Aiming at holding on to Australian history, society and people, and spanning almost 200 years, this large collection constitutes a vast and rich resource of official and government-related records. The collection’s main strength is material created since Federation in 1901 by agencies of the Commonwealth government. Also available are holdings of nineteenth-century records and documents of Governors-General, Prime Ministers, along with material related to many other issues involving the federal government. The collection material is impressive. The catalogue describes about 39 million records with hundreds of thousands of new descriptions every year, although limited to official and institutional documents. Most records are textual files, but there are also significant holdings of photographs, posters, maps, architectural drawings, films, playscripts, musical scores and sound recordings. Currently, the online databanks provide access only to a limited amount of the material and mainly consist in reference information. The archive has been recently enriched by an audio recordings section of lectures and talks produced by the National Archives, while the FactSheet area allow users to reach material organized by topics and historical fact or personalities, such as prime ministers etc. Basic searchability is free of charge and more advanced options require a free registration. Easy to navigate and user-friendly, the online database provides a great historical background to the general public.
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