Fairfax Media has given its historic collection of photographic glass plate negatives to the National Library of Australia.

With the assistance of government funding, they are to be digitised and made publicly available.

The 13,000 glass plates from the early 1900s to the 1930s provide a unique record of Australian photojournalism… a fascinating and moving record of Australian life and history. The collection documents the cultural, social and physical landscape during a period of significant change and growth in Australia.

Images range from politics, people and social effects related to post-federation, World War I and the Great Depression, through to the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the built environment, sporting and artistic events and personalities, aviation and exploration, as well as the social lives of ordinary Australians.

The collection was accepted by Ryan Stokes (chairman of the National Library of Australia Council) and Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, its director general, at an event in Sydney hosted by Fairfax chief executive and managing director Greg Hywood.

“We’re thrilled that the National Library of Australia is embarking on this important project to digitise these national treasures and make them publicly available,” Hywood says. “The collection is of great significance to Fairfax and we look forward to sharing it with the Australian public.”

The National Library of Australia will catalogue and digitise the collection and make it available on via national and international services including the National Library of Australia’s website, online catalogue, national discovery service Trove, and search engines.

Pictured: Hywood, Stokes and Schwirtlich with frames pictures from the collection, which were presented to them