About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Around 830 books mainly relating to Buddhism, but also to Hinduism, Indian history and Western philosophy, in German, French and English and mostly published 1870–1945.

About 350 photographs, including glass negatives, and a small number of pencil sketches, majority depicting paddle steamers sailing or moored on the Murray or Darling rivers.

About 440 books published by William Pickering between 1820 and 1854 including reprints of classics and seventeenth-century Anglican religious works, plus contemporary writers of his time.

2780 music scores for songs and vocal and piano selections from American, British and Australian musicals, music theatre, films and television shows produced from about 1920 to 1990.

182 original field sheets, representing 32 map sheets, dating from 1915 to 1936 including surveys carried out in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

2121 books, pamphlets, programs, periodicals and plays published between 1755 and 1972. 

Ten signed stencil prints by Pablo Picasso. 54 sketchbooks of John Power, a small group of personal papers of Power, and 262 books relating to art and architecture.

975 books, including many relating to the essayist and poet Charles Lamb and his circle and books by or relating to the poet Edward Thomas.

Explore the Prout Collection, featuring 2 oil paintings, 41 watercolours, and 38 pencil and wash drawings by John Skinner Prout, created between 1841 and 1848. This collection showcases stunning Tasmanian landscapes, including scenes of Hobart, Mount Wellington, and Port Arthur, alongside views of New South Wales and Victoria. Prout, a self-trained artist who emigrated to Australia in 1840, captured the essence of the Australian landscape, leaving a lasting influence on colonial art.