Get a taste of the cuisines of the world
There’s more to books about food than just recipes. They can touch on the histories of culture, travel and more from around the world. Our collections reflect this diversity.
Our stories
Let us all combine: refugee stories in Australia
Australian history is rich with refugee stories. Our shores have long been a destination for those fleeing war and persecution: from Prussia, 179 years ago; from post-World War Two Europe; and from early 1980s Vietnam. Throughout it all, we’ve seen policies that encourage and restrict immigration.
Hope within the darkness: Anne Frank’s diary, 70 years on
This year marks 70 years since the publication of Anne Frank’s diary. It was first published in Dutch as Het Achterhuis (The Annex), and later appeared in English as The Diary of a young girl. It went on to sell more than 30 million copies, and has been translated into nearly 70 million languages.
Meet some of the team behind Australia’s oldest public Library
This week we’re celebrating our wonderful team as part of the Australian Library and Information Association’s Library and Information Week. From librarians and technicians to photographers and conservators, we have more than 300 staff who work to run Australia’s oldest public Library. We hope you celebrated your library this week too.
From Melbourne to the stars: 5 great maps from our collection
We have well over 110,000 maps in our collection— enough to carpet metropolitan Melbourne. Here are five highlights.
Meek’s Atlas: The story of a 155 year old oversized map
In late 2015, thirteen uncatalogued oversized maps and charts held in the Library’s Maps Collection were prioritised for treatment during a routine collection survey. Further investigation revealed two significant 1862 photolithographs of the 1861 oversized pen-and-ink drawing Meek’s Atlas of the British Colonies in Continental and Insular Australia.
“Kick it to Hunter, the screw kick punter!”
Bill Hunter has been researching his grandfather, Fred Hunter, a star footballer in the Healesville area for many years from the early 1900s. Bill believes that it was Fred who perfected what is now known as the banana kick, a kick for goal from an impossible angle that screws at right angles. Fred’s father, Richard Rowan, developed the kick in the 1890s, and Fred perfected it during his playing days to the point where fans exhorted the team to “Kick it to Hunter, the screw kick punter!”
The owl and the heiress: The life of one book over six centuries
Arts & literature, Our stories:
What do Athena’s little owl, an unashamedly unmarried Chicago heiress, and the Heide School of modernist Australian artists have in common? A book in our collection, as it turns out… Recently I… Read More ›
Cloud watching: how we came to understand the weather
People love talking about the weather. How many times have you heard someone say “Crazy weather we’re having, hey?” in the past week (or said it yourself)?
Eight women from Australia’s history you should know
The effect Australia’s women have had on our country is undeniable yet oft-forgotten. That’s why we’re taking March—Women’s History Month—to look back and share the stories of women from our past.
