Closed access

Overview

Under the Australian Archives Act 1983 most Commonwealth records are opened to public scrutiny after twenty years (this was reduced from thirty years in 2010). But the Act also defines ‘exempt’ records that can be withheld from the public for a variety of reasons, including the defence of national security, and the protection of individual privacy. Access under the Act is not an inevitable destination, but a process that may result in records with the access status of ‘closed’.

Here you can explore these closed files. Why can't we look at them? How old are they? What are we really being protected against?

14370

closed files

on 1 January 2016
28

reasons

why these files have been closed
58

years

is the average age of these files
based on their date of their earliest content
1128

series

contain closed files

BE WARNED! This is a work in progress. It's part of an ongoing research project by Tim Sherratt (@wragge). As a result, this interface is likely to change. That said, pretty much everything should work, so feel free to poke around and see what you can find. Have fun!

Here's some examples…

Series Control Symbol Title Contents dates
A4531 201/2/1NVN PART 2 Saigon - North Vietnam - political general 13 Dec 1968 - 30 Aug 1969
PP889/1 MKM33610 PYKE, Donald - Service Number - WX32092, A5549 1941 - 1984
A6122 973 Communist Party of Australia. Western Australia, Bunbury 1949 - 1958
PP946/1 HSR39698 CORNELL, Francis William Charles - Service Number - W244363, 5871 1980 - 1980
A3269 Q7/E Industrial Demolitions Handbook Volume 2, April 1944 1944 - 1944
F1 1967/1663 Juveniles committed to gaols - Northern Territory 1963 - 1968
A437 1947/6/8 Peper, Hermann Gustav Christoph - Alien control 1946 - 1947
SP11/7 BUNDLE 3 Suspects List 04 Dec 1946 - 30 Jan 1948
A432 1962/3115 Papua and New Guinea - Fixing of Border with West New Guinea 01 Jan 1800 - 01 Jan 1800
D3185 160 Torrens Island Quarantine Station photograph 160 - [portion of title exempt] onset 6 March 1926 - unrecognised till inspection at anchorage 10 April 1926 1926 - 1926
A7322 21 General administrative files - Defence Sub-Committee - Unnumbered submissions - Defence infrastructure Aug 1978 - Aug 1978
A8742 1978/493 Information supplied to the Minister on entitlement submissions to determining authorities 1976 - 1976
K60 HKM33670 THOMPSON, Allan Drysdale - Service Number - 5/40015 1954 - 1987
A518 852/1/213 New Guinea - Selwood, L G - Draftsman [0.5cm] 1926 - 1939
A1928 1181/22/1 SECTION 2 War Radioactive Isolopes and Elements of use in Medical Treatment and in Physiology Section 2 01 Jan 1800 - 01 Jan 1800
A13147 NSR 323 National Security Act Regulations & Ordinances - National Security (Man Power) Regulations. Order under Regulation 5 06 Feb 1942 - 28 May 1942
PP878/1 MKM33413 WATKINS, William Evan - Service Number - 5/278, W54178, WX41846 1943 - 1972
SP236/3 264/3/1 Specialised Classes Correspondence Training General 1944 - 1947
A6122 1987 Spoiling Operations Australia - Media O [2pp] 1967 - 1967
A1838 3107/40/51/2 PART 1 China - Relations with Hong Kong 1973 - 1978