Living History
Year 10 enjoyed an incursion run by Shane Blackman from WWI Living History on Tuesday. The incursions covered the frontline diggers experience in the trenches of France 1916-1918 from uniforms and food to first aid and weapons. Using fact-based storytelling and genuine
artefacts, their goal is to bring students a focused insight into part our country’s military history: The frontline digger.
Student reflections
The presentation from Shane Blackman was really eye-opening. Although most of us knew the brutality of war, especially WWI, Shane went into detail about the horrible reality and story of each artefact that he brought in. The best part of the presentation was the fact that it was interactive, allowing the students to understand and realise that the people using these weapons and artefacts aren’t just fictional characters from stories, but they were real men who actually went through these times. Overall, this experience really expanded my knowledge on the events of not only WWI but many wars that Australian men and women have fought and died in. By Daniel Solomon
The guest speaker taught us about the hardships of WWI, what it was like to be in WWI and showed us the different types of weaponry that was used during the war. Some students even got to try on the different types of war uniforms to see the differences between uniforms Australians war in WWI, WWII, and more recent conflicts. From this incursion, we gathered a great sense of what it had been like for the Australian soldiers fighting in WWI, and the sacrifices they had to make. We also learned that the conditions of the war were brutal, and the weapons and artillery the soldiers used were lethal. The most interesting aspect of the presentation was that all of us got to hold a replica or an actual weapon that had been used during the war, which gave us a better understanding of the experiences soldiers endured whilst fighting. By Ruby Grynberg
We gained a deeper understanding of how the trenches functioned, the gear and weapons used and the mental toll the War took on the soldiers. I learnt that many soldiers had to endure many emotional and physical traumas while being on the front lines of trench warfare. I found that the information about the gas masks they used in the War was the most interesting. I also enjoyed learning about how the masks were made and what materials were used, in what situations they used them, which gases affected certain areas and the different parts used to make the mask effective.
By Ava Rose
