Australia's Role in World War I

Active learning works for this topic because students need to grasp the human scale of the Great Depression rather than just memorize dates. When they handle real budget figures or examine photographs of families in the 1930s, they connect emotionally to the economic collapse and its impact on daily life.

• Year 6
• HASS
• 3 activities
• 30 min–50 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the motivations behind Australia's decision to join World War I and its initial contributions.
2. Explain the significance of the Gallipoli campaign and the development of the Anzac legend.
3. Compare the conditions and experiences of Australian soldiers on the Western Front with those at Gallipoli.
4. Evaluate the impact of World War I on Australia's developing national identity and its relationship with Britain.
5. Identify key battles and events involving Australian forces during World War I.

Simulation Game

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

Simulation Game: The Great Depression Budget

Pairs are given a limited number of 'tokens' representing a family's weekly susso. They must decide how to allocate them across food, rent, and medicine, experiencing the difficult trade-offs families faced.

Prepare & details

Analyze how Australia's participation in World War I contributed to a distinct national identity.

Facilitation Tip: During the Simulation: The Great Depression Budget, circulate with a checklist to ensure all students calculate their household’s income and expenses accurately before they present their choices to the class.

Setup: Flexible space for group stations

Materials: Role cards with goals/resources, Game currency or tokens, Round tracker

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Gallery Walk

⏱ 30 min·Individual

Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s

Display photos of 'shanty towns' (Happy Valleys), men 'jumping the rattler' (trains), and soup kitchens. Students use post-it notes to record their observations and questions about how people maintained their dignity.

Prepare & details

Explain the origins and enduring significance of the Anzac legend.

Facilitation Tip: During the Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s, set a 3-minute timer at each station so students have time to annotate key observations on their graphic organizer without rushing.

Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter

Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Inquiry Circle

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: The Bridge and the Dole

Small groups research how projects like the Great Ocean Road or the Sydney Harbour Bridge provided jobs. They create a 'news report' explaining how these projects helped the national spirit.

Prepare & details

Compare the experiences of Australian soldiers on the Western Front with those at Gallipoli.

Facilitation Tip: During the Collaborative Investigation: The Bridge and the Dole, assign each group a role—historian, economist, or worker—to ensure every voice contributes to the final argument about whether the Sydney Harbour Bridge justified its cost.

Setup: Groups at tables with access to source materials

Materials: Source material collection, Inquiry cycle worksheet, Question generation protocol, Findings presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

Teaching This Topic

Teachers approach this topic by grounding abstract economic data in lived experience. Pairing statistical graphs with personal letters or diary entries makes the scale of unemployment real. Avoid presenting the Depression as a distant event; instead, connect it to students’ own communities by asking where local infrastructure projects like bridges or schools were built during the 1930s. Research shows that role-play and collaborative investigations increase empathy and retention when studying economic crises.

What to Expect

Successful learning looks like students explaining how Australia’s reliance on primary exports made the Depression worse and describing how infrastructure projects provided short-term work. They should also articulate how ‘susso’ payments kept families alive even as unemployment peaked.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During the Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s, watch for students who assume the Depression was only an American problem.

What to Teach Instead

Remind students to compare the global unemployment graphs posted at the final station with the Australian data on their worksheets, prompting them to note that Australia’s rural exports made the crisis worse here than in many other countries.

Common Misconception

During the Simulation: The Great Depression Budget, watch for students who blame individuals for their poverty.

What to Teach Instead

Use the debrief to highlight the budget choices: ask students to report how many applied for jobs that did not exist and how many families had no choice but to cut meals, making it clear unemployment was structural, not personal.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

After the Simulation: The Great Depression Budget, facilitate a class discussion where students use their completed household budgets to explain why Australia was so badly hit by the Depression, referencing specific export data they see on the board.

Quick Check

During the Collaborative Investigation: The Bridge and the Dole, collect each group’s Venn diagram comparing Gallipoli and Western Front experiences to assess whether students can identify distinct conditions and shared elements.

Exit Ticket

After the Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s, collect students’ annotated photographs to check if they can articulate how ‘susso’ payments and infrastructure projects like the Sydney Harbour Bridge addressed the crisis.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge students who finish early to research how unemployment varied by state and present their findings on a map using color coding to show severity.
• For students who struggle, provide a partially completed budget template with some income and expense figures already filled in to reduce cognitive load.
• Deeper exploration: Assign students to interview a family member or community member who lived through economic hardship and compare their experiences to those from the 1930s.

Key Vocabulary

Anzac legend	The enduring story and set of ideals associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers at Gallipoli, representing bravery, mateship, and sacrifice.
Western Front	The main theatre of war in World War I, located in Belgium and France, where Australian soldiers fought in trench warfare against German forces.
Mateship	A core Australian value emphasizing loyalty, friendship, and mutual support, often highlighted in the context of soldiers' experiences during the war.
National identity	The sense of belonging to a nation, shaped by shared history, culture, and experiences, which was significantly influenced by Australia's involvement in WWI.
Trench warfare	A type of land warfare characterized by opposing troops fighting from ditches dug into the ground, common on the Western Front.