News

Did you know that you can search Picture Australia for more than historical and cultural images?

During National Science Week 16 - 24 August 2008, find pictures of your favourite ‘–ology’ on Picture Australia or try a search for astronomy, forestry, meteorology, solar panels or even microscopic spongiform encephalopathies to start delving into the wealth of science images available.

Do you want to find historical images, articles, cartoons or maps printed in Australian newspapers?

On 25 July 2008, in collaboration with the State and Territory libraries, the National Library of Australia launched the Australian Newspapers Beta service which makes available out-of-copyright digitised Australian newspapers. This exciting new online service enables the full-text searching of newspaper articles from newspapers published in each state and territory from the 1800s to the mid-1950s. The first Australian newspaper, the Sydney Gazette published in Sydney in 1803, is included in the service. The Australian Newspapers Beta service already contains over 90,000 newspaper pages from 1803 onwards, with more pages being added daily. The National Library of Australia welcomes your feedback on the service and will continue development of the service over the next few months.

Discover the wealth of Australian Newspapers online at the Australian Newspapers Beta service.

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during July

Read report (57.8kb PDF)

Researchers can now access Warringah Library Service's entire collection of digitised images on Picture Australia.

The local indigenous people of the area are the Guringai. 'Warringah' is the Guringai word for Middle Harbour. Today, Warringah is a diverse community with a population of 140,000 people covering 152.5 square kilometres.

Best Contributor awards

Congratulations to the State Library of South Australia for the award of the most images contributed to Picture Australia. The addition of 40,000+ images greatly assisted in Picture Australia surpassing the milestone of 1.5 million images.

Congratulations also to the State Library of Western Australia for the best data quality award. Good data is essential for searching and retrieving image records on Picture Australia.

Flickr Contributor awards

Ross and Veronique from R&V Photographers received the awards for the high quality and quantity of work they have contributed to Picture Australia’s Flickr groups. The award also recognises their assistance in promoting and supporting the project goals.

Their prizes of digital books have been generously provided by Life Design.

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during June

Read report (76 kb PDF file)

In association with the Vivid, the National Photography Festival, Picture Australia will be launching a DVD. See selected works from Picture Australia Flickr groups (146kb PDF file)

Celebrate images, history and invention (419kb PDF file)
6.30 pm, Monday 14 July 2008
National Library of Australia
Screening: LG1 Theatre,
Parkes Place, Canberra

Join image makers, private collectors, national, state and regional picture curators in conversation on their passion for image collections. Find out about the collective image network that makes up Picture Australia and the opportunities for you to contribute. View exciting new artworks produced by creative Australians and from the collections of key museums, galleries, libraries and archives across the country.
Free event, open to the public.
Bookings are essential: bookings@nla.gov.au or 02 6262 1271

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during May

Read report (14 kb PDF)

Researchers can now access the National Gallery of Australia's entire digitised Australian Art collection on Picture Australia.

The Australian Art collection at the National Gallery of Australia incorporates art made in Australia or about Australian subjects since European settlement in 1788, with the greatest strength in the 20th century. The collection encompasses paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, sketchbooks, posters, photographs, decorative arts and installation art.

Do you want to be able to search Picture Australia directly from your organisational or personal website?

A Picture Australia search is as easy to add to your webpage as a simple copy and paste.

Placing the search box on your organisational or personnel website will help your visitors find and get items from the collections of Australia's libraries, museums, galleries and archives.

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during April

Read report (14.6 kb PDF)

The Australian War Memorial in 2003 appointed David Dare Parker as its official photographer and Lewis Miller as its official artist, to document the role of Australian Defence Force personnel deployed to the Second Gulf War. The artists have produced a vast array of paintings, sketches and photographs about the every day lives of Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, and Australian Army personnel in the war zone.

The Australian War Memorial also holds a large range of contemporary images relating to the Afghanistan conflict. These images produced by artists Peter Churcher, George Gittoes, and Sean Hobbs, document the involvement of the Australian Air Force and Australian Army. The Australian War Memorial has a long history of official war artists documenting conflicts, going back to the First World War.

On ANZAC Day, we commemorate all New Zealanders and Australians who have served in a military campaign.

View Picture Australia’s ANZACs at Gallipoli trail.

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during March.

Read report (15.2 kb PDF)

View highlights from contributors to Picture Australia's Flickr groups during February.

Read report (17kb PDF)

Do you want to return to particular picture searches so you can reliably cite them in Wikipedia, articles or essays? See our Search Help page for details on how to create simple, linkable searches on Picture Australia that always return results.