Indigenous man and is wearing a European style officers coat and trousers. His trousers are tattered at the cuffs. He is holding a tricorn hat in the air. In the background sailing ships can be see on the harbour. A large fort can be seen on a spit of land.

Earle, Augustus, 1793-1838. (1826). Portrait of Bungaree, a native of New South Wales, with Fort Macquarie, Sydney Harbour, in background [picture] / [Augustus Earle]. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134114940

Indigenous experiences

Topic

Augustus Earle (1793–1838) was an artist working in the colony of New South Wales around 1825. He painted several portraits of Bungaree, a notable Aboriginal leader.

Humanities

Year 5

Australian history

First Australians

Convict uniform and two caps between 1830 and 1849, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139411772

A secondary punishment uniform from the transportation era, coloured to distinguish continuing offenders. Hand stitched. From Van Diemens Land.

Convict experiences

Topic

The convict uniform held at the National Library of Australia is the only complete, original convict uniform in Australia. It consists of a jacket, a pair of trousers marked with a broad arrow, a waistcoat, a leather cap and a woollen cap.

Humanities

Year 5

Australian history

First Australians

Copy of a printed playbill containing details for a performance of Jane Shore at the Sydney Theatre in 1796.

George Hughes (Government Printer), Playbill for a performance of Jane Shore, The Wapping Landlady and The Miraculous Cure at the Theatre, Sydney 30 July 1796, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1419486

An early arts scene

Topic

This playbill, or poster, advertising a theatrical performance at the ‘Theatre, Sydney’ on 30 July 1796, is the oldest surviving printed document produced in Australia.

Humanities

Year 5

Australian history

First Australians

Hodgkinson, W. O. (William Oswald), 1835-1900. (1861). Bulla, Queensland, 1861 [picture] / W.O. Hodgkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-147606769

Frontier conflict

Topic

This image, depicting frontier conflict, is contained in an album compiled and originally owned by Miss Eliza Younghusband.

Humanities

Year 5

Australian history

First Australians

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