Special collections
Read about our eight special collections and find out how to access these unique resources.
We’re proud to be able to share special collections that showcase our history and culture and support teaching, learning and research across Federation. Items include books, artworks, photographs, maps, documents and artefacts – many unique and rare.
Each collection is carefully curated, preserved and stored at international museum standards. You can explore these treasures in person at our Ballarat and Gippsland locations, or browse online.
Our collections
Explore more than 10,000 historical catalogued items dating from the opening of the Ballarat School of Mines in 1869. You’ll find manuscripts, artworks, plans and primary source materials that showcase how teaching styles and programs at Federation University have changed over time. Each item is carefully documented with stories, provenance, dates and people, making the collection a rich resource for research, interpretation and discovery.
Highlights
- Scientific equipment: Miner's Dial (circa 1893–1901)
- Document: Miner's Right, Colony of Victoria, Miner's Right for the Ballarat Observatory Land in Magpie Street (1890–1899)
- Trophy: Lewbury Trophy, Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education Tennis Club Harry Edmondson Memorial Trophy (1981–3)
- Plans: Wimmera College of TAFE (1983)
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or browse the collection online.
This collection offers a unique look at the social, cultural and environmental evolution of Gippsland. The collection consists of photographs and documents that focus on rural and regional Gippsland from the mid-1880s. There are 35mm colour slides, colour photographic prints, postcards, monographs, newsletters, journals, theses, newspapers, reports, microfiche, manuscripts, unpublished works and archival records from local councils and unions. Many items are rare, self-published or ephemeral.
Highlights
- The Baragwanath, Carlyon, Yallourn, W.J. Tuck, Walker and La Trobe Regional Commission image collections
- Unique material from the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV)
- Archives from the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council (GTLC) and Yallourn Town Advisory Council
- Extensive runs of LiveWire and The Enfilade journals (1973–1998)
- Reports from the Gippsland Research and Information Service (GRIS)
Location
Uncle Albert Mullett Reading Room, Gippsland Library
Access
Visit the Uncle Albert Mullett Reading Room or search digitised items via TROVE, Gippsland and Regional Studies Images, Gippsland and Regional Studies Maps or catalogue records via Library search or GippsDoc indexes. Note: Most archival materials are not available digitally.
Browse works by Australian artists from 1909 to today, with a special spotlight on the creativity of our alumni and staff. The collection includes contemporary prints, ceramics, graphics, paintings and sculptures.
Highlights
- Mural, French, Leonard, 'The Tapestry' by Leonard French, 1959
- Poster, 'Ballarat - The Garden City' by Nornie Gude, c1934
- Ceramic, 'Barbara' by Sarah Anderson, 2017
- Painting, 'Bush Medicine' by Gloria Petyarre
- Photograph, 'Man or Woman?' by Christy Van Elsen, 2004
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or browse the collection online.
Discover over 1,000 titles written by Federation University staff and academics. From books and book chapters to theses and reports, this collection showcases the breadth of research and storytelling from our university community, from 2000 to today.
Are you a Federation University author and your work isn’t listed? Let us know by emailing cataloguing@federation.edu.au.
Access
The Research Collection brings together works by or about Federation University and its predecessor institutions, patents, rare finds and other fragile items that need a little extra care. Because of their fragility or uniqueness, these pieces are kept off the open shelves to help preserve them for future generations. The collection includes works about central and western Victorian history, the Eureka Stockade, local industrial heritage and mining in Australia.
Highlights
- Port Phillip expenditure accounts for the year 1841: summaries of treasury vouchers
- Back to Beaufort centenary celebrations, December 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th 1936
- The strange story of the Eureka flag by Len Fox (1963)
- The Ross Sea shore party, 1914–17 by R.W. Richards (1962)
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library, and Uncle Albert Mullett Reading Room, Gippsland Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or the Uncle Albert Mullett Reading Room or search catalogue records via Library search. Note: Most archival materials are not available digitally.
Guidelines
Items can't be removed from the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre or the Uncle Albert Mullett Reading Room. Rare and valuable works may need to be viewed under supervision. Photocopying is limited to post-1900 publications that can handle it (please check with our team first).
This unique collection, generously donated by Dr Brian R Hill through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, explores mining history and practice across the globe. You’ll find works about Australian mining, the Californian Gold Rush, the Klondike Rush and American, New Zealand and African mining history.
Highlights
- Gold trails of Otago: being a traveller's guide to the gold fields of Otago by June A. Wood
- Mexico's treasure-house (Guanajuato): an illustrated and descriptive account of the mines and their operations in 1906 by Percy F Martin
- A concise history of Maldon and the Tarrangower diggings by AJ Williams
- Report about the mines in the United States of America, 1783 by Samuel Gustaf Hermelin
- The history of the Comstock lode, 1850–1920 by Grant H Smith
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or search catalogue records via Library search. Note: Most archival materials are not available digitally.
Guidelines
Items can't be removed from the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre. Rare and valuable works may need to be viewed under supervision. Photocopying is limited to post-1900 publications that can handle it (please check with our team first).
Explore works about economic history and theory, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Professor John Creedy, Truby Williams Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne.
Highlights
- The pure theory of foreign trade: The pure theory of domestic values by Alfred Marshall (signed by JE Meade)
- International trade theory and policy by W Max Corden (with a handwritten note to John Creedy)
- Collected economic papers by Joan Robinson (signed)
- The economic consequences of the peace, A treatise on money and The General theory of employment, interest and money by John Maynard Keynes (first editions)
- The scope and method of political economy by John Neville Keynes (first edition)
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or search catalogue records via Library search. Note: Most archival materials are not available digitally.
Guidelines
Items can't be removed from the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre. Rare and valuable works may need to be viewed under supervision. Photocopying is limited to post-1900 publications that can handle it (please check with our team first).
Named after our inaugural Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Blainey, this collection was generously donated from his personal library through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. It contains books about Australian history with a focus on mining, Victoria and exploration, as well as literature, and includes some rare, older items that are fragile and need special handling.
Highlights
- The southern world: journal of a deputation from the Wesleyan Conference to Australia and Polynesia: including notices of a visit to the gold-fields by Robert Young
- Victoria, late Australia Felix, or Port Phillip District of New South Wales, being an historical and descriptive account of the colony and its gold mines (with an appendix, containing the reports of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce for the last two years upon the condition and progress of the colony) by William Westgarth
- Coranderrk Aboriginal Station: return showing the value of the produce of the cultivated lands at Coranderrk for the year 1868
- Clunes, 1839-1972: its history and its organisations by FC Talbot
- Horizontal Gothic: and other Australian antiquities by Cyril E Goode
Location
Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre and offsite store, Mt Helen Library
Access
Book an appointment to visit the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre reading room or search catalogue records via Library search. Note: Most archival materials are not available digitally.
Guidelines
Items can't be removed from the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre. Rare and valuable works may need to be viewed under supervision. Photocopying is limited to post-1900 publications that can handle it (please check with our team first).
Help us grow our collections
We’re interested in materials concerning the history of Federation University and its predecessor institutions, as well as the history and heritage of the Gippsland and Ballarat districts.
