Local history collections

Books, reports, magazines and newsletters

The collection includes a large collection of history and contemporary books, reports, magazines and newsletters covering topics such as:

• History and development of local industries
• Profiles of prominent individuals
• History of the built and natural environment
• History of education and schools
• Local government history and development
• Environmental studies
• Tourism

Manuscripts

The library holds more than 1,000 items of original material including:

• Company and community group records
• Minute books and accounts of private organisations, Council and Parish churches
• Family papers from prominent Illawarra personalities
• Field books
• Menus
• Visitors' books
• Scrapbooks
• Photo albums
• Shipping Logbooks

Electoral Rolls and registers

Electoral registers list residents who are entitled to vote. The Local Studies collection includes records from 1866 (incomplete holdings) and complete sets from the late 1940s. These registers include names, addresses and occupations.

Newspapers

Local newspapers have been collected from 1856 to the present day. We hold more than 50 newspaper titles covering the history of media in the Illawarra. The newspaper collection includes a local clippings file, print and microfilm copies and indexes.

Maps

• Topographic
• Parish
• Aerial
• Historical and subdivision (from 1822)

Census records

Census records provide valuable statistical summaries of the Illawarra district including age ranges, employment/unemployment rates, ethnicity, income and more.

The collection includes extracts of the Illawarra district since the NSW Census 1828. Recent census summaries from the Australia bureau of Statistics can be searched by postcode and suburb.

Business, trade and tourist directories and gazeteers

In the early 1800s trade directories were similar to telephone books with lists arranged by trade name and surname.  The Local history collection includes:

• Sand's Sydney and suburban directory
• Bailliere's NSW gazetteer and road guide from 1866
• Central and Southern NSW trade and business directory from 1950s

Illawarra Images

Illawarra Images is a collection of photographs of people, places, buildings and events covering the last two centuries of local history from the mid 1800s. Illawarra Images comprises the photographic collections of both Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historical Society.

Illawarra Collection

Whilst the main Local history collection is held in the Central Library each branch library includes a small collectiion of books about the Wollongong area. These items are duplicate copies of those held in the Local Studies Library and some can be borrowed.