Trade journals

The Library's trade journals provide all sorts of detail about the way manufacturing and trade has been carried out in Melbourne and beyond since the 19th century. They contain biographies and obituaries, advertisements, news about events in industry, and information on companies, labour relations and politics. Some are published in Britain and have Australasian sections containing local news.

The trade journals cover everything from fire fighters to bankers, railway workers to commercial travellers, builders to nurses. Some were produced by industry associations and some by trade union bodies.

Highlights of the collection include:

Trade journals from the 19th century are a great resource for researching family history and Australian history, and some provide details and illustrations of the machinery of the day.

Whilst the earlier journals are not indexed or online, some content may be found through our Australiana index. Finding them in the catalogue can be tricky, but try searching for the relevant occupation and the word 'periodicals' (eg grocer* periodicals).

Popular current trade journals providing industry and company information include Retail world, Australian funeral director, Ad news, Australian hotelier, Australian hardware journal and Australian mining. Many other local and overseas titles can be found by searching the catalogue.