Australian Queer Archives

Australian Queer Archives Collecting, preserving and celebrating lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, Sistergirl and Brotherboy history.
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AQuA Membership 2026-27Thank you for your support in 2025-26. It's now time to renew your AQuA membership for 2026-27 (b...
05/06/2026

AQuA Membership 2026-27

Thank you for your support in 2025-26. It's now time to renew your AQuA membership for 2026-27 (by 30 June 2026) or join as a new member. We’re keeping the rates the same as last year - $25 full, $10 concession, including GST.

With your continued support, we are better able to ensure Australia's LGBTIQ+ histories are safely preserved and accessible to our communities.

If you are an existing member you will have received a renewal notice, if you are a new member please join here: https://bit.ly/4awlzCi

If you can we encourage you to renew and donate. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. If you wish to make a major donation to support our growth or a new initiative please get in touch!

Image: Aboriginal History Archive tour, Feb 2025 / photo by Nick Henderson

Out of the Archives - HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness DayLong Term Survivors Awareness Day is an opportunity to honour...
05/06/2026

Out of the Archives - HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day

Long Term Survivors Awareness Day is an opportunity to honour long-term survivors of HIV and raise awareness about their needs, issues, and journeys.

AQuA holds a range of material documenting HIV Long-Term Survivors, including selected oral history interviews by Cheryl Ware for her book 'HIV survivors in Sydney: memories of the epidemic' (2019) and a large collection of interviews from 'In the eye of the storm: volunteers and Australia's response to the HIV/AIDS crisis' (2021).

This annual observance on June 5th coincides with the anniversary of the first official reporting of what became known as the AIDS epidemic on 5 June 1981. Events are being held around Australia, today, find out more via your local HIV/AIDS and PLWA organisation.

Image: courtesy Thorne Harbour Health

Out of the Archives - 'Finding family at the Archives'Thank you Jonathan Butler Author for your wonderful piece in the ...
02/06/2026

Out of the Archives - 'Finding family at the Archives'

Thank you Jonathan Butler Author for your wonderful piece in the Griffith Review:

"Finding AQuA when I was in my mid-twenties was a homecoming for me. It was a place to find the answers to the questions I’d been consciously and subconsciously asking my entire life. It was also a place to meet ancestors I never knew I had."

Read more: griffithreview.com/articles/safe-haven/

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

CALL OUT - Clover Business Women's ClubThe Archives recently received a donation of a missing issue of the Clover Busine...
02/06/2026

CALL OUT - Clover Business Women's Club

The Archives recently received a donation of a missing issue of the Clover Business Women's Club Newsletter, we now hold four issues (1980 Jun/Jul; 1983 Mar/Apr, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sep)! We are very keen to preserve more issues of this newsletter for this pioneering, women-only le***an social space and club - if you have copies to donate or loan for scanning, please get in touch: mail@q***rarchives.org.au; PO Box 2124 St Kilda West
VIC 3182.

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

Out of the Archives - Open DayJoin us this Saturday 6 June with a Pride Month Open Day highlighting some of our textile ...
01/06/2026

Out of the Archives - Open Day

Join us this Saturday 6 June with a Pride Month Open Day highlighting some of our textile treasures.

You may like to bring your own textile craft project to work on in our Reading Room while learning about Australian Q***r histories.

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

28 years ago (30 May 1998), Le***an & Gay Pride WA presented Xes IV Lust in Space party, with 1700 turning out. The pa...
30/05/2026

28 years ago (30 May 1998), Le***an & Gay Pride WA presented Xes IV Lust in Space party, with 1700 turning out. The party featured DJs Scout, Curlee and Kinky, a midnight show choreographed by Corey Zerna, and a 2am show by D-Flux and choreographer Chris Rickson - were you there?

These images come from Westside Observer, which is digitised from the AQuAs holdings, and accessible online via the Gale Archives of Sexuality and Gender database, in our 'Australian LGBTQ Periodicals' collection - available freely onsite at AQuA and online with a library card login from many Australian research libraries.

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

Out of the Archives - National Volunteers WeekHappy National Volunteer Week 2026, thank you to all our amazing volunteer...
24/05/2026

Out of the Archives - National Volunteers Week

Happy National Volunteer Week 2026, thank you to all our amazing volunteers, including our wonderful Volunteer Supervisors, Working Groups, and Committee!

AQuA has been a volunteer-run community-based organisation since our formation in 1978. It is only through the thousands of hours that our volunteers put in - collecting, preserving, and celebrating our very q***r histories - that ensures that future generations are connected to our past.

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

Happy International Tea Day! From tea towels to tea dances, tea poetry to tea breaks, the Australian Q***r Archives is s...
21/05/2026

Happy International Tea Day!

From tea towels to tea dances, tea poetry to tea breaks, the Australian Q***r Archives is synonymous with tea! Thank you for bringing us together ☕xo

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

Images: AQuA volunteers and researchers on a tea break, 2019; Wendy Moulstone, Milk and Tea, Cargo, no. 13, June 1992, p. 8; Midnight Shift [advertisement], Oxford Weekender News, 16th Sept to 29th Sept [1982], p.5; Oxford Street, Sydney, Australia, c.1984, designed by Mark Matheson, produced by King Koala Designs, Papers of Richard Turner, AQuA

Out of the Archives - ResearchersIt was a pleasure to receive a visit from RMIT University printmaking student Amelia Ru...
13/05/2026

Out of the Archives - Researchers

It was a pleasure to receive a visit from RMIT University printmaking student Amelia Rutherford recently, who was researching Melbourne and Sydney le***an history for a new work. Amelia's research included periodicals like Wicked Women and Le***an Network, photographs by Cayte Latta and Angela Bailey, and much more! We're looking forward to seeing the finished works!

Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's le***an, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member: http://bit.ly/AQuAmember; and donate (tax deductible): http://bit.ly/AQuAdonor.

Happy 86th birthday Joan Nestle!Happy birthday to AQuA Patron and legendary femme writer, activist, and archivist Joan N...
12/05/2026

Happy 86th birthday Joan Nestle!

Happy birthday to AQuA Patron and legendary femme writer, activist, and archivist Joan Nestle. Have a wonderful day from all of us at AQuA, thank you for your words, and your many archival and activist legacies! xo.

"To live without history is to live like an infant, constantly amazed and challenged by a strange and unnamed world. There is a deep wonder in this kind of existence, a vitality of curiosity and a sense of adventure that we do well to keep alive all of our lives. But a people who are struggling against a world that has decreed them obscene need a stronger bedrock beneath their feet." -- Joan Nestle, in A Restricted Country (1987)

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Victorian Pride Centre, 79-81 Fitzroy Street
Melbourne, VIC
3182

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