The collection is based at the Victorian AIDS Council in South Yarra (Melbourne). Books and other material in lower demand are stored off-site.
If you'd like to visit the Archives to use our collection, please read the important information about planning your visit.
Periodicals
There are 930 titles (over 21,000 items) in our periodicals collection. It includes newspapers, magazines and newsletters from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Japan. The Ladder and Physique magazines are on display, while William and John has been microfiched by the State Library of NSW.
- Our periodicals list (pdf, 310 KB)
- Can you fill any gaps in our collection?
- We welcome feedback on our list through our comments form (pdf) or by email to algarchives @ hotmail.com
Indexes to some of our periodicals are available for reference at the Archives: see our list of indexed titles (pdf).
- Our chronology of periodicals titles (pdf) shows the publishing history of key newspapers, newsletters and magazines.
Audio
Tapes dating back to mid 1950s, radio broadcasts, conferences, speeches at public meetings and demonstrations, interviews on all types of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues ... if it has been said and recorded, there is a chance we might have it.
Videos
Feature films, documentaries, safe sex / sex education videos/films, daytime talk shows, music video clips, etc. Titles include:
- The Set, movie (Australia, prod. Frank Brittain, 1969) – the first 'gay' movie to be made in Australia
- Number 96, television series (Australia, 1972-1977) – Australia's first supersoap, and the first to feature a gay character; we hold 5 episodes as a sample of the series
Main listing (pdf, 84 KB) and listing of additional series (pdf, 45 KB)
Our video collection is held off-site. Requested videos can be retrieved for use at the Archives - please contact us, allowing a week's notice. Like the other collections in the Archives, our videos are available for reference, but not for loan.
ALGA does not own copyright in much of the audio-visual material in the collection. Researchers wishing to reproduce audio-visual material will need to obtain permission from the copyright owners.
Posters
Listing (pdf, 310 KB), prepared by ALGA volunteer Kym.
Theses and other papers
A selection of honours, masters and PhD theses, along with a small collection of other academic research and policy papers. Listing (pdf, 44 KB)
Theses on GLBTI topics can also be found through the Australasian Digital Theses Program.
Newspaper clippings
Over 40,000, chronologically ordered, Australia-wide, down to 2003.
The 2010 edition of our annotated list of editorials in Australian newspapers related to homosexuality (pdf, 79 KB) spans the years 1913 to 1991. Most of the 395 editorials listed are available in our clippings collection.
Searchable on-line sources for more recent newspapers include Newsbank (available to Victorian researchers through the State Library of Victoria) and ANZ Reference Centre (available through Victoria's Virtual Library).
Ephemera
Over 1700 files from individuals and groups, covering venues, events, flyers, leaflets, postcards, theatre programs and more. Subject listing (pdf, 166 KB)
Books
Over 3000 titles, fiction and nonfiction. See our listing (pdf, 340 KB).
- We also have a wishlist of books we'd like to acquire. If you'd like to help us by donating a copy or sponsoring a purchase, please contact us. We're very grateful to our donors for helping us build our collection.
Like the other collections in the Archives, books are available for reference, but not for loan. If you're looking to borrow a title in our collection, you may be able to find a copy in the Libraries Australia database. It lists public library holdings across Australia. Many are available for inter-library loan.
Our book collection is held off-site. Requested books can be retrieved for use at the Archives - please contact us, allowing a week's notice.
Manuscripts
Highlights include the records of Society Five (Melbourne's first gay rights organisation), the National Homosexual Conferences of the 1970s and 1980s, and the Homosexual Law Reform Coalition (1975-80).
We also hold copies of the Greg Weir papers at the National Library of Australia, the scrapbooks of Monte Punshon from the 1920s and 1930s, Tommy McDermott's photos of camp life in Melbourne from the 1940s to the 1960s, and the scrapbook of the organisers of the Australasian Lesbian Movement in 1970-72, among other collections.
Unfit for Publication
We host an online guide to newspaper sources in Peter de Waal's groundbreaking three-volume source book of gay men and the law in New South Wales from 1727 to 1930, Unfit for Publication.
Badges, banners and t-shirts
Our lists of t-shirts (pdf, 23 KB) and badges (pdf, 53 KB)
Calendars
Our list of calendars (pdf)
