Local history | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Local history

Showing 25 - 36 of 45 results
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
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
Holmes Collection

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

Collection guide
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
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
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
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
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
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
A stack of old papers and reports spread over a desk.

Annual reports from the Adelaide Repertory Theatre collections. 

Community Heritage Grant: Adelaide Repertory Theatre

Learn about the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, recipient of a 2025 Community Heritage Grant.

Blog
1904 camera

Harold Cazneaux's first camera, 1904, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-141166704

Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) was perhaps Australia's best-known photographer of the early twentieth century. He purchased this camera in 1904, shortly after moving from Adelaide to Sydney, and made photographs of Sydney's streets and waterways.

In 1909 he became the first Australian photographer to exhibit his works in a solo show.

Cazneaux was a master of the pictorialist style of photography, using soft focus to capture scenes that were - and remain - familiar to many Australians in a new light. He was able to find a timeless, extraordinary beauty in the everyday.

Cazneaux collection

A large collection of glass negatives, papers and photographs dating mostly from 1904 to 1940 depicting many aspects of Australian life and architecture.

Collection guide
Black and white photo of three men on a tractor, one driving and the other two sitting at the back

Jeff Carter, Planting out, Ovens Valley, 1955, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-148667470

Carter Collection

Photographs by Jeff Carter of Australian life dating from the 1950s onwards, plus oral history recordings with about 40 individuals living in rural towns or properties.

Collection guide

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