Introducing Antarctica

Stage 3 students will be studying Antarctica this term during HSIE. These Youtube videos introduce the topic.

“Potty pioneers”:
A sketch from the BBC television series, “Horrible histories”, based on the best selling books by Terry Deary. In this segment, Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, checks his equipment before setting off to the South Pole… just to make sure it’s completely useless.


Horrible histories – Scott of the Antarctic

Even the natural weather sounds on the soundtrack on this one is informative:


Onboard The National Geographic Explorer In Antarctica, 2008

Icebergs, glaciers, snow, ice and water:


Antarctica: Icebergs, glaciers, snow, ice and water

Lots of Antarctica information, including the “Race to the Pole”, is at Antarctic Connection.

Introducing British colonisation

4/5P is studying the British colonisation of Australia. Here are four Youtube clips that should prove useful to introduce the topic.

1980s television commercial for Old Sydney Town:


Old Sydney Town commercial [1980s]

Here is Old Sydney Town in October 2001 (mere months before the famous historical theme park was shut down). Captured here in the form of digital stills, this presentation shows all the features of one of Australia’s longest running theme parks:


Old Sydney Town (digital stills)

Historic Houses Trust has uploaded several useful video clips on the early days of Australian colonisation to Youtube:

200 years ago, convicts at Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks didn’t have lighters or matches to light their pipes. See how to light a fire the hard way:


A convict started a fire

Convicts sent to Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney weren’t always lucky enough to be issued with socks. And to make matters worse, their shoes weren’t even specifically made for the right or left foot. See what they did to ease the pain:


A convict without socks