News archive 2006

Take a break this summer and enjoy our holiday pictures trails!

Cricket in Australia

Celebrate Australia's 2006 Ashes victory by looking through the history of cricket in Australia.

Australians at play

Need inspiration for activities during your summer holidays? Follow the Australian's at play trail!

Picture Australia can now be accessed through the bibliographic software Endnote X. Download the connection file (via FTP) from the Endnote website.

If you use Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7 you can now search Picture Australia from your internet browser.

To implement this, click on the down arrow next to the search box available in your internet browser and select 'Picture Australia' from the list, the Picture Australia logo will then appear next to the search box. You can now search Picture Australia's collections wherever you are on the internet!

Please visit the OpenSearch website for more information.

Due to a software upgrade, the links from Picture Australia to the Brisbane City Council Library website are currently unavailable. Only the thumbnail images are available in Picture Australia.

Picture Australia’s ‘People, places and events’ group in Flickr now contains over 10,000 images! Our sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed their images and are helping to enrich the collection.

This remarkable new collection covers events of national importance such as natural disasters, significant social issues or international sporting events like the World Cup. It has also brought in more heritage images, through the contribution of personal image archives.

These images are helping Picture Australia to capture both past and present reflections of Australia and its people. They are providing researchers with a wide range of material, enabling political and social analysis of the impact of past and contemporary themes on Australian culture and daily life.

In December 2005, the National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries exhibition opened at the National Library of Australia.

This exhibition is an outstanding collaborative achievement between Australia’s National, State and Territory libraries and showcases more than 170 extraordinary items, reflecting Australia’s history. Treasures is currently touring Australia and will be on display in each State and Territory during 2006 – 2007.

To celebrate this remarkable exhibition, we have put together the Treasures Trail to highlight some of the nationally significant material included in the exhibition.

See the Treasures website for more information about the exhibition including venues, tour dates and educational resources. 

The new profiles featured on our homepage) highlight both historical and contemporary material held by the libraries, museums, galleries, archives and individuals, who contribute their images to Picture Australia

Celebrate NAIDOC week (2 -9 July) by browsing Picture Australia's Indigenous trails.

Indigenous Australians have a traditional culture that relies heavily on art and dance and storytelling to explain the natural world.

Follow the Indigenous arts trail for images that illustrate the beauty of these traditions.

Indigenous Australians should note that this trail may include images or names of people now deceased.

Picture Australia researchers can now find over 5,000 contemporary images from Flickr in Picture Australia. To see these images click here.

This initiative between Picture Australia and Yahoo! 7 began in January 2006 and has greatly exceeded our expectations. The Flickr collection covers a broad range of people, places and events from Australia including this scene from the Winter Magic Festival in Katoomba, NSW.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed their images to Picture Australia via Flickr.

If you would like to contribute your images of Australia, please read the instructions on our Flickr page or contact the Picture Australia team for further information.

This new service is designed to streamline the requesting process through Picture Australia to our Participating agencies, by providing direct access to their ordering information and request forms.

Now when you search Picture Australia you will notice a ‘Request a copy’ link under every image. This will take you to a page with the image details, a link to a request form and the information required for requesting copies from each Participant.

The agencies that contribute to Picture Australia have different processes for providing reproductions and copyright clearance of images. Some Participants have shopping cart ordering, some have online order forms, and others have forms which must be printed and faxed. In some cases Participants wish to be contacted by email – Picture Australia provides a simple form, which when completed and submitted sends an email to the agency. The new ‘Request a copy’ service accommodates each of the different ordering processes offered by our Participants.

We’d love to hear your feedback about the new ‘Request a copy’ service, please contact us with any comments or suggestions.

Picture Australia would like to welcome our 45th participating agency, Monash University Centre for Gippsland Studies. Their images document the history, industry, agriculture, recreation, environment and development of the Gippsland area in Victoria.

The Centre for Gippsland Studies has almost 2,000 images available in Monash University ARROW repository. They are continuing work on their digitisation project, which should see even more Gippsland material become available through Picture Australia in the near future.

Help celebrate World Dance Day! Follow one of Picture Australia’s dance trails.

For further information on dance in Australia, visit Australia Dancing and take a look at the International Dance Council (CID) website for more information on World Dance Day

Celebrate Harmony Day 2006 by taking a tour through Picture Australia's Multicultural Australia picture trail.

You can find more information on the Harmony Day website.

March 22 is World Water Day. Follow the Picture Australia Freshwater trail and reflect on how Australia depends on this vital substance.

Take a look at the World Water Day website for more information.

PictureVictoria has joined Picture Australia this week, making them our 44th participating agency. They are currently contributing over 9000 images to Picture Australia, helping to strengthen and compliment the collection of Victorian images already available through Picture Australia.

PictureVictoria is an online portal that provides access to an extensive range of pictorial items from various Victorian historical societies, which have been digitised with the assistance of Victorian public libraries. The images depict the development of Victoria from a colony to a prosperous state. [More information]

The Public Record Office Victoria joins Picture Australia this month, becoming our 43rd member. Public Record Office Victoria manages collections from various Victorian Government agencies and is a rich resource for social history in Victoria.

They have initially contributed over 7000 images to Picture Australia. This includes images from the Public Transport Corporation collection (covering the whole of Victoria), the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne and portraits of Ned Kelly.

You can access Public Record Office Victoria images through their online exhibitions page and you can also find significant digitised manuscripts and documents through their online search. [More information]

This year Women’s History Month focuses on 'women and music' and to help celebrate Picture Australia has designed a new picture trail called Musical Belles. This showcases the important role Australian women have played in shaping our musical scene.

Why not visit www.womenshistory.org.au for more information, including biographies of some of the women featured in this trail, or try a search on Music Australia for more Australian Divas!  

Unfortunately, due to the reorganisation of the Vision Australia website, the Vision Australia images have been removed from Picture Australia. We look forward to announcing Vision Australias return to Picture Australia in late 2006. If you have any enquiries concerning Vision Australia images, you can contact Picture Australia, or you can email Vision Australia.

We are pleased to announce an exciting initiative to increase the number of contemporary images in Picture Australia, by including images from www.flickr.com

FlickR, managed by Yahoo!, is a global online repository where photographic images can be uploaded, stored and shared. 

Now you can contribute your images to Picture Australia by loading them into our two groups available on FlickR, Picture Australia: Australia Day and Picture Australia: People, places and events.

The Picture Australia: Australia Day group is a collection of images relating to this day of national significance.

The Picture Australia: People, places and events group is a collection of images depicting the people, places, and events, which make Australia unique.

Why not search Picture Australia for a streetscape or town as it looked in the early part of the 20th Century and then capture it as it looks today.

Each week we will collect the metadata (descriptive information) and the thumbnail images from our groups and load them into Picture Australia, enhancing its value to researchers and the general public. The first load will occur the week following Australia Day 2006.

So start 'snapping’ and photograph Australia as you see it, then upload your images into Flickr and share them with the world through Picture Australia! [more information]