Australia in Colour

Explore Australias history from 1897 to 1929, including explorer Douglas Mawson, swimmer Annette Kellerman, and the men fighting in WWI.

Indigenous people must deal with racism and discrimination, and their children are removed, creating the stolen generations.

Soon after Federation, the family unit is buffeted by world conflicts, poverty and disease, but then new attitudes sweep in. Workplace laws are less restrictive on women, spouses no longer have to give a reason to divorce, and the contraceptive pill arrives, all of which leads to a loosening of rigid gender roles.

Those in authority in Australia at the time of Federation envisage a prosperous and civilised nation of hardworking citizens. But modern Australia grew out of a drunken penal colony and people remain under the thrall of alcohol and drugs and are fascinated by murder and mischief. But the public do rise up against capital punishment and it is abolished national wide.