PMI Victorian History Library | A central resource for researching the history of Victoria

The PMI Victorian History Library Inc. is a community owned and run library specialising in the history of Victoria, Australia.

The library collection is the only lending collection of its kind in Australia – with over 70,000 items in various formats, including titles that are unavailable elsewhere. You can find information about all aspects of the history of Victoria including:

Company Histories
Design & Architecture
Family History/Genealogy
First Nations Australians
Theatre & Cinema
Town History
Transport
Visual & Performing Arts

We also provide a professional information service for our members, access to a number of indexes, directories and online resources, as well as organise and present educational activities and events.

The PMI Library is also home of:

The Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria
The Cinema and Theatre Historical Society and
Victorian Railway History Library and you can view the VRHL collection through our catalogue.

Latest News

Meet Our Board: Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline is known for her strategic judgement, collaborative leadership and ability to guide organisations through complex, high‑profile environments. She has extensive experience advising CEOs, Boards and executive teams on communications, reputation, stakeholder engagement and risk, and has led multidisciplinary teams responsible for media, brand, marketing, content and public engagement.

Meet Our Patron: Janet McCalman

Janet is an emeritus professor at the University of Melbourne and is the author of four award-winning social histories: Struggletown (1984), Journeyings (1993), Sex and Suffering (1998) and Vandemonians (2020).

Meet Our Patron: Susan Lawrence

Susan teaches archaeology at La Trobe University. Her expertise is in the archaeology of resource extraction, British colonialism, gender and urbanisation. Susan is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and seven books, many of them about the archaeology of the gold rush.