A Rage for Curiosity presents images of European Australia between 1788 and 1830. These crucial documents of Australian history highlight the way Europeans first looked at the land, its nature and the Aboriginal peoples.
[State Library of New South Wales, NSW ]

The Rawson Archive showcases a rare and insightful collection of hand-written pen and ink-illustrated diaries and photographs of the Rawson family. The images have been selected from a larger collection of family documents in the John Oxley Library, part of the State Library of Queensland devoted to Queensland history. The material relates to members of the Rawson family, who were among the first European settlers in the Mackay area which was purchased by the Queensland Library Foundation at auction on Monday, 17 April 2000. The Rawson Archive is important from a historical perspective as it contains rare documentation that fills a great void in Mackay's history. Following a major cyclone and tidal wave in the area in 1918, much of Mackay's documented history up to this point was lost. The archive material survived because when the Rawson family returned to England in the late 1880s they took with them the material they collected during their time in Mackay.
[State Library of Queensland, QLD ]

An Exhibition of Books from the Monash University Library Rare Book Collection. The exhibition includes original writings from the time and provides an insight into the politics and history of the era, including the amoral lifestyle of the court, the execution of Catholics during the Popish Plot scare and the 'glorious revolution', which saw the flight into exile of Charles's brother James II. The books, pamphlets and caricatures of the period offer a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the people from all levels of society. The popular enthusiasms and the major calamities such as the Great Plague are all features of the exhibition.
[Monash University Library, VIC ]