Year 7 Ancient Australia & Deep Time: Migration & Settlement | PowerPoint & Worksheets

Explore how the first Australians spread across the continent, adapted to diverse environments and left archaeological evidence that helps us understand Australia’s deep past.

This Year 7 Ancient Australia and Deep Time resource combines a teaching PowerPoint with student readings, comprehension questions, mapping and chronology activities. Students investigate migration routes, explore evidence from Madjedbebe, Devil’s Lair, Warratyi, Lake Mungo and Tasmania, and consider what Mungo Lady and Mungo Man reveal about ceremony and spiritual beliefs.

Key knowledge and skills

• Migration and settlement across Ancient Australia

• Adaptation to coastal, desert, forest and river environments

• Natural travel corridors across Sahul

• Archaeological sites and evidence of early occupation

• Lake Mungo, Mungo Lady and Mungo Man

• Chronology, changing sea levels and the arrival of the dingo

• Using evidence to explain the past

• Respect for Country and Traditional Custodians

What is included

• Four-slide teaching PowerPoint with teacher discussion prompts

• Four-page student PDF worksheet

• Historical readings and research source extracts

• Vocabulary support

• Short-answer comprehension questions

• Map Detective activity using the lesson slides

• Timeline construction task

• Challenge questions requiring evidence-based explanations

Suggested classroom uses

Suitable for explicit teaching, guided reading, classroom discussion, independent work, relief lessons, sub plans, distance learning and absent students. Use the PowerPoint to introduce key ideas, then consolidate learning through the student worksheets and mapping and timeline tasks.

Australian Curriculum alignment — Year 7 History, Version 9.0

Supports selected aspects of the Deep time history of Australia and historical skills through readings, comprehension, mapping and timeline activities.

• AC9HH7K02 — Migration across the continent: Investigate migration routes across Sahul and the role of rivers, waterholes and coastlines as travel corridors.
• AC9HH7K03 — Continuing cultures: Explore archaeological evidence of early First Nations Australians and their long connections to Country.
• AC9HH7K04 — Environmental processes and change: Explore adaptation to contrasting environments, rising sea levels and the separation of Tasmania.
• AC9HH7K06 — Cultural practices: Consider what the burials of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man reveal about ceremony and spiritual beliefs.
• AC9HH7K07 — Cultural heritage: Introduce cultural responsibilities towards ancestral remains through the question about returning Mungo Lady and Mungo Man to Country.
• AC9HH7K08 — Evidence of the ancient past: Introduce archaeological sites, artefacts and ancestral remains as sources of evidence.
• AC9HH7S05 — Cause and effect, continuity and change: Construct a timeline and explain links between sea-level rise, Tasmania’s separation and the later arrival of dingoes.
• AC9HH7S08 — Historical communication: Use historical terms, site evidence and chronology to write descriptions and explanations.

Supporting source work: Attributed research extracts provide opportunities for guided discussion of source origin, content, context and purpose (AC9HH7S03), and accuracy and usefulness (AC9HH7S04).

Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.