Australian History/Preface

&lsaquo; Return to the Contents

Authors should maintain the regular wikibook rules governing unbiased writing, the only other guideline are that everything should be kept more or less in chronological order and divided into logical chapters. Everything else is left pretty much up to the individual authors that elect to join into the project. There are some excellent examples of Wikibooks covering history, including Canadian History, and the Australian History Wikibook is modeled on these.

The eventual aim of this project is to create a textbook which could, in printed form or online, be a useful resource for high school and university students studying Australian history, and could even be used (in printed form) as the main textbook for a high school or university subject. For more details on this, please see Textbook Standards in Australia. More specific details for creating a Victorian textbook are available from the VCAA, including the Study design guide.

As of the time of writing, some of the VCE "Australian History" course requirements were as follows:
 * Unit 1 covers "Twentieth Century History" (1900-1945)
 * Area of Study 1 covers Crisis and Conflict from 1900-1945
 * Outcome 1 calls on students to analyse the crises and conflicts in this period
 * Area of Study 2 covers changes to "Social life" in the first half of the twentieth century, in relation to social and economic changes caused by events like the Depression, and the World Wars
 * Outcome 2 calls on students to analyse and discuss these changes
 * Area of Study 3 covers "Cultural Expression" in the first half of the Twentieth Century, and its relation to cultural, political, and economic changes in this period
 * Outcome 3 calls on students to analyse the links between cultural expression, and cultural, political, and economic changes in this period


 * Unit 2 covers "Twentieth Century History" (1945-2000)
 * Area of Study 1 covers the Cold War ideas and political power
 * Outcome 1 calls on students to analyse how Cold War societies legitimised their worldviews
 * Area of Study 2 covers "social movements" which emerged during the cold war (e.g. feminism, gay and lesbian rights, etc.)
 * Outcome 2 calls on students to evaluate the impact of these challenges
 * Area of Study 3 covers "Issues for the new millenium"
 * Outcome 3 calls on students to analyse political, economic, or technological challenges being faced in the new millennium.


 * Unit 3 covers "Australian History"
 * Area of Study 1 covers "The Port Phillip District" (1830-1860)
 * Outcome 1 covers the motives and hopes of settlers, and the impact on Indigenous Australians
 * Area of Study 2 covers "Nationalism, Race and Citizenship" (1888-1914)
 * Outcome 2 is an analysis of the ideas behind the new nation and their implementation


 * Unit 4 covers "Australian History"
 * Area of Study 1 covers "Testing the new nation" (1914-1950)
 * Outcome 1 requires students to analyse how Australians reacted to a crisis in this period
 * Area of Study 2 covers "Debating Australia's Future" (1960-2000)
 * Outcome 2 requires students to examine Australian attitudes to either:
 * The Environment
 * Vietnam War
 * Indigenous Rights
 * Immigration

Forward to the Introduction &rsaquo;