National Library Home > News & Events

NLA News cover On the cover this month

June Orford (b.1946)
Flash Butt Thermo Welding at Rail Joints 2002
colour digital photograph
Pictures Collection; nla.pic-an24813015

This image is one of a set of 20 taken in 2002 by June Orford and Francis Reiss during the last stages of the construction of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway in the Northern Territory. Work on the railway between Adelaide and Darwin had commenced in the nineteenth century, from two directions. The southern line, begun in Port Augusta in 1878, reached Alice Springs in 1929. In the same year the northern line, which had started in Palmerston (now Darwin) in 1885, reached Birdum, 1000 kilometres to the north of Alice Springs. There the railheads remained for more than 70 years until the two lines were finally joined in September 2003. See the story of Bridging the Distance

March 2008 Volume XVIII Number 6

Meandering Among Miniatures

Ann Nugent examines the Library’s collection of miniature books

Refractory Girls

Barry York looks at the female factories which existed in the Australian colonies in the first half of the nineteenth century

Sally Sloane: ‘Queen of Singing Folk’

Jenny Gall considers a significant holding in the Oral History and Folklore Collection

Diaghilev’s legacy

Lee Christofis previews the Ballets Russes in Australia symposium being held in Adelaide in two months time

Bridging the Distance

John Clark describes the current exhibition on show at the National Library of Australia

Friends

A regular news page about the activities of the Friends of the National Library of Australia

Download Cover to Cover (1.05Mb)

 

 

Return to NLA News Entry