The Library’s Australian history collection provides a unique insight into the history and development of Australian society, politics and culture.

This collection is a rich resource for research into people, places and events, both significant and obscure.

The collection includes:

• lists of useful sources to help you start your research such as bibliographies of the Aboriginal people of Victoria and the history of European settlement, and all you need to know about the Federation of Australia in 1901
• resources examining popular topics like Indigenous histories, exploration, settlement, convicts, migration, goldmining and war
• histories of Victorian schools, businesses, services, institutions and clubs
• biographical information about Australians from all walks of life
• copies of official documents recording key events in the early days of European settlement, including Australian Joint Copying Project microfilms, Historical records of Australia and Historical records of Victoria
• 19th- and 20th-century parliamentary publications
• statistics illuminating all aspects of Australian life such as Australians: a historical library and Colonial statistics
• finding aids such as the Library’s local history, biography and ephemera indexes, including the Australiana index, the online index to biographical and Victorian local history information
• Such was life: an Australian history blog
• a research guide detailing early Victorian history, along with an image gallery
• information databases, containing collections of research articles.

Location at the Library

Find Australiana and History - Australian via our onsite map.