This document outlines the proposed national curriculum for history education in Australia. It is divided into 4 stages: Stage 1 for ages 5-8 focuses on personal history and everyday life; Stage 2 for ages 8-12 covers the key topics of Australian identity, indigenous and settler experiences, and daily life over time. Stage 3 for ages 12-15 includes world history units from earliest humans to modern period. Stage 4 for ages 15-18 provides choice of in-depth topics like medieval, modern, Asia-Pacific history and options for extension studies. The goals are to teach Australian history in a global context and provide flexibility for student interests at the post-compulsory level.

1. Summary of the proposed National Curriculum for History
(Australia)
Annabel Astbury
History Teachers’ Association of Victoria

2. National Curriculum Framing Paper 2008
Prep – Year 3
Stage 1: 5 – 8 Years of Age
Year 4 – Year 6
Stage 2: 8 – 12 Years of Age
Year 7 – Year 10
Stage 3: 12 - 15 Years of Age
Year 4 – Year 6
Year 11 – Year 12
Stage 4: 15 – 18 Years of Age

3. STAGE 1: Key Topics
(5- 8 years of age)
Personal Pasts
Chronology and measurements of time
Features of everyday life and present societies

4. STAGE 2: Key Topics
(8 – 12 Years of Age)
At this stage there are five key areas:
What is Australia and who are Australians?
What problems did successive peoples encounter in living in early Australia and were
these problems resolved?
How did we ‘create’ a new nation and develop a national identity?
How did we live then?
Developing a chronology and overview

5. STAGE 2: Key Topic 1
• Histories of local members of indigenous
communities and pre arrival and post arrival
histories of settler and migrant members of
community – in a global context.
Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License
• Commemorative Days and Commemoration
What is Australia
and who are
Australians?

6. STAGE 2: Key Topic 2
•Lives of Aboriginal communities prior European
colonisation.
• Impact of European colonization on Aboriginal
Escape of Fenian convicts from Fremantle, West Australia.
communities.
picture 1876. Reproduction rights owned by the State Library
of Victoria
What problems did
• Local and national exploration – contextualized
successive peoples in a global perspective.
encounter in living
in early Australia
and were these
problems resolved?

7. STAGE 2: Key Topic 3
• National Identities
• Governance
Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License
• Democracy
How did we ‘create’
a new nation and
develop a national
identity?

8. STAGE 2: Key Topic 4
•Social aspects of daily life
•Economic aspects of daily life
Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License
•‘pre-contact to modern times’
How did we live
then?

9. STAGE 2: Key Topic 1
• Study of local individual / group: and
place within global context
Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License
Developing a
chronology and
overview

10. Stage 3: 12 – 15 Years of Age
Key points to note:
There are four units that make up Stage 3
The units outlined should be taught as ‘World History’, covering 5 continents, and
sequentially.
It is clearly stated that “not all of the world’s history can be considered”. It is hoped that
this study of world history enriches the study of Australia and its place in the world.
Each unit will include a:
•Overview
•Bridging
•Study in depth.
Further advice will be provided on this.
Several depth studies will be provided for each unit – with room for options.

11. STAGE 3: Key Topics
(12 - 15Years of Age)
At this stage there are four units:
Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human communities to the end of the
Ancient period (c. 60 000 BC – c 500 AD)
Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to the beginning of the modern
period (circa. 500 – 1750)
Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia (1750 – 1901)
*Australian History will occupy approximately 40% of this unit.
Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World (1901 – present day)
*Australian History will occupy approximately 60% of this unit.

12. Stage 3 / Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human
communities to the end of the Ancient period (c. 60 000 BC – c
500 AD)
• Earliest Human Communities: peopling of the
continents by circa 15 000 BC
• Agriculture
• Emergence of cities, states and empires
• Emergence of Eurasian world system
• Comparative understanding of Mediterranean and
Asian empires
• Development of Aboriginal , Melanesian and American
societies.

13. Stage 3 / Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to
the beginning of the modern period (circa. 500 – 1750)
•Expansion / Collapse of states and empires, and the
emergence of global networks of exchange.
• Major world religions
 European expansion
 Medieval period
• Renaissance (Art and Scientific revolutions
• Reformation
• Consideration of other civilizations: Near and Middle
East, China, Japan, India and the Americas.

14. Stage 3 / Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia
[1750 – 1901]
•American and French Revolutions
•Industrial Revolution
•European colonization
•European discovery and settlement of Australia in context of
mass migration.
•Consequence of British Settlement for Aboriginal Australians -
> Frontier conflict, missions, reserves.
(N.B. At stage 2, students will have focused more upon social structures and material culture)
•Convict Society
•Pastoralism
•self-government
•urbanization
•depression (1890s / Industrial unrest)

15. Stage 3 / Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World
[1901 - present]
•Australian Federation
•Defence
•Social Welfare
•Australia’s relationship with Britain
•Origins and consequences of WWI
•Australia’s participation in WWI
•Between the wars: Depression (effects on world and
Australia), rise of certain ideologies
•World War II
•Australia’s response to WWII
•The Holocaust
•Cold War
•Collapse of Communism

16. STAGE 4: Key Topics
(15 – 18 Years of Age)
In the post-compulsory years of
schooling, it is recognized that not
all students will study history.
This stage has been the least
developed in terms of the framing paper
that the National Curriculum Board has
presented.
Key points:
•Choice should be apparent.
•Topics will be studied in more depth.
•Extension studies in history should be made available to all students to undertake.

17. Stage 4: Topics [15-18 Years of Age]
Year Eleven
Medieval
Modern
Asia-Pacific
Year Twelve
Ancient
Australian
Extension Study
Option*
*which allows for currently popular state-based
subjects, although this has yet to be clearly defined.)