COVID-19 oral history project: Archiving pandemic voices

Overview

Join Dr Barbara Lemon, Bronwyn Ryan and Dr Scott McKinnon from the Library's oral history team as they reflect on the process of compiling the extraordinary Australian COVID-19 collection.

From 2023 to 2025, the National Library of Australia undertook a major project to document Australian experiences of COVID‑19 through 260 oral history interviews. Interviewers travelled to every state and territory, speaking with a diverse cross-section of Australians about their lives before and during the pandemic.

Who did they select to interview when literally every Australian has a COVID story? How did they approach this subject when people's experiences can be thwart with anxiety, grief or even indignation? Why did they decide it was important to capture these stories and what legacy do they hope to achieve?

Now preserved for future generations are the voices of nurses, doctors, teachers, students, politicians, retirees, artists, medical researchers and many others, each reflecting on how they navigated an extraordinary moment in history.