Special Collections

The Australiana Research Room houses a number of special collections.

THE Australiana Collection: the room is so named because of the 'core' collection of Australiana material which comes to our collections via the old Ballarat Public Library, situated in Barkly Street.  The interesting old  building is still there, now part of the Ballarat Secondary College senior campus.  When that library branch closed, the Librarian at the time recognised there was a significant collection of old and rare titles held there, many of them connected to the early history of Australia.  These books had been part of the collection since gold rush times, when the collection was noted to be second only to the Melbourne Public Library's.  We are proud to note we have original volumes by Collins, Hunter, and Phillips, recording the establishment of the colony of New South Wales, as well as original editions recording the discoveries of such luminaries as Flinders, Leichhardt, Eyre, Stuart and Parker King. This very special collection forms a subset of the main collection, which has been built and developed in the years since the Australiana room was established.

The MV Anderson Art History Collection: gifted by the late MV Anderson, a Melbourne accountant, in the 1960s, this collection consists of approximately 1500 volumes  providing a remarkable glimpse into the collector's mind. 

The John Faringdon-Davis Military Collection: gifted by the family of the late John Faringdon-Davis of Bacchus Marsh, this is a collection of approximately 400 titles encompassing the history of warfare as well as information on specific battles and regiments, useful to famiily historians.

The Gordon R. Smith Collection: it is still unclear how many volumes Gordon Smith gifted to the Library during the 1960s, as the volumes were not kept separate but added throughout the collection.  He gifted many very special titles in the Australiana Room as well as the Ballarat branch collection.  Volumes gifted by Gordon Smith can be distinguished by his name pencilled on the flyleaf or endpaper. 

The Australian Historical Records Society: this group formed in Ballarat in 1896 and was one of the earliest Australian historical societies.  Thanks to a City of Ballarat Community Development Grant, these papers have been conserved and are now safely housed.  The next step in this project is to digitise and make them accessible again.

Town and City Mission Records: These documents encompass records of the Mission, and the Alexandra Babies Home.

McKenzie Collection (sports) and Richmond Collection (images of Ballarat and district 1940s 50s & 60s): these two special photograph collections have not yet - due to their size - been catalogued and digitised.  Because of this, the collections are not generally accessible, however if you have specific bona fide research, ask the librarians to help you.

Ballarat Mayoral Photographs: do you have a Mayor in your family?  This project brought together images of as many Mayors of both Ballarat East and Ballarat, as we could manage.  Search our catalogue using Mayors and Photographs as search terms, to look at them all, or, just enter the Mayor's name, to see specific Mayors.

Oral Histories: over 200 subjects were interviewed in the early 1980s, men and women from all walks of life, in the Central Highlands Region. More than 25 years later, the value of the oral histories increases daily.  Although the original cassettes can no longer be played, there are transcripts available.  We were able to digitise the tapes of the Ararat area and these are available  on CD Rom.