Digital Classroom | National Library of Australia (NLA)

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.
Showing 25 - 36 of 150 results
stacks of aluminium profiles

 Wolfgang Sievers, Aluminium profiles at Comalco's plant at Yennora, New South Wales, 1965, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-160295127

Modernism

Topic

Modernism was a cultural movement that influenced visual arts, architecture, music, literature and design in the first half of the twentieth century.

Humanities
Technologies
Year 5
Year 6
Architecture and design
Photography
Science and technology
Man leaning against gate

Wolfgang Sievers, [Photograph of Wolfgang Sievers], Berlin, Germany, 1991, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-161009403

Wolfgang Sievers

Topic

Wolfgang Georg Sievers, AO (1913–2007) was a well-known modernist photographer who documented Australian architecture and industry over a career spanning almost 60 years.

Humanities
Technologies
Year 5
Year 6
Architecture and design
Photography
Science and technology
A campaign poster for the 1967 Australian referendum, featuring a close-up photograph of a young Aboriginal child with a serious expression. The text on the poster reads: 'YES for Aborigines. Write YES for Aborigines in the lower square. May 27th. Authorized by Faith Bandler, 13 Kens Road, Frenchs Forest.'

Faith Bandler and Jerry Rind, Yes for Aborigines : write yes for Aborigines in the lower square May 27th, 1967, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136875607

The 1967 Referendum

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: History for Year 10 students. It engages students with a rich selection of sources and challenges them to draw their own conclusions about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ struggle for civil rights in Australia.

Humanities
Year 10
First Australians
Government and politics
Angkor Wat, view of main temple from western side

Yves Coffin, [Angkor Wat, view of main temple from western side], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140376204

The Angkor/Khmer Empire (802–1431)

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: History for Year 8 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills in investigating Asia-Pacific societies in depth.

Humanities
Year 8
Asia-Pacific
World cultures and history
Portrait of ANZAC soldier for Smith's Weekly, between 1919 and 1937

Frank Dunne and Smith's Weekly, Portrait of ANZAC soldier for Smith's Weekly, between 1919 and 1937, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-452465819

World War 1

Module

Explore a rich selection of sources and challenges them to draw their own conclusions about the role of media in World War 1.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
Australia and the Great War newspaper article

(1919, January 6). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 5 (The Argus War Review). nla.gov.au/nla.news-page402797

World War 1: 1918

Topic

By late 1918, the Allied forces had won a series of key battles that forced the German troops into retreat.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
A war memorial
Historian interview: Commemoration

Topic

Historian Dr. Jennifer Wellington explores the similarities and differences of commemorative ceremonies in Australia with the rest of the world and unpacks the question of whether what we are commemorating is based in truth or myth.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
Sepia photograph of World War One soldiers mounted on camels lined up for inspection on the sand

Imperial Camel Corps in Palestine, 1917-1918. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153422443

Historian interview: Australia's context in a global war

Topic

Military historian, Dr. Aaron Pegram, explores the experience of Australian men and women across the 4 year conflict.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
Conscription referendum poster 'The crime of those who vote 'no''

G. H. Dancey, (1916), The crime of those who vote "No!", nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136421813

The 1916 conscription debate

Topic

Reflect on the deep divisions this referendum imposed and its long-term effects on Australian society

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
A caricature map of Europe with each country depicted as an angler having various levels of success in hooking colonies.

Fred. W. Rose, (Frederick W.) & Hewardine, Matt & G.W. Bacon & Co. (1899). Angling in troubled waters = Der Fischfang im Trüben = La pêche en eau trouble = La pesca nelle acque turbes : a serio-comic map of Europe / by Fred. W. Rose, author of the "octopus" map of Europe ; Matt. Hewardine, from design by Fred. W. Rose. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232519231

World War 1: 1914

Topic

Tensions were building across the Balkans throughout the early nineteenth century. Six great powers ruled Europe, including Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria–Hungary and Serbia, all of which were looking to expand their territories.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
Shows British and Allied landings on 25 April 1915 and later; the range of 12 and 15 inch naval guns depicted. Relief shown by shading, and pictorially.

Farrow Falcon Press, issuing body & Dillon, Cyril. (1915). Robur tea war map, Turkish Empire ; Robur war map, Gallipoli and the Dardanelles : bird's eye view, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2972839934

World War 1: 1915

Topic

The Gallipoli campaign came about because of the deadlock on the Western Front, which turned Britain’s attention towards other possible theatres of war.

Humanities
Year 9
Military history
Map of France drawn pictorially.

Daily Mail (London, England). (1916). The Daily Mail bird's eye map of the British front [cartographic material]. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230052264

World War 1: 1916

Topic

After Gallipoli, the AIF reorganised 2 divisions into 5 and troops were sent to the Western Front in France. 

Humanities
Year 9
Military history

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