Year 4 HASS – Term 2 (WA Curriculum): Explorers, First Fleet and Early Contact in Australia

What this unit covers

In Term 2, Year 4 HASS in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Explorers, First Fleet and Early Contact in Australia”.

Students explore the journeys of world explorers, the First Fleet's arrival in Australia, and the impact of early contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and newcomers.

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. Investigating What We Already Know About Early Australian History
2. Following the Journey of a Famous Explorer to Australia
3. Discovering Why the First Fleet Left England for Australia
4. Exploring Who Travelled on the First Fleet Ships
5. Examining Daily Life After the First Fleet Arrived
6. Understanding First Contact Between Aboriginal Peoples and Newcomers
7. Investigating How Contact Changed Lives and the Environment
8. Creating a Timeline of Early Australian History

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 2

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 2 runs from Monday 20 April to Friday 3 July — 11 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.