Australia: The Story of Us - Episode 1 (ATOM Study Guide)

Australia: The Story of Us is an extraordinary narrative about the people, places and events that have shaped the continent, from the first inhabitants to the present day. This groundbreaking drama-documentary series weaves together stories of the nation's origins and offers fresh insights into how Australians came to create the homeland we inhabit today.

Alongside astounding CGI and cinematic sequences, the series features interviews with important thinkers, notable celebrities and national figures who take us inside the stories that have influenced Australian history.

The series can be viewed as a whole or as individual episodes, or even individual segments within episodes. It can be used as a series of creative starting points for students to start their exploration of aspects of Australian history and the people who made it.

Episode 1: 'Worlds Collide'

Aboriginal Australians thrive and leave their mark on every corner of the driest inhabited continent on Earth for at least 50,000 years. They meet challenges unique to this place, like the marsupial lion that's the world's deadliest mammalian carnivore. To Europeans, Australia is Terra Incognita, an unknown land at the bottom of the world. When 800 British convicts and their guards come to stay, worlds collide. The colonial experiment almost starves and fails when it's barely begun. James Ruse is one of many burglars but the colony's only farmer. He must grow European crops in the strange Australian soil of the colony will starve. We fight American interlopers for the profits of our first resource boom. Under freedom fighter Pemulwuy the First Australians seek to drive the British back. And, in their own rebellion, the colonists fight William Bligh's restricted vision of what Australia might become – a revolution with its roots in rum.

Curriculum Relevance

Australia: The Story of Us is a suitable resource for students in Years 5–9 in studies of Australian History, English and Film Studies.