The University of Melbourne Archives was established in July 1960, to collect and preserve records relating to the University and to business and business people for the purposes of historical research. Today it is one of the largest non-government archives in Australia, with a collection of nearly 20km of records.

The first collections came from the University of Melbourne and also Victorian businesses. The business collections include the records of wholesalers and retailers, factories and foundries, solicitors and architects, along with the records of some of Australia’s largest mining companies.

From 1973 the Archives began to collect trade union and other labour history material. More than one hundred trade unions are now represented in the Archives’ collections. During the same period, the Archives began also to collect records of professional, community, women’s, peace and political organisations.

From the beginning, the Archives’ primary role was to provide a rich source for research in Victorian and Australian history and the Archives continues to welcome researchers, both academic and the public.

The Archives maintain an online catalogue that contains summary information about all of their collections. The catalogue also contains finding aids for many of the collections. Finding aids are more detailed box or file indexes for the collection and will generally contain unit, box or item numbers that should be quoted when requesting material.

They also maintain an online digitised items catalogue containing digitised photographs, drawings, documents and other ephemera.

Subject guides have been created to give information on a range of subjects relating to collections held at the University of Melbourne Archives.

After checking the online catalogue and subject guides, contact the Archives if further help is required to find material or to discuss a large research project.