Australia's close-up, cropped from 11 million photos

A black and white photograph of a horrified footy fan watching Collingwood play Carlton in 1963 shows some things never change.

The image is by Keith Byron, who took portraits of Hollywood stars such as Audrey Hepburn and Steve McQueen before returning to Australia in the 1960s to work in a little-known government photography unit.

He was one of a small band of snappers employed as public servants between 1939 and 1996 - their brief, simply, to capture Australian life on camera.

Of about 11 million images in the National Archives photography collection, most were taken by the Department of Information's Official Photographic and Film Unit over its 57 years in operation.

While a few government photographers, such as Max Dupain, became well known, most were never recognised.

A National Archives touring exhibition aims to change that.

"A lot of them are so humble about their work and what they recorded, but they witnessed history, and they've created this gigantic library," said curator Emily Catt.

"It's the Australian people's collection, and I think it's really, really important."

The free exhibition tells the story of a growing nation, with images such as the construction of the Snowy Hydro system during the 1950s - exhausted workers are pictured eating an evening meal with hard hats still on their heads.

There are also formative events: Barry Le Lievre travelled to Darwin to photograph life in the Northern Territory, just weeks before Cyclone Tracy devastated the town on Christmas Day 1974.

Queensland's Surfers Paradise is shown in the years before its high-rise towers with Neil Murray's image of the Chevron Hotel.

There are royal visits, Melbourne Cup crowds, children at Luna Park and workers at the BHP Port Kembla steel plant.

There's wildlife too, from kangaroos and sulphur-crested cockatoos, to a thorny devil in central Australia and crabs on the sand of the Cocos Keeling Islands.

The exhibition is also a record of changing technology - a classic box brownie camera is among the equipment on display, while one striking picture shows an Australian tri-series cricket game at the SCG in 1984 featuring a new electronic scoreboard system.

Catt narrowed millions of images down to about 230 for the exhibition, as well as tracking down photographers from the unit who are still alive.

It was a massive job - sometimes all she had to go on was a name on the back of a photograph or in an old diary - but she managed to interview the photographers or their families, and record their extraordinary tales.

The unit was closed down in 1996 after 57 years in operation, due to funding cuts and the advent of digital technology.

While Australia has changed greatly since 1939, much remains the same.

"The people change and the fashions change, but people's reactions and experiences ... anyone that comes to the exhibition is going to see something they recognise from their lives," Catt said.

Focus: Australian government photographers is on show at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne until April 25 and will tour nationally, with the next stop Hurstville Museum and Gallery in Sydney.