School and education history in Victoria

Research Victoria's primary and secondary schools, text books and readers, past exams and results, curricula

School magazines

State Library Victoria has a large collection of Victorian school yearbooks and magazines.

The best first step, if you have a specific school in mind, is to search the catalogue for the school name and select  'Journals & newspaper titles' on the dropdown to specifically find yearbooks and magazines.

Some sample magazines and yearbooks that we hold are:

Also see Bibliography of Victorian school publications held by the State Library of Victoria: alphabetical list by place (1996) by Sally Murdoch.

If you would like to see a more general overview of what we have, you can also search for 'high school periodicals' or 'primary school periodicals'. Below are some sample searches:

Sometimes a school does issue a magazine on a regular basis, and sometimes a yearbook will actually be called a 'magazine', so it's worth having a look at a particular item if you are not sure.

Things that can be inside these types of publications:
  • staff list including qualifications
  • diary of major events throughout the year, including term dates
  • photos
  • prefects, sports teams, clubs
  • new buildings added
  • major excursions
  • stories, poems, art by students
  • autographs

Photograph, class photo of children at Moorabbin School, 1111, Grade 6, 1936 H2008.12/95

Moorabbin School, 1111, Grade 6, 1936 H2008.12/95