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
B73 M44920 RYALL, Lewis Henry - Service Number - 728 1915 - 1927
PP863/1 M1083 NELSON, William Stoyle - Service Number - 964 1915 - 1938
AWM54 179/3/3 PART 2 [Chemical Warfare - Types of Agents:] Canada, Sub-Committee on Physiological Aspects of Chemical Warfare, Aug 1943 - Report on Mustard Gas 1943 - 1943
A1209 1958/5826 Communist China armed forces 1958 - 1958
A1209 1981/161 PART 1 South Pacific Soviet research vessels - Offer to committee for co-ordination of joint prospecting for mineral resources in South Pacific off-shore areas of Soviet aid 1981 - 1981
A7452 A473 PRC economic involvement: joint PRC - Australian Aluminium Smelter project 1986 - 1986
AWM239 85 RAN Medical Officers' Journals: GERANIUM (1 July 1920 - 10 November 1927); MORESBY (20 June 1925 - 20 December 1929) 1920 - 1929
PP902/1 MX70358 Cyril Lyon Moorhouse 1940 - 1979
A7324 67 Submissions - Television Equalisation - IBIS-DH&S Feb 1987 - Feb 1987
A816 66/301/35 Honours for Nursing Services 1943 - 1957
A1533 1955/4142 James Phillips ALLAN and others 1955 - 1955
A1838 3038/9/1 PART 15 Portuguese Timor - Relations with UN 1981 - 1982
B73 MB25528 ELLIOT, Daisy Ruby beneficiary of ELLIOTT, Mark Edward - Service Number - 4532 1956 - 1969
A1838 3107/38/14 PART 11 China - Relations with Australia - Briefing material 1977 - 1978
PP930/1 HX20409 Raymond Albert Francis Bishop 1946 - 1969
A1209 1981/1488 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation [ASIO] - Reports on security procedures in departments 1981 - 1981
AWM239 212 RAN Medical Officers' Journals: Reserve Districts (1 January - 31 December 1940) 1940 - 1940
A1928 1020/142 Staff - Permanent - Central Barker Miss D. 1929 - 1939
A13147 NSR 431 National Security Act Regulations & Ordinances - National Security (General) Regulations. Reg 45 (CL.1); Reg 54 (CL.2-81) 24 Sep 1942 - 30 Nov 1942
A1838 169/11/106 PART 1 India - Relations with other countries - Indonesia 1948 - 1954