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Curtin University
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
Curtin University Library

Maths and timeline activities


Our job to clothe the men who work and fight’ poster, 1943. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: Accession No. ARTV01064

Maths activity: Paying for the war

Suitable for years 5-7. Based on the online exhibition John Curtin's Legacy: Leading Australia from war to peace which explores the Curtin Government's initiatives in areas including the economy, immigration and foreign policy and how these developed in the postwar years.
The activity offers:

  • experience in collecting financial information from online displays;
  • questons on analysing the financial information including the interpretaion of pie graphs;
  • answers which can be checked online

The express train from Perth to Kalgoorlie - 'The Westland' (Australian Railway Historical Society)

A time line to build a railway

Suitable for years 5-9. Based on the resource On Track: Curtin's Railway Journeys which explores John Curtin's lifelong link with train travel, from 1917 when the trans Australia line first spanned the continent until the mid 1940s. The activity offers:

  • a list of important dates in the building and use of the Trans Continental Railway which can be matched with a second list of significant events;
  • answers which can be checked online.


Wartime government publicity urging support for the war effort 'The Spearhead reaches South - It's total war.'

John Curtin liked Maths

Suitable for years 5-9. Based on the online exhibition John Curtin, A Man of Peace, A Time of War which explores John Curtin's life and his role as Australia's prime minister in World War Two.The activity offers:

  • experience in collecting numbers and dates from information in an online display;
  • experience in using the collected information to solve mathematical problems about John Curtin's life;
  • answers which can be checked online.