Natural world
Uncover the work of collectors, artists and scientists as they document the world around them.
Desert Trees
The Larapinta Trail shifts what a nature writer thought she knew about trees.
The future is fungi
Without nature’s alchemists, the world as we know it would not exist. Now we are beginning to understand fungi’s restorative role.
The Tree of Life
In the depths of grief, Indira Naidoo turns to the natural world around her for answers.
Grand vistas
Sixteen panoramas will displayed in the inaugural exhibition of the Library’s new Drawings, Watercolours and Prints Gallery.
Embracing the uncertainty
Science writer Jackson Ryan travels to Antarctica, via Mars, distant asteroids and tardigrades.
Recasting sandstone country
Sydney’s sandstone tells a story of deep time, colonial geology and a future in the balance.
Grand designs
Photographs reveal the grand inner-city gardens that were once the glory of Sydney.
Dyarubbin
Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, begins at the confluence of the Grose and Nepean rivers and ends at Broken Bay. This long, winding and ancient river has been home to the Darug people for millennia and is a vital and sustaining resource.
Coming home
A life, as much as a gathering of words, is a story of places. It begins and ends with soil beneath feet, water within heart.
A fleeting return
Beauty and rarity were irresistible in the search for the Paradise Parrot one hundred years ago, as they are for birders today.
Gifts from the sea
The timeless appeal of shells has seen them preserved in many ways over the centuries.
Deeper history
Science and history come together in conserving the swamplands of southern Sydney.
Drawing to a close
An artist followed in the inspiring footsteps of a botanist rescued from a tragic expedition in 1848.
Totems
How can a dialogue between Indigenous ancestors and descendants forge connections to country for all Australians?
Singing with the wind
Sydney writer and naturalist Ella McFadyen combined a love of nature, folklore and poetry.
The real secret river: exploring Dyarubbin
A list of Aboriginal placenames was a trigger for seeking the ‘real secret river’.
River dreams
Bold plans to transform the Cooks River in Sydney are reflected in the Library's collection.
- History
- Natural world
- Quick Reads
Through Darwin's eyes
Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
- Collection item
- Quick Reads
Splendid Species
The Library is delighted to announce the complete digitisation of its renowned "pattern" set of 681 folio-sized plates for 'The Birds of Australia' by John Gould.
- History
- People
- Quick Reads
Alec Chisholm: bush naturalist and benign nationalist
Alec Chisholm (1890–1977) was once famous in Australia. Although that’s no longer so, he’s a man worth remembering.
- History
- Quick Reads
Record catch: 80 years of east coast fishing
Merging history and science, a Library fellowship tracked 80 years of fishing off the east coast of Australia.
- Art and culture
- Quick Reads
Slide show
The quirky and obscure Hallams slide collection is a curator’s dream, revealing ordinary Australian gardens in the 1960s and 70s.
- Current exhibition
- Image
The modern garden
Outstanding gardens are revealed by leading photographers in a new exhibition.
- Discovery
- Indigenous
- Audio
Planting Dreams: audio guides
Hear Jonathan Jones, Bruce Pascoe and Richard Aitken share their thoughts about some of the items on display in Planting Dreams.
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- Image
- In Depth
Antarctica: modern adventures
Like many other nations, Australia was looking to the future after the turmoil of the Second World War. Several countries saw Antarctica as a potential source of territory, fishing and mineral resources.
- Discovery
- History
- Natural world
- Image
- Quick Reads
Early Antarctic adventures
The subject of much speculation, the idea of an unknown southern land began with the ancient Greeks.
- Discovery
- History
- Quick Reads
Mysterious leaves from the past: Bray’s Museum of Curios
Historical discoveries from the Library's collections.
- History
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Looking north: Sydney's Upper North Shore
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Hunter Valley
Caergwrle (pronounced Ka-girlie) is situated on the Allyn River, in one of the most beautiful rural areas of the Hunter Valley.
- Art and culture
- History
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Papua New Guinea (PNG): Forty years of independence
- History
- Natural world
- People
- In Depth
Australian agricultural and rural life
Images of the changing face of Australia’s rural landscape.
- Collection item
- Quick Reads
Hitting the slopes: a young woman’s alpine adventure in the 1930s
Thoroughly modern Miss Emily Chambers of Burwood, NSW, was always eager to try the latest fad.
- Discovery
- History
- In Depth
From Terra Australis to Australia
Discover the original journals, logbooks, letters, paintings and drawings covering the voyage of the First Fleet, the mutiny on the Bounty and Matthew Flinders' journeys.
- Art and culture
- Indigenous
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- Quick Reads
The Wallis album
The discovery and acquisition of a fascinating album compiled by Captain James Wallis reveals the artistic collaborations between a commandant and a convict.
- Art and culture
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Image
- In Depth
The TAL & Dai-ichi Life Derby Collection
This extraordinary collection of natural history illustrations contains 745 watercolours in six volumes, the collection conveys Europe’s naïve yet genuine sense of wonder at Australia’s unique natural history.
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- In Depth
Lasseter's lost reef
Nothing captures the Australian imagination quite like the thought of striking it lucky. So it’s no surprise one of our greatest legends involves a search for a mysterious vein of gold.
- About the State Library
- Art and culture
- Discovery
- History
- Image
- Quick Reads
The Tasman Map: two voyages to the southern ocean between 1642 and 1644
The story of the Tasman Map is a tale of mystery, discovery and a chance finding on the Nullarbor Plain.
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- Image
- In Depth
Antarctica: Frank Hurley
As the official photographer on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Frank Hurley provided a remarkable record of the dangers and heroism of Antarctic exploration in the early twentieth century.
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Crossing the Blue Mountains
None of the settlers in Sydney knew what lay west of the Blue Mountains in the early 1800s. This vast natural barrier that stretched north and south beyond sight had thwarted all attempts to cross or go around it.