Recent Stories
These stories come from the items in our collection.
Small towns & regional cities
Mandurah is a coastal city situated approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. Explore a brief history of the once sleepy little village.
WA Reflections project
SLWA on ABC Radio
A discussion of the architect Iwan Iwanoff, the WA Reflections film and interactive VR project which rebuilds a now demolished Iwanoff house.
Women's Art Forum
SLWA on ABC Radio
Dr Kate discusses ARTEMIS, an organisation devoted to raising the status of Perth women in the arts in the 1980s.
Pressed wildflowers
SLWA on ABC Radio
Dr Kate as she discusses the ‘wildflower work’ of Lilian Wooster Greaves (1869-1956) who produced and exhibited pressed wildflowers from 1915.
Town Planner
SLWA on ABC Radio
Dr Kate discusses the legacy of Margaret Feilman’s work as a town planner, architect and heritage conservationist.
SLWA on ABC Radio
Let’s remember one of WA’s great Olympians, Shirley Strickland. The State Library holds her private archives, photographs and an oral history.
WA history
The Rabbit-Proof Fence has in recent years become synonymous with the ‘Stolen Generation’ through the 2002 film which explored the subject of Aboriginal children being forcibly removed from their parents by racist colonial government policy.
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 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
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".