Seven teenagers camp in a remote and idyllic location deep in the countryside. But that night, they see the sky filled with military aircraft, and return home to find their houses deserted and the locals detained in the showground. Escaping detection, the teenagers form themselves into a guerilla unit, hoping to prevent the invading Coalition Nations from bringing any more troops in by destroying the only bridge to nearby Cobbler's Bay, where the troop ships are moored.
'When their country is invaded by a large hostile force, a group of teenagers fight for their family and homeland. Based on the era-defining novels by John Marsden.'
Source: Screen Australia.
Unit Suitable For AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5)
Duration Four to six weeks
Curriculum Summary
Find a summary table for Australian Curriculum: English content descriptions and NSW Syllabus outcomes for this unit.
Themes
Day of the Girl, discovery, heroism, invasion and occupation of Australia, just war, maintaining moral values even in war, resistance, security, self-discovery, storytelling, survival, teenage gangs, war
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Literacy, Personal and social
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia
'Though previous scholarship into alternate history narratives has been conducted, to date a set of "poetics" that defines this genre has not yet been developed (Chapman and Yoke 21). Indeed, there is a significant gap in knowledge regarding the alternate history genre; a collection of papers appearing in Classic and Iconoclastic Alternate History Science Fiction, edited by Edgar L. Chapman and Carl B. Yoke, identify this gap: "For while numerous alternate history tales have now been written, … no comprehensive poetics of this genre … has been developed" (21). This article seeks to address part of this gap by first coining a new term for the genre (Uchronic fiction) and by using two examples of alternate history narratives unique and particular to Australia (John Hooker's The Bush Soldiers and John A. Scott's N) to highlight some of the hitherto undefined "poetics" for this genre as they appear in these two examples of Uchronic fiction. These two novels also bring to the fore serious issues that are relevant to the discussion regarding the political agenda on the part of authors John Hooker and John A. Scott, both of whom do not shy away from addressing white Australia's historically poor treatment of Aboriginal people or from Australia's historical ambivalence and hostility toward nonwhite immigrants and people from Asia.' (Introduction)