Cultivating Love of Country: Australian History in Classical Education

At Via Classica, we believe classical education is more than a teaching method — it is a rigorous formation of the whole person in truth, goodness, and beauty. At its core stands an unapologetic love of history and a deep, abiding love of country. Classical education refuses to treat the past as a mere footnote or patriotism as a sentimental extra. It places both at the centre, forging grateful yet clear-eyed citizens who know their roots, understand why their nation matters, and possess the virtue and wisdom to serve it.

In the Australian context, this demands that we root our children firmly in the story of our own land — from the ancient cultures of Aboriginal Australians, who gave us the word “kangaroo” when they encountered Captain Cook’s Endeavour, to the courage and hardships of the First Fleet and the early settlers, the vision and labour of Federation, and the sacrifices that built the Lucky Country we inherit today. Classical education insists our young people do not merely know Australian history; they must love it, recite its poetry with pride, walk its battlefields with reverence, and debate its complexities with honesty and conviction.

As Dorothea Mackellar captured so powerfully in My Country, this love is visceral: “Core of my heart, my country! … The wide brown land for me!”Here at Via Classica we are passionately committed to supporting Australian families and educators in this task. Whilst we are still in the development stage of many of these resources, we are actively seeking to create practical guides, copywork selections, timelines, and nature-study materials carefully shaped to our unique Australian environment. Our goal is to walk alongside you with clarity and determination so that classical education becomes both achievable and deeply rooted in the land God has given us. Above all, we want to start the conversation right now about things you can do immediately in your own classical education environment.

This vision rests on the classical and Christian understanding of patriotism as a true virtue. St Thomas Aquinas taught that piety — the duty to honour what has given us life — extends not only to God and parents but also to one’s country. In the same spirit, Pope St Pius X described patriotism as the ordered love that rightly gives “our country and our countrymen first place in our hearts.”

History in the Classical Tradition

In a classical education, history is not just a list of dates to be memorised and forgotten. It is a grand narrative to be contemplated, a treasury of virtue and vice to be studied, and a training ground for prudence. Australian history, taught with seriousness and delight, forms students who think clearly, speak truthfully, and judge rightly about their own inheritance.

Australian history begins with place. Nature study helps students truly know the land — its eucalyptus forests, golden wattle in bloom, and unique fauna. The kangaroo, platypus, and cockatoo move from abstract ideas to familiar friends as children sketch and describe them in their nature notebooks.

Mapping forms a natural and powerful companion to this. Students begin with the early European explorers — Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and British — who charted fragments of the coastline. They trace the voyages of Abel Tasman, Willem Janszoon, and James Cook, seeing how pieces of “Terra Australis” slowly emerged on maps. Then comes Matthew Flinders, who in 1801–1803 circumnavigated the continent and produced the first complete map of Australia, giving it its modern name.

From there, students follow the great inland explorers as they pushed maps deeper into the heart of the continent — Sturt, Mitchell, Leichhardt, Eyre, Burke and Wills, and many others. They watch the blank spaces fill in: the roads that were built, the rivers sailed, the mountains crossed, the towns surveyed and named. Through simple map work, timeline charts, and copywork from explorers’ journals, children grasp the courage, hardship, and sheer scale of the enterprise that turned a mysterious southern land into a mapped and settled nation.

By the time they reach Federation, they see how these mapped and connected colonies could become one Commonwealth.From there, the particular opens out to the universal. The wattle they draw becomes the national emblem. The kangaroo and emu they observe appear on the Coat of Arms. The Southern Cross they watch at night shines on the Australian flag. These moments of delighted recognition are pure classical joy.

Copywork and poetry recitation strengthen both language and affection. Students copy passages from explorers’ journals and learn poems by Banjo Paterson and Dorothea Mackellar by heart. They master the elements of the Australian flag and state flags. This opens to wonderful discussions about the Christian heritage of Australia.

A pilgrimage to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra stands as one of the most powerful highlights of the grammar stage. This is far more than a museum visit. It is a solemn encounter with the ANZAC spirit — that distinctive Australian character forged in the fire of Gallipoli and the Western Front, and later tested on the Kokoda Track, in Korea, Vietnam, and beyond. Here children stand in silence before the Roll of Honour, walk among the poppies, and witness the daily Last Post ceremony. They begin to grasp the meaning of courage under fire, loyalty to mates, endurance through suffering, and a laconic humour that refuses to be defeated. The ANZAC spirit is not mere sentiment; it is a living example of classical virtues — fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance — lived out by ordinary Australians in extraordinary circumstances. This visit etches into young hearts the truth that freedom and nationhood come at a cost, and that gratitude and remembrance are fitting responses.

By the logic years students are ready to ask “Why?” and “How?” They move from absorption to analysis, weighing evidence and tracing causes.A dedicated Australian History curriculum follows a clear narrative:

• The ancient cultures of Aboriginal Australians before 1788 — their sophisticated land management, trade networks, and spiritual traditions — examined through oral histories, archaeological evidence, and early explorer accounts.

• The age of giants: Captain James Cook’s voyages, the First Fleet under Arthur Phillip, the struggles and achievements of the early colonists, the gold rushes, inland explorers, and the long march toward self-government.

• Federation and nation-building: the constitutional conventions of the 1890s, the leadership of Edmund Barton (first Prime Minister) and Alfred Deakin (three-time Prime Minister and “Father of Federation”), and the birth of the Commonwealth in 1901.

Students keep a living Prime Ministers timeline, learning not only the sequence of leaders but their concrete contributions to the nation. They study Edmund Barton, our first Prime Minister, who steered the colonies into Federation in 1901; Alfred Deakin, the “Father of Federation,” who served three terms and helped shape Australia’s early national identity and defence policy; Billy Hughes, the fiery wartime leader who guided Australia through the Great War and fought for greater recognition at the Paris Peace Conference; John Curtin, the steadfast Prime Minister who led the nation through the darkest days of World War II with courage and resolve; and Robert Menzies, who served the longest term as Prime Minister, shaping modern Australia through post-war prosperity, stability, and the establishment of key institutions. History ceases to be a list of facts and becomes a living national conversation they are now equipped to join.

Naturally this is not done in an isolated history class- rather should permeate through all aspect of our study. Our current Australian Progymnasmata class can attest to this- the have been writing a commonplace compostion attacking the vices on display by Douglas Jardin in the Bodyline series, to stop the legendary Don Bradman. A narrative that students should study and can learn so much about the distinct formation of the Australian character.

We are only beginning this work at Via Classica, but the vision is clear and uncompromising. Our children deserve to inherit their country not as strangers, but as grateful, formed, and faithful stewards.