The State Library of Victoria has begun to make publicly available a massive archive of historical photographs being described as the Google Street View of the 1970s.

For 40 years the library had 2,000 rolls of film sitting in storage containing up to 70,000 photographs of Melbourne streetscapes and historical country towns.

Library Services Director Jo Ritale said most of the photos have never been seen.

"People love Google Street View and this is kind of like Google Street View in the 1970s," she said.

"It's all of the domestic buildings so every house in every street in some of these suburbs, so it captures the social history of the time."

Photos in the archive show aspects of life in inner-Melbourne in the 1970s. ( Supplied: State Library Victoria )

The library is now digitising the photos, to make them available online.

"In cultural terms I think they're priceless because they capture a period in time across a breadth of suburbs and breadth of townships in the regional areas," community engagement director at the library Peter McMahon said.

The photos capture the fashions and styles of the early 70s as well as the buildings.

Flares and boots compete for attention alongside the early model Holdens.

Melbourne's architectural history recorded

In 1972 a group of concerned volunteers set about photographing Melbourne's inner suburbs and historic country towns to safeguard Victoria's architectural heritage.

The photographers averaged 800 shots per suburb.

The result is an enormous archive of negatives that has been in cold storage at the library since 1975.

"One of the challenges we had earlier was the rolled film and the delicate process of unrolling it and making sure it could be treated delicately and find it's way through to the digitisation process," Mr McMahon said.

"It's the fine-tuning of the images once they're digitised that takes the time and the expertise."

Photos of Fitzroy have now been digitised and are available online.

Castlemaine photos will soon follow.

"I particularly like all of the Fitzroy shots because they are so immediately recognisable," Mr McMahon said.

"Anybody who spends anytime around that particular side of the city can pick out particular things and particular buildings and it's extraordinary that so many of them have survived in a relatively unscathed form."

Preparing each suburb for online release takes about two months, while completing the digitisation of the entire archive will take years.

The State Library is hoping local councils can sponsor the work needed to make its photos available.

The State Library is digitising an enormous archive of negatives from the 1970s. ( Supplied: State Library of Victoria )

Mr McMahon said that while the Fitzroy and Castlemaine photos showed a large number of significant buildings have survived largely untouched, the photos yet to be seen could reveal a different story.

"Seeing what's actually been captured particularly in areas of vast redevelopments is going to be fascinating - we're really looking forward to seeing what's in there," he said.

"We won't know what we've got in those other suburbs until we start unrolling the film and having a look."