To be a child: childhood in South Australia

 

Learning and education
Just for fun Board games Children's toys Books Gender in play and toys
South Australian childhood

The collections of the State Library of South Australia hold a rich resource of material relating to South Australian childhood. There are reminiscences of childhood and other items; photographs, which in the diversity of images evoke the 19th and 20th centuries and many aspects of childhood; and published collections of books and pamphlets for and about children. Overriding all of these is the wealth of items in the Children's Literature Research Collection of books, toys and games, very many of which have been donated by South Australians. These donations mean that the Collection strongly reflects the reading and play interests of South Australian children from the days of early settlement until present times.

Drawing on these resources, an evocation of childhood as experienced in this state can be seen - though by and large it is not very different from that experienced elsewhere in Australia.