Natural world

The Larapinta Trail shifts what a nature writer thought she knew about trees.

Without nature’s alchemists, the world as we know it would not exist. Now we are beginning to understand fungi’s restorative role.

In the depths of grief, Indira Naidoo turns to the natural world around her for answers.

Sixteen panoramas will displayed in the inaugural exhibition of the Library’s new Drawings, Watercolours and Prints Gallery.

Science writer Jackson Ryan travels to Antarctica, via Mars, distant asteroids and tardigrades.

Sydney’s sandstone tells a story of deep time, colonial geology and a future in the balance.

Photographs reveal the grand inner-city gardens that were once the glory of Sydney.

Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, begins at the confluence of the Grose and Nepean rivers and ends at Broken Bay. This long, winding and ancient river has been home to the Darug people for millennia and is a vital and sustaining resource.

A life, as much as a gathering of words, is a story of places. It begins and ends with soil beneath feet, water within heart.

Beauty and rarity were irresistible in the search for the Paradise Parrot one hundred years ago, as they are for birders today.

The timeless appeal of shells has seen them preserved in many ways over the centuries.

Science and history come together in conserving the swamplands of southern Sydney.

An artist followed in the inspiring footsteps of a botanist rescued from a tragic expedition in 1848. 

How can a dialogue between Indigenous ancestors and descendants forge connections to country for all Australians?

Sydney writer and naturalist Ella McFadyen combined a love of nature, folklore and poetry. 

A list of Aboriginal placenames was a trigger for seeking the ‘real secret river’.

Bold plans to transform the Cooks River in Sydney are reflected in the Library's collection.

Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Alec Chisholm (1890–1977) was once famous in Australia. Although that’s no longer so, he’s a man worth remembering.

Merging history and science, a Library fellowship tracked 80 years of fishing off the east coast of Australia.

The quirky and obscure Hallams slide collection is a curator’s dream, revealing ordinary Australian gardens in the 1960s and 70s.

Outstanding gardens are revealed by leading photographers in a new exhibition.

Hear Jonathan Jones, Bruce Pascoe and Richard Aitken share their thoughts about some of the items on display in Planting Dreams. 

Like many other nations, Australia was looking to the future after the turmoil of the Second World War. Several countries saw Antarctica as a potential source of territory, fishing and mineral resources.

The subject of much speculation, the idea of an unknown southern land began with the ancient Greeks.

Historical discoveries from the Library's collections.

The Upper North Shore is one of the jewels of Sydney. Follow the development of this region from isolated bush and farmland to a prosperous residential area.