Skip to main content

Primary Sources

Search a collection of original newspapers, documents, photographs, audio recordings and video used in researching the Becoming Australia series.

To browse all historical resources by subject, including articles, books, blogs and primary sources, visit Historical Topics.

Select from the list
Enter a search term

Japanese Cowra Trials [charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira, Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, abstract of evidence] [2.0cm; box 1]

Japanese Cowra Trials [military Court trial of PWJA 145648, Yoshida, Hiroshi, 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra] [12 pages; box 1]

Mr. Davidson, M.L.A. and V.R. Kelly, who Fell from Deck into Water.

MLA Davidson congratulates Vince Kelly

Japanese Cowra Trials [inquisition before the Coroner, held at the Court House and the Prisoner of War Camp at Cowra 11-15 December 1944, and statements dated 31 October 1944] [1.0cm; box 1]

Japanese Cowra Trials [enquiry into the death at Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, of Harry Doncaster, Charles Henry Shepherd, Benjamin Gower Hardy and Ralph Jones, and a number of Japanese prisoners of war; charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira]

Interviews of exservicemen and women who served with BCOF. Based on James Wood's book.

Service record of Earlsford Bates

Earlsford Bates

Japanese Cowra Trials [military Court trial of PWJA 145648, Yoshida, Hiroshi and PWJA 145535, Kanazawa, Akiro / Akira, 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra] [2.0cm; box 1]

Snowy Mountains Scheme video looks at an Australian family's experiences in living in Kenny's Knob a remote construction camp providing labour for the Tumut 1 tunnel and power station.  Aubrey Place was the accountant for the French Consortium Etudes et Enterprises and his wife Nancy Place was the Post Mistress for the camp of 950 migrant men and 50 women and children. 

Service record of Roy Gillam

Roy Gillam

Japanese Cowra Trials [outbreak of Japanese prisoners from Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, 5 August 1944 and arrangements for the inquiry

Workers' housing at BPM refinery Pladjoe Palembang, around 1930

Workers housing - BPM Pladjoe

This video provided by Aage Stavdal, the author of 'A Boy From Sauda, Norway' captures the story of a construction company contracted from Norway to build the first stage of the Mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme in Guthega Australia

This newspaper article recounts Vincent Kelly's remarkable survival after falling 170 feet from the Sydney Harbour Bridge into Sydney Harbour while working on the bridge's construction. It describes the rescue by fellow workers, Kelly's injuries, and his account of the fall, as well as noting his earlier attempt to rescue another bridge worker who had fallen to his death.

Japanese Cowra Trials [inquisition held by the Coroner at the Court House and the Prisoner of War Camp at Cowra, 11-15 December 1944; 3 copies] [0.5cm each copy; box 1]

BPM refinery on the Moesi River, Palembang, circa 1930

BPM refinery Pladjoe

British civilian teacher served as Queen's Army Schoolmistress with Army Education Corps in GB, Germany and Singapore, Malaya, 1926-1942; internee in Muntok Internment Camp, Bangka Island, Bukit Besar, Irenelaan and Poentjak Sekoening Barracks Internment Camps, Palembang and Loeboek Linggau Internment Camp, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, 2/1942-9/1945

The Snowy Mountains Scheme was the biggest public works engineering scheme ever undertaken in Australia using over 100,000 people from more than 30 countries. It created the first truly diverse and multicultural workforce Australia had seen.

  • Evidence of former Axis soldiers marching on Anzac Day 2:10

Japanese Cowra Trials [transcript of Inquiry into deaths at Japanese Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra, heard 11-15 December 1944 by the Coroner at Cowra

Houses probably in the new European estate at Pladjoe Baroe 

Pladjoe Baroe houses

Documentary produced for the Snowy Mountains Scheme, digitised from a VHS tape that may have been an educational production or sold at a gift shop.

A story of the Snowy Scheme ... of people and their achievements 1949-1974

Produced by the Snowy Mountains Authority at Cooma NSW Australia

Ashburton Thompson recommends precautions against plague in Sydney after outbreaks at Noumea and the Sandwich Islands

Dr. Ashburton Thompson reassured the public that there was no immediate cause for panic, explaining that bubonic plague was less contagious than commonly believed and that effective precautions were being taken. While he believed the disease would eventually reach Australia, he was confident that prompt public health measures could prevent it from becoming established in Sydney.

Firemen cleansing the streets, washing arsenic solution into the sewers (and into Sydney Harbour).

Cleansing the streets