SLWA on ABC Radio

As wildflower season approaches, join Dr Kate as she discusses the ‘wildflower work’ of Lilian Wooster Greaves (1869-1956) who produced and exhibited pressed wildflowers from 1915.

Listen as Dr Kate unpacks how and why the State Library has a surprising collection of D.H. Lawrence letters that were written to WA’s Mollie Skinner.

Listen to the incredible case of the murder of Cyril Gidley by his spurned lover Audrey Jacob at the Government House Ballroom in 1925, brought to life in a new short film, created through the WA Reflections partnership between the State Library and Screenwest.

Join Dr Adam Trainer from the State Library with HiFi Club President Colin Nichol and filmmaker Dominic Pratt as they discuss the WA Reflections project and the first film to be launched from it – Generation Hi-Fi.

Listen to Dr Kate on ABC radio as she delves into the legacy of Kathleen O’Connor and her significance as an artist through the State Library’s private archive collection.

The State Library holds the private papers of the artist Kathleen O’Connor 1876 – 1968, including a collection of photographs and exhibition catalogues and pamphlets of her work.

Richard Woldendorp is a renowned Australian photographer. Born in the Netherlands in 1927, Woldendorp moved to Western Australia in 1951. Woldendorp is known for his shots of Australian landscapes that have a painterly quality to them.

Pete Edwards, Heritage Team Librarian, discusses original ANZAC materials from the State Library archives. From maps of the 1915 & 1917 battlefronts to letters written from Gallipoli, a desperate action at Gallipoli that ended in a Victoria Cross & a cigarette card, and snippets of on

March is Women’s History Month and this week John Hughes, Senior Subject Specialist at the State Library, discusses one of WA’s most famous and influential women, Edith Cowan.

Dr Kate is back on the airwaves in 2021 at a brand new time slot, delving into WA’s past, extracting hidden treasures and the fascinating stories behind them.

“Mediocre results are not to his credit. He lacks the serious and steady application indispensable for his future success”. Comments on Bob Hawke’s school record provides surprising insights into the academic performance of our former Prime Minister.

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares…” (from the Book of Isiah)

In November 1905 a young scientist travelled to Perth from Bremen, Germany to undertake research of international significance in suburban Bayswater. Damien Hassan, Senior Archivist at the State Records Office picks up the story based on the government files held in the State archives collection.

The State Library holds thousands of newspapers, but this week we focus on early West Australian newspapers, predominantly focussing on the first commercially printed West Australian newspaper, with the ungainly masthead of The Fremantle Observer, Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, published for the first time in April 1831.

This week we talk music, specifically the private archive of John Exton, who taught at the University of Western Australia’s Music Department between 1966 and 1988.

This week we focus on a range of separate but connected collection items and tell the story behind them. The Georgette Rescue and the role of Sam Isaacs and Grace Bussell within it has become part of West Australian folklore and mythology.  

This week Dr Kate looks at a collection that is widely acknowledged as one of the State Library's treasures – the Freycinet Collection.

This week,  just in time for wildflower season Dr Kate immerses us in the beautiful photography of Hilda Wright. Although she taught dressmaking professionally, between 1936 and 1950 Hilda was also a keen (and very skilled) photographer, focussing primarily on Western Australian wildflowers.

This week, Dr Kate highlights the State Library's incredible (and extensive) oral history collection, and focuses on the role that oral history can play in telling the stories of everyday West Australians and in highlighting and describing those aspects of our social history that are often ignored or left out of more official documentation of the past.

This week, Dr Kate talks about a small collection of photographs from the Gilchrist collection, depicting protesters from the Union of Australian Women marching against the development of a US military base in WA in 1962. 

This week Dr Kate discusses John Hutchinson’s remarkable collection of recordings documenting Western Australian birds across several decades in remote areas across the state, including parts of the Kimberley, Pilbara and South-West.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are advised that this page includes photographs and names of people who are now deceased.

Today, Dr Kate discusses the opening up of the South West as a tourist destination, and showcases an attractive, illustrated, handwritten booklet recounting a trip to Augusta in 1921.

This week, Kate talks about a very early letter from the Pilbara, written just as this area was opening up to the pastoral industry. The letter is digitised and can be viewed online through the State Library catalogue.

ANZAC day was on the weekend and in light of that, this week Dr Kate discussed Joseph John Talbot Hobbs who kept five diaries throughout World War I. 

This week Dr. Kate discusses Raymond Stanley Stewart’s diary written on toilet paper while he was a prisoner of war in WWII.

The diary covers the period of 27 July 1942 to 12 September 1942 and details the day to day life as a POW in the desert camps of North Africa to the camps in Italy.