Private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’ relaxing with her family at Coombe Cottage, her outer Melbourne residence in 1927.

In celebration of the 160th anniversary of Dame Nellie Melba’s birth, we reveal previously unseen private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’.

Private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’ relaxing with her family at Coombe Cottage, her outer Melbourne residence in 1927.

In this excerpt from the premiere episode of This Fabulous Century, Peter Luck’s hugely successful nostalgic trawl through Australia’s recent past, a 1978 location visit to Dame Nellie Mel

Before the Bridge – Sydney in the Silent Film Era (1896–1929) is a series of silent film highlights that screened at Martin Place during the 2012 Sydney Film Festival.

Dame Nellie Melba’s early recording of 'Chant Vénitien’, a song composed by Herman Bemberg, who accompanies her in this recording.

This collection contains portraits and recordings of 15 pioneering Australian opera singers, music-hall performers, jazz vocalists and instrumentalists.

Dame Nellie Melba sings the national anthem, God Save the King, on the steps of Parliament House (now Old Parliament House), in Canberra at the official opening in 1927.

Federal Parliament House in Canberra was opened with much ceremony on 9 May 1927 by the Duke of York, later King George VI.

This newsreel footage shows soprano Dame Nellie Melba, having arrived in Sydney from Vancouver on the passenger liner RMS Niagara after a world tour.