National Archives of Australia
Treatment Projects
NAPF move
NAA Conservation are currently preparing to move the entire contents of two repository buildings to our soon to be completed NAPF (National Archives Preservation Facility) currently being built at Vickers Street, Mitchell. Preservation staff have spent many weeks assessing and measuring collection items which require custom housing and/or remedial conservation work prior to the move.
Preservation staff are to receive training in our recently upgraded box-making software in early March and will soon be pumping out the most beautiful custom boxes in Canberra. Unfortunately this means that the NAA will be unable to provide any more custom box orders to our fellow cultural agencies until further notice.
The other aspect of the move to the NAPF that will affect cultural agencies is the reduced access to records during the physical move. Outgoing loans will be affected during this time, please contact Prue McKay for further details.
Pitcairn Island register
Prue McKay and Suellen Bailey have been working on a treatment of a Births, Deaths, and Marriages register from Pitcairn Island. The register contains entries from 1853 to 1881 and details important events in the life of the island, including a grim history of the Bounty Mutineers.
Old repairs are being stripped away and the register will be fully rebound after being digitised and uploaded to NAA RecordSearch for public access.
Exhibitions and Loans
The NAA touring exhibition Without Consent was installed at the Western Australian Museum at Kalgoorlie-Boulder last week by Caroline Milne and NAA Access Programs staff. The display includes personal stories and loaned artefacts from those affected by forced adoption. Included on display are handmade articles of clothing for babies that never came home with their mothers, letters and documents between parents and children and a large handmade quilt pieced together by mothers who were coerced to give up their babies. Take some tissues along, this exhibition is a powerful example of how policy can go wrong.