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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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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
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.

Augustus Earle, Portrait of Bungaree, a native of New South Wales, with Fort Macquarie, Sydney Harbour, in background [picture], 1826, 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 assignment uniform

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
A water colour painting of men firing rifles from a tent at a tribe of First Australians on an outback plain.

William Oswald Hodgkinson, Bulla, Queensland, 1861, 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
Gold Digging Boardgame

Board game titled: Race to the gold diggings of Australia] [realia], 1855, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139615708

The promise of gold

Topic

Race to the Gold Diggings of Australia is a boxed, children’s board game produced in England around 1855. It is the earliest known board game that has Australia as its theme.

Humanities
Year 5
Australian history
First Australians
Display of an old stained, sepia coloured envelope, a sepia coloured letter and a portion of the Eureka stockade flag.

Portion of the flag flown by the miners at the Eureka Stockade, 1854, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139600656

Flag of the Southern Cross

Topic

Housed in a blue-bound folder, in a collection at the National Library of Australia, is a fragment of blue fabric that represents the pursuit of Australian democracy. The folder contains a portion of the Eureka Flag flown at Ballarat, Victoria, during the 1854 Eureka Rebellion. The folder also houses an accompanying explanatory letter dated 13/1/1912 from Fred (F.J.) Riley to his father, Fred Riley.

Humanities
Year 5
Australian history
First Australians
A photo of a tattered old blue book.

Burke and Wills Expedition (1860-1861), Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861), William John Wills (1834-1861), John King (1841-1872), FH Hawkins and DW Roberts (1860), Papers relating to the Burke and Wills Expedition, 1860-1861 [manuscript], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-229121922

Inland adventures

Topic

The Burke and Wills Expedition (also known as the Victorian or the Australian Exploring Expedition), was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria. It was the first expedition to cross the Australian continent from south to north.

Humanities
Year 5
Australian history
First Australians
A man looking at newspapers in multiple languages at a newspaper kiosk on Elizabeth Street, Melbourne.

Australia. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Overseas Information Bureau. (1991). Ethnic newspapers are prominent on this kiosk in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 1991 [transparency]. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136834359

Language in print

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Languages for years 7–10.

Languages
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Languages
The front page of The Australian Panorama Arabic Newspaper. The masthead is written in red Arabic script.

(2008). The Australian panorama Arabic newspaper. [Panorama Arabic Newspaper], [Parramatta, New South Wales] https://www.panoramanews.net nla.gov.au/nla.obj-747828340

Arabic

Topic

Migration from Arabic nations to Australia has a complex and multifaceted history.

Languages
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Languages
A page from The English Chinese Advertiser newspaper written in Chinese.

The English and Chinese Advertiser (Vic.: 1856–1858), p. 1., 7 August 1858, nla.gov.au/nla.news-page15910530

Chinese

Topic

Stringent colonial restriction laws affected early Chinese migration to Australia.

Languages
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Languages
A page from a French newspaper titles Courrier Australien.

LA CLIQUE DARLAN, Le Courrier Australien (Sydney, NSW : 1892 - 2011), 1 January 1943, nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161749598

French

Topic

French settlement in Australia commenced soon after the arrival of the First Fleet.

Languages
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Languages

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