HIST11026 In Search of Australia: Historical Perspectives

This course includes both a survey of selected themes in Australian history and also an introduction to the ways in which historians analyse and interpret history. This involves a continuing search for answers to the questions of what it means to be Australian and how successive Australians - from the Aborigines in pre-European times to the most recent waves of migrant people - have contributed to the emergence of contemporary Australia. Some of the themes examined are the relationship between Aboriginal Australians and their natural environment; the convict system; origins of the bush ethos in a predominantly urban Australia; women; wars; and Australia's economic, social and political development.