Special Collections Exhibition: People, Place & Culture Archive

Within the cabinet near the staircase and the lift, there are materials highlighting the activities of Friends of the Earth (a community-based grassroots organisation working towards an environmentally and socially just world) via the publication of their magazine Chain Reaction and other publications, and documents related to their Energy campaigns:

• Friends of the Earth – Endangered Species
• ‘The Freeways are coming’, The Melbourne Times, Oct 29, 1975
• World Bikeride for a Nuclear Free Future 
• publications related to campaigns against the Newport Power Station and the Alcoa aluminium smelter at Portland e.g. Newport ‘D’ Power Station – report by State Electricity Commission of Victoria, and Assessment Report Alcoa Smelter Portland – report by Ministry for Conservation, Victoria.

Friends of the Earth conducted several campaigns and more campaign-related materials are on display in other cabinets:

• Documents from the Barmah-Millewa campaign in the cabinet in the Learning Hub:
  • River Country Campaign
  • Operational Map Western Region – Saw Log Harvest Plan
  • A review of Indigenous involvement in Water Planning, 2013.
• Publications related to the Streets for People campaign in the cabinet located near the ‘self-check’ machine:
  • City Link
  • Reclaim the Streets – Street Press.
• Materials from the Transport campaigns in the cabinet located opposite the second library entrance and on the way to P228: 
  • Friends of the Earth Newsletter – Transport Alternatives
  • A Community Survey of Transport Needs
  • Public Transport – Want IT? Staff IT! 

David Unaipon: Towards Publication of “Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines (2001)” is a collection of archival material relating to the research and correspondence for the publication of the book Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, manuscript versions and material on intellectual property.

On display in the cabinet in the Learning Hub are materials related to David Unaipon such as:

• The book Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines edited by Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker. The introduction to the book includes: “In producing this edition, Muecke and Shoemaker have at last righted the injustices done to David Unaipon by the brazen appropriation of his stories and by the patronising editorial changes effected by Ramsay Smith. The stories are accompanied by a substantial Introduction, which gives the historical and cultural context of Unaipon's work, and recounts the complex sequence of events that led to the theft of his book.”
• The Second David Unaipon Lecture
• The David Unaipon Award – Media Release.

Bike Paths in the West is a collection of materials compiled by Alan Parker, who founded Bicycle Institute of Victoria (Bicycle Victoria – now known as Bicycle Network), with other cyclists in the mid-1970s. Collected materials such as working papers, local planning documents and correspondence relate to bicycle paths and infrastructure in the west of Melbourne, including Maribyrnong, Moonee Valley, Sunshine and Footscray.

On display, in the cabinet located near the ‘self-check’ machine, are materials such as:

• Altona Bicycle Study
• Report on the proposed bicycle track along the Maribyrnong River
• Sunshine Bicycle Plan
• Footscray Bicycle Study.