Table of contents for Vol 60 No 2 2025 in Agora

The dingo is perhaps Australia’s most controversial animal. A primitive form of dog (Canis familiaris), it has been separated from its domesticated relatives for thousands of years and is unique for its ability to live in the wild, completely independent of people. The dingo also has a special place in Australian history as the only ‘domestic’ animal to have reached our shores before the settlement of Europeans began in 1776, marking an important early episode of contact between Indigenous Australians and the wider world to the continent’s north. Despite its importance to Indigenous cultures on the mainland and most islands except Tasmania, and recognition of its crucial ecological role as an apex predator, the dingo is now maligned due to its conflict with the interests of livestock keeping. Also controversial…

When we think about warfare and the animals that supported their human companions during military campaigns, our imagination will most likely reach for the horses of a cavalry charge, bomb disposal dogs, or maybe even Hannibal and his elephants. However, the most decorated animal species of the twentieth century was not four-legged but an animal with two legs and two wings. In terms of animal war heroes it is the pigeon that reigns supreme. Cher Ami During World War I, long-range communication technology was relatively new and often fell victim to sabotage by enemy troops. While telephones, telegraph, radio and human messengers were the most common form of communication, these were vulnerable to enemy attack and required infrastructure or transport to function. When these methods failed, armies turned to winged…

The complex and nuanced connection between people and animals extends over hundreds of millennia. This relationship is not always easy to reconstruct, particularly as much of the evidence about past animals is organic—bone, hair and teeth—and is more likely to have decomposed the further back in time we go. Nevertheless, archaeologists continue to find evidence for these relationships. The study of animal remains in the context of past human cultures is a specialised sub-discipline of archaeology known as zooarchaeology. This is distinct from palaeontology, which studies animals in the past without the additional lens of human interaction. Zooarchaeologists seek to answer diverse questions about the connections between people and animals, including their dietary roles, strategies and timings of domestication, seasonal movement across landscapes, symbolic expression, trade and economic systems, and…

As teachers of History, we have the ability to tell stories and capture the imaginations of the young people in our classes. In Year 7 and 8, students are coming into our classes with a wider range of previous experiences and knowledge. Being able to engage students in their study of History within a theme, like animals, allows everyone to find something they can connect with. The tasks created in this article are aimed at either Year 7 or 8 History students. The activities are scaffolded, and allow for individual student and class differentiation. They are designed to meet a range of the Historical Skills and Concepts, within and beyond the Historical Knowledge mandated for each year level. Year 7 History Historical Skills and Concepts In Year 7, History students…

In Australian history, camels are synonymous with the ‘Afghan’ cameleers, yet their arrival actually precedes them by two decades. Although camels have become an enduring symbol of the outback, they are not native to the continent. Camelus dromedarius, or the dromedary (one-hump) camel, is endemic to North Africa, the Arabian peninsula and west–central Asia. The first camels were brought to the Australian colonies to solve an ongoing challenge: exploring and connecting the vast inner lands beyond the early settlements and agricultural regions. The story of their arrival here is intrinsically linked not only to the development of the Australian colonies and the newly federated nation, but also intersects heavily with the Afghan cameleers, British India and Indigenous Australia. The idea of introducing camels was floated in 1822 by Conrad Malte-Brun,…

Look at picture book versions of a witch and you will often also see a cat: Meg and Mog, Room on the Broom and Harry Potter are just a few. But why is it that every good witch needs a cat? We start by going back into history and looking at cats in the past, this time 3000 years ago. Cats were a very popular pet in Egypt—they were revered. This, in part, was because the goddess Bastet (or Bast) was a cat. Bastet was depicted in two ways: with the body of a woman and the head of a cat, or as a full-bodied cat (often depicted sitting). Bastet was the daughter of Ra, the sun god, and later the wife of Ptah, the god of creation. She would…

Year 9 students find it surprising to learn the varying roles that animals played during World War I. Most students are aware that horses and possibly dogs had roles in the infantry for many nations on the front. However, the activity outlined below allows students to investigate the variety of weird and wonderful ways in which animals were used in wartime. The activities created here are scaffolded, and allow for individual student and class differentiation. They are designed to meet a range of the Historical Skills and Concepts, and utilise and add to Historical Knowledge already gained from students’ study of World War I. Year 9 History: Australians at War Historical Skills and Concepts When teaching World War I, it is advisable to sequence the lessons in chronological order to…

Dogs are so intertwined with our lives that it’s hard to imagine a world without them. Yet this relationship didn’t happen overnight—it’s been tens of thousands of years in the making. From hunting partners to settlement guards, dogs were crucial to the rise of early human societies. This article will look at the many ways dogs helped early human societies. It might seem off-topic to talk about dogs in a History class, but it could be used in Year 7 History (VCHHC104: ‘Evaluate the role and achievement of a significant individual, development and/or cultural achievement that led to progress’), and many students will find it highly engaging.1 Australia has the highest pet population in the world, and students would come home from their History class with some intriguing new knowledge…

Helping students understand the concepts and characteristics linked to ancient animals helps them to identify deeper themes in literature, successfully analyse coded imagery in political cartoons, become familiar with military heraldry, and gain an edge in media literacy. This article will discuss three key animals represented in the ancient Greek world that have shaped our understanding of the era and subsequently influenced modern-day semiotics. Owls as Symbols of Wisdom and Death When asking students to sketch an animal that symbolises ‘wisdom’, many will draw an owl. Collective nouns such as a ‘parliament of owls’ reinforce the connection between owls and the early ancient Greek origins of democracy, while subsequently featuring in modern vernacular. But why are owls still synonymous with intellect? It was common for ancient Greek gods to be…

Last year, two of my colleagues and I were creating exemplary responses to a source analysis question and kept returning to the word ‘significance’. Comparing our students’ work, we found less than five of our cohort of just over sixty students had conveyed all of the key elements of the visual source. The three of us sat for a moment and pondered why so few had captured the essence of the visual source. Even more frustratingly for us trained professionals, there was a lot of ‘obvious’ information that the majority of students missed. But it was only obvious if you knew absolutely everything about the topic portrayed in the source, so the conclusion was that the students had to know everything. But what if they didn’t? The Student's Perspective I…