National History Challenge

The National History Challenge is a research-based competition for students in Years 5 to 12. It emphasises and rewards quality research, the use of community resources and effective presentation.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Australian War Memorial jointly support the annual competition and sponsor a special category for wartime history entitled In War and Peace.

The competition is run by the History Teachers’ Association of Australia. The competition closes in August each year and the national awards presentation is held in Canberra in December.

The theme of the 2008 Challenge is "Australia meets the World"

Getting started with your research

Nearly a million Australian servicemen and servicewomen have served outside Australia in wartime. Their impact on the places they served in and the memories they left are worthy of study. How Australians saw the enemy varied from place to place. The Australians on Gallipoli had a great respect for Johnny Turk.How Australians were treated as prisoners of war and how Australians treated enemy prisoners and internees are important questions.

In considering your research for the War and Peace category you may wish to investigate some of the suggestions given here or think about your own ideas. How did wartime impact on the lives and culture of serving Australians? How have Australian servicemen and women contributed to world peace? Other topics to investigate may include:

overseas war brides who came to Australia and Australians who married foreign soldiers;
The impact of the culture and beliefs of a country on those Australians serving in a foreign land;
Changes in Australian agriculture, food production and impact of cultural diversity due to post war immigration;
The impact of American soldiers on Australian society during the Second World War.

Good luck with your research for the National History Challenge.

See: More information on the National History Challenge website