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
A432 1929/2050 Bankruptcy Act, 1925-1928 Audit of Trustees' Accounts. 1929 - 1929
A12391 R20 Organisation and Methods of the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS), April 1974 1974 - 1974
A432 1932/1844 FCT [Federal Capital Territory]. Agistment of Horses on Commonwealth Land: Failure to pay charges: Whether Commonwealth can impound horses 1932 - 1932
A12812 110 Inquiry into Rehabilitation of Navy Stores Buildings for RAN Research Laboratory, Pyrmont NSW - Statement of evidence, originating papers, correspondence, submissions, briefing papers, tabling details, confidential 12 Jun 1978 - 11 Jul 1980
A1838 532/11/4 PART 6 East Asia - Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League 1967 - 1969
B73 H115879 Pearson, Harold Ford 1969 - 1970
PP825/1 MX13581 Bruce Moncrieff 1940 - 1979
A13147 NSR 538 National Security Act Regulations & Ordinances - National Security (General) Regulations. Reg 4 (AP.1-2); Reg 5 (AP.3); Reg 6 (AP.4); Reg 54 (AP.5-81); Reg 55 (AP.82-107) 02 Feb 1942 - 27 Mar 1942
A3963 S6/11 Liquid Air Australia Ltd. 1975 - 1975
AWM54 179/5/8 PART 14 [Chemical Warfare - Trials:] Munitions Supply Laboratories. Abstract reports indexed in records of Chemical Defence Board [Part 14 of 23] 1945 - 1945
A2487 1921/4344 [Robert Gordon - Illegal disposal of property] 1921 - 1921
A3959 A1/27 Visit to Moomba (Delhi-Santoo), S.A. Prices Commission and Port Stanvac (PRA), 15th to 18th July 1974. 1974 - 1974
CP71/18 WHOLE SERIES Parliamentary Joint Committee on Rural Industries. Working Papers, Leaflets and typed matter. 1941 - 1943
A1838 528/1 PART 9 Hong Kong - General 1972 - 1975
MT99/2 1945/10 Staff - Captain H D Mitchell Master 1943 - 1945
A1533 1956/2921 KRPIC, Franz [7 pages] 1956 - 1956
E72 D10319/6 [Portion of Title Expunged] Allvar Karen Jane 1961 - 1962
K60 HKM32847 VOLUME 2 HEENAN, James Mcilwrath - Service Number - 5/1026 1983 - 1986
B73 H36873 JORDAN, Donald Morrison [1.5 cm] 1928 - 1955
A10028 803/7/9 PART 1 China : Economic - secondary industry and commodities - industrial performance 24 Jul 1973 - 14 Nov 1980