#public libraries.

On this day, 16th March 1826, Australia’s first library, the Australian Subscription Library was founded in Sydney.                                                   

In December 1827, library operations began in rented premises in Pitt Street, and for the next two years the Library led a peripatetic existence—a few years in George Street, then Bridge Street, Macquarie Street and Macquarie Place. In 1845 it finally moved into its own new building on the corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets, approximately where the Aurora Place development now stands. These images from the State Library of New South Wales collections, depict that library building.      

The Subscription Library was purchased by the NSW State Government in 1869 and became the Free Public Library of New South Wales, the forerunner of the State Library of New South Wales and the first truly public library for the people of NSW. Read more in the History of the Library.