Local history

There is a pond at the base of this image with manicured gardens stretching up the hill behind it. A semi-enclosed outdoor seating area sits halfway up the image on the right-hand side.

Part of the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre.

Community Heritage Grant: Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre

Learn about the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre, recipient of a 2025 Community Heritage Grant.

Blog

A woman stands on the right-hand side of this image holding a cleaning tool and applying it to a plaque. A man is on the left-hand side watching the cleaning process.

Associate Professor Nicole Tse undertaking some test cleaning of a plaque while Michael Lam looks on

Community Heritage Grant: See Yup Society

Learn about the See Yup Temple, recipient of a 2025 Community Heritage Grant.

Blog

Black and yellow uniform made up of a long-sleeve button up jacket on a mannequin

Convict uniform and two caps [realia], 1830, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2398685

Convicts, conflict and confrontation

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: HASS for Year 5 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills as historians.

Digital Classroom

detail of cover of Air travel and holiday with illustration of two women driving a car past some boats

Cover of Air travel and holiday, vol. 1, No. 3 (cropped), March 1948, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3997211269

Destination Trove: Travel magazines now online

Pack your bags for a trip through new travel serials, now on Trove.

News article

Busy street lined with building and parked cars

Frank Hurley, [Ballarat, Sturt Street] [Ballarat, Victoria], 1910, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-160199422

Discovering the history of your hometown

Learn some useful tips and suggestions to get you started researching your town or local area with the National Library's collection.

Learning activity for adults

Video

Drovers Oral History Collection

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

Collection guide

A painting of two stockman riding horses and holding whips high in the air, capturing a bull

The Queenslander, ‘Cutting Out’ A Fat Beast, from Notes on Queensland, April 1894. Colour digital version by Warren Fahey.

Echoes of the long paddock: A folksong celebration

This special concert performance salutes our 70th anniversary as custodian of Australia's folksong heritage and oral history.

Event

Man steering a large male cow that is pulling a wagon with his wife and children inside

Mallee farmer and family with his bullock wagon, Victoria, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153091696

Finding and dating photographs

Find family photos and piece together dates and places from the many clues they contain.

Learning activity for adults

Video

Man resting a hand on a tree and looking at a message carved into the tree trunk

Michael Terry examining Lasseter's message carved into a tree trunk, Lake Christopher region, Western Australia, 1932, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-149282377

Finding local history

Start exploring the Library's diverse collections to search through time and place to build family stories and local narratives.

Learning activity for adults

Video

Gilfillan Collection

Official records, reports, minutes and correspondence from the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority, Cooma Municipal Council and the Monaro County Council and around 750 Australian town and district maps.

Collection guide

Holmes Collection

Books, pamphlets, broadsides, posters, periodicals, newspapers and some manuscripts mostly relating to Federation and political and constitutional history.

Collection guide

Books and octavos of various colours and binding from the Ferguson Collection on shelves

The Ferguson Collection situated in the National Library stacks

Honouring a legacy through digitisation

A gift from the Ralf Iannuzzi Memorial Trust is helping us to digitise some of our rarest items.

News article

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