The Great Emu War 1932 – Year 9 History Teacher Pack

A ready-to-teach Year 9 pack to go with our video Machine Guns vs Emus: The True Story of the Great Emu War (1932). Watch it free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oI_TeETFgx8

The Emu War is famous online as a joke, but it grew out of the aftermath of the First World War: returned soldiers on marginal land, in debt and hit by the Great Depression. Students stop the video five times and take on roles from a 1932 Perth reporter to a 2026 fact-checker. They build cause chains, judge which numbers they can trust, look at the event from different perspectives (including Noongar people) and test four popular myths.

What's inside (instant download, one zip):

- Unit overview (1 page)

- Student viewing guide (7 pages, PDF plus editable Word file)

- Teacher notes (8 pages, PDF plus editable Word file): stopping points, notes on each task, marking criteria, differentiation, quiz bank, contested figures and references

- Source pack (3 pages): 1932 and 1953 newspapers plus credited summaries of museum, archive, historian and Noongar community sources

Curriculum: Year 9 History skills AC9HH9S03 to S08, and AC9HH9K11 in part (returned soldiers and the Soldier Settlement Scheme).

Planned for about two 50-minute lessons. Instant PDF download.

AI note: Illustrations and narration in the accompanying video are AI-assisted. No real people are depicted in the illustrations.

Licence: single-teacher classroom licence: print copies for your own classes only. Please don't share the digital files (no LMS, email or shared drives), post them online or resell them.

Refunds: if a file is faulty or the pack isn't as described, email sketched.history@tuta.com within 14 days and we'll fix it, replace it or refund you. This doesn't limit your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.