Primary contact
120 Miller Road, Chester Hill
Postal address: Locked Bag 4, Chester Hill NSW 2162
Sydney, New South Wales 2162
Identity area
Identifier
daa/28
Authorized form of name
National Archives of Australia, New South Wales State Office, Sydney
Parallel form(s) of name
Other form(s) of name
Type
- National
Contact area
Manager Reference and Access Services New South Wales
Type
Address
Street address
120 Miller Road, Chester Hill
Postal address: Locked Bag 4, Chester Hill NSW 2162
Locality
Sydney
Region
New South Wales
Country name
Postal code
2162
Telephone
02 9782 4900
Fax
National Reference Service: 'Ask us a question about records in the collection' forms at: https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/ask-us-about-collection
Note
Description area
History
Geographical and cultural context
Mandates/Sources of authority
Archives Act 1983 (Cth)
Administrative structure
Officer-in-charge: Regional Manager Central, New South Wales State Office, Sydney
Records management and collecting policies
Buildings
Holdings
The oldest document in the National Archives’ collection held in Sydney is a Deed of Title signed on 1 May 1804 by Governor Philip Gidley King. The deed allows the allotment of land in Pitts Row (now Pitt Street) to be transferred to Matthew Kearns for 14 years. This site later became the ‘Pitt Street Extension’ of the Sydney General Post Office.
Other highlights of the collection include:
- NSW post office records dating from 1830s; and
- NSW plans and drawings of post offices, customs houses, army and navy establishments, and Government House Sydney dating from 1860s including original coloured drawings by the Colonial Architect James Barnet.
Also included are:
- NSW colonial trademark records from the 1860s and copyright records from the 1870s;
- NSW meteorological journals of the Government Observatory, Parramatta, from 1822 to 1836;
- records of the Cockatoo Island dockyard from the 1860s;
- records of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from the 1930s; and
- sound and moving image collections including Damien Parer’s Kokoda Front Line, Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s declaration of peace on 15 August 1945, decimal currency television and radio commercials, and the ABC’s Seven Little Australians.
The Sydney Office holds over 25 shelf kilometres of audiovisual material including material from the Australian Broadcasting Commission/ Corporation, Screen Australia, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, the Department of Defence and significant Commonwealth Persons including Prime Ministers.
Finding aids, guides and publications
The National Archives’ collection database, RecordSearch, gives online access to the National Archives’ holdings Australia-wide.
For access to RecordSearch, see the link from www.naa.gov.au.
For a list of research guides to the National Archives’ collection, see: https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/research-guides
Access area
Opening times
The research centre is open Wednesday to Friday 10am–4pm.
Closed on public holidays.
Note: For up-to-date information on opening times, see https://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/new-south-wales#nsw-visitor
Access conditions and requirements
Accessibility
Maps and information about parking, public transport and onsite wheelchair access to the research centre are available at: https://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/new-south-wales#nsw-visitor
Services area
Research services
Reproduction services
Information about ordering copies of records and associated fees is available at https://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/our-services/supplying-digital-copies-records
Public areas
Control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Revised 31 January 2022