As of 1 January 2019, millions of items from Australia’s national collections will fall out of copyright for the first time, becoming free for all to use. This wealth of new material is a result of changes to copyright law introduced by the
Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and other Measures) Act 2017. The
new laws starting on 1 January give unpublished materials the same copyright term as their published counterparts - 70 years after the author’s death. Previously, unpublished material was locked in copyright in perpetuity.
Some of the treasures now available include:
- Captain Cook’s diaries and Jane Austen’s correspondence held at the National Library of Australia;
- Ephemera from both World Wars, including posters, postcards, and advertising;
- Handwritten manuscripts, letters and papers from numerous Australian poets, including Henry Lawson;
- The personal papers of a multitude of former Australian politicians, including Governor General Sir Isaac Isaacs and Premier of South Australia Sir James Penn Boucaut;
- Soldiers’ letters home, including love letters from acclaimed WWII RAAF pilot, Charles Learmonth;
- Indigenous language research from the papers of former Protector of Aborigines, Archibald Meston.
To celebrate, Australia’s libraries and archives are declaring 2019 the Year of the Public Domain. A good place to start exploring local historical material is in the
JCU Library Archives.
Areas of strength include station records, union and labour history, mining history, company histories, the arts, and environmental and resource issues.
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