Local history | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Local history

Showing 13 - 24 of 42 results
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
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
Collection guide
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
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
Collection guide
Hood Collection

About 240 recordings of folk music, folklore, and oral histories documenting family history, local history, work experiences, music and other arts.

Collection guide
Frank Hurley - House and Gardens

Frank Hurley (1885-1962) [House and gardens, Australia]  [between 1910 and 1962], nla.obj-159237448

How to trace the history of your house

The resources available for each house may be different, due to the fact the availability, organisation, and location of records vary from state to state.

Learning activity for adults
Video
Collection guide
Johnston Collection

Over 13,000 negatives, transparencies, and photographs of cattle stations taken between 1951 and 1961, as well as 52 British Hydrographic Office charts and maps of Australia and the Pacific and personal papers of Johnston.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Ledgar Collection

421 photographs taken in the period 1858–1910 in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia, mostly of public buildings, street scenes, rural scenes and events.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Malcolm Ellis Collection

About 500 books, pamphlets, reports, leaflets, circulars, reprints and transcripts, mostly published 1920–1950, relating to communism, the labour movement and international politics. About half are Australian.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Manning and Dymphna Clark Collection

Papers and photographs related to Clark's life and work as an Australian historian of renown.

Collection guide

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