Recent Stories
These stories come from the items in our collection.
Stories
June 2024 marks 100 years of 6WF and ABC Radio Perth. Find out more about this important moment in Western Australian history and discover the fascinating origins story illustrated with material held in the State Library’s collection.
In her own words
Aboriginal stories
Born in Darlow, near Leonora, Myrtle Brennan was a young girl when she and her mother were sent to Moore River Settlement against their will.
A Royal Tragedy
WA history
Ameer "Dusty" Dost Mohamet (1904 -1987) oral history. Father was an Indian prince and camel proprietor who met his mother, Annie in Coolgardie. Both of his parents were murdered and his siblings sent to orphanages.
Women knowing fire
Stories
Aboriginal stories
Podcasts
WA history
A podcast and short film exploring the fire knowledge of Aboriginal women. Such knowledge has been essential to the survival and cultural practices of Indigenous communities across millennia.
Stories
WA history
Agnes Hyland (1878-1939) was a professional horse trainer and circus performer that travelled the world in the early 1900s. She performed at the coronation of King George V, was a part of the Barnum and Bailey Circus and became the star act in Hyland's Circus.
Stories
Aboriginal stories
WA history
A film exploring the rich knowledge held by the Whadjuk women of the Nyungar nation about the trees of southwestern Australia who understand their specific qualities, uses and value to the Nyungar people.
Australia’s Perfect Boy
Stories
WA history
Billed as "Australia's Perfect Boy", Effie Marion Fellows (1893 - 1977) led an extraordinary life and incredible career as a male impersonator. She toured the world, married twice and was described by a New York newspaper as "one of the greatest boy impersonators in her line".
WA Bonnes 80 chain cadastral maps
Maps and charts
WA history
The Preservation Team has recently completed digitising the Western Australia Bonnes 80 chain cadastral series of maps covering most of the lower third of Western Australia and showing land boundaries from approximately 1896-1984.
WA history
Robert Litchfield Juniper was an artist, art teacher, illustrator, painter, printmaker and sculptor, whose art captured the rough scruffiness of the Australian bush.
Stories
WA history
Professor Arnold Cook (1922-1981) was blind by the age of 18, yet despite his challenges he pioneered the first guide dog movement in Australia with his beloved labrador Dreena by his side.
Video and audio recordings
Aboriginal stories
Podcasts
WA history
Hear from leading politicians, community Elders, academics and youth leaders and find out why your voice mattered in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament 2023 referendum—recordings from two events held before the referendum.
Stories
WA history
Douglas "Dick" Perry helped open the first pine nursery in Gnangara. Dick cultivated the finest seedlings after examining over 250,000 from the Forest of Leiria, Portugal. The State Library collection has hundreds of his exquisite wildflower photos and slides.