The Special Collections consists of several collections, the Rare book collection, the Restricted Collection, Theses, the Djorra Djagamirri Collection and the East Timor Collection.

Collection on Northern Australia and Eastern Indonesia

The Charles Darwin University Library has established a collection of published and unpublished materials dealing with Northern Australia and contiguous maritime and land areas. It is a broad inter-disciplinary collection reflecting the University's wide interest in the anthropology, history, geography, health, Indigenous studies, geology, literature, language, trade, religion, government and other aspects of the region. The collection is envisaged as a research collection with an emphasis on comprehensive coverage of print and non print publications and unpublished reports in the original format or facsimile.

The region covered by the collection and database comprises the Northern Australian coastline from Broome to Thursday Island, the Northern Territory and contiguous land and maritime areas including Christmas and Cocos Islands, the eastern provinces of Indonesia from Lombok to Irian Jaya, and the Arafura and Timor Seas. Contact between the peoples, ecosystems and geologies of the region is central.

This notion of contact is best expressed by the name of the collection 'Djorra' Djagamirri', which is taken from the Yolngu-Matha language of North East Arnhem Land meaning 'to care for books'. These words are derived from Makassan and were adapted into the Aboriginal languages during the ceCDUries of contact between the peoples of North East Arnhem Land and Makassar (now called Sulawesi).

The collection is not open for browsing. Items are listed on the catalogue and may be requested for use within the library via the Loans Desk at Casuarina Campus Library. Items are retrieved twice a day and held at the loans desk.

CDU staff and CDU postgraduate students conducting research can request access to browse the collection.

East Timor Collection

The East Timor Collection provides an invaluable instrument with which to study the latest period in the poorly researched colonial past of East Timor. The core of the collection consists of materials published in Portuguese during the Salazarist dictatorship from 1926 to 1974. Economic, anthropological, missionary, administrative and military publications form the great bulk of the collection, including a large number of official publications and offprints from journals. Helder Lains e Silva's excellent monograph Timor e a cultura do cafe (1956) stands out within this type of material. It covers a wider field than its title implies, and is in reality the best available economic history of Portuguese Timor. There is also a scattering of books published in Portugal on the period since the Indonesian annexation of 1975. In addition to works on Timor, there are a fair number of books on the Portuguese empire as a whole during these years, which help to fill in the colonial context.

The collection also contains some material published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of which are particularly worthy of note. Affonso Castro's As possessoes Portuguezas na Oceania (1867) is a monumental, rare and essential book for an understanding of the early nineteenth century. Charles Vogel's Le Portugal et ses colonies (1860) is a classic from the same period, covering Portugal and its empire as a whole. Alberto Osorio de Castro's Flores de Coral books published in Dili itself in these years. It contains poems and a fascinating and perceptive account of the author's travels into the interior.

Two other minor categories of publication are scattered through the collection. There are works on the great period of Portuguese discovery, navigation and conquest, mainly published during the period 1926 - 1974 and focussing on the Portuguese role in Southeast Asia. And there are some books on parts of Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Australasia, usually areas close to Timor or in some way related to the island. A fair number of publications in this latter category are in English and French.

The collection is not open for browsing. Items are listed on the catalogue and may be requested for use within the library via the Service Desk at Casuarina Campus Library. Items are retrieved twice a day and held at the loans desk.

CDU staff and CDU postgraduate students conducting research can request access to browse the collection.