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Please be advised: this website contains the names, images and voices of people who are now deceased.

Collections WA has a responsibility to preserve and make accessible the history and culture of Western Australia in all its various forms. The intention of Collections WA is to support research, and to reveal actions of the past that have impacted upon communities, families, and individuals.

In doing so, Collections WA acknowledges the need to respond sensitively and appropriately in cases when accessing this material may be confronting to Aboriginal visitors and clients.

Please also note: Some historical materials within this portal may include language or opinions that today are considered inappropriate or even offensive. Collections WA does not endorse this language and apologises for any distress caused.

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CWA Logo Collections WA brings together collections from libraries, galleries, museums, archives, historical societies, cultural organisations, community groups and other collecting organisations across Western Australia.

Featured Subcollections

In addition to studio portraits, the Australian Army Museum of WA collection contains many informal snapshots of individuals or small groups. These spontaneous images illustrate a wide variety of service life, conditions and locations. Unlike many of the large format formal studio portraits, these images have remained largely undiscovered in personal albums. They can often provide a less romantic and more realistic insight into the realities of service life. The condition of the images… Read more »

Photographs of Toodyay's buildings (both interior & exterior views) and streetscape / landscape photographs where buildings are featured.
Objects associated with Toodyay's buildings including fixtures & fittings, and building components.
Documents associated with buildings, including proposals for renovations or upgrades.
Also structures used for shelter and remnants of buildings and other structures made for a specific purpose, such as a concrete spillway or a… Read more »

The Army Museum has an extensive collection of formal photographic portraits of servicemen and women mainly from World War 1 dating from 1914 to 1919. Many were taken in local photographic studios prior to departure overseas. Some images were captured in studios at training camps (like Blackboy Hill), in theatre (London, Cairo, Paris) or near the front as those recently rediscovered in the Thuillier Collection.

Many portraits remain in their original frames, being treasured… Read more »

The Army Museum has an extensive collection of formal photographic portraits of servicemen and women mainly from World War 1 dating from 1914 to 1919. Many were taken in local photographic studios prior to departure overseas. Some images were captured in studios at training camps (like Blackboy Hill), in theatre (London, Cairo, Paris) or near the front as those recently rediscovered in the Thuillier Collection (https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/remember-me). Unfortunately as these… Read more »

World War 1 photographers fell into two main categories: amateur and official. Reflecting the astonishing naivety about the war and presumably its anticipated brevity, Australian soldiers were each given a Vest Pocket Kodak on the voyage to Egypt to document their exploits. The cameras were quickly confiscated when the adventure spiralled into a bloodbath.
Australia accredited only three official war photographers: Herbert Baldwin in 1916, a British photographer, who lasted barely six… Read more »

Items, documents & photographs associated with Toodyay railway history.

(Photo caption: Windmill Hill Cutting, Toodyay, 1960s)

The Summerhayes Collection represents the work of three generations of the Summerhayes family - Edwin (1868-1944), Reginald (1897-1965) and Geoffrey (1928-2010) - whose combined practice of architecture in Western Australia extended through the 20th century. Curtin University Library holds approximately 500 drawings and more than 1,500 photographs relating to the design work of the Summerhayes architects. We are adding a selection of these to Collections WA, with records for all items… Read more »

In 2021 Western Australia celebrated the 150th anniversary of the establishment of local government.

Toodyay is one of only 13 local government entities in the state that retains its original name, even though its boundaries are now significantly smaller than they were in 1871.

This collection displays items, documents & photographs associated with the activities of local government in Toodyay. Included are records of people and events.

(Photo caption: Toodyay… Read more »

Ben Strange was Western Australia's most popular political cartoonist between 1900 and 1930. His cartoons, which appeared in the Western Mail, covered everything from local issues and politics through to international events including the First World War. This is a collection of both printed cartoons and original drawings by Ben Strange and provide an insight into what issues and stories were of interest and importance to the Western Australian community in the early 1900s. His most famous… Read more »

An Australian Bicentennial project funded by the WA State Government and the Shire of Cranbrook. Official opening of this photographic display at the Cranbrook Memorial Hall took place on Sunday 2nd October 1988.

Many of the photos depicted in this collection feature in the book "Frankland to the Stirlings" A History of the Cranbrook Shire by Maxine Laurie published in 1994.

Forward by Ev. Devine 11th July 1994
A sense of history is an essential part of any district and… Read more »

Pictorial history of the floods that inundated a large portion of the Shire of Cranbrook in January 1982.

This collection endeavours to trace the path of the floodwaters along the Gordon River and its tributaries and depict the extent of damage and subsequent repairs. A secondary illustration within the album is the contrasting of extreme adverse weather conditions that can prevail over an area within a short space of time.

January 1982 is notable in that five tropical cyclones… Read more »

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