The strength of the Library’s Pacific collections reflects Australia's strong historic and continuing connections with the region. The collections include:

  • Printed materials - thousands of books, newspapers and journals ranging from the earliest accounts of the Pacific to contemporary publications
  • Manuscripts - papers of many Australians who were involved, personally or professionally, with the Pacific and Papua New Guinea. Supplemented by microfilmed materials from the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB) and the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) series.
  • Pictures - paintings and photographs dating from the earliest voyages to the present day. Many have been digitised
  • Maps - rare and beautiful early maps as well as recent material
  • Archived websites - selected by the Library and hosted on the Internet Archive. Mostly government or research sites around a theme, for example Papua New Guinea Elections 2007.

Highlights

Explore our Pacific treasures by viewing the highlights below: