Year 6 HASS – Term 1 (WA Curriculum): Changes and Continuity in 20th Century Australia

What this unit covers

In Term 1, Year 6 HASS in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Changes and Continuity in 20th Century Australia”.

Students explore how Australia's political system and citizenship changed after Federation, examine migration stories from diverse groups, and develop historical inquiry skills through primary and secondary source analysis.

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. Mapping Our Understanding of Federation and Citizenship Changes
2. Investigating How Federation Changed Australia's Political System
3. Examining the Impact of Citizenship Laws on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
4. Exploring Women's Fight for Political Rights in Early 20th Century Australia
5. Researching Push and Pull Factors: Why People Migrate to Australia
6. Discovering Asian Migration Stories: Contributions to Australian Society
7. Collecting Evidence from Primary Sources About 20th Century Changes
8. Recording and Presenting Our Historical Findings

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.