Stumbling Through History Links is for anyone researching Australian history. Researchers are always working on a tight or non-existent budget so all the links listed here are for resources that are free. Many of these resources I have found and used in my own research.
If you would like to report a broken link or suggest a great Australian history resource that you have found, please fill in this form so I can update this list. Given the limitations of this page I can’t add every archive and history society. The ones that are listed here have have good online resources and/or may house excellent collections. They are devoid of lurid colour schemes and flashing stars (shudder). Having said that, there are clearly some gaps in this collection. Contact me if you can help to fill the gaps.
Blogroll
- Adventures in Biography – Michelle Scott Tucker
- Australian Women’s History Network blog
- Blog of the Professional Historians Association of NSW & ACT
- Demography and the Imperial Public Sphere before Victoria
- Embruns: history of the French Pacific and poetry by Macquarie University academic, Karin Speedy.
- GLAM Blogs of Australia: listing of blogs from people working with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums in Australia.
- Historians are Past Caring – Marion Diamond
- History Carnival
- History Compass Exchanges
- Impact of Social Sciences
- Jennifer McLaren’s history blog
- mrbbaskerville and the black swan of history – Bruce Baskerville
- Powerhouse Museum collection search
- The Historical Society Blog
- The Resident Judge of Port Phillip – Janine Rizzetti
- The Tiger’s Mouth – blog of Kate Bagnall who specialises in Chinese-Australian history
- Western Sydney Frontier: Arts Activism in western Sydney with Katherine Knight
Book Reviews
If you want to explore new history books and biographies with a good dose of quality writing check out these book review blogs and websites:
- ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
- Australian Women Writers’ Challenge
- Global Women of Color Reading Challenge
- Me, you, and books
- Newtown Review of Books
- Whispering Gums
Business
Chinese Australia
- Chinese Australian Historical Society – useful articles and links to good resources
- The Tiger’s Mouth – blog of Kate Bagnall who specialises in Chinese-Australian history
Digital History
If you want to know about digital history head over to my digital humanities blog, Stumbling Through the Future for posts suitable for beginners getting started. Also check useful digital history links on the right hand side column of that blog.
Education History
- Aussie Educator: a wealth of history of Australian education links
- Deakin Uni Australian School Textbooks – see my blog post for more information on this important library for educational history in Australia.
- Deakin Uni digitised & searchable Australian School Textbooks – digitised and searchable: These are high quality pdfs from Deakin University’s Australian Schools Textbook Collection.
- Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand
- Early Capital Territory and district Government Schools and Teachers: a database from the Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre (check out the rest of the website too)
- Education History of Queensland
- Female teachers in Queensland State Schools: A history 1860-1983
- Government Schools of New South Wales from 1848: database of schools, photos and more
- NSW Schoolhouse Museum
- Queensland Education History Topics: interesting topics and some digitised resources
Genealogy
Many of the websites on this page will be useful for family historians. The following websites are particularly useful to track down people from the past:
- Coraweb: helping you trace your family history in Australia and elsewhere
- Judy Webster’s genealogy tips & indexes for local, interstate & overseas folk in Queensland’s historical records
Indigenous Australia
- A History of Aboriginal Sydney
- AIATSIS Collections Online – very good Aboriginal Australian and European Australian digitised history resources.
- Ara Irititja Project
- Koori Mail Collection Online
- Mission Voices on the Internet Archive
- The AIATSIS Map of Aboriginal Australia
International
No country lived in historical isolation (I welcome anyone who wants to prove me wrong on that one!) so researchers of Australian history inevitably have to consult resources held outside this region.
- AHA Archives Wiki – “Archives Wiki is sponsored by the American Historical Association. It is intended to be a clearinghouse of information about archival resources throughout the world.”
- Archives Grid: Find archives near you or where you are travelling anywhere in the world. This is a very incomplete list, but some little-known archives are included and it is being regularly updated.
- Environmental History Resources
- First World War Studies Bibliography – This extensive list of WWI books and articles is not restricted to one country or one alliance.
- History Subject Guide, University of Sydney Library: primary and secondary sources in Australian, Asian, European, United States and Medieval history
- Internet Archive – This is a repository of millions of digitised old books and other media. While not a truly international resource, always check it for that old book that you need.
- Project Gutenberg
- Victorian Studies: Links – courtesy of the Australasian Victorian Studies Association
- Wayback Machine – Has a website or page that you want been taken down? Do you want to refer to the earlier version? Go to the Wayback Machine and see if they have archived it.
European
- Europeana Collections: Over 48 million digitised items from cultural institutions all over Europe
British
Given that Australia and New Zealand were part of the British Empire, British resources are important for Australian history.
- British Library Resources
- Connected Histories: British History Sources 1500-1900
- Digital Resources at the National Library of Scotland
- Free Digital Resources at The National Archives (UK)
- Imperial and Global Forum
- London Lives: 1690-1800
- Snapshots of Empire blog from University of Sussex
- Welsh Newspapers Online – Don’t you love countries who freely share their historical sources with the whole world? Newspapers from the nineteenth century to 1910 and some WWI period.
Ireland
These websites relate to the entire island of Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- Catholic Parish Registers of Ireland – digitised records of baptisms and marriages from the majority of Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 1880 from the National Library of Ireland.
- National Archives of Ireland Genealogy Website: census, wills and tithe information, digitised and searchable.
- Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) Online Archives: Search names and see images relating to land, rates, buildings, wills and the Ulster Covenant.
The Pacific
- Digitised Pacific Resources: A gateway from the National Library of Australia to collections of digitised documentary materials relating to the history, culture and people of the Pacific region.
New Zealand
- data.govt.nz: Keep an eye on this spot as the New Zealand government makes their records available to the public.
- Digital NZ/Ā-tihi o Aotearoa
- Lineham’s NZ Historical Sources
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa – read my post about New Zealand’s impressive national museum
- New Zealand Electronic Text Collection: Digitised texts held by Victorian University of Wellington Library about the history, literature, language and natural history of New Zealand.
- New Zealand Newspapers
- Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
United States
There have been strong historic connections between United States and Australia which are not always recognised. I would like to add some more resources here.
- The American Yawp: A Free and Online, Collaboratively Built American History Textbook
- Digital Public Library of America: America’s equivalent to Trove. Includes some resources about Australia.
- Historic Oregon Newspapers
- United States Newspapers
Journals & Books – Open Access
There is a wealth of information in academic and literary journals but many are subscription only. Australians who want to access these should join their State Library or the National Library of Australia. With an Australian state or national library card you can then access many of these journals for free.
Wherever you are in the world it is also a good idea to check the online repositories of universities. Every university (I think) has an online repository of articles and theses written by their academics and postgraduate students.
Aside from this there are also some useful open access journals and books that you can access:
- Aboriginal History Journal
- Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies: published by the Australasian Victorian Studies Association
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Historical Studies in Education: published by the Canadian History of Education Association / l’Association canadienne d’histoire de l’éducation (http://www.ache-chea.ca/eng/), publishes work in the history of education and educational policy-making, in Canada and elsewhere
- Inside History – The website of the Inside History magazine has interesting articles and links which you can access for free. The magazine has well written articles for the general reader on a wide range of Australian and New Zealand history.
- Journal of the Australian Catholic History Society
- Jurn – search engine
- Media International Australia – journal of scholarly research and reviews about media, telecommunications and cultural industries, policies and practices, primarily focused on Australia and New Zealand
- Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature – published by the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research
- Public History Review – UTS epress
Legal History
- Australasian Colonial Legal History Library
- Australian Federation Law Library
- Federation Law Library by Subject – Conciliation and Arbitration, Conscription, History of Federation, Separation of Powers, White Australia Policy
- Judge Willis Casebooks – articles about Judge Willis, the first judge in Port Phillip (later Victoria) and transcripts of the Judge’s casebooks and other papers from March 1841 to July 1843.
- The Prosecution Project – The history of the criminal trial in Australia. Among other things this ongoing project is digitising trial records. Search the database by name.
Literary History
- With your state or national library card check out the AustLit website which covers “Australian literary, print and narrative culture”.
- Australian Periodical Publications 1840-1845
- Australian words in history – exploring Australian English from the Australian National Dictionary Centre
- The Joseph Furphy Digital Archive
- Project Gutenberg Australia
- SETIS: Australian Studies Resources – literary and historical texts, Federation database and more
- World War I in Australian Literary Culture
Media History
Digitised Newspapers, news reels, films as well as background about journalists and publications:
- ABC Archives
- Australian Media History Database
- Australian Media History links
- Australian Newspapers
- Australian Women and Journalism since 1850
- British Pathé newsreels
- Colonial Australian Literary Journalism
- Google News Archive – This archive is no longer being added to but The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald (including post 1954), Port Phillip Herald and The Sydney Mail can be found here.
- Historical & Cultural Collections at University of Wollongong – digitising radical and left wing publications
- Hughes, Sue, A Gazetteer of Newspapers from the Central Victorian Goldfields (1851-1901), available on the Charles Sturt University Institute for Land, Water and Society website, (Albury, 2003).
- Koori Mail Collection Online
- Libraries & Archives – Australian & international
- Media Archives Project
- Media International Australia – journal of scholarly research and reviews about media, telecommunications and cultural industries, policies and practices, primarily focused on Australia and New Zealand
- National Film and Sound Archive (Aust)
- New Zealand Newspapers
- Trove – A gift to the world, this website by the libraries of Australia has a huge number of digitised newspapers, one place to search the books held by most of the libraries in Australia, historic photos, diaries, letters and more. It is all available for free!
Religious History
- Anglicanism in Australia – historical documents re Church of England (Anglican) in Australia
- Cable Clerical Index – lists over 6,500 Church of England (Anglican) clergy who served in Australia.
- Journal of the Australian Catholic History Society
- Lutheran Church of Australia archives
- Religion, church and missions in Australia – State Library of NSW resource that seems to only cover the colony of New South Wales. Links to digitised documents in the narrative.
- Tasmanian Quaker resources (University of Tasmania)
War History
- Australian War Memorial – photos, unit diaries, memorabilia, articles about Australia’s participation in external conflicts. Nothing about the conflicts between settlers and Australia’s indigenous peoples.
- Histories of War written by Australian women – Women not only read about war, they also write about it. If you like reading war histories but want to read more widely, delve into these books.
- Search Australian war service records – Most of the official war service records to the end of WWII have been digitised. This National Archives of Australia facility is free and easy to access from home.
World War I
- First World War Studies Bibliography – This extensive list of WWI books and articles is not restricted to one country or one alliance.
- State Library of NSW WWI Diaries – The diaries of over two hundred participants in WWI have been completely transcribed. The authors of these diaries come from all over Australia and further afield. Read my blog post about this valuable resource and other useful pages about WWI on the State Library of NSW website.
- The First AIF Database – This Australian Defence Force Academy website lists most, but not all, WWI AIF (Australian Infantry Force) servicemen and brief biographical details drawn from various AIF sources.
- WWI Link – An Inside History resource listing the myriad WWI history projects undertaken during the centenary
World War II
Vietnam War
- Australia’s Vietnam War – This link was contributed by Tessa Wooldridge, who says it is “especially good for teachers and students as it incorporates many interactive features”. Many new resources will be added to this site in May 2016.
By Region
Make sure you check the topic categories above for resources too.
Australia (national in scope)
- Aboriginal History Journal
- Australian Commonwealth Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Australian Commonwealth Historical Publications 1907 to 1993: see what you can find via this index from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS Historical Census Data
- AIATSIS Collections Online – very good Aboriginal Australian and European Australian digitised history resources.
- Australian Federal Hansard from 1901
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
- Australian Historical Association
- Australian Periodical Publications 1840-1845
- Australian Policy & History
- Australian Politics and Election Database
- Australian War Memorial – photos, unit diaries, memorabilia, articles about Australia’s participation in external conflicts. Nothing about the conflicts between settlers and Australia’s indigenous peoples.
- Australian Women’s History Network
- Australian Women’s Register: biographical and organisational information about women. Also lists archives, publications and digital resources.
- Australian Words: meanings of Australian words and idioms, Glossary of AIF slang and more.
- Cameleers from the Indian Subcontinent in Australia: at the time these cameleers were called ‘Afghan’, but they often were from that part of the continent which we now know as India and Pakistan.
- data.gov.au: I typed in the word ‘history’ and found 934 sets of historical data. Use these spreadsheets and other data forms to quickly sift through the descriptions of thousands of historic photos, documents, maps and other sources held by our cultural institutions.
- Documents on Australian Foreign Policy
- Encyclopedia of Australian Science – history of science in Australia
- Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in 20thC Australia
- Fusion: Deakin Exhibits online: A Deakin University website – currently has online exhibitions relating to travel, school readers, housekeeping hints, Alfred Deakin photos, recipe books, agriculture, geography textbooks, infant care and disease prevention.
- Hansard Federal Parliament
- Historical & Cultural Collections at University of Wollongong – digitising radical and left wing publications
- Historical Census and Colonial Data Archive
- Historical Documents on Australia’s Foreign Policy: These are transcriptions only of documents selected by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad for public release.
- Honest History
- National Archives of Australia
- National Archives of Australia’s Research Guides – find out what records are held on various topics
- Obituaries Australia
- Oral History Association of Australia
- Pandora – Australia’s web archive. The National Library of Australia archives many Australian websites – you can even find past versions of Stumbling Through the Past there.
- Records of the Australasian Federal Conventions of the 1890s
- SETIS: Australian Studies Resources – literary and historical texts, Federation database and more
- The AIATSIS Map of Aboriginal Australia
- The Australian Women’s Register
- Trove – A gift to the world, this website by the libraries of Australia has a huge number of digitised newspapers, one place to search the books held by most of the libraries in Australia, historic photos and more. It is all available for free!
- Year Book Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics – Click on the “Past and Future Releases” tab and download any of these statistical overviews since 1908.
Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)
- ACT Heritage Library
- Early Capital Territory and district Government Schools and Teachers: a database from the Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre (check out the rest of the website too)
- Government Records about the Australian Capital Territory by Ted Ling
New South Wales
- Archives Outside (NSW)
- City of Newcastle Heritage & History
- City of Sydney Oral Histories
- Dictionary of Sydney
- Eveleigh Stories – Archive: digitised records relating to the Eveleigh Railway Workshop in Sydney
- Government Schools of New South Wales from 1848: database of schools, photos and more
- Historians and Archivists – City of Sydney publications, festivals, local history groups, archives
- Lachlan & Elizabeth Macquarie Archives: This extensive site from Macquarie University brings together a number of projects focusing on the transcription of the archives of the Macquaries as well as helpful background information. Images of the original documents do not seem to be available (Please correct me if I am wrong).
- North Sydney Heritage Centre
- New South Wales Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
- NSW Parliament Hansard and Papers from 1824
- NSW Election Results 1856-2009
- Religion, church and missions in Australia – State Library of NSW resource that seems to only cover the colony of New South Wales. Links to digitised documents in the narrative.
- State Archives New South Wales
- State Library of New South Wales
- Sydney’s History – lots of resources to explore from City of Sydney Council
- Unlocking Regional Memory: New South Wales electronic regional archives
Northern Territory & Central Australia
- Ara Irititja Project
- Cameleers from the Indian Subcontinent in Australia: at the time these cameleers were called ‘Afghan’, but they often were from that part of the continent which we now know as India and Pakistan.
- Commonwealth Government Records about the Northern Territory by Ted Ling
- Olive Pink Collection (University of Tasmania)
Queensland
- Brisbane Images – maps, photos, plans, building records
- Education History of Queensland
- Exhibition List from Queensland State Archive: find digitised collections of Queensland historical documents through this list
- Female teachers in Queensland State Schools: A history 1860-1983
- Hansard Queensland Parliament from 1860 – select year from drop down box, then click on any of the coloured dates on the calendar
- Judy Webster’s genealogy tips & indexes for local, interstate & overseas folk in Queensland’s historical records
- Pugh’s Almanacs – Qld
- Queensland Education History Topics: interesting topics and some digitised resources
- Qld Parliamentary History
- Queensland Historical Atlas
- Queensland Places from the University of Queensland
- Queensland State Archives
- Queensland Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
- State Library of Queensland
- Text Queensland
South Australia
- Adelaide City Archives
- Adelaidia: An online dictionary about the history of Adelaide developed by History SA.
- Commonwealth Government Records about South Australia by Sara King
- SA Memory
- South Australia Red Cross Information Bureau 1916-1919
- South Australian Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
- State Library of South Australia
- State Records of South Australia
Tasmania
- Andrew Inglis Clark Collection (University of Tasmania)
- Commonwealth Government Records about Tasmania by Michael Piggott
- Founders & Survivors: Australian lives 1803-1920. A project looking at history of 73,000 convicts to Tasmania and the families they founded.
- Royal Society of Tasmania (University of Tasmania)
- Tasmanian Archives and Heritage
- Tasmanian Quaker resources (University of Tasmania)
- University of Tasmania Library Open Repository Collections: Includes many original historic documents pertaining to Australian and Tasmanian history – many digitised.
Victoria
- Collections in Melbourne: A Guide to Commonwealth Government Records by Celia Blake
- Digitised Records and Online Indexes from the Public Record Office of Victoria
- eMelbourne
- Geelong Heritage
- Hansard Victorian Parliament from 1856
- Hughes, Sue, A Gazetteer of Newspapers from the Central Victorian Goldfields (1851-1901), available on the Charles Sturt University Institute for Land, Water and Society website, (Albury, 2003).
- Judge Willis Casebooks – articles about Judge Willis, the first judge in Port Phillip (later Victoria) and transcripts of the Judge’s casebooks and other papers from March 1841 to July 1843,
- Mission Voices via the Internet Archive
- Public Records Office of Victoria
- Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) Wiki: A wealth of information about the records at PROV. This wiki is now closed for new entries as PROV is hoping to migrate this facility to a new integrated website sometime in the next couple of years.
- State Library of Victoria
- University of Melbourne Archives
- Victoria Government Gazette
- Victoria Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Western Australia
- Aboriginal Records at State Records Office of Western Australia: There is a wealth of information that you can access through this finding aid, such as ‘An Index to the Chief Protector of Aborigines Files 1898 – 1908‘.
- Bussell and Molloy Diaries – 1830s: images only of the diaries of Frances Lousia Bussell, as well as John and Georgiana Molloy.
- Collections in Perth: A Guide to Commonwealth Government Records by Dan Midalia
- Historic Maps Online at the State Records Office of Western Australia
- History Collections at the Western Australian Museum
- Maritime History at the Western Australian Museum
- Mary Ann Friend Journal 1929-1831: images and transcription of the journal of a woman who lived in Western Australia.
- Passenger Lists and Immigration Records: Find out what is available at the State Records Office of Western Australia.
- Police Gazette of Western Australia 1876-1900
- Specialised Finding Aids at the State Records Office of Western Australia.
- State Library of Western Australia
- State Records Office of Western Australia: Type in the town you are interested in to find digitised and non-digitised items relating to that place.
- Western Australia Parliament Hansard from 1870
- Western Australian Post Office Directories 1893-1949
- Western Australian Year Books from the Australian Bureau of Statistics