The Canberra Times recently had an interesting article on the National Archives of Australia seeking $92 million to upgrade their facilities.
According to the report the National Archives of Australia’s Mitchell storage facility has become so decrepit that tape is being used to hold down floor tiles which could contain asbestos. How sad that the National Archives of Australia has been allowed deteriorate to this to condition. It is our our NATIONAL Archives for goodness sake!!
On the plus side, the Federal Parliament’s Public Works Committee heard evidence yesterday about plans for a new $92 million preservation facility to take pressure off the existing centre which is so full that it has been forced to stop accepting some classified documents.
A new building for the Archives would be good for many reasons, but one is that the current site only has 10 kilometres of shelf space for classified material, while the new centre would have an additional 20.5 kilometres of space for classified documents. And in total, there would be 75 kilometres of shelving for paper records. Now that’s a whole lot of records!!
Now many would say that $92 million is a lot of money, and personally yes – sure it is, but put into the context of preserving Australia’s history and you’ll view it quite differently.
You can read the full article from the Canberra Times here.
