Historical Centre

The Historical Centre and its collections are available within The Mount Gambier Library during library opening hours. Whether you are a veteran family historian or just starting your research, library staff can help point you in the right direction. With a large range of history databases and resources such as Hospital Admissions database, Rate Assessment database etc. there is sure to be something which will help you unlock the mysteries of your family history.

The History Room is open for the public during library opening hours. A library staff member is available to help you in the History Room on;

Wednesday: 2:00pm - 5:00pm

If you have a specific local history request, please fill out the form below.

Local History Request Form

Mount Gambier 175 Digital Timeline

Combining historical photographs and research highlighting the social history of the city, the Mount Gambier 175 Timeline includes significant buildings, local events, key organisations and population data.

Mount Gambier 175 Digital Timeline

State Library Family History

The Library has created a number of detailed Library Guides to assist genealogists with their family history research and has digitized resources including South Australia directories 1864-1973, over 200,000 photographs, maps, The South Australian Red Cross Bureau 1916 - 1919 and the Savill Index of The Advertiser Funeral notices 1971 - 2014.

A number of family history related databases, including World Vital Records Times Digital Archive 1785 - 2009 and the Sydney Morning Herald 1955 - 1995 are available to registered South Australian residents for home access. Topics related to family history, such as published family histories, local histories, military histories, diaries, ship information and biographies can be searched via the catalogue. The Library's Ask Us service provides assistance for those unable to visit the Library.

SLSA Family History Page

Personal Notices

The library catalogue can be used to search for over 45,000 personal notices appearing in The Border Watch, S.E. Voice and Lifestyle from 1861 to current day. Simply type the name you are searching for into the search box and press "Search", to narrow your search tick the Asset tick box under the Format heading on the left hand side of the screen and "Search" again.

Many are extracts only; copies of the original notice are available from The Mount Gambier Library. 

Copyright is held by the respective publications.

The Mount Gambier History Group

"The aim of the Mount Gambier History Group Inc. is to locate, preserve and promote the built heritage, local history and family history of Mount Gambier and surrounding districts."

Email: mountgambierhistorygroup@gmail.com
President: Phil McInnes - (08) 8725 5873
Secretery: Jeanette Aslin - 0435 408 580
Reidy Park Centre, O'Halloran Terrace, Mount Gambier

The History Room is open for research on Tuesdays between 1:00pm - 4:30pm
They are closed from mid December to the end of January. Also open by appointment.

History Resources

Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition provides the most genealogical information available on-line, with more than 1.5 billion names in over 4,000 collections. It offers a wide and diverse variety of unique content to help patrons to help patrons trace their family lineage. It is continually expanding with new content added every business day. Ancestry Library edition is available to all Mount Gambier Library members on any of the public access computers within the library. One of the great features of ancestry is that with many of the records it is possible to view and print copies of original documents.

Useful Websites

Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial website has a lot of great information regarding Australians in time of war. The site also contains links to normal rolls for the main conflicts in which Australians  have been involved in.

Family Search

Family search is a great resource which is completely free of charge. The site is managed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The site allows you to search by a name as well as a life event such as a birth, death or marriage records from all over the world.

Mount Gambier Cemetery Search

The Mount Gambier Cemetery search allows you to search for all burials and cremations for all of Mount Gambier's Cemeteries.

National Archives

Use wonderful resources through the Australian Network Archives to locate war records, immigration records and much more.

South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society

The South Australian & Heraldry Society website gives you access to the Societies records such as death and burials, S.A. ship arrivals, S.A. Places etc.

The War Graves Photographic Project

The aim of The War Graves Photographic Project is to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, MoD grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day and make these available within a searchable database. Now working as a joint venture with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, this will enable families, scholars and researchers to obtain, via CWGC or TWGPP websites, a copy of the photograph of a grave or memorial which for many is impossible to visit due to the location.

Trove Digitised Newspaper Collection

Search through the National Library of Australia's Digitised newspaper collection by keyword search. The Collection now holds all copies of the Border Watch between the years 1861 - 1954.

www.freebmd.org.uk

This site allows you to search for birth, death and marriage records for the United Kingdom.