Flinders University

Keith Borrow and Eleanor Yelland

The Collection of Keith Travers Borrow (1917-2005) on the early history of European settlement in South Australia.

The collection contains more than 2000 books and serials, and approximately 65 metres of archival material, paintings, prints, maps, manuscripts, photographs, audiotapes, and card indexes.

The collection of Mr Borrow’s wife Eleanor Yelland is included in the Borrow Collection.

The Borrow Collection is held in Special Collections, Level 3, Central Library, Flinders University.

Conditions of Access

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Search for books and periodicals in the Voyager catalogue.

Click here for a list of books and periodicals in the collection.

For more information, contact the Special Collections Librarian

Featured links:

Some Early Recollections by Boyle Travers Finniss: transcript of 46-page manuscript held in the Borrow Collection.

Boyle Travers Finniss was Assistant Surveyor to Colonel William Light when the colony of South Australia was set up in 1836. In his 'Recollections', written in 1882, he describes early encounters with the Aborigines, early settler life, the political and social life of the colony, the progress of surveying and building the city of Adelaide, and his own career which included a term as the first Premier of South Australia under responsible government.

Early Experiences in Australasia: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives 1788-1901

Flinders University staff and students now have access to Early Experiences in Australasia, which provides a personal view of events in the region from the arrival of the first settlers through to Australian Federation at the close of the nineteenth century. This unique database provides first-person accounts, including letters and diaries, narratives, and other primary source materials.

As Flinders University Library was the first institution to contribute to the Archive, almost all the material currently included in the collection is drawn from our very own Borrow Collection. Come to Special Collections to see the originals of these precious documents