Australian National Archives

The Australian National Archives are the main government archives of Australia (Each state has its own archives from pre-federation). They hold a wide variety of government—and some personal—documents and papers. They are a surprisingly small facility for a country of Australia’s stature, but that only adds to their charm. They are just big enough to have good, helpful staff and an efficient operation.

Strengths:

Online Finding Aid System: The National Archives have a reasonably thorough, intuitive search system with pretty good keyword searching capacity and accurate file descriptions. If you are looking for a particular file, you will be able to find it, and thematic searching is pretty reliable.

Relaxed: The Australian National Archives are a friendly and collegial place to research. Getting in is easy and involves no metal detector scans or unreasonable hassle. The staff is well informed and enthusiastic.

Photography: Photography is permitted with few restrictions (the usual rules prohibiting flash photography, tripods, paper shredders, etc.).

Parking: Parking near the archives is free and easy in a town with few people and abundant space.

Weaknesses

Split Collection: If you are doing research on a military or diplomatic topic, some of your materials will be held at the Australian War Memorial Archives—not nearly as helpful a set of archives.

Canberra: This reflects the opinion of the researchers I met, rather than my own. Canberra is a small city spread out over a large area. This means there are few places to have a drink, and because most of the jobs are high paying government ones, prices are high even by Australia’s inflated standards. On the other hand, it is much easier to research with a clear head and a good night’s sleep.

Food: The Archives are in the middle of the government area, meaning there are few places to get lunch or a coffee, and those that exist are crammed at lunch time. That said, if you do manage to find somewhere the coffee will be good, because Australians won’t tolerate bad coffee.