History & research resources

Discover resources to help your students research and understand significant events in Victoria's history as revealed through our collection items and exhibitions.

Resources include websites, downloadable PDF education kits, digitised materials and audio materials.

Burke & Wills expedition

• Dig: the Burke & Wills research gateway
  Follow the Victorian Exploring Expedition's journey through central Australia and explore our extensive Burke and Wills archive as well as other resources.
• Burke and Wills education kit
  This kit will help your students better understand one of Australia's iconic journeys of exploration.

Eureka uprising

• Lazarus diary
  The 1850s diary of Samuel Lazarus contains one of the few eyewitness accounts of the Eureka miners' uprising at Ballarat in December 1854.

History of the book

• 'Mirror of the world' audio dramatisation
  This audio, which playfully draws on our permanent exhibition Mirror of the world, brings key figures from the history of the book to life. Students can hear from Shakespeare, Galileo, Redmond Barry and more!
• Mirror of the world
  Explore the rich multimedia of this website, which makes available many rare and fragile items from our Mirror of the world exhibition. Digitised and interactive content includes video and audio, zoom-and-pan images, 'page turners', an interactive timeline and more.

Medieval manuscripts

• 'Medieval imagination' education kit
  Find out more about medieval history, manuscripts, art traditions and book production by downloading this kit, which complements our 2008 Medieval imagination exhibition.

Melbourne's shopping history

• ''til you drop' education kit
  Take your students back in time through Melbourne's shopping history by using our education kit, which features information based on our 'til you drop exhibition.

Ned Kelly

• Kelly armour, Jerilderie letter and fact sheet
  Access digitised images and background information about Ned Kelly's life and death.

Port Phillip region's early European history

• Port Phillip Papers
  Read important papers from Victoria's Port Phillip region's early European history, including John Batman and Edward Henty's journals, the Melbourne and Geelong Deeds, the first edition of the Melbourne Advertiser and William Buckley's reminiscences.

Victorian history

• ergo
  This website puts Victorian history at students' fingertips, through original documents, photographs, maps, newspapers and other items from our collection. It also provides research, essay writing and study tools and tips, and teacher resources. There are new sections on World War I, World War II and gold, as well as new coverage of pastoral Victoria, exploration and the exploitation of land.
• Hoddle Waddle education kits
  Discover fascinating stories about Melbourne's foundation as you waddle around Hoddle's Grid. The teacher education kit contains lesson plans, historical notes and suggestions for running the program. The student version includes maps, clue sheets, handouts and a guide to using mobile technology during the waddle.

Victoria's holiday and leisure history

• 'Victorians on vacation' education kit
  Discover how our holiday habits have changed over time, reflecting changes in our society, lifestyles and tastes. This fun-filled kit is based on our 2007–08 Victorians on vacation exhibition.

Victoria's literary history

• 'Independent type' education kit
  Trace Victoria's literary evolution from traditional Indigenous storytelling through colonial classics to the vibrant contemporary writing scene using this education kit. You can also view a literary map of Victoria, which is  based on our 2009 The independent type exhibition.