The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Australian History
"Accurate, convenient to use and covers an interesting subject....This little book provides answers to hundreds of questions about Australia's history, culture and society....A useful and handy addition to the home library. It is suitable for students of all ages, trivia buffs and history fans alike."- Geelong Advertiser
Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania
"A two-volume A-to-Z reference to the peoples of the Asia-Pacific region east of the Caspian Sea, not including the countries of the Middle East. More than 400 entries cover the major peoples that for a time maintained a cultural identity in the area - from ancient to modern times - describing their history, migration, culture, belief system, social organization, and relationship to other peoples."
Historical Dictionary of Australia
"Finding out about Australia outside of Australia can be difficult and even discouraging. This Historical Dictionary of Australia aims at filling that sometimes frustrating gap in reference. It is an introduction to Australia and its history, tracing the history of the continent from the first human settlement about 80,000 years ago to the late 1990s, in 371 cross-referenced entries..."
The Macquire Encyclopedia of Australian Events
"The Macquarie Encyclopedia of Australian Events can be used in three ways 'as a source for specific reference, to gain an overview of a subject,or for a fascinating browse through events in many areas of Australia's history...'"
The Oxford Companion to Australian History
"A host of readers will consult this Companion and glean crucial facts and statistics, many of them unknown even to some specialists...the major articles in The Oxford Companion to Australian History say something new with clarity and pithiness. The three editors deserve praises, not least because they themselves have written many of the major articles, commenting with insight even on fields that are not their own." - Geoffrey Blainey, Times Literary Supplement
Australian and New Zealand Historical Newspapers Subject Guide -- compiled by Florida Atlantic University Libraries, this guide lists newspapers from digital collections that have been curated by others and uploaded to the internet. Some of the Newspaper runs may be missing issues or date ranges. The dates of coverage are included in an entry for a newspaper. Dates of coverage were correct when they were added to the entry, but may have changed since they were recorded. Only titles with open access and not behind a pay wall are included.
British Newspaper Archives – the British Library's collection of historical newspapers containing titles from 1603 to the present day, from both Britain and further afield. Will include newspaper coverage of the colonization of Australia and New Zealand and early relations with the nations of the South Pacific.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.
Historical Maps of Australia and the Pacific – maps from the University of Texas, Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Map Collection. Note that the website is archived as of 2021 and no longer being updated. Links to external sites may no longer work as expected. Visit the Texas GeoData portal and Collections portal for all map files and the UTL Map Collections LibGuide for additional information.
National Library of Australia Maps -- collection includes around one million maps, from early European charts to current mapping of Australia, in print and digital form. All online maps are now freely available for download, in high resolution format. Content includes 200,000 post-1900 Australian topographic maps published by national and state mapping authorities; property and subdivision maps for each Australian state and territory; thematic maps of land use, water, and other resource management, geology and mining, transport, roads, planning and infrastructure, and military mapping; 800,000 aerial photographs of Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Antarctica; overseas maps, emphasizing regions near Australia; and, street directories, atlases, gazetteers and reference material.
National Library of New Zealand Maps -- direct link to the search tab for maps of New Zealand and Pacific nations region. The search engine allows keyword searching of approximately 60,000 places.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division – search page to the “National Map Library” of the United States. Although only representing a fraction of the Division’s collections, searching with the terms “Australia,” "New Zealand," or Oceania" reveals more than 100 digital maps, many of which are centuries old. Includes access to specific map collections as well as other collections of archival materials maps that include maps.
Map History/History of Cartography: Australia, Oceania and Antarctica [cut and paste this link: http://www.maphistory.info/imageaustr.html] – comprehensive listing of early map image sites to the region provide by the WWW-Virtual Library website. Latest content appears to have been last added in 2011 but content can still be useful in locating relevant map collections and images.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.
NOTE TO USERS: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that many of these collections include images, voices, or names of deceased persons in photographs, web sites, film, audio recordings, or printed material.
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Australia's preeminent dictionary of national biography. In it you will find concise, informative and informative descriptions of the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history.
Australian History Timeline – a collection of clips covering Australian history from hundreds of thousands of years ago to the beginning of the 21st century curated by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Australian Literary and Historic Texts | via SETIS – a collection of over 220 Australian primary-source texts available in full text, including historical records from settlement to the early twentieth century and key works from leading Australian literary figures from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Source documents include fiction, poetry, plays, reports and journals.
British National Archives – contains historical documents, known as records, which were created and collected by UK central government departments and major courts of law, including records from the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Central Criminal Court.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography – site provides access to over 3000 biographical profiles of people who have made a significant mark on New Zealand history across all fields of endeavor. It also includes biographies of people selected for their representativeness, and to help provide a balance of individuals from across society. Living people are not eligible for inclusion. The site is part of the larger Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
DigitalNZ – a comprehensive, open access search site to reliable digital collections from New Zealand, including, libraries, museums, galleries, government departments, the media, and community groups. On DigitalNZ you can discover more than 30 million digital items from more than 200 organizations on any topic from videos, newspapers, maps, photographs, audio recordings, artworks, and news reports.
Early Experiences in Australasia: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives – provides a unique and personal view of events in the region from the arrival of the first settlers through to Australian Federation at the close of the 19th century. First-person accounts are presented in letters and diaries, narratives, and other primary source materials.
Early New Zealand Statutes [copy and paste this link: http://www.enzs.auckland.ac.nz/]– covers New Zealand law-making from 1841-1940. It comprises Ordinances 1841-1854, Acts of Parliament 1854-1940, Auckland Provincial Acts 1853-1876, and Reprinted Statutes 1908. The collection covers 100 consecutive years of New Zealand law-making from 1841-1940. The statutes are arranged chronologically by year. Note that subsequent amendments to amend or repeal of any of these laws are not noted on the assent versions.
The First Legislative Council Archive – contains documents from 1824 to 1855. It includes tabled papers, Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reports of debates, and documents relating to the administration of the Australia First Council (classified as "non-tabled papers"). These have been indexed by document type and date. Note that over time some of the early original material has become faded and in some places illegible; nonetheless it is included here in its authentic form as a record of its existence.
Gerritsen Women's History Collection – contains more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. The collection presents both the anti-feminist case as well as the pro-feminist. The broad scope of the collection allows researchers to trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of one country's movement on those of the others.
National Library of Australia Oral History and Folklore Collection – a rich and diverse collection of interviews and recordings with Australians from all walks of life that describe that country’s cultural, intellectual, and social life. The collection consists of over 55,000 hours of recordings, the earlier ones dating back to the 1950s when the tape recorder became available. More than 1000 hours of interviews, music and accents are added to the collection each year.
New Zealand History Online – the site features information and resources from within the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. Access to materials is arranged under topics, events, people, and places. Also, three broad categories showcase themes in New Zealand history: Culture and society, Politics and government and New Zealand at war. A Calendar of New Zealand history events provides short essays and links to further sources on over 500 events in New Zealand history.
Papers Past – a open access, full-text archive of materials sponsored by the National Library of New Zealand. There are five searchable sections of the archives:
Trove – supported by the National Library of Australia, this is an open access portal to collections from Australian libraries, universities, museums, galleries, and archives. Materials include digital copies of newspapers, Government Gazettes, maps, magazines and newsletters as well as books, photographs, archived websites, music, and oral history interviews. There is also information about famous Australians, including copies of letters, diaries, and personal archives.
Using Primary Source and Archival Materials
AM Research Methods – this platform provides practical advice on how to work with primary source materials and integrate them into a research study. Contents include approximately 200 hundred essays, instructive videos, practical "How to" guides, and case studies created by scholars and archivists. The videos and "How to" guides introduce the key concepts of conducting research and analyzing primary source materials. Case studies describe examples of the ways in which historians have used diaries, government records, and posters, or popular culture, gender, and science materials in their research. A discrete collection of cases focusing on historical datasets is also included.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.