News
News
30 September 2025
Better Beginnings baby packs feature a brand-new wordless book, Baby Days, by award-winning Western Australian author Renae Hayward and illustrator Rebecca Mills.
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards winners
The winners of the 2025 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced on Friday 29 September at the State Library of Western Australia, sharing a prize pool of $120,000.
Better Beginnings Family Literacy Community Grants are for community groups and libraries that help promote literacy in 0-5 years old and empower families to read, talk, sing, write and play with their child every day. Round 5 applications closed on 26 September 2025.
Stories
How the Botanic Park came to be
Stories
This story is based on the oral history of forester, ecologist and one of the first Directors of Kings Park, John Stanley Beard (1916–2011), and features a collection of historical photos of Kings Park.
Stories
Photographs and films
WA history
Wimmin's Work
Wimmin's Work is a new collection of audio, audio-visual and photographic stories documenting the stories of ten Western Australian women.
by Lucy Torvaldsen
Wimmin's Work
Strap in for Barbara's reflection on her life of activism, advocacy and uplifting others. And remember - life really can get better with age, and you never have to settle down.
Exhibitions
The First Twenty Years
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Experience an exhibition tracing two decades of work by Perth-based small press comic publisher Gestalt, championing Australian comic creators and showcasing an underrated narrative art form that continues to defy expectations.
Photography Exhibition
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See the work of some of WA's best photographers from 2025. Spanning a range of styles and subjects, this exhibition showcases the winners and finalists of the third annual awards.
80 Years of Australian Stories for Children
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Venture through an exhibition of original picture book artwork, celebrating 80 years of the Children’s Book Council of Australia. From timeless tales to modern favourites, explore the wondrous worlds found within the pages of Australia’s best-loved children’s books.
Upcoming events
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Weekly on Monday, 10:30am - 12pm until Mon 15 Dec 2025
Interactive story fun for pre-schoolers and their carers. Followed by a half hour Play Time where families can explore literacy and learning through reading, talking, singing, writing and playing together.
Practise English at the State Library
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Weekly on Tuesday and Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:30pm until Wed 17 Dec 2025
Join our English conversation groups, a friendly place to practise your language skills and make new friends.
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Weekly on Friday, 10:30am - 12pm until Fri 12 Dec 2025
Songs, rhymes and stories for babies and their families, followed by an hour of Play Time to help develop early literacy and learning skills.
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Join us as Stella-listed authors Laura Elizabeth Woollett and Santilla Chingaipe speak on themes of violence and power, slavery, and history (and its erasure).
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Monthly on the last Wednesday, 2 - 4pm until Wed 26 Nov 2025
The Storylines project connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the State Library's heritage, history and photographic collections.
Peter Greste
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Iconic Australian journalist, university professor and the real-life hero of the film The Correspondent Peter Greste explores how silencing debate in the fight against extremism may threaten democracy itself.
Sheiks, Fakes & Cameleers
Between 1870 and 1920, around 20,000 camels and 4,000 men travelled to Australia to help explore and develop the country's arid interior. Discover the forgotten history of cameleers in Western Australia.