Historic Victoria Photographs online at the State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria has begun an ambitious new project digitising a huge collection of photographs from the 1970s.  Taken by volunteers from a group called the Committee for Urban Action (CUA), the collection comprises over 2000 reels of 35mm film, totalling over 70,000 photographs. 

The CUA were concerned by what they saw as the destruction of Victoria’s building heritage, and sought to preserve on film the streetscapes of inner-city Melbourne and regional towns in Victoria.  On average each town or suburb had approximately 800 photos taken during the project.  Their collection of film was donated to the State Library in 1977, where it has sat in storage for over 40 years.

The SLV’s 2014 Annual Appeal raised funds to make this collection more accessible to the public. The pilot project has seen the digitisation of 3000 images from the collection, focusing on streetscapes from inner-city Fitzroy and the regional town of Castlemaine.

Hargraves Street, Castlemaine, from Lyttleton Street to Templeton Street, west side. From the CUA collection

Western Australia Early Almanacs

The State Library of Western Australia has recently completed the digitising of a series of almanacs dating from 1849 – 1889. Almanacs predate the Western Australian government Year Books and Post Office Directories, and served a similar purpose in detailing the activities of the colony of Western Australia. These were produced by several different, and sometimes competing, publishers such as Stirling and Sons, Arthur Shenton, and James Pearce, so there may be more than one publication for a particular year.

Western Almanack and Directory 1869

Most early almanacs include a list of prominent office-holders and their positions in the establishment. Some editions, particularly Stirling and Sons’ almanacs, may also include a brief chronicle of occurrences and events for the year. As well as statistics on the demography and productivity of the colony, calendars, and schedules of government fees, the almanacs contain advertisements for many local businesses including merchants, banks, jewellers, undertakers, insurance agents, hoteliers, teachers, accountants, retailers, accountants and tradesmen.

Advertisements from the Western Australian Almanack 1868

What's New on Trove

Every few months when the National Library of Australia announce the latest historical newspaper titles that they have digitised and added on to Trove, I dive in to see what's new.  Frequently the new titles mean redoing searches and finding new gems to add to my files. Here’s their latest additions - happy Troving!
New South Wales
– The Australian Workman (Sydney, NSW: 1890-1897)
– The Bird O’ Freedom (Sydney, NSW: 1891-1896)
– The Dead Bird (Sydney, NSW: 1889-1891)
– The Workers’ Weekly (Sydney, NSW: 1923-1939)
Queensland
– Brisbane Telegraph (Qld.: 1948-1954)
– The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld.: 1903-1926)
– The Evening Advocate (Innisfail, Qld.: 1941-1954)
– The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld.: 1901-1921)
– Johnstone River Advocate and Innisfail News (Qld.: 1928-1941)
– The Toowoomba Chronicle and Queensland Advertiser (Qld.: 1861-1875)
South Australia
– Border Chronicle (Bordertown, SA: 1908-1950)
– Critic (Adelaide, SA: 1897-1924)
– The Express (Adelaide, SA: 1922-1923)
– The Pennant (Penola, SA: 1946-1954)
– The Terowie Enterprise (SA: 1884-1891)
Tasmania
– The Derwent Star and Van Diemen’s Land Intelligencer (Hobart, Tas.: 1810-1812)
– King Island News (Currie, King Island: 1912-1954)
– The North Coast Standard (Latrobe, Tas.: 1890-1894)
Victoria
– The Colonial Mining Journal, Railway and Share Gazette (Vic.: 1858-1859)
– The Colonial Mining Journal, Railway and Share Gazette and Illustrated Record (Melbourne, Vic.: 1859-1861)
Western Australia
– The Avon Gazette and Kellerberrin News (WA: 1914-1916)
– The Australian (Perth, WA: 1917-1923)
– The Avon Gazette and York Times (WA: 1916-1930)
– The Blackwood Times (Bunbury, WA: 1905-1920; 1945-1954)
– The Leonora Miner (WA: 1910-1928)
– Narrogin Observer (WA: 1952-1954)
– The Northam Advertiser (WA: 1895-1918; 1948-1954)
– The Pingelly Leader (WA: 1906-1925)
– Pingelly-Brookton Leader (WA: 1925-1926)
– The Southern Districts Advocate (Katanning, WA: 1913-1936)
– The Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA: 1898-1919)
– The W.A. Record (Perth, WA: 1888-1922)
– Yilgarn Merredin Times (Southern Cross, WA: 1921-1923)

1891 New South Wales Census Records

FamilySearch.org has indexed records from the 1891 New South Wales census. This census lists the head of household, street address, and the number of male and female members of the household. There is also a separate column listing the “Number of Chinese and Aborigines” in the household, and another column for comments from the census takers. The collection can be searched by first name and last name.  You can also browse the 21,315 images that make up the collection.

Number of images per district

 Like many other Australian researchers I have long lamented the lack of complete census records available, and have joined others in urging our government to change its policy of destroying census records after statistical data has been extracted.  It is heartening to see a significant surviving record set now digitised and available - even if it doesn't cover any of my direct ancestors (sigh).

An example page from Albury