National Treasures Exhibition at the State Library: Keith visits the exhibition in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

The modern glass facade of the State Library on North Terrace disguises the traditional collection of books and reference material inside right?

Well, no. At the moment it's the front door to a 'once in a lifetime exhibition' inside - a stunning collection of some of our greatest National Treasures.

Step inside and in the first display case there's a remarkable piece. A 350 year old Zee-Atlas, a Dutch sea atlas which shows how much the Dutch knew about the south coast of Australia when they first sailed into our region - the map stops at Nuyts Archipelago just off Ceduna. We had to wait another century and a half for the rest to be filled in.

The map is just one of the extraordinary pieces in this travelling exhibition currently packing them in at the Flinders University Gallery on the ground floor. And when Australia's great libraries give up their treasures you can expect a surprise or two…

In the very next display is Matthew Flinders' 1814 map. He was the first European to circumnavigate the continent - in a leaky boat at that. He was also the first to put the name, Australia on the map. Next to the map is a heroic but tragic portrait of Bungaree, the first indigenous Australian to go around the continent.

Bungaree acted as guide, interpreter and negotiator with local aboriginal tribes. Flinders described him as being 'a worthy and brave fellow' who, on more than one occasion, saved the expedition.

The collection is a sometimes-haunting journey through our relatively short history. For example, it has the only complete original convict uniform left in Australia.

It's what you'd end up wearing if you got caught pinching a loaf of bread in London in the 1830s. The garb is made from thick, rough woollen cloth that would have been prickly and devilishly hot in summer. You only go two uniforms a year and the broad arrow stamp signified Government ownership. Everything about the uniform, including the heavy leg-irons (weighing as much as 30 kilograms) was a symbol of humiliation.

Of course, we had none of that here - no convicts in South Australia! But we do hold our own in the exhibition - with a local icon or two. How about Lance Hill's first order book for his great South Aussie invention? His first Hills Hoists cost eleven quid. That might have been twice the average weekly wage - but the extraordinary device he invented in his laundry workshop went on to grace backyards all over the country.

Talking treasures - they couldn't leave out Sir Don Bradman. The collection includes the very bat he used to score a world record 334 runs against England at Leeds in 1930. He reckoned it was 'the best bat he ever had' and it's the first time it's been on tour.

State Library Curator, Peter Zajicek is still boggled all these precious slices of our history are under one roof. He's also loving how people are finding real connections with the items.

What will reach out at touch you? It could be the old travel posters that helped you family decide to hop on a ship and make Australia home.

Or the small but harrowing photos of the devastation in Darwin after the first Japanese air raid of 1942. A young Adelaide nurse, Lorna Laffer who ran the ambulance train south, took the photos. At least 250 Australians died in that first of more than 60 attacks. But it was all hushed up.

Maybe you'll marvel how a humble makeshift pen with its nib attached with string to a borrowed pencil was used by Henry Lawson to bring Australian bush tales and poems alive.

It was a tough question for a conservator but I asked Peter for his favourite. "It has to be Captain Cook's Journal," he said. "It's in his own handwriting and has some great examples of his writings as he sailed around the country. You can read the comments he made about Byron Bay for example. It's an exquisite piece and we need to all to come in and have a look at it. It's just fantastic."

Cook's own account of one of the great journeys of discovery is surely one of our national treasures… but for many people, the star of the show is the very helmet bushranger, Ned Kelly whore in his bloody last stand at Glenrowan in 1880.

The State Library's Michael Talbot says people are blown away to see the 'real thing'. "You can see the helmet is made from steel plough shears," said Michael. "You can see the bullet marks on it and you can see what a narrow field of vision (Ned) had. And the weight of it - 9 kilos - that's nearly twenty pounds. You can't see that in the picture can you?"

All the pieces of the jigsaw of Australia's past are the dinky-di real thing. These jewels from our great reference libraries show they are about much more than books.

National Treasures exhibition is in the Flinders Uni Gallery on the ground floor of the State Library on North Terrace. It's open daily from 10 until 5 and it's free. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au

National Treasures Exhibition
State Library of SA
North Terrace
Open 10am-5pm daily
Until March 25
Free admission

Published 25th February 2007