ArchivesACT

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ArchivesACT

• Territory Records Office

• State

Self-government was introduced into the ACT in 1989. Until this time, records on the administration of the territory were the responsibility of the Commonwealth. In 1994 the National Archives of Australia transferred ownership of these early records to the ACT Government.

ArchivesACT was established in 2008 to provide public access to both these historic records and the subsequent records of the ACT Government. ArchivesACT allow the community the opportunity to engage in the history of governance in the Territory including key decisions, social policy and political debate.

Public records are created by:

• government agencies, Territory Owned Corporations and authorities
• the courts and tribunals
• government schools, secondary colleges and tertiary institutions
• public hospitals and health centres, and
• other public offices.

They have value for historical, genealogical, social or other research and document the status, rights and entitlements of the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

Territory Records Act 2002 (ACT)

ArchivesACT provides access to publicly available ACT Government records older than 20 years. We are not a collecting agency and do not accept donations.

The records that are available have been appraised against the approved Records Disposal Schedule for the relevant function and activity of government. The approved Records Disposal Schedules are notifiable instruments and are publicly available on the ACT Legislation Register.

ArchivesACT does not store records onsite. Records are ordered and delivered to our Reading Room for public access.

ACT Government records older than 20 years.

Information resources are available on our website www.archives.act.gov.au and include finding aids, indexes and research guides.

ArchivesACT publishes a monthly article ‘Find of the Month’ based on records of interest to the Canberra community.

Reading Room: Open to the public by appointment only, Monday to Friday 9.30am–5pm.
Closed public holidays.

Advance bookings are required as records are not held onsite. Please contact us to make a booking.

The reading room of ArchivesACT is co-located with the ACT Heritage Library. Disabled parking spaces are available close to the building entry as well as some-short term parking.

ACT Memory is ArchiveACT's publicly accessible database: https://act.accesstomemory.org It is being added to over time, however is not a complete database of ACT Government records. We recommend contacting us so that we can do additional searching. Reference enquiries can be made via our ‘Request a Record’ service at: https://www.archives.act.gov.au/Request_a_record
Archives staff do not undertake research on your behalf, however, as many of the record management tools are not public, they will identify and suggest files that may support your research.

Researchers are able to make photographic copies of the records with their own cameras.

Researchers who are unable to attend the Reading Room may be provided with digital copies of records at the discretion of archives staff.

Revised 17 April 2024

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