This resource has been generously supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Australia, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Dirk Hartog on the West Australian coast in 1616.

Using This Resource

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences for Year 4 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills as historians. The resource engages students with a rich selection of historical sources and challenges them to draw their own conclusions about Dutch–Australian connections over the past 410 years. It focuses on Dutch maritime explorations of Australia.

The resource gives teachers flexibility. Introductory and concluding activities are provided to focus students on the broad concepts explored in Year 4. The highlight of the resource is the selection of sources from the National Library of Australia’s collection. The student activities that support the sources cater for a variety of classroom contexts and learning styles.