In this case, it's through Take the Trove archive based in the National Library in Canberra. It's a treasure house of documents now being made easily available to the public and it has just put the magazine Walkabout online - the pictures, the articles and the adverts, exactly as they were.

The 494 editions from 1934 to 1978 give a fascinating insight into the way Australians once viewed themselves and also the way the travel industry promoted Australia abroad.

And Canberra is put under the spotlight in the issue of December 1, 1957.

There's an air of surprise about how it's come on in the four decades since the first surveyor's peg was driven in on February 13, 1913.

There is some sneering - Canberra's names had ranged from the Bush Capital to "the best-lighted paddock in Australia" - but broadly there had been an improvement: "The dream is at last emerging. The National Capital is achieving real status at home and beyond the seas, and its former cold artificialty is being swiftly exchanged for a feeling of really belonging in the scheme of things. Canberra, in short, is finding a soul.''

"New suburbs are pushing out into the gently undulating lands nearby; the tempo of social, cultural and commercial life is quickening; the laugh of the kookaburra is heard less frequently as he retreats, buzzled by the bustling activity; rabbits seldom trouble the home gardener; examples of gleaming, ultra-modern architecture have arisen to tower as landmarks over the low buildings of the old era."

Some Canberra things seem familiar: "Stories about it have been legion - like that of the visiting motorist who, confused by the circles, curves and crescents, became lost and complained bitterly that he had passed no less than seven hotels bearing the same name!"

The earliest editions in the 1930s give a picture of Australia. Walkabout was produced by the Australian National Travel Association to sell Australia as a tourist destination in the 30s, clearly to those with the money and time to travel or maybe just to those who liked to dream.

In its first issue of November 1, 1934, it laid out its aims: "In publishing Walkabout, we have embarked on an educational crusade which will enable Australians and the people of other lands to learn more of the romantic Australia that exists beyond the cities and the enchanted South Sea Islands and New Zealand."

The view Walkabout promoted both to Australians and to those abroad was exotic, with a focus on remote communities, including Aboriginal ones, and activities like buffalo or crocodile hunting. If you read only Walkabout, you might think Australia was as much about the barking lizard - "one of the many strange denizens of the Nullabor Plain" - as the industrial economy.

We are told in the edition of August 1, 1936, that the barking lizard "when roused, stands on its toes and barks like a dog". The description features in an advert for "Holiday excursions on the Trans-Australian Railway", during which you might see a barking lizard.

Walkabout came before the glossy mass-circulation gossip magazines. It had high journalistic standards, with top-class writers and photographers. It did give a sheen to travel in Australia but it didn't make things up.

But it's fair to say it wasn't raw or bleak. It did portray Australia and Australians with a sense of celebration and wonder. It had pride in the country.

The publishers said the title came from a "characteristic of the Australian Aboriginal, who is always on the move. And so, month by month, Walkabout will take its readers on a great 'walkabout' through the fascinating world below the equator".

One of the nice things about being able to view the magazines online is that you see the adverts. Australians in the 30s, for example, were urged to get a telephone: "With a telephone in the home, one may 'voice-visit' relatives and friends in distant centres, including places overseas, without leaving the house."

There is a celebration of "Autumn in Victoria" - as the greens of summer turn to yellow and gold.

It is all a rosy, feel-good view of Australia (as befits a travel promotion). The war, for example, doesn't dominate, even at the lowest point.

In March 1942, the issue after Darwin was bombed, there is an article about long-eared possums and an advert urging people to "see the rural beauties of New South Wales" on Daylight Express Trains while an American writer reports on droving.

The war isn't ignored but nor does it come anywhere near dominating the war-time editions. There is an article about the Red Cross and how to send a letter to prisoners in Japanese hands.

And the advertisers see the commercial possibilities of war-time gloom. "Look on the bright side" with Osram, the Wonderful Lamp.

The character of the magazine changed over the decades. In the 1950s, an optimism about Australia emerges. There are adverts for cruises - "There's fun for all on a P&O liner".