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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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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is seated at a table wearing glasses. He is signing a document. Standing behind him and leaning over his shoulder is Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies. Both men are wear dark suits with white shirts. Menzies is wearing a dark tie, Churchill a bow tie.

Portrait of Prime Ministers R.G. Menzies and Winston Churchill at Downing Street, London, 1941, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137388175

War in Europe again - 'My melancholy duty'

Topic

At 9.15 pm on Sunday 3 September 1939, Australia’s Prime Minister, Robert Menzies (1894-1978), gave a radio address, announcing that Australia was at war with Germany.

Humanities
Year 10
Military history
Map of the world during World War II showing Japanese and German influence and occupation, international boundaries, transportation, oil fields etc. Scattered around the map are depictions of war technology including battleships, aircraft and artillery. Some countries have depictions of animals or 'things' relevant to the country eg. in the middle of Australia is a kangaroo, emu, a platypus and sheep. Inset at bottom left and right are close ups of the Mediterranean and Solomon Islands respectively.

Japanese map of World War ll, 1942, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-234704475

Enemy aliens and war with Japan

Topic

As the outbreak of war was announced, police forces around Australia moved swiftly to ensure there were no concerns about security at home.

Humanities
Year 10
Military history
Charcoal on paper sketch of the head and shoulders of a young man. He has hair neatly swept back. He is wearing an collared white shirt with the collar open. He is in profile staring off to the right.

Theodor Engel, Study of a Dunera boy at Tatura, Victoria, 1943, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-152997802

Dunera

Topic

In the years leading to the outbreak of World War II, Hitler and his government’s anti-Semitism became increasingly violent.

Humanities
Year 10
Military history
Logo saying Dirk Hartog, 1616-2016, Marking our history, celebrating our future
Dirk Hartog 1616–2016: 400 years of Dutch-Australian connections

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: History for Year 10 students.

Humanities
Year 10
Explorers
black and white photograph of japanese world war two plane

Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen, a Japanese single seat monoplane fighter, 1940, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-144931273

Dutch–Australian connections in World War II

Topic

As World War II broke out across Europe in 1939, the Dutch had initially remained neutral. When Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940, the Dutch lost the ability to defend their colonies in the Netherlands East Indies.

Humanities
Year 10
Explorers
The world famous pop group the Easybeats visited the CBN 8 CWN Channel 6 studios in 1970 for a tape session to be included in a local programme

Stephen Fleay, The Easybeats rehearsing at the CBN 8 and CWN 6 television studios, Orange, New South Wales, 1970, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-151176759

Dutch experiences in Australia

Topic

After World War II, the people of the Netherlands found themselves with a long journey ahead of them, resurrecting a war-ravaged country that was struggling to overcome recent famine and mass casualties in the Holocaust.

Humanities
Year 10
Explorers
painting of small house in the Australian bush

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

A Nation Imagined: The artists of the Picturesque Atlas

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts for Year 9 and 10 students. It adopts an inquiry approach to develop students’ skills as art historians.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
sketch of a man smoking a pipe

Frank Mahony, [Self-portrait] [picture] / F.P.M., 1900, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136050024

Personalities

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and its principal Sydney-based artists - Julian Ashton, A. Henry Fullwood and Frank Mahony - transformed the way settler colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
colour painting of man with pack and billy can

Mahony, Frank, 1862-1916. (1896). Henry Lawson in 1896 [picture] / F.P. Mahony. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136254778

Illustration and black-and-white art

Topic

The publication of the Picturesque Atlas was situated within a ‘golden age’ of illustration: the great global explosion of mass-produced images that occurred between 1850 and 1900 with the rise of the illustrated press.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
painting of small house in the Australian bush

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

Australian impressionism

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia helped to establish the iconography of Australian impressionism, often also identified as the Heidelberg School.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
A gold medal standing upright on a white cotton surface. The medal shows a figure holding a trumped and a wine amphorae. Behind the figure is a bust on a stand. In raised lettering around the edge of the medal are the words 'Olympiska Spelen Stockholm' The year '1912' is also present.

Olympic gold medal won by Miss Fanny Durack at Stockholm, 1912, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139311257

Women in sport

Topic

Today, at the Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games, tennis tournaments and a host of other sporting events, men and women can compete at elite levels. But this has not always been the case for sports and recreational physical pursuits.

Health
Humanities
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Sport and recreation
Black and white image of a poster titled 'First Australian Team of Cricketers that visited England, 1868'

Photoline Printing Co., First Australian team of cricketers that visited England, 1868, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-141855333

First Nations people in sport

Topic

The first Australian cricket team to tour overseas was an Aboriginal one.

Health
Humanities
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
First Australians
Sport and recreation

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