Trench Warfare & New Technologies

This topic challenges students to confront difficult truths about Australia’s military history, and active learning helps them engage with these ideas honestly. Students move from abstract facts to concrete stories, which makes the injustices and complexities of Indigenous service more meaningful and memorable.

• Year 9
• Humanities and Social Sciences
• 3 activities
• 25 min–50 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the impact of machine guns, artillery, and poison gas on the tactics and outcomes of battles on the Western Front.
2. Explain the physical and psychological effects of prolonged trench life, including disease, shell shock, and the constant threat of death.
3. Compare the effectiveness of specific offensive strategies, such as the creeping barrage, with defensive measures like barbed wire and machine gun nests.
4. Classify the key technological innovations of World War I and evaluate their contribution to the stalemate of trench warfare.

Inquiry Circle

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: Indigenous Anzac Stories

Groups research a specific Indigenous soldier (e.g., Douglas Grant or the Lovett brothers). They create a 'digital biography' that highlights their service and their life after the war.

Prepare & details

Analyze how new technologies transformed the nature of warfare on the Western Front.

Facilitation Tip: During Collaborative Investigation, assign each group a different Indigenous soldier’s enlistment record to build a collective timeline that highlights patterns of resistance and perseverance.

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

Gallery Walk

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

Gallery Walk: Equality in the Trenches?

Display quotes from Indigenous and white soldiers about their time together in the war. Students move in pairs to identify evidence of 'mateship' versus evidence of ongoing racism.

Prepare & details

Explain the psychological and physical toll of trench warfare on soldiers.

Facilitation Tip: For the Gallery Walk, place primary sources (photos, letters, service records) next to student-generated responses to foster immediate connections between evidence and interpretation.

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

Think-Pair-Share

⏱ 25 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: The Return Home

Students compare the benefits given to white veterans versus Indigenous veterans. They discuss in pairs how this treatment affected Indigenous communities and share their thoughts.

Prepare & details

Compare the effectiveness of offensive and defensive strategies in the trenches.

Facilitation Tip: In Think-Pair-Share, ask students to first reflect individually on a return visit home scenario before discussing with a partner to ensure deeper processing of systemic discrimination.

Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor

Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Teaching This Topic

Teachers should balance the emotional weight of this topic with rigorous sourcing. Use Indigenous-authored or co-created resources when possible, and acknowledge gaps in records respectfully. Model how to read silence in sources—explaining why some stories are missing—and guide students to ask whose voices might be missing from official narratives. Avoid turning this into a purely inspirational story; keep the focus on structural inequality and resistance.

What to Expect

Students will explain how systemic barriers shaped Indigenous enlistment and treatment, compare wartime equality with post-war exclusion, and use evidence to argue its impact on lives. They will demonstrate empathy while maintaining historical accuracy in their discussions.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Collaborative Investigation, watch for students assuming Indigenous men could not enlist at all.

What to Teach Instead

Use enlistment records from the activity to highlight cases where Indigenous men enlisted by omitting cultural details or identifying as another ethnicity, and ask students to identify patterns in the records.

Common Misconception

During Gallery Walk, watch for students believing Indigenous soldiers received equal treatment after the war.

What to Teach Instead

Have students use the comparison chart of veteran benefits in the activity to note discrepancies, such as exclusion from RSLs or land grants, and ask them to explain how these gaps reflect ongoing systemic discrimination.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

After Collaborative Investigation, pose the question: ‘Which technological innovation had the greatest impact on trench warfare, and why?’ Ask students to support their arguments with specific examples from their research on Indigenous soldiers’ experiences of trench warfare.

Quick Check

During Gallery Walk, provide students with a short primary source excerpt describing life in the trenches and ask them to identify three specific challenges or dangers mentioned, explaining how at least one new WWI technology contributed to those challenges.

Exit Ticket

After Think-Pair-Share, ask students to write on an index card one sentence explaining the primary defensive advantage of machine guns in trench warfare and one sentence describing a significant psychological toll of living in the trenches, using evidence from the discussion.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Have students research and present on an Indigenous soldier’s life post-service, tracing how their service was remembered or forgotten by official histories.
• Scaffolding: Provide sentence starters for discussion prompts that ask students to connect enlistment records to personal motivations, such as ‘This record suggests… which implies…’
• Deeper exploration: Invite students to compare Indigenous soldiers’ experiences with those of other marginalised groups in WWI (e.g., African American soldiers in the U.S.) using a Venn diagram.

Key Vocabulary

Trench Warfare	A type of land warfare using occupied lines of ditches, dug by combatants, by soldiers, very heavily fortified from the enemy. It was the primary form of warfare on the Western Front during World War I.
No Man's Land	The unoccupied area between opposing trench systems. It was typically devastated, cratered, and strewn with barbed wire and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Machine Gun	An automatic firearm that fires rifle cartridges rapidly. Its defensive power was a major factor in the high casualties and stalemate of trench warfare.
Artillery	Large-caliber guns used to fire shells over long distances. Artillery barrages were a key feature of trench warfare, causing immense destruction and psychological distress.
Poison Gas	Chemical weapons used during World War I, including chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. While terrifying, their effectiveness was limited by wind and countermeasures.
Tank	An armored fighting vehicle developed during World War I to cross trench lines and break through enemy defenses. Early tanks were unreliable but showed potential for future warfare.