Featured guide
Our guide to some of the Library's Torres Strait Islander unpublished materials
Browse the Research Guides
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Historic aerial photography allows researchers to view a landscape, town or even a building from the air, as it was at a particular point in time. The Library holds a national series of imagery of Australia, collected between 1928 and 1988. All Australian States and major regions are represented in...Topics: Geography
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This guide to Australian birth, death and marriage (BDM) records provides: Links to State and Territory Registry offices and to [their] freely accessible online indexes, where available Links to Library networked BDM indexes (on eResources) Links to Library subscription resources (for access within...Topics: Family history and genealogy
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The National Library has a large collection of cemetery records for regions throughout Australia. Many records are kept on microfiche and are listed in the Family History Sources in the Newspapers and Family History zone guide. Other records are listed on the catalogue and can be found using the...Topics: Family history and genealogy
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The National Library of Australia provides access to or holds within its collections a wide range of resources and material relating to Australian companies. These include: company histories directories annual reports biographies interviews with prominent business men and women ephemera These...Topics: Companies
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Electoral rolls list people who are registered to vote at federal, state, territory and local government elections and referenda. Before Federation and for some years afterwards, there were separate rolls for Commonwealth and for state elections. The Commonwealth Electoral Commission now produces...Topics: Family history and genealogy
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Members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are advised that this research guide contains names and images of deceased people Before you begin Talk to as many family members as you can. Family members will often have valuable information such as names (including nicknames), dates...Topics: Family history and genealogy, Indigenous Australia
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this guide contains references to collections which may be considered culturally sensitive. The National Library's Manuscripts collection contains original written records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and...Topics: Indigenous Australia, Language, Manuscripts
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The Australian Joint Copying Project or AJCP is a collection of historical material relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific dating from 1560 to 1984. The material has been drawn from records held in the United Kingdom and microfilmed. The microfilms in the collection are divided into two...Topics: Family history and genealogy, History, Law, Military history, Pacific
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Mark Strizic, Searching for books at the State Library of Victoria, January 1967, nla.obj-140508667 How do you search the catalogue for Australian literature? Quick search Use the Catalogue standard search to find titles, authors or subjects. If you get too many results, use the Narrow search ...Topics: Literature
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The Library holds a range of Australian property mapping useful to family historians and others looking for details of their ancestor’s landholdings or movements at a given time. This guide includes details of how to find and use: Pastoral or squatting maps Parish and county maps Real estate or...Topics: Family history and genealogy, Geography, Maps
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Our Australian newspaper collections include digitised historic and modern newspapers accessible online, as well as newspapers in microform and paper formats. We collect or subscribe to: Australian capital city dailies, major regional city newspapers, a range of other country town newspapers,...Topics: Communications and media, Family history and genealogy, Newspapers
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Introduction Government in Australia is three-tiered: Commonwealth (or Federal), State and Local. You can find information about how government works in Australia through a number of official websites, including Parliament of Australia, including The Australian system of government Australia.gov.au...Topics: Government and politics
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The arrival of an ancestor in Australia is a key moment in a family's history. They may have arrived as a fare-paying passenger, as an 'assisted' migrant, a member of a ship's crew, in military or naval service, or as a convict. Your ancestor may have arrived as an individual or with family....Topics: Family history and genealogy
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What is a topographic map? A topographic map provides a visual reference to the layout of a landscape. It represents the natural and made environment using a system of measurement (scale), grid references and symbols. It can be used to explore the sense of a place and its relationships to other...Topics: Geography, Maps
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Start with what you know Think about the person you are researching. Do you know: their full name and other names they were known by? their life dates - are they alive or dead? the names of organisiations or groups they belonged to? their nationality or country of residence? any significant...Topics: Biography
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The Library holds a large international collection of maps that supports family history research. This guide suggests map resources to try when researching the British or Irish origins of your family. The guide includes details of how to find and use: Gazetteers Ordnance Survey maps of Britain and...Topics: Family history and genealogy, Geography, Maps
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British Parliamentary publications are valuable primary sources for research into British and dominion history, including Australia. The Library has significant holdings of published British sources. These include: Parliamentary Papers and Debates, including online access (for National Library card...Topics: Government publications, Law, Government and politics
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From January 1788, when the First Fleet of convicts arrived at Botany Bay, to the end of convict transportation 80 years later, over 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia. Although convicts were transported to the colonies of New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia, many convicts...Topics: Family history and genealogy, History
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The Library provides access to thousands of ebooks through its website, catalogue and eResources service. These include: National Library publications Digitised historical books from our collections Items published electronically and deposited by publishers under Legal Deposit Subscriptions to...Topics: Bibliographic tools, Book trade, Literature, Multidisciplinary
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The Library's collections offer a wealth of resources to the Australian family historian. Many family history sources are now available electronically. Check our eResources for titles under the subject of Genealogy. Here, you can find links to our major subscription services, networked family...Topics: Family history and genealogy
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On 1 January 1901, the six existing self-governing British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, came together in union to create the Commonwealth of Australia. This was what was known as Federation and was the culmination of a decades-...Topics: Government and politics, History
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The National Library of Australia has extensive holdings of material concerning Australia's involvement in the First World War. These cover all formats, including:printed worksnewspapersmanuscriptspictorialoral historyrealiaonlineThis guide aims to introduce researchers to key collections and...Topics: History, Military history
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What is a gazette? A gazette is an official publication for the purpose of notifying the actions and decisions of the government. All Australian governments (Commonwealth, State and Territory) publish official gazettes. Notices published in government gazettes cover all aspects of government...Topics: Government publications, Law, Communications and media
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In 2011 the combined records of Indian Indentured Labourers of Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago were placed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Amongst others these included the Indian Emigration Passes to Fiji for the period 1879 to 1916. These records comprise over 60,000...Topics: Family history and genealogy, Pacific
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Introduction The League of Nations was the forerunner to the present United Nations. The Treaty of Versailles, including the Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 and was the first political treaty signed by Australian officials since Federation. A history of the signing,...Topics: Law, International organisations and relations, Government and politics
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Our overseas newspaper collections include digitised historic and modern newspapers accessible online, as well as newspapers in microform and paper formats. We collect: Overseas newspapers—we have the largest collection of overseas newspapers in Australia. Our newspaper collections from Asia and...Topics: Newspapers
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The National Library holds mapping not only for Australia, but for every country and ocean in the world and also for all the planets. These maps may be standard topographic maps (showing terrain features), or may cover one or more themes, such as tourist information, roads, railways, geology,...Topics: Geography, Maps
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The Library's Pacific Collections webpage provides a general description of the Pacific-related materials held in our collections and highlights some of our treasures in this area. The Library's catalogue can be searched to locate other materials on the Pacific Island Region. Select Browse Subjects...Topics: Pacific
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What information do you need? Standards can be identified in three main ways: Standard number, e.g. AS/NZS 2032: 2006 (prefix + number: year) Standard title, e.g. Installation of PVC pipe systems Keyword: e.g. PVC pipe You only need to know one of these elements to start planning your search....Topics: Standards
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The Macquarie Dictionary defines statistics as the 'science which deals with the collection, classification, and use of numerical facts or data.' It may be necessary to obtain statistical data to support or illustrate your research. This guide is intended to help you with this. What the Library...Topics: History, Social sciences, Statistics
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this research guide contains names and images of deceased people. All users of this research guide should also be aware that certain words, terms, or descriptions may be culturally sensitive and are considered inappropriate today, but...Topics: Indigenous Australia
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Old TI ‘Old TI’ is a phrase used by Torres Strait Islanders to describe a time on Thursday Island between 1890 to 1980. This period saw many outsiders (notably from Samoa, Niue, Rotuma, Lifou, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Jamaica and Spain) make the Torres Strait their home. Old TI is...Topics: Indigenous Australia, Manuscripts
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Background The United Nations (UN) was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 countries, with the stated goal of organising to: 'preserve peace through international cooperation and collective security'. 193 countries are now member states of the UN, all of which are listed on their Member States...Topics: International organisations and relations
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United States Congressional publications are of interest as primary sources for students of United States history for current United States foreign and economic policy other public affairs issues of interest to other countries (US foreign policy) Background to the National Library collection The...Topics: Law, Government publications, Government and politics
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The National Library of Australia’s special collections include rare books and journals, artworks, photographs, maps, sheet music, oral history recordings, manuscript papers, ephemera and more. This material can be accessed in the Special Collections Reading Room on level 1 of the Library...
About the guides
Use our guides to explore the depths of our rich collections. You will find research advice, key resources, featured collection items, selected websites and research case studies.
We also have a number of other related resources to assist you in your research, including: