Travel
Scope of collection
Travel includes journeys for business and leisure to and from Australia and within Australia with an emphasis on travel in New South Wales. The collection encompasses the developing tourism industry and regional activities undertaken for leisure. Materials also reflect the experience of overseas travel on individuals in the New South Wales community.
Collecting aims and intentions
The Library aims to collect historic and current material on all aspects of travel relating to Australia and especially New South Wales, including travel within the Pacific region and Antarctica from European settlement to the present.
Materials documenting experiences of travel and travellers are collected to enable understanding of life in urban, regional and rural New South Wales and reflect the changing popularity and focus of tourist destinations over time, including modes of transport and development of tourism in New South Wales.
The experience of travel and the subsequent effect of the journey on individuals, their community and the broader society is of particular interest. The output of marketing organisations documenting travel opportunities, modes of transport and providing information on destinations in New South Wales, including maps, guides and ephemera produced for tourists and visitors to conferences and conventions within New South Wales, is collected.
Existing collection
- Published information about destinations and modes of transport such as travel brochures, maps, posters, guidebooks and street directories
- Descriptions of travel to and within New South Wales and Australia from the point of view of the immigrant, visitor and resident from diaries and papers, including correspondence of travellers and tourists
- Materials documenting travel within the Pacific region in the nineteenth century are a particular strength
- Tourism journals produced by New South Wales government agencies, local and regional publishers promoting tourism and related activities
- Newspapers, especially accounts of travel, reviews of accommodation, exchange rates and advertisements
- Records of tourist organisations and businesses involved in tourism, including organisations concerned with ecotourism and bushwalking clubs
- Images documenting the development of towns and popular locations in New South Wales including landscapes, photographic views and sketches, coastal profiles and photographs
- Ephemera including pamphlets, brochures, guides and information sheets on tourist destinations, activities and services in Australia and overseas
- Electronic resources including facilitated access to online information about travel in New South Wales or produced by New South Wales organisations and government agencies via bookmarks linked to the Library's Electronic Resources webpage
Some examples of unique or significant items
- Journals and letters of navigators including:
- Journals and papers of explorers including:
- Diaries of Annie Marie Dawbin, 1834-1868, describing voyages between England and Australia and travels in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
Dixson Library: ZMS.Q181 - MS.Q 183 - Journals and sketchbooks of Sir Oswald Brierly including his Voyage on the Wanderer, 1816, 1825, 1830, 1833, 1841-1847.
- Papers of George Morrison including diaries and correspondence.
- Papers of Norman Lang Mackellar relating to shipping companies. Mitchell Library: ML MSS 4548
- Papers of Myles Dunphy including journals, tour notes, correspondence, environment conservation files and New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service material. Mitchell Library: MLMSS 4457
- Papers of Paddy Pallin including diaries, subject files and travel documents.
- Lewis Sharp: Photographs taken in Australia, England and New Zealand. Mitchell Library: PXB86
- The Australasian Traveller, 1905-1924.
- Posters, guidebooks and brochures such as:
- New South Wales Government Tourist Bureau guidebooks such as The Royal National Park: the gateway to beautiful Illawarra, 1956.
- Burns, Philp & Co. publications such as The BP magazine, 1928-1942.
- Orient Line publications such as Orient line guide: chapters for travellers by sea and by land, 1885.
- Collection of posters regarding tourism in Australia during Australia's sesquicentenary, published by Australian National Travel Association, Melbourne, 1937-38.
- Albums of photographs of the Allen Family.
Mitchell Library: PX*D562 - PX*D609 - Stanley Robert Youdale: family photographic albums, 1900-1931.
- UBD (Universal Business Directories) maps and guides, 1960 - (ongoing publication by Universal Publishers )
- Gregory's maps and guides, from 1934 (ongoing publication by Universal Publishers) for example Gregory's street directory, Sydney. which continues from earlier title Gregory's street directory of Sydney and suburbs.
- Early tourist maps of Sydney such as Gibbs, Shallard & Co. Map of Sydney & suburbs showing tramway lines and stopping places, 1892.
- Ephemera on tourism, including pamphlets, brochures, guides and information sheets on tourist destinations, activities and services in Australia and overseas.
- Australian Photographic Agency (APA) Collection: Sydney people, places and events, 1953-1987.
- New South Wales Government Printing Office: collection of copy negatives 1870-1988: tourist series.
- Walkabout magazine: original photographs, 1934-1974.
- Collection of photographs of New South Wales from the Tourism Commission of NSW, 1900-1980.
