Skip to Content

Royal Western Australian Historical Society

Address: Stirling House
49 Broadway
Nedlands WA 6009

Telephone: (08) 9386 3841
Fax: (08) 9386 3309
Email: histwest@git.com.au
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.00pm

The Royal Western Australian Historical Society was established in 1926 and it moved into its present building in 1967. The organisation is mainly self-supporting, although it does receive some funding from the state government and from public grants. The Society maintains a large reference library which houses a collection of books, maps, photographs, ephemera, private archives, essays, newsletters and newspapers. Much of the collection has been indexed and this is an ongoing process. Service to the community as a whole is provided in person, by mail, email or telephone. The Library is free for Society members, individuals and institutions who use the collection are charged.

The Society also houses a collection of about 20,000 rare photographs dating back to the 1850s. The collection consists of paper-based photographs, glass plates, tintypes, ambrotypes etc. Both the reference library and the photograph collection will soon be available online on the Collections Mosaic database.

There are many historical societies and museums throughout the state affiliated with the Society and this connection has many benefits such as sharing of resources and experience. Contact details for affiliated societies can be found on the Society’s website. The Society can be contacted for the names of non-affiliated and more recent societies and museums. Some links to the websites of other societies and museums in Western Australia and the Eastern Sates can be found on the Society’s website.