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
A13147 NSR 583 National Security Act Regulations & Ordinances - National Security (General) Regulations. Reg 54 (DT.1-34); Reg 55 (DT.35-39) 05 Mar 1943 - 19 Mar 1943
A1838 69/1/4/26 PART 7 USSR - Relations with North Vietnam 1966 - 1966
A1838 3107/38/1/3 PART 4 China - Relations with Australia - Annual review 1981 - 1984
A446 1958/30404 LAUER Hector Thorburn (aka Lawson) born 22 December 1931; Patrick Michael O'Connell - New Zeland 1955 - 1959
MP529/2 JUHN/L Dossier of Juhn, Leo [Vuhn, Leopold] - Dossier No. 478 1939 - 1940
A1838 840/13 PART 2 New Hebrides - Relations with Australia 1969 - 1971
A1838 TS698/6 PART 1 Regional Defence Organisation - China - Hong Kong 1955 - 1967
A1838 720/5/22 PART 3 Atomic energy - Australia - Relations with China 1981 - 1982
A1838 142/2/1 Spanish Sahara in Africa - Political - General Policy 1963 - 1975
C138 MB49729 Ida E CALLEY / Samuel Johnson CALLEY [Repatriation dependant's medical case file] [box 4082] 1960 - 1968
D5063 694 Australian Customs - Sydney 1980 - 1980
A7326 BJ801/13/2 Part 7 China - Political and General - relations with Hong Kong 02 Dec 1982 - 23 Jun 1983
F133 1977/235 PART 1 APR [Aboriginal Population Records] Section - Social Security Queries 1977 - 1978
A1838 333/7/3 PART 1 Micronesia - Relations with South Pacific countries 1978 - 1987
A11235 52-53 Senate Journals - 52nd & 53rd Sessions of Parliament - Volume containing (Session 52) Journal No. 1 (25 November 1969); (Session 53) Journal No. 1 (3 March 1970) to Journal No. 209 (31 October 1972) and Sessional Papers 1969 - 1972
A1209 1965/6275 South Vietnam's Liberation Front - Article by Jim Henderson in "The Queensland Guardian" 1965 - 1965
A518 E815/1/5 Land measurement - Policy 1948 - 1954
AWM315 206/002/017 02 [Australian War Memorial registry files - second series:] Artists: VFX94085, Capt Heysen, Nora Miss 1987 - 1987
B73 H5760 MILNE, Hector - Service Number - 953 1954 - 1954
C139 RX23888 William COLLYER [Repatriation case file] 1919 - 1921