State Library Victoria

Your ancestor’s world – 19th century Victoria

August 1, 2023

Welcome to National Family History month, a month dedicated to family history research!
Alongside your family history explorations, local and social history research can help us to understand something of the motivations, places, lives and times of our Victorian ancestors. In this week’s blog we include few snapshots from our collections and beyond, to help you build a picture of the journeys undertaken and of the Victoria your ancestors may have inhabited in the nineteenth century.

Chinese and Miners on the Way to the Diggings.

Researching your Chinese Victorian ancestors

August 5, 2021

Family matters, Research tips & tricks:

In the mid 19th century, a wave of Chinese migrants came to Australia in search of prosperity. By 1861, over 24,000 Chinese individuals were living in Victoria . Many resided… Read More ›

New Gold Mountain

January 29, 2019

Our stories, People & professions:

For the Chinese immigrants who flocked to Victorian goldfields in the 1850s, the journey began in Canton or Hong Kong and included several months at sea before arriving in Victoria, or ‘New Gold Mountain’.

An American on the goldfields of Victoria

May 22, 2018

People & professions, Such was life:

The rich goldfields of Victoria attracted thousands of migrants and prospectors from all corners of the globe, but they were not rich for everyone.

Victoria’s budget 1852

May 22, 2014

Politics, Such was life:

In 1852 Victoria was barely one year old, after separation from New South Wales in 1851. It was ‘the period of the greatest social and political disorganisation that the colony… Read More ›

Victorian Historical Journal 1911-2012 now online

May 9, 2014

Arts & literature, Such was life:

For over a year, we’ve been providing free access to digitised copies of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s magazine for 1911-1954. Thanks to the Society, we’re now able to make Victorian Historical… Read More ›

Clunes – the golden town

July 21, 2013

Cities & towns, Such was life:

Sitting in a steep valley surrounded by extinct volcanoes lies Clunes, a historic gold mining town located in the central goldfields region of Victoria, north of Ballarat. The Djadja Wurrung… Read More ›

UNESCO adds gold rush diaries to Australian memory of the world register

May 15, 2013

Announcements, Collection, News:

UNESCO had added three 19th-century goldfields diaries from the State Library of Victoria collection to the Australian memory of the world register. The Life and Adventures of Edward Snell from… Read More ›

Cobb and Co

March 5, 2013