Natural world

Without nature’s alchemists, the world as we know it would not exist. Now we are beginning to understand fungi’s restorative role.

Sixteen panoramas will displayed in the inaugural exhibition of the Library’s new Drawings, Watercolours and Prints Gallery.

Science writer Jackson Ryan travels to Antarctica, via Mars, distant asteroids and tardigrades.

Sydney’s sandstone tells a story of deep time, colonial geology and a future in the balance.

Photographs reveal the grand inner-city gardens that were once the glory of Sydney.

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.

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.

Beauty and rarity were irresistible in the search for the Paradise Parrot one hundred years ago, as they are for birders today.

The timeless appeal of shells has seen them preserved in many ways over the centuries.

Science and history come together in conserving the swamplands of southern Sydney.

An artist followed in the inspiring footsteps of a botanist rescued from a tragic expedition in 1848. 

How can a dialogue between Indigenous ancestors and descendants forge connections to country for all Australians?

Sydney writer and naturalist Ella McFadyen combined a love of nature, folklore and poetry. 

A list of Aboriginal placenames was a trigger for seeking the ‘real secret river’.

Bold plans to transform the Cooks River in Sydney are reflected in the Library's collection.

Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

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. 

Alec Chisholm (1890–1977) was once famous in Australia. Although that’s no longer so, he’s a man worth remembering.

Merging history and science, a Library fellowship tracked 80 years of fishing off the east coast of Australia.

The quirky and obscure Hallams slide collection is a curator’s dream, revealing ordinary Australian gardens in the 1960s and 70s.

Outstanding gardens are revealed by leading photographers in a new exhibition.

Hear Jonathan Jones, Bruce Pascoe and Richard Aitken share their thoughts about some of the items on display in Planting Dreams. 

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.

The subject of much speculation, the idea of an unknown southern land began with the ancient Greeks.

Historical discoveries from the Library's collections.

Caergwrle (pronounced Ka-girlie) is situated on the Allyn River, in one of the most beautiful rural areas of the Hunter Valley.

Images of the changing face of Australia’s rural landscape.

Thoroughly modern Miss Emily Chambers of Burwood, NSW, was always eager to try the latest fad.

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.

The discovery and acquisition of a fascinating album compiled by Captain James Wallis reveals the artistic collaborations between a commandant and a convict.

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.

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.

The story of the Tasman Map is a tale of mystery, discovery and a chance finding on the Nullarbor Plain.

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.

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.