The collection was formed around an initial donation from the Oxfam Australia Library. It was augmented with rare and research quality items from the Victoria University Library general collection.

The Timor-Leste collection will be added to by donations from personal and organisational collections and is intended to chart the development of Timor-Leste as an independent nation.

What's in the collection

The Timor-Leste collection features a range of books, reports, journals, newsletters, yearbooks and pamphlets that focus chiefly on Timor-Leste as an independent nation but also cover its occupation by other countries. The collection's strengths are economics, development and trade, politics, governance and administration, education, culture, society and history.

It includes titles such as:

  • Area study of Portuguese Timor by The Allied Geographical Section, South West Pacific Area (1943)
  • Fretilin: the origins, ideologies and strategies of a nationalist movement in East Timor by Helen Hill (1978)
  • The struggle in Iliomar: resistance in rural East Timor by Ernest Chamberlain (2003)
  • Timor Lorosa'e national survey of citizen knowledge (2002)
  • Eastern (Portuguese) Timor: independence or oppression? by Grant Evans (1975)
  • The Lorikeet warriors: East Timorese new generation nationalist resistance, 1989-99 by Dan Nicholson (2001)
  • East Timor's political parties and groupings: briefing notes by Pat Walsh (2001)
  • Australian foreign policy and East Timor by Michael E. Salla (1994)
  • Timor-Leste: ita iha nebe ona ohin loron (2003)
  • The Timor Story by Dr Helen Hill (1975) – the full text is available online.

In 2014-2015, a digitisation project was completed to make available online the journals Tapol and Timor Link.

The collection also includes the AETA Archive, donated by the Australia-East Timor Association in 2022. The Australia-East Timor Association (AETA) was established in 1975, following occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, as an information, solidarity and networking organisation to support the struggle for independence of East Timor.

Further information regarding the Timor-Leste collection can be viewed on the VU Special Collections - How to access and use guide.

Timor-Leste collection - Transcript

Access to the collection

The Timor-Leste collection is a research collection. The items can't be borrowed, but may be viewed on appointment.

In the library catalogue, these items have the prefix FTS TIMOR-LESTE COLL. before the shelf number.

To access material in the collection, please email our Special Collections librarians. You will receive an emailed response within five working days (Mon-Fri) and a suitable time will be arranged.

You can view the items in the Special Collections reading room on level 4 of the Footscray Park library.

Email: special.collections@vu.edu.au.

Contact us

VU Library welcomes inquiries from the VU research community, and individuals or groups external to the university.

Contact the Special Collections Librarians with your queries or to arrange an appointment.

Email: special.collections@vu.edu.au