Special Categories give you the opportunity to focus your research on one of the topics below. The special categories are sponsored by different organisations and institutions from across Australia. National winners of the NHC visit some of these organisations as part of the National prize – a trip to Australia’s National Capital, Canberra.
*Please remember that you still need to incorporate the theme “Voices” in your Special Category entry.
For more information about Special Categories and the entry requirements click on the links below. .
Special requirements
Content: Your entry must focus on Australia’s wartime experiences.
Other Requirements: All entries in this special category must show that you have used any resource from DVA’s Anzac Portal or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) website in your research.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is proud to sponsor this special category. We encourage students to research Australia’s wartime history and learn about the experiences of those who served.
The 2026 National History Challenge (NHC) theme of ‘Voices’ is an excellent lens through which to explore Australia’s wartime experiences. There are many ways to apply the theme.
Using information from the Anzac Portal, you could investigate:
- The experiences of First Nations Australians.
- The changing role of women in Australia’s wartime history.
- Commemoration and the evolution of the Anzac tradition.
- Cultural diversity in the Australian Defence Force over time.
- The home front during major conflicts.
- Roles and responsibilities during peace operations.
2025 is the 80th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in Second World War and the 75th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. You could focus on either of these conflicts as you investigate conflict and resolution in Australia’s wartime experiences.
The Anzac Portal has lots of information. Be bold and make the most of the content in your entry!
Entries need to be historically accurate and respectful of the service and sacrifice of Australian veterans.
More information:
The Anzac Portal anzacportal.dva.gov.au
Sponsor information:
DVA supports those who serve or have served in defence of our nation, and their families.
An exploration of a conflict that threatened, undermined, or weakened democracy and/or democratic principles, and the resolution that protected, strengthened, upheld or restored democracy and/or democratic principles
Content:
Entries in this category should explore conflict and resolution through the lens of democracy. This might include (but is not limited to) discussion of democratic principles, protection and restoration of democratic ideals through conflict, or the idea of conflict and resolution within a democracy. The entry should include some investigation of at least one example from Australia’s political, social or cultural history, including but not limited to First Nations’ histories and cultures.
Format: All formats are welcomed and encouraged.
Other Special Requirements: Entries in this category should explore democratic principles, such as rights and responsibilities, through discussion of any historical time period(s). The entry must include exploration of Democracy in Australia, either as primary focus, or as compare/contrast.
Winning entries will be displayed on the MoAD website or onsite at the museum.
Some helpful links to get you started:
HansART – Interpreting Hansard records
About the Sponsor
The Museum of Australian Democracy is a modern museum located inside a heritage-listed building that was once home to Australia’s Parliament.
True to our building’s original brief, we provide a ‘people’s place’, where all voices are heard and big ideas are explored.
Through exhibitions, events, community and education programs, we aim to improve understanding of democracy and how to take part in it. Informed by original and authoritative research, we educate through entertainment and engagement.
Everyone is welcome at MoAD. We offer free entry to our building, exhibitions and many events. A rich collection of stories, objects and resources are available online.
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
18 King George Terrace
Parkes, ACT 2600
PO Box 3934
Manuka, ACT 2603 Email: learning@moadoph.gov.au
Website: moadoph.gov.au
Special requirements:
Content: In this category you need to look at Voices with regard to a sportsperson, a particular sport, or sport in general. You could look at ancient, medieval or modern examples drawn from anywhere in the world.
You could consider the role of individual sportspeople, administrators, governments, corporations, scientists, and/or new technologies to improve performance and community health.
Format: Any
Other Special Requirements: N/A
HTAA
History Teachers’ Association of Australia
Migrant voices are important because they reveal how the diverse experiences, struggles, and contributions of people from around the world have shaped Australia’s identity.
Content:
All entries in this special category must state how they have used, or been inspired, by sources from the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Resources could include:
- Exhibitions, monuments or vessels at the museum
- Content on the museum’s website (https://www.sea.museum/en/home)
- The National Maritime Collection (https://www.sea.museum/en/collections)
- The museum’s Vaughan Evans library. Make an appointment to research migration stories, including our oral history collection, with our friendly staff at library@sea.museum
- The museum’s Vaughan Evans library. Make an appointment to research migration stories, including our oral history collection, with our friendly staff at library@sea.museum
Format: All formats are welcomed and encouraged.
For this year’s “Voices” theme the museum would like students to research a person, group of people or event that made people journey across the sea to call Australia their home.
You can cover any period of history and we encourage projects about personal stories and the use of primary sources from the museum or your own life.
For this year’s Migration category, you could consider the following for your project:
- Research the narratives, experiences and perspectives of people who have migrated by sea to Australia in the past
- Explore how individuals or migrant communities expressed themselves, influenced events and left records that shape our understanding of Australia’s migration history
- The diverse and sometimes overlooked “Voices” that provide a richer insight into the history of migration in Australia
Winning entries may be displayed on the ANMM website or onsite at the museum.
Some helpful links to get you started:
We Are Many – Stories of Australia’s Migrants This 300-page e-book brings together 71 migration stories previously published in the Australian National Maritime Museum’s ‘Signals’ Magazine. We introduce migrants from various times and countries of origin whose stories speak to universal themes such as love, adventure, family, safety and striving for a better life. And we expose stories of extraordinary courage, resilience, success and celebration, deep despair and injustice.
Welcome Wall ebook, August 2020 (Issuu)
Creating a Nation: Modern Immigration Stories Created by ABC Education in collaboration with the Australian National Maritime Museum, this series tells the story of 6 people who crossed the seas to settle in Australia. The interviews feature people who travelled from different places, at different times and for different reasons; however, they all shared the same hopes for freedom, opportunity and a better future for their families.
ABC digibook: Creating a Nation – Modern Immigration Stories
Signals Magazine Be inspired by some fascinating stories about migration that you will find in past issues of the museum’s quarterly magazine ‘Signals’.
anmmuseum Publisher Publications – Issuu
Migration Stories Website Migration Stories is the museum’s new digital experience dedicated to sharing personal stories about how people are shaped by migration.
https://lab.sea.museum/en/migration
We also encourage you to use our exhibitions and vessels to inspire a project about Conflict and Resolution in the Year Level category. Some suggestions are our replicas of vessels that were involved in First Contacts with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or Australian navy events during World War II.
You can go to our website for some suggestions
https://www.sea.museum/en/learn/resource/national-history-challenge
The Australian National Maritime Museum
2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour,
Sydney NSW 2000
Special requirements:
Content: Australian
Format: Any
The National Museum of Australia is proud to award a special prize to the winner of the Australian First Nations People category.
In the spirit of truth-telling and reconciliation, we invite you to submit an entry exploring the lived experiences of First Nations people, taking into consideration our Country’s shared past and aspirations for the future.
Think about the theme of Voices and create a submission that demonstrates how Australia has responded to the challenges faced by First Nations people.
Sponsor Details:
Special requirements:
Students may choose an individual woman or group of women with strong Australian links. Subjects must have made a historically significant contribution locally, nationally or internationally. That contribution could be made within the confines of one’s family, at a state/territory or national level or could have been recognised worldwide. Subjects may be living or deceased.
Students need to provide a description and explain why they think their subject’s contribution is important and to whom, basing their opinion on the analysis of evidence found through their research.
Evidence can be presented in any of the following formats, or format combinations:
written material, objects, images, film or sound clips and interview transcripts could all be used to support conclusions.
More Information
Sponsor Details:
Special requirements:
Explore this year’s theme of Voices by using archival records from National Archives of Australia.
National Archives’ special category prize is for excellence in the use of primary sources (archival records) from our collection.
National Archives’ rich collection of over 50 million records documents key events and decisions that have shaped Australian history.
You may wish to consider one of the following topics in your response to this year’s theme:
- Damming of the Franklin River
- Wartime Internment of Japanese Australians
- Uranium mining at Jabiluka
- The Dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
- The Wave Hill Walk-Off
- First World War
- Second World War
- The Vietnam War
Alternatively, you may wish to use archival records to explore how your ancestors’ lives were shaped by conflict and resolution. The national archival collection includes migration records and war service records that may relate to your family story.
Whatever you choose to explore, you must show clear evidence of engagement with the national archival collection. This includes:
- Locating archival records through our student research portal or through RecordSearch;
- Thoughtfully engaging with these archival records as part of your response to the theme;
- Correctly referencing these records – alongside other primary and secondary sources – in your bibliography.
Referencing archival records
Please follow the competition’s referencing guidelines when preparing your bibliography.
Because archival records are a special kind of primary source, you may wish to follow our referencing guidelines for students to correctly reference the archival records that you include in your bibliography.
If you need guidance on using RecordSearch to locate records about your chosen topic or your family story, please explore this guide on our website or reach out by emailing us at learning@naa.gov.au.
Sponsor Details:
National Archives of Australia
National Office location:
Kings Avenue,
Parkes ACT 2600
Our postal address:
PO Box 4924
Kingston ACT 2604
Phone: + 61 2 6212 3600
Website: Naa.gov.au
Email: learning@naa.gov.au
Special requirements:
Format: Any format accepted by the National History Challenge. The winning submission will be published on the Asia Education Foundation website.
Special Requirements: Submissions must relate to events with historical significance to Australia and its relations with the Asia-Pacific region.
The Asia Education Foundation (AEF) is proud to sponsor this special category in which students are encouraged to explore the development of Australia’s relations with Asia and/or the Pacific in line with this year’s theme of “Voices”. There is enormous scope for addressing this theme in relation to the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priority of Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia.
It is often said that a conflict is an opportunity in disguise. In conflicts, new alliances are formed, and old affiliations are tested. We are interested in explorations of history that focus on how Australia and its neighbours in the region have resolved conflicts, and ways in which this has influenced their relationships.
A response to this theme could target a range of scales, from grand themes that have shaped our region, to more intimate themes that demonstrate how humans have responded to crisis and changed the trajectory of their lives, reflecting broader social transformation.
The winning submission will be published on the Asia Education Foundation website.
Useful Links
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- APEC
- ASEAN
- AusTrade
- Asialink
- Belt and Road initiative
- Building BRIDGES Podcast
Sponsor Details:
The Asia Education Foundation (AEF) fosters engagement between educators and young people in Australia and their peers in Asia and the Pacific. We aim to provide school leaders, teachers, and students with opportunities to enhance global perspectives and to cultivate tools to strengthen their intercultural skills and mindsets.
AEF delivers informative resources, national and international professional learning, innovative programs and rich networks that connect Australian schools with over 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific. Since 1992, AEF has been an initiative of Asialink at The University of Melbourne and partners with the Australian Government, state and territory education jurisdictions, education professional associations, business, and philanthropic supporters.
Contact the Asia Education Foundation.
Special requirements:
Content: Australian
Format: Any Format
Refer to: Australia’s Defining Moments Digital Classroom
The National Museum of Australia is proud to award a special prize to the winner of the Defining Moments category.
For inspiration, explore the Australia’s Defining Moments Digital Classroom to reflect on this year’s theme ‘Voices’.
In the Digital Classroom, you can find images, videos, games, timelines and information about Australia’s defining moments that have profoundly impacted the lives of Australian people. Think about the theme of Voices and create a submission that demonstrates how significant moments have influenced you, your community.
If circumstances permit, we may display the winning entry at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Sponsor Details:
Format: All formats are welcomed and encouraged.
Have you ever wondered who lived in your house before you? Or after whom your street is named? Our places often have layered and complex histories. Sometimes the ways we understand a place can change over time.
Museums of History NSW cares for many places significant to the history of Australia. Some of these places are sites of conflict and resolution. We invite you to examine the layered history of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Hyde Park Barracks; dig into first contact experiences between European colonists and First Nations people at the Museum of Sydney on the site of Australia’s first Government House; and explore Elizabeth Farm, a restful homestead with a restless history. Each place holds clues about the people who lived, worked and visited there in the past, and invites us to consider the ways in which we remember our shared history.
All entries in this special category must explain how they have used, OR been inspired by, places and collections featured in the Learning Resources section of the Museums of History NSW website. (https://mhnsw.au/learning/content/learning-resources/)
Being “inspired by” a place or collection means that an entry does not need to focus directly on one of the Museum’s sites or collections. Instead, students should explain in their reflection how a place or collection managed by Museums of History NSW influenced, informed, or connected with their investigation. For example, a student may explore the significance of their grandparents’ house as a special place. In their reflection, they might explain how features of Susannah Place, such as the kitchen, living spaces, or everyday household objects, helped them better understand and interpret their grandparents’ experiences. ( https://mhnsw.au/tags/susannah-place-museum/ )
To develop your response in this category, we invite you to visit us – either in person or online – to explore the history of these significant places in the context of the theme of “Voices”.
You might consider:
– Was this place a source of voices?
– Who lived, worked or visited there?
– Do different communities voice conflicting understandings of this place?
– Did this place change over time? What does this place mean to us today?
Museums of History NSW also cares for some of the state’s most significant and fascinating collections, ranging from the State Archives Collection to the Caroline Simpson Library Collection, as well as collections associated with its museums and historic houses. Dive in and explore! (https://mhnsw.au/collections/museum-collections/ .)
Starting points for your investigation:
- Interested in the lives of working-class children who lived at Susannah Place in The Rocks? Start here: (https://mhnsw.au/tags/susannah-place-museum/.)
- Want to learn about the lives of convicts who passed through Hyde Park Barracks? Start here: (https://mhnsw.au/whats-on/exhibitions/convict-sydney/ )
- Curious about first-contact experiences between European colonists and First Nations peoples at the Museum of Sydney? Start here: (https://mhnsw.au/first-nations-hub/stories-first-nations/ )
- Examine the layered history of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Hyde Park Barracks through our site study resource: (https://mhnsw.au/visit-us/hyde-park-barracks/ .)
- Sample scaffold template for teachers
Sponsor details:
Special requirements:
Content: This category provides an opportunity for students to explore the NHC theme in the context of an ancient society – Deep Time Australia, Greece, Roman, Egypt, the Near East, China or India.
Students may consider key individual/s, a group of people, ideas and/or artefacts from an ancient society between the dates c60 000 BCE and 650 CE.
The 2026 theme of ‘Voices’ may include reference to speeches or writings from the ancient past.
Students may also explore ideas or artefacts from the ancient past that tell us about the people or ancient society. Students should consider different interpretations and/or perspectives within their presentation.
Format: Any
Other Special Requirements: N/A
HTAA
History Teachers’ Association of Australia