Recent Stories
These stories come from the items in our collection.
Story Topics
ANZAC stories
Some of the locales on the Ypres map featured in another of our ANZAC stories are mentioned in the memoirs of Westley Bellingham Maley.
SLWA on ABC Radio
Dr Kate unpacks why we have a surprising collection of author D.H. Lawrence letters that were written to WA’s Mollie Skinner.
World War 1 Postcards, 1945-1918
ANZAC stories
Letters and postcards show us that the people away at war turned their minds to home and family whenever possible. A fine example of this reality comes from James Leslie Turner.
Gallipoli 1915 & Ypres 1917
ANZAC stories
Maps and charts
WA history
In 1915 and 1917, our historical maps of Gallipoli and Ypres were working documents. Paying attention to them could be the difference between a soldier writing home or someone else writing to their family.
ANZAC stories
A letter written on a cigarette packet during the Gallipoli Campaign, signed "Julius of Talisker", to his sister, "Thel".
Small towns & regional cities
Albany is located 419km south of Perth on the breathtaking south coast of Western Australia. In this story you will find only a few of the over 1600 photographs we have of Albany in our collection.
Dr Kate on ABC Radio
Aboriginal stories
SLWA on ABC Radio
The State Library’s Storylines program is an online portal for Aboriginal communities and families around the State digitally returning thousands of photographs of Aboriginal people.
WA Reflections 2021 project
SLWA on ABC Radio
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.
Photographs and films
Small towns & regional cities
Merredin is located 256 kilometres east of Perth in the Central Wheatbelt. Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by the Nyaki-Nyaki Noongar Aboriginal language group.
Photographs and films
Small towns & regional cities
Tom Price is a mining town situated in the Pilbara region. The town is located inland on the edge of the Hamersley Range.
Small towns & regional cities
Boulder lies 595 Kilometres east of Perth. In 2016 its population was 4,825, a lot short of the 5,600 in its gold mining heyday of 1903.
SLWA on ABC Radio
Dr Kate and Dr Shino Konishi discuss the French exploration voyages to the Western Australian coast in the early 1800s and a very special watercolour and ink drawing in the State Library collection.