News archive 2002

At the end of 2002, the number of agencies contributing images to the service and the number of images available for searching have reached a new high.

Thuringowa City Libraries in North Queensland have become the 20th agency to join Picture Australia.

Located near Townsville, this regional library network brings over 1000 unique images portraying rural life in North Queensland, from the 1900s through to the present day, to the desktops of Picture Australia users.

Try an advanced search on Thuringowa City Libraries and set your results display to 102 images per page to browse through this lovely collection.

The Brisbane City Council Library has joined Picture Australia, becoming the 19th agency to collaborate in making their image collections available for searching from the one web site.

Check out their collection of over 6,000 images of Brisbane and surrounds, from the 1840s through to the present day.

This collection increases the geographic coverage of Picture Australia into the north of the country.

Picture Australia has today moved to a new software platform TeraText, by Inquirion, Pty Ltd. This new platform will provide users with better performance as the collection continues to grow. Please let us know if you find the service more responsive from today - we welcome your feedback.

The new platform will allow us to offer the new features you have been requesting over the next few months, such as browse access, search within a search, saved searches, and shopping carts.

As 2002 is the official Year of the Outback check out the new Australian Outback trail which brings together some of the legends and icons of regional Australia. You can also check out the Year of the Outback web site for more on celebratory activities during 2002.

The Blind Australia trail brings together images from the different collections that help to tell the story of the development of blind services in Australia. In many ways Australia has lead development in this area because of the commitment of people like Tilly Aston, the founder of Vision Australia.

The July list of contributions to the Picture Australia service shows the collections available for searching continue to grow.

The Vision Australia Foundation brings the Tilly Aston Collection image collection to you through Picture Australia.

Tilly Aston founded Vision Australia and Australia's first Braille Library. She was also Australia's first blind teacher and the first blind woman to attend university.

The collection of around 150 images shows how blind services have developed in Australia over the last 100 plus years.

CyberSurfari is a free Internet treasure hunt for teachers, students and families, organised by the the Children's Web-Surfing Alliance.

The aim is to 'offer students, teachers and families a safe and fun arena in which to learn online navigation, hone deductive reasoning, Web savvy and research skills'.

The current contest runs from 19 July to 11 October. Why not sign up to play by visiting the CyberSurfari home page then start by solving the Picture Australia clue first!

SCRAN, the Scottish-based gateway to cultural images, has joined Picture Australia with a selection of around 400 images that connect Scottish and Australian life. Try a search on the Edinburgh Festival for Australian performers or an advanced search SCRAN to browse all the images.

The May list of contributions to Picture Australia shows that the collections available through the service are continuously expanding and thereby extending the scope and geographic coverage of the service.

It's here! A new Picture Australia interface which introduces a range of features requested by users, while retaining the same simple format of old. You can now search the service from anywhere within it and the searching itself is simpler. You can also increase the number of results displayed per page by using Advanced Search.

Check out the new Request a copy page which provides links to the order forms and other ordering information for all the member agencies. There is also a new Frequently Asked Questions page answering those questions that continually arise - your suggestions for additional FAQs are welcome. The Links page provides additional resources that may useful and the Site Map lists all the new features.

The picture Trails, which show highlights from the collections, have been split into themes for ease of searching and new trails will be appearing soon.

If you have an image collection that you would like to include in Picture Australia, check out the new For Contributors section for information on the service works and what is involved in joining.

When you have had a look at all the new features, send us your feedback to help us to make the service as useful as possible!

... you will be very glad to know that the National Gallery of Australia has just made around 16,000 images from its extensive collection of Australian art available through Picture Australia.

Why not try a search on Margaret Preston or Tom Roberts to get a feel for these beautiful images.

The latest data on the number of images available through Picture Australia shows the total collection continues to grow...

The Northern Territory Library's collection of around 28,000 photographs from their Territory Images database are now available through Picture Australia. The collection includes images of the early days of Darwin, Indigenous peoples, the Chinese community, World War 2, mining, railways and much more. Try a search on Cyclone Tracy to start you off.

The ACT Heritage Library has made a selection of images of Canberra in the 1950s available through Picture Australia. They will add to this selection as they continue to digitise their unique collection. Meanwhile, you can take a walk down memory lane and see how much things have changed in the last 50 years.

Women's History Month is an initiative of the National Foundation for Australian Women, to recognise and celebrate the achievements of women throughout history. In keeping with this aim we have created a trail to highlight Inspirational Australian women which we hope you will enjoy.

New Picture Australia postcards are hot off the press. You'll see them free in Avant Card stands in cafes, galleries, community centres and so on around Australia and New Zealand, or contact us for the complete set.

Look out for the eclectic collection representing all the agencies contributing images to the service. From a delicate watercolour seahorse to June Dally-Watkins' Deportment and Modelling school; from the tossing of the coin for the Prime Ministers XI to the Eureka patent rabbit extractor, there is something for everyone.

We have four great new trails for you to explore: Australia's Governors-General, a long awaited Australian animals trail, amusing Magic, oddities and travelling shows and the intriguing Murder and mayhem trail. A more streamlined trail creation process and new images from new agencies has enabled Picture Australia staff to develop more of your trail suggestions. Stay tuned in - there are more on the way.