Australia Newspapers

Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program

The National Library of Australia, in collaboration the Australian State and Territory libraries, has commenced a program to digitise out of copyright newspapers.

We are creating a free online service that will enable full-text searching of newspaper articles. This will include newspapers published in each state and territory from the 1800s to the mid-1950s, when copyright applies. The first Australian newspaper, published in Sydney in 1803, is included in the Program.

Beta Service Released

On 25 July the Australian Newspapers Beta service was launched to the public. The Beta service contains 70,000 newspaper pages from 1803 onwards and additional pages are being added each week. The Library welcomes feedback on the service, and will continue development of the Beta service over the next few months.

Over 1 million pages scanned

1 .2 million pages have been scanned from microfilm. A list of the titles and date ranges scanned is available from the Selected Newspapers page.

Digitisation of The Sydney Morning Herald underway.

The National Library received $1 million from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation to support the digitisation of out-of-copyright editions of The Sydney Morning Herald. 500,000 pages have been scanned so far ...[more] (external link)