The National Archives of Australia has embarked on a $3 million mission to save priceless audio and video recordings in its collection that document Australian history.
Director-General of the Archives, David Fricker said the allocation would fund the digitisation of more than 30,000 at-risk audio-visual records.
“At a time of growing budget pressures, the National Archives has taken the decision to make this significant investment in saving magnetic media records, which otherwise could be lost forever in the next five years,” Mr Fricker said.
“After 2025 the skills and equipment needed to digitise magnetic tape will be harder to come by and the media itself will have begun to irretrievably deteriorate, so the time to act is now.”
He said the $3 million allocation would increase the Archives’ digitised audio-visual collection to more than 120,000 items, almost halfway to preserving the most critically at-risk material.
Mr Fricker said the Archives had a vast audio-visual collection from Commonwealth Government Agencies and public broadcasters spanning nearly 100 years and documenting almost every aspect of national life.
The Archives’ Assistant Director of Audio-visual Preservation, Caroline Ashworth said the allocation would fund the first year of work under a planned five-year program to future-proof the most critical items in the collection.
“We hold collections of great significance and importance to First Nations people across Australia, including testimonies from the Stolen Generation, Native Title land claims, Royal Commissions and enquiries,” Ms Ashworth said.
“We also have audio and video content covering science, technology and the environment, from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef, Woomera to the Snowy Hydro scheme (pictured), national weather station data to Australia Post advertisements from the 1980s.”
Ms Ashworth said the Archives would go all out to conserve the materials and memories for the nation and its future generations.
