Bayley Collection
William A. Bayley, The industrial valley of Lithgow looking west, Lithgow, New South Wales, 1939, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-152895444
William A. Bayley, The industrial valley of Lithgow looking west, Lithgow, New South Wales, 1939, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-152895444
Key items in the collection
This collection hosts a range of formats, including:
The Bayley Collection includes books, booklets, pamphlets, leaflets and other printed ephemera, mainly relating to New South Wales country towns.
In addition, there are two lengthy runs of newspapers:
- Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser (1894-1946)
- Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser (1863-1947).
The Bayley Collection contains many hundreds of photographs and postcards focusing particularly on railways, shipping, country towns and schools of New South Wales.
They mostly date from the first half of the twentieth century. They include many postcards produced by William H. Broadhurst in the period 1900-27, but generally the photographers are not identified.
The personal papers of Bayley include the typescripts of his books on Jamberoo and the central south coast of New South Wales, notes on the history of Albury, Bega, Lockhart and Moruya, postcards, and local history booklets.
About William Alan Bayley
Early life and career
William Alan Bayley (1910–1981) was born in Sydney and attended Sydney Teachers College in 1929-30. He worked as a teacher at several Sydney schools before becoming Deputy Headmaster of Crookwell Central School in 1946. From 1954 until his death, he served as Headmaster at various schools in the Illawarra district, including Waniora, Unanderra, Farmborough Road, and Bulli Public Schools.
Preserving local history
Bayley was dedicated to preserving local history, especially the histories of New South Wales country towns. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1951 for his work in historical research and his contributions to country newspaper indexing. He was deeply involved with the Illawarra Historical Society and donated valuable materials to the Mitchell Library, including card indexes of the Sydney Mail (1860-1938) and the Australian Town and Country Journal (1870-1914).
Writing and railway history
Bayley was a prolific writer of local histories, especially histories of New South Wales country towns and districts. They were nearly all published by city, municipal or shire councils, often celebrating centenaries of local government. They included histories of Albury (1954), Bega (1942), Bulli (1956), Campbelltown (1965), Condobolin (1965), Crookwell (1950), Goulburn (1954), Grenfell (1954), Kiama (1960), Lockhart (1979), Nundle (1953), Shellharbour (1959), Shoalhaven (1965), Yass (1973) and Young (1956).
His other publications included histories of Methodism in Bega, the Farmers and Settlers Association of New South Wales and the Illawarra District Ambulance Service. In his later years he became very interested in railway history and set up Austrail Publishing. It published several books on the Blue Mountains railway, the Zig Zag railway at Lithgow, the Pichi Richi railway in South Australia and other railways.
Background to the collection
Between 1954 and 1980 W.A. Bayley made numerous donations to the Library of books, newspapers, photographs, postcards and manuscripts.
The photographs and postcards are held in the Pictures Collection and are filed under appropriate subject headings. Many of them are place names, including Austinmer, Bega, Berry, Bulli, Candelo, Cooma, Crookwell, Goulburn, Grenfell, Katoomba, Kiama, Lockhart, Moruya, Narooma, Newcastle, Nundle, Picton, Wollongong, Young. Others are filed under such subjects as Banks, Mining: coal, Post offices (NSW), Railways (NSW), Schools and colleges (NSW), Ships, and Town halls (NSW).
The printed material has been integrated in the Australian and Newspaper collections.
This guide was prepared using these references:
- Obituary of W.A. Bayley, Illawarra Historical Society bulletin, June 1981, pp. 27-28
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