About
Holding on to our history - that's what the National Archives of Australia does. We care for valuable Commonwealth government records and make them available for present and future generations to use. Our recordkeeping standards help government to account to the public, ensuring that evidence is available to support people's rights and entitlements and that future generations will have a meaningful record of the past.
Our collection
The records in our collection trace the events and decisions that shaped the nation. We hold the papers of Governors-General, Prime Ministers and Ministers. We have Cabinet documents, Royal Commission files and departmental records on defence, immigration, security and intelligence, naturalisation, and many other issues involving the federal government. While most records in the collection are files, we also have significant holdings of photographs, posters, maps, architectural drawings, films, playscripts, musical scores and sound recordings.
