mommymilkies Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 My oldest teen is getting very frustrated trying to find more on the history of Australia. Our local library has nothing helpful and all of our "excellent" history texts make only vague allusions to Australian history or brief bits on the initial founding of Australia. Researching this she is shocked at how little there is in most available homeschool and education textbooks and resource books on areas besides the USA and Europe. I do have resources for elementary on Asia and Africa (but still almost nothing on Australia besides fiction). Does anyone have a good list of high school level resources on Australia, Africa, Asia, and beyond? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Why not buy the local high school history text books from Oz, NZ and Asian countries? We have this high school text from Singapore for instance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 That's a great idea. Does anyone have suggestions for decent ones? I know some are better than others here in the USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed.cleaner Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Australia is currently having a new national curriculum (AC) rolled out so high school texts are in a period of transition. And, unfortunately for your purposes, the focus for high school is now world history, and Australia's place in it, rather than on Australian history itself. You could try older second hand text books published prior to the AC being taught in schools (began 2014 I think). I have heard the Jacaranda texts recommended, but I have never used them myself. Edited to Add: Here is a link to the current Jacaranda texts 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed.cleaner Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 You could also try Australians, Volume 1: Origins to Eureka, Australians, Volume 2: Eureka to The Diggers, and Australians, Volume 3: Flappers to Vietnam. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 A couple of more popular books that might be of interest: The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding by Robert Hughes Amazon.com Review An extraordinary volume--even a masterpiece--about the early history of Australia that reads like the finest of novels. Hughes captures everything in this complex tableau with narrative finesse that drives the reader ever-deeper into specific facts and greater understanding. He presents compassionate understanding of the plights of colonists--both freemen and convicts--and the Aboriginal peoples they displaced. One of the very best works of history I have ever read. From Library Journal For 80 years between 1788 and 1868 England transported its convicts to Australia. This punishment provided the first immigrants and the work force to build the colony. Using diaries, letters, and original sources, Hughes meticulously documents this history. All sides of the story are told: the political and social reasoning behind the Transportation System, the viewpoint of the captains who had the difficult job of governing and developing the colonies, and of course the dilemma of the prisoners. This is a very thorough and accurate history of Australian colonization written by the author of the book and BBC/Time-Life TV series The Shock of the New . A definitive work that is an essential purchase for both public and academic libraries. BOMC and History Book Club main selections. Judith Nixon, Purdue Univ. Libs., W. Lafayette, Ind.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. AND In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson Amazon.com Review Bill Bryson follows his Appalachian amble, A Walk in the Woods, with the story of his exploits in Australia, where A-bombs go off unnoticed, prime ministers disappear into the surf, and cheery citizens coexist with the world's deadliest creatures: toxic caterpillars, aggressive seashells, crocodiles, sharks, snakes, and the deadliest of them all, the dreaded box jellyfish. And that's just the beginning, as Bryson treks through sunbaked deserts and up endless coastlines, crisscrossing the "under-discovered" Down Under in search of all things interesting. Bryson, who could make a pile of dirt compelling--and yes, Australia is mostly dirt--finds no shortage of curiosities. When he isn't dodging Portuguese man-of-wars or considering the virtues of the remarkable platypus, he visits southwest Gippsland, home of the world's largest earthworms (up to 12 feet in length). He discovers that Australia, which began nationhood as a prison, contains the longest straight stretch of railroad track in the world (297 miles), as well as the world's largest monolith (the majestic Uluru) and largest living thing (the Great Barrier Reef). He finds ridiculous place names: "Mullumbimby Ewylamartup, Jiggalong, and the supremely satisfying Tittybong," and manages to catch a cricket game on the radio, which is like "listening to two men sitting in a rowboat on a large, placid lake on a day when the fish aren't biting; it's like having a nap without losing consciousness. It actually helps not to know quite what's going on. In such a rarefied world of contentment and inactivity, comprehension would become a distraction." "You see," Bryson observes, "Australia is an interesting place. It truly is. And that really is all I'm saying." Of course, Bryson--who is as much a travel writer here as a humorist, naturalist, and historian--says much more, and does so with generous amounts of wit and hilarity. Australia may be "mostly empty and a long way away," but it's a little closer now. --Rob McDonald From Publishers Weekly With the Olympics approaching, books on Australia abound. Still, Bryson's lively take is a welcome recess from packaged, staid guides. The author of A Walk in the Woods draws readers in campfire-style, relating wacky anecdotes and random facts gathered on multiple trips down under, all the while lightening the statistics with infusions of whimsical humor. Arranged loosely by region, the book bounces between Canberra and Melbourne, the Outback and the Gold Coast, showing Bryson alone and with partners in tow. His unrelenting insistence that Australia is the most dangerous place on earth ("If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback") spins off dozens of tales involving jellyfish, spiders and the world's 10 most poisonous snakes. Pitfalls aside, Bryson revels in the beauty of this country, home to ravishing beaches and countless unique species ("80% of all that lives in Australia, plant and animal, lives nowhere else"). He glorifies the country, alternating between awe, reverence and fear, and he expresses these sentiments with frankness and candor, via truly funny prose and a conversational pace that is at once unhurried and captivating. Peppered with seemingly irrelevant (albeit amusing) yarns, this work is a delight to read, whether or not a trip to the continent is planned. First serial to Outside magazine; BOMC selection. (June)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Regards, Kareni 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Kareni always has the best book recommendations :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Thank you for the very kind words, Luckymama! Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Unfortunately NZ does not really teach history. If becomes an option at about tenth grade but it started with WW2 when I took it. Other than that the only history we had was completely random bits in social studies. This could have changed but I don't think it has. NZ history would be tricky anyway as we can't agree on what happened and the first written records are only a couple hundred years old. You could maybe try some of the stuff about Cook's voyages and look at texts written for first year university students. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Jackie French has an excellent series of books about Australian History. They are about year 7 reading level, but are small, light and easy to post, and fairly balanced. Look for the Fair Dinkum History series. Peter McInnes is another to look out for. But his stuff isn't high school level either. You could try Manning Clarke. Outdated, but very solid. Written in the 60's Robert Hughes was a brilliant man, but a highly disaffected ex-pat. Beautiful, disillusioned writing. The Fatal Shore is a mammoth read. If you can get hold of a copy of the TV series, "The First Australians" do it. It was ground-breaking when SBS released it in 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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