Digital resources tagged with ‘World War 2’

Australian Biography - Sir Marcus Oliphant

The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Sir Mark Oliphant helped to create the bomb, but even though it ended the war he can never reconcile himself to the loss of civilian life.

Ben Chifley’s Pipe

Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, and a former train driver, Ben Chifley was rarely seen without his pipe, as he guided the country through the austere post-war years.

Bonegilla Migrant Camp

More than 300,000 migrants had their first taste of Australian life at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp in Victoria before moving out to transform Australia socially and culturally.

Censorship in Media

John Safran discusses censorship in Australian media.

HMAS Sydney's Carley Float

A tiny, war-ravaged liferaft from the HMAS Sydney is our only physical link to Australia’s worst-ever naval disaster.

James Scullin And The GCMG

James Scullin inspired the people when he offered to rent out The Lodge during the Depression, but his fierce nationalism is best revealed in his campaign to install an Australian-born Governor General.

John Curtin’s Australian Journalists’ Association Badge

John Curtin’s journalistic instincts came in handy during World War Two when he kept the media onside with secret press briefings. He wore his AJA badge every day he was in office.

Kokoda - War on Film

Alister Grierson, director of the 2006 feature film "Kokoda" talks about historical accuracy and representing war experience on film.

Max Ernst Collection & Lake Sentani Figures

The indigenous art of Africa, the Americas and Oceania inspired European artists such as Jacob Epstein and Max Ernst, who in turn were an inspiration for Australian painter Albert Tucker.

Menzies - Early life and the Empire

In 1941 Australia’s Prime Minister Robert Menzies, like most Australians, would have thought of England as the ‘home country’.

Menzies and Churchill

Menzies traveled to London during the dark months of 1941 where he took on British Prime Minister Churchill over the strategic direction of the war.

Menzies' Forgotten People Speech

With the “Forgotten People” radio talks, Robert Menzies begins reaching out, pitching himself in more domestic, family friendly, homely terms.

Newsreels boost morale

Newsreels of the war boosted the morale of Australians at the home front. The newsreel of Australian troops on the Kokoda Track shared the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1942.

Return to the Thai-Burma Railway

Weary Dunlop and his elderly comrades return to the site of the Thai-Burma railway. As prisoners of war they each had to dig three cubic metres of earth a day, virtually with their bare hands.

Robert Menzies’ Camera

Robert Menzies’ lifelong passion for home movies resulted in a surprisingly personal record of the war years, including footage of a young Princess Elizabeth.

The Australian Surrealists

In response to the Second World War, a group of talented young Australians drew on the 'dream' imagery of European surrealism to express their disquiet at world events.

The Post War Wool Boom

125 million sheep are spread across Australia. 90 thousand tons of lamb and 3 million tons of wool are exported annually. Australia truly rode to prosperity on the sheep's back.