Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (Pambu)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are kindly advised that this website includes images, sounds and names of people who have passed.

All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified. Certain words, terms or descriptions may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.

Key to library resources

Access anywhere with a library card In the Library (or anywhere with a Library card for NSW residents)
Available to access in the library Only in the Library
Publicly available online Publicly available

The Pambu Collections

Documents (unpublished and published)

Unpublished manuscripts and published documents are searchable on the Pambu catalogue.   

These are differentiated by the prefix PMB Ms (unpublished) and PMB Doc (published).

For search tips and some collection guides, see Finding items in the Pambu collection.

Microfilm documents:

The majority of the Pambu collection is only available on microfilm at member libraries

To access the microfilm, ask at the Special Collections Desk

Note:  At the State Library of NSW, PMB microfilm is divided into PMB  (unpublished material) and PMB Doc (published material).  

Find out more about Pambu's microfilm collections.

Digitised documents: 

Some documents have been digitised and are available to view via the catalogue at member libraries such as the State Library of NSW.


Photographs

Over 40 photographic collections comprising nearly 10,000 images have been digitised and these are progressively available online. 

Search for photographs on the Pambu catalogue.  Go to advanced search and in the left column narrow your result by 'media' type - select Image. 

For other search tips go to Finding items in the collection 

Find out more about Pambu's photographic collections.


Audio Recordings

The audio collections mostly pertain to Fiji.  They are on CD Rom and are held at member libraries.  To access them, ask at the Special Collections Area in the Mitchell Library.

Find out more about Pambu's audio collection.