When we think of Germans in 19th century Australia, we probably think first of their role in the opening of the vast sheep and wheat belts of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and the feats of intrepid individuals such as Ludwig Leichhardt. We tend to overlook the role of groups like Melbourne's small but distinguished band of Germans, whose achievements in the sciences, arts, crafts, commerce, even gymnastics, amounted to what has been described as one of the high points of Australian colonial culture ...
[State Library of Victoria, VIC ]

The comic book invasion of Australia! The State Library of Victoria might seem an unlikely venue for an exhibition of comic books but these are among the many unexpected items in the Library's collections.
[State Library of Victoria, VIC ]

Once the home of the biggest gold mine in Tasmania, Beaconsfield now looks forward to another golden era. Gold was first discovered at Beaconsfield in 1869, and by the turn of the century more than 50 mining companies had worked the goldfields in the area ... These photographs are all part of the extensive collection held at the Launceston Library.
[State Library of Tasmania - Launceston Reference Library, TAS ]

What sort of country do you want to belong to? What ties us together as Australians? What tears us apart? Since Federation in 1901, people have felt that they belonged or did not belong in Australia for many different reasons. Belonging explores some of the ways people experienced 'belonging' in Australia in the twentieth century. Drawing on the extensive collections of the State Library of New South Wales, the State Library of Victoria, the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia, this exhibition challenges viewers to consider the question: Where do I belong?
[State Library of New South Wales, NSW ]

The exhibition Beyond the Picket Fence: Australian women's art in the National Library of Australia was held from 8 March to 4 June 1995. It was opened on the twentieth anniversary of International Women's Day and was one of more than one hundred exhibitions held in Australia in 1995 to celebrate women's activities and creativity.
[National Library of Australia, ACT ]

Birds! contains watercolours, oils, lithographs, photographs, sculptures and books, most of them drawn from the library's own collection. It explores ornithological illustration from the earliest colonial images featuring the work of John Lewin and Elizabeth Gould to contemporary photographs by Graeme Chapman and Donald Trounson. The exhibition displays contrasting manuscripts - a 15th century Book of Hours and two of Donald Friend's diaries and also features the Hunter sketchbook and the Lycett album as well as other Library treasures.
[National Library of Australia, ACT ]

In 1984, a collection of over 300 photographic negatives on glass plates produced in the 19th century were discovered in the photographic studio of the Haig Brothers, in the town of Warwick, Queensland. The negatives had been taken by William Boag, a travelling 19th century photographer. The original glass plate negatives were probably purchased from Boag when he left Warwick in 1873 or 1875, possibly by John Haig, the founder of the Haig dynasty of photographers.
[State Library of Queensland, QLD ]

This exhibition displays a selection of boys' adventure books from the Children's Literature Research Collection in the Special Collection at the Woolstores Campus, Geelong. Boys' adventure books flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. They explore notions of masculinity based on physical fitness and courage against the background of empire.
[Deakin University Library, VIC ]

Bringing the House Down brings together the best of Australian political cartooning. Artists represented in the show include Bill Leak, Alan Moir, Peter Nicholson, Geoff Pryor, Cathy Wilcox, Ron Tandberg, Mark Knight, Sean Leahy, Bruce Petty, Dean Alston and Ward O'Neill.
[National Museum of Australia, ACT ]

Even before the First Fleet landed in 1788, Europeans expected to see fabulous creatures down-under. They had been conditioned by centuries of superstition and travellers' tales to believe in the existence of sea serpents, hairy giants, mermaids and other strange creatures. The Southern Hemisphere, in fact, was believed to be the realm where the natural order of things was reversed.
[National Library of Australia, ACT ]

The Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860-1861 was the largest, costliest journey of exploration ever mounted in Australia. It was also one of the worst failures in Australian history, with many lives needlessly lost. Led by Robert O'Hara Burke and his navigator William John Wills, it set out to cross the deep continent from southern to northern coast - Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria - at a time when coastal cities were booming but the interior was almost unknown: terra incognita.
[State Library of Victoria, VIC ]

A number of years ago I donated a quantity of cricket memorabilia to the State Library of South Australia. Part of this has been on permanent display in the Mortlock Library of South Australiana. A special exhibition of the collection is now being arranged. This will be of interest to cricket lovers and hopefully to a wide cross section of viewers. I commend the Library for its work in connection with this project.
[State Library of South Australia, SA ]