The Library’s Oral History and Folklore Collection dates back to the 1950’s and includes a rich and diverse collection of interviews and recordings with Australians from all walks of life.

Oral history interviews with Charles Perkins, a key figure in Aboriginal rights, alongside a pilot project on how people form mental maps. It also includes ongoing interviews for the 'Seven Years On' project, launched in 1995, which focuses on emerging Aboriginal leaders. This collection offers valuable insights into Aboriginal activism, leadership, and personal stories that have shaped history.

One of the largest oral history collections in Australia with recordings of over 900 individuals in all States, as well as folk groups, singing groups, bands and choirs.

Recordings of Australian folk songs, dance music, recitations and oral history, collected by folklorist John Meredith (1920–2001). The collection also includes photographs and manuscripts documenting folk traditions and the bush music revival.

The Library is proud to house this collection, which preserves the voices of 1,290 Australians.

This special event explored some of the ways in which southern NSW community members have told and preserved their bushfire stories.

The National Library is recording interviews with a diverse range of Australians to ensure that stories of the COVID-19 pandemic are captured for present and future generations.

Personal papers of Warren Fahey’s activities as an entrepreneur, musician and writer from 1967-1998 and a collection of folkloric recordings.

Fifty years on, see how the destruction and impact of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin 1974 is captured in our collection. 

122 interviews, mostly with retired drovers, recorded by Bruce Simpson and Bill Gammage between 2000 and 2006. 

About 140 oral history interviews, the majority for his Maltese-Australian and Polish-Australian folklore and social history projects. Personal papers of York plus papers of the historian Michael Cigler. Also a large quantity of Maltese newspapers, student newspapers, radical pamphlets and ephemera.

Photographs by Jeff Carter of Australian life dating from the 1950s onwards, plus oral history recordings with about 40 individuals living in rural towns or properties.