A vast repository of over 4,000 books, primarily in Chinese, covering history, culture, politics, and religion. Collected between 1950 and 2000, it includes rare texts from Taiwan and China, reflecting the richness of Chinese scholarship. Founded by Sing-wu Wang, this collection remains a cornerstone of the National Library of Australia, offering invaluable insights into East Asia’s past and present.

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.

50 oral history recordings with 149 interviewees containing reminiscences, stories and music relating to Scottish oral traditions in Australia.

Recordings of folk songs and dance music from Queensland and also stories, legends and recollections of customs and immigrant settlement, particularly German and Scandinavian in rural Queensland.

About 260 books and pamphlets on American history, as well as papers of the Woodriff family and Tilghman, including about 380 of Tilghman's photographs of the Northern Territory 1925–1927 and Queensland 1931–1933.

Papers and photographs related to Clark's life and work as an Australian historian of renown.

Recordings of interviews made by Siobhán McHugh while producing various series for the ABC and also when working on her book Minefields and Miniskirts, together with papers and manuscripts.

In 2024, Judith Bartholomeusz dove into the manuscripts collection to explore the career of Caroline Chisholm, and how it was influenced by ideas of 'utopias'.

Topic

With new people and cultures come new ideas and practices. These could be new foods, new religions, new art forms or even new sports.

Beginner researchers can use this guide to find resources to help learn about their domestic family history or trace their ancestral origins overseas.

Module

Discover how migration has shaped Australia’s diverse identity through stories from the first colonies, the gold rush, refugees and more in this learning module.

Explore handwritten diaries that can now be read online.