You Have a New Memory
Aug 7, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

You Have a New Memory invites curiosity about how memories are made, preserved and shared.  

Through a cinematic slideshow alongside objects on display, encounter extraordinary and little-known memories hand-picked from our more than 4.5 million collection items – from deeply personal diaries and sacred cultural artefacts to stories we may never fully know. 

Across 170 years of collecting and stewardship, the exhibition elevates the ordinary and the exceptional alike to show that our collective memory is built as much from everyday life as it is from historic events.

Perspectives including First Nations knowledge expand our understanding of memory to illuminate that it is lived, contested and evolving.

Collection items on display include: 

• Tuuram gundidj (possum-skin cloak), created by artist Vicki Couzens, which holds cultural knowledge of the Keerray Woorroong clan. 
• Nearly 200 diaries that record the meals, expenses and mailbox contents of Melbourne man Ian Banks over 40 years, from tram tickets and food labels to advertising flyers and more. 
• A brick from Yallourn – a fragment of a town that no longer exists. 
• A pocket watch that holds the memory of an exchange with Ned Kelly over the Jerilderie Letter. 
• A brass gong, used by librarians as a reminder to leave the Library at closing time from the 1850s until the 1990s. 
• A pair of well-worn leather work boots built into the chimney of The Ian Potter Queen’s Hall, found during 2019 renovations of the Library. 

Moving between the intimate and the collective, You Have a New Memory invites you to reflect on your own memories – and leave with new ones. 

Pick up the publication from Readings State Library

Co-published by Perimeter Editions and State Library Victoria, You Have a New Memory accompanies the exhibition and invites us to reexamine how a library remembers, and how our own thoughts interact with the memories of others.

You Have a New Memory – Kate Rhodes (editor), Rory Hyde (editor), Ziga Testen (designer), Stuart Geddes (designer), with contributions from Paula Bray, Maxine Briggs, Wesley Enoch.

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* Image credit: Angela Lynkushka (Born 1947) Women and children discuss health and child development issues with a community worker, at the Centre [Indo-Chinese Elderly Refugees Association of Victoria] 1988 gelatin silver photograph. H92.250/339