FutureLearn

Great South Land: Introducing Australian history (FutureLearn)

Offered by The University of Newcastle, Australia,
Great South Land: Introducing Australian history (FutureLearn)

Get an introduction to Australian history starting with Aboriginal deep time. Explore convictism, colonialism and more. Travel back in time to discover Australian history. On this course you will take a journey through Australian history. You will examine a range of periods and topics including Aboriginal deep time history, transportation and convictism and colonialism.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This course will also introduce you to the skills and approaches used in the academic study of history – especially the study of Australian history – and help you to understand issues in contemporary Australia in context.
This course is part of the program The Australian Experience, which is one of the building blocks that leads to a degree in Bachelor of Arts.

What topics will you cover?

  • Traditional Aboriginal society
  • Background to the British colonisation of Australia
  • Convictism
  • Relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Apply a developing understanding of core historical concepts.
  • Demonstrate basic knowledge of key themes, events, and people in the history of Australia’s First Nations and the early decades of European occupation of the continent.
  • Interpret the Australian past within a local and global context.
  • Explain the contested nature of Australia’s early European history.
  • Identify foundational scholarly sources (primary and secondary, oral and written) relating to Australia’s early history.
Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Charles Darwin, Evolution and Tropical Australia (CDU) Open Education
Charles Darwin University

Charles Darwin, Evolution and Tropical Australia (CDU)

Sci: Biology & Life Sciences Sci: Environment

This free, open course is offered by Charles Darwin University to provide an introduction to Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace, and an overview of adaptation of tropical organisms in the Northern Territory of Australia. You will experience highly engaging interactives, videos and innovative media. This course won Blackboard's 2014 Exemplary Course Award and Director's Choice for Courses with Distinction.

Self-Paced
Self-Paced
Biology Evolution Charles Darwin
Details
The Living Picture Craze: An Introduction to Victorian Film (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
The British Film Institute - BFI

The Living Picture Craze: An Introduction to Victorian Film (FutureLearn)

Humanities Art and Culture

Film takes a starring role in this course exploring the emergence of a new medium that was set to capture the world's imagination. Explore the birth of film and the end of Queen Victoria’s epic reign. Roll up! Roll up! Take your seats for the ‘Living Picture’ craze! In this course we journey back to the end of the Victorian era; a time of intense modernisation and unprecedented change.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Film Victorian Period Victorian Film
Details
Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
The Open University

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn)

Health & Society Humanities

Use literary and archaeological evidence to see how ancient Greeks and Romans approached health, well-being and societal issues. What did being healthy in ancient Rome or Greece look like? How can we tell what well-being meant in ancient times? This online course will help you investigate these questions, using both literary and archaeological evidence, to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Health Ancient Greece Ancient Rome
Details
Understanding the Australian Health Care System (edX) EdX
University of Queensland,UQx

Understanding the Australian Health Care System (edX)

Health & Society Medicine & Pharmacology

Understand and navigate the complexities of Australia’s world-leading health care system by following patient journeys. This course will enable you to understand the workings of the Australian health care system. By following in the footsteps of patient journeys, you will gain an experiential understanding of how this multi-layered system operates in the context of the geographic, social and cultural landscapes of Australia and how to successfully navigate within this system.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Health Healthcare Health Systems
Details
Understanding the Australian economy: An introduction to macroeconomic and financial policies (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Sydney

Understanding the Australian economy: An introduction to macroeconomic and financial policies (Coursera)

Economics & Finance

This four-week, four-module course explores selective aspects of the Australian economy, with emphasis on macroeconomic and financial policies. The course introduces participants to several key attributes of the Australian economy and discusses how they are influenced by both domestic and international forces. We will examine some of the key issues and dilemmas facing the Australian economy and how policymakers can deal with them using monetary and fiscal policies.

Oct 26th 2026
4 Weeks
Macroeconomics Economy Australia
Details
Noongar Language and Culture (edX) EdX
Curtin University,CurtinX

Noongar Language and Culture (edX)

Languages & Literature

Learn about the Noongar people of Western Australia, their culture and their language. Noongar people are the original inhabitants of the vast geographical area in the south-western corner of Western Australia. They have been there for over 45,000 years. Through the millennia, ancient wisdom and culture have guided the people throughtheir interactions with the land, nature, and with one another.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Australia Noongar Noongar Language
Details
Ongoing U.S. Settler Colonialism & Native Peoples Teach-Out (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Ongoing U.S. Settler Colonialism & Native Peoples Teach-Out (Coursera)

Social Sciences

Increasingly, terms such as “colonialism,” “decolonization,” and “social structures,” appear in media, conversations, and educational spaces, often without nuanced explanations of these concepts and how they relate to current U.S. society and the individuals in it. To provide a space to think, learn, and feel about these concepts as realities connected to everyone, this course offers many entry points to deepen understandings about the U.S. as a current settler colonial nation, to engage with contemporary Indigenous Peoples/Native Nations, and to recognize how participants’ own lives, interests, and professional domains intersect with settler colonialism.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Colonialism Native Americans Critical Thinking
Details
First Peoples to the Early Republic: Born in Colonialism (Canvas.net) Canvas Network
Seattle Central Community College

First Peoples to the Early Republic: Born in Colonialism (Canvas.net)

Humanities

This course will explore Native American cultures and the impacts of colonial and U.S. government policies on them; European colonization with particular focus on the British in North America; the War for Independence against Britain and the framing of the U.S. Constitution; as well as the formation of political parties in the early republic.

No sessions available
No Information
History Colonialism Republic
Details
The Tudors (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Roehampton

The Tudors (FutureLearn)

Humanities Languages & Literature

Go back in time to learn about the dramatic rule of the Tudor monarchs and religious change of the sixteenth century reformation. Uncover the turbulent history of Tudor England and its lasting impact. From magnificence and martyrs to weddings and war, the Tudor period was one of the most eventful in British history. The reigns of the five (or was it six?) monarchs during the late fifteenth to seventeenth century has enthralled historians, students and television and film producers alike.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
History Tudors Tudor Monarchy
Details
From Waterloo to the Rhine: The British Army 1815-1945 (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Kent,National Army Museum

From Waterloo to the Rhine: The British Army 1815-1945 (FutureLearn)

Humanities History

Examine one of the UK’s most storied institutions, and how 130 years of social, cultural and military change have shaped it. Explore the British Army’s part in the making of the modern world. With a legacy stretching back centuries, the British Army is proud of its hard-won reputation as one of the most formidable fighting forces in the world.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
History Waterloo British History
Details
From World War to White Heat: the RAF in the Cold War (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Royal Holloway, University of London

From World War to White Heat: the RAF in the Cold War (FutureLearn)

Humanities History

Explore the role that the Royal Air Force played in the Cold War through the collections of the RAF Museums at Hendon and Cosford. This free online course is a collaboration between the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museums and the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London. It will introduce you to some of the major turning points in the history of Britain in the post-1945 era.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
History Aviation Cold War
Details