Oral history | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Oral history

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Black and white photo of Smoky and Dot Dawson sitting and smiling at the camera

Damian McDonald, Portrait of Smoky and Dot Dawson at the National Library, 2000, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136550848

Oral history and folklore collection

The Library’s Oral History and Folklore Collection dates back to the 1950’s and includes a rich and diverse collection of interviews and recordings with Australians from all walks of life.

Information article
Collection guide
Read Collection

Oral history interviews with Charles Perkins, a key figure in Aboriginal rights, alongside a pilot project on how people form mental maps. It also includes ongoing interviews for the 'Seven Years On' project, launched in 1995, which focuses on emerging Aboriginal leaders. This collection offers valuable insights into Aboriginal activism, leadership, and personal stories that have shaped history.

Collection guide
First Australians
A man and woman sitting on couches recording an oral history interview
Add your story to the record of Australian responses to COVID-19

The National Library is recording interviews with a diverse range of Australians to ensure that stories of the COVID-19 pandemic are captured for present and future generations.

News article
Collection guide
Fahey Collection

Personal papers of Warren Fahey’s activities as an entrepreneur, musician and writer from 1967-1998 and a collection of folkloric recordings.

Collection guide
Black and white photo of damage to a caravan park about Cyclone Tracy, including several large tree branches on the ground and damaged caravans

Alan Dwyer, Caravan park in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, December, 1974, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-148903604

Commemorating Cyclone Tracy through images and oral histories

Fifty years on, see how the destruction and impact of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin 1974 is captured in our collection. 

Blog
Collection guide
Drovers Oral History Collection

122 interviews, mostly with retired drovers, recorded by Bruce Simpson and Bill Gammage between 2000 and 2006. 

Collection guide
Collection guide
York Collection

About 140 oral history interviews, the majority for his Maltese-Australian and Polish-Australian folklore and social history projects. Personal papers of York plus papers of the historian Michael Cigler. Also a large quantity of Maltese newspapers, student newspapers, radical pamphlets and ephemera.

Collection guide
Woman, Jacinta Mackay, sitting in front of a window looking into the Main Reading Room with a large globe on the other side

2024 National Library of Australia Scholar Jacinta Mackay

Bridging the gap between history and culturally safe nursing

Learn about Jacinta Mackay's NLA Scholarship research using the Bringing Them Home oral history recordings.

Blog
Collection guide
White Collection

Personal papers of Patrick White, plus letters from White to other Australian writers acquired as part of their papers. Also papers of White's biographer David Marr and those of the artist and theatre designer Desmond Digby who had a long friendship with White.

Collection guide
A woman sitting talking to a man while using a recorder.

David Moore, Portrait of Hazel de Berg interviewing physicist Professor Harry Messel, 1972, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138001621

De Berg Collection

1290 recordings of interviews and readings from many of Australia's poets, artists, writers, composers, actors, academics, publishers, librarians, scientists, anthropologists, public servants and some politicians

Collection guide
Map of Antarctica showing territories and dependencies.

Australia. Department of the Interior. Property and Survey Branch. & E. P. Bayliss, J. S. & Cumpston, Antarctica, 1939, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-236895938

Australian explorations in the Antarctic

Diaries, papers, photographs, maps and other material related to Australia's involvement in the Antarctic

Collection guide
Black and white photo of a man listening to a recording with a pen in hand and a piece of paper next to him

Loui Seselja, Portrait of Geoffrey Dutton seated in the Oral History collection at the National Library of Australia, 1992, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-151764316

Using the Oral History Collection

A guide to requesting, accessing and publishing collection items in the Oral History and Folklore Collection.

Information article
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