Australia: Newspapers now online

While US-based researchers are already accustomed to accessing historical newspapers online, other countries' publications are becoming more accessible online, such as Australia.

If Australia is an important part of your family history research, access Australian papers here at the Australian National Library site. As of today, see 878,820 pages containing 8,802,914 articles.

The first digitized issues - 18,000 pages for the first two decades - of the Sydney Morning Herald are available, from the first issue in 1831 and the project is continuing through 1954, with additional issues appearing every week through early 2010. Included are the Sydney Herald (1831-1842) and the Sydney Morning Herald (1842-1852). The Sunday Herald (1949-1953) will also be available.

For Melbourne papers, find The Argus (and its previous title, the Melbourne Argus) in their entirety from 1846-1945. The balance (1945-1954) for the Argus will be available in 2010.

See the complete list of papers and dates by clicking here.

The site, which launched in August 2009, offers suggestions for optimal viewing. It works best using Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2+ and Safari 3+, with a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.

Subscribe to the announcement list and learn about database additions by emailing sympa@nla.gov.au. Write 'subscribe andp-announce' in the subject line.