Year 4 HASS – Term 1 (WA Curriculum): Explorers, Contact and the First Fleet

What this unit covers

In Term 1, Year 4 HASS in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Explorers, Contact and the First Fleet”.

Students explore early contact between cultures, famous explorers' journeys, and the establishment of the First Fleet colony in Australia.

Lesson sequence (8 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. What do we already know about early Australian history?
2. Famous explorers who changed the world
3. Following Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic Ocean
4. How Aboriginal peoples first met European explorers
5. Why did the First Fleet sail to Australia?
6. Life aboard the First Fleet ships for different people
7. What happened when cultures collided in early Australia?
8. Recording our discoveries about early contact and exploration

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Skills codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 1

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 1 runs from Monday 2 February to Thursday 2 April — 9 weeks for WA public schools. With 8 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.