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Victoria on Show in PictureAustralia

Edward (Ned) Kelly, age 25: detail from VPRS 515/P0
Central Register of Male Prisoners, prisoner no. 10926
Public Record Office Victoria

c1954. Brighton Beach Baths
Item held by Bayside Library Service
PictureVictoria

Group on a Big Stump Centre for Gippsland Studies(Monash University) AB0014

PictureAustralia would like to welcome three new participating agencies: the Public Record Office Victoria, PictureVictoria, and the Monash University Centre for Gippsland Studies. These online collections strengthen and complement the images relating to Victoria already available through PictureAustralia, which include those from the State Library of Victoria, Museum Victoria and the numerous Victorian university archives.

Public Record Office Victoria

Public Record Office Victoria archives State Government of Victoria records, from its colonial beginnings in the 1800s through to the present day—including important image collections from various Victorian agencies such as the former Public Transport Corporation collection (covering the whole of Victoria), a collection of images from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, and several significant portraits of Ned Kelly (including the image to right).

The photographs of the Melbourne Olympics, compiled by a group of press photographers, provide comprehensive coverage of the various sporting teams, tournaments and races. Railways enthusiasts will be delighted with the addition of images providing a visual history of Victoria’s rail transport. 

PictureVictoria

Similar in function to PictureAustralia, PictureVictoria is a collaborative database providing access to images owned by numerous historical societies in Victoria and digitised with help from Victorian public libraries. PictureVictoria is a result of a Victorian Local History Project funded by Arts Victoria, and aims to provide greater access to the state’s historical pictorial resources through one search.

PictureVictoria has contributed over 9000 images to PictureAustralia, documenting the local history of diverse communities and the built environment. These images are an invaluable record of everyday life, as exemplified by this seaside photograph (right). Alongside images from the larger Victorian collecting institutions, PictureVictoria’s holdings help to construct a ‘bigger picture’ of Victoria by including images from regional collections.

Monash University Centre for Gippsland Studies

Monash University Centre for Gippsland Studies is PictureAustralia’s 45th contributing agency. The Centre for Gippsland Studies has almost 2000 images available via Monash University’s ARROW repository, and over 1000 of these are now available through PictureAustralia—with more soon to come.

The Centre for Gippsland Studies is a Faculty of Arts research centre within the university. The centre holds numerous research items—including books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers and photographs, reports, ephemera and maps—documenting the communities, history, industry, agriculture, recreation, environment and development of the Gippsland area.

Lucy Carson