This is the earliest audio recording of an Australian Governor-General, a farewell message to Australia by Hallam Lord Tennyson.

‘The Absent Minded Beggar’ is a patriotic poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899 in order to raise money for soldiers fighting in the Second Boer War.

Light baritone Hamilton Hill (1869–1910) was a prominent early Australian music hall, vaudeville and recording artist born in Gordons (near Ballarat, Victoria).

In 1901-02, Baldwin Spencer and Frances James (FJ) Gillen undertook an anthropological research expedition to Central Australia.

Stiff Gins (Kaleena Briggs and Nardi Simpson) sing 'Dust', a song in two Aboriginal languages. A wax cylinder recording made on an original 1903 Edison Standard D model phonograph.

Vocalist John James Villiers, with piano accompaniment, performs a song which features imitations of chooks.

The Edison Standard D model phonograph dates from around 1908 and has a clockwork spring-powered motor. It has been fitted with a recorder head that can play back two-minute cylinders.

A close up of the wax cylinder used to make Keith Potger's recording of Guardian Angel, Guiding Light.

Tasmanian Aboriginal recordings are inscribed in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

Vintage sound recording and reproduction equipment from the NFSA's artefacts collection.

Together, these beautiful artefacts contribute to the story of recorded sound in Australia.