You can find time capsule collections for every Australian capital city on our website.

Highlights include rare footage of the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger (Hobart time capsule), the laying of the foundation stone in Canberra, 1913 (Canberra time capsule), the end of the 1896 Melbourne Cup (Melbourne time capsule) and Perth street scenes from 1907, when the city looked more like a frontier town in a Hollywood western than a cosmopolitan city (Perth time capsule).

See the chaos of 1920s Sydney traffic (Sydney time capsule), what Roma Street Station looked like in 1899 (Brisbane time capsule) and a horse-drawn fire brigade in action (Adelaide time capsule).

Below is a 1995 news story about a 'seething nest of crocodiles' in Darwin Harbour, from the Darwin time capsule:

We've also published time capsules on regional centres like Ballarat, Newcastle and Far North Queensland.

So whether you're planning your next holiday or simply exploring the history of where you live, take a virtual trip with one of our time capsules today.

The original version of this article was first published in 2017. The text was updated in 2023.

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Main image: Elevated view of Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, 1940s. Courtesy: State Library Victoria Collections.