Teaching Heritage - Teaching this Unit

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	See an OVERVIEW of this Teaching unit: History Geography

Use the resources and activities in Building Australian identities – post second world war to examine the inquiry questions in Stage 5 History Post-war Australia to the 1970s and Stage 5 Geography Investigating Australia’s Identity.

Investigate six heritage places – drawn from the New South Wales State Heritage Inventory (SHI) – for evidence of the major influences on Australian life from 1945 to the 1970s. Discuss contemporary ideas of heritage – for example, changing images of Australia and being Australian used in cultural tourism – and the connections between places that these ideas generate.

Explore the ways that historical sources contribute to an understanding of heritage places. Activities in this unit incorporate ideas for using historical sources to generate understandings about cultural significance. Connections are drawn between buildings, environments, communities and cultural activities that give rise to community identity. Suzanne Rutland draws on a range of sources to piece together the history and heritage of the original Bellevue Hill site of Moriah College.

Community attachment to place is an important consideration in looking at the history and heritage of places. For example, a community’s history is strongly linked to its meeting places such as a local hall. Meredith Walker writes:

The social value for some public places – including post offices – is readily known because they are actively used or – in such cases as the Royal South Street Theatre, Ballarat – because their value has been widely and publicly acknowledged …Some public places, of course, may be more widely known than others; but even places in a small community, such as the local hall of a rural community, or a closed railway station, might also have social value. They serve as evidence of that community and its history.

Post-war immigration – and the changes in Australian society that followed – is a focus of this unit. Australia’s cultural diversity is fundamental to contemporary heritage discussions – identifying cultural values that support the preservation of items, places and cultural traditions is a crucial part of heritage work.


	Starting points for Building Australian identities – post second world war include:

	Heritage places as a springboard for investigating the influences on life in Australia after World War II Examine heritage places for evidence of influences on life in the post second world war period

	Choosing a syllabus inquiry question or content area and using heritage places as a source of information and evidence Choose a topic for investigation and access heritage places to gather information and evidence

	Taking a retrospective view of the 20th century through an investigation stemming from heritage places Use the information and evidence provided by heritage places to investigate key influences, events and developments in one of the following focus issues of Australian history:


	Teachers In building units of work for classroom use with these questions and resources, you may like to consult the NSW History and Geography Stages 4-5 syllabus outcomes: History Outcomes - Stage 4 History Outcomes - Stage 5 History Values and Attitudes Geography Outcomes - Stage 4 Geography Outcomes - Stage 5 Geography Values and Attitudes For help with designing classroom assessment activities to help gauge whether these outcomes are being achieved, you may like to consult the History Planning Assessment Guidelines History Course Performance Descriptors Geography Planning Assessment Guidelines Geography Draft Course Performance Descriptors