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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-30 Daily Xml
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State Records of South Australia

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:20): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General tell us about the work of the State Records?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:20): I thank the honourable member for his question in relation to the work carried out by our State Records in South Australia. Preserving our state's history is incredibly important work and fortunately for South Australia it is done by a committed and passionate team at State Records of South Australia.

When it was established as a state archives department—the organisation now known as State Records—it was the first archives of its type anywhere in Australia. It was established in 1919 in a building behind the Art Gallery on North Terrace, officially opening its doors to researchers in 1920. Today, State Records is part of the Attorney-General's Department and carries on its important legacy of preserving and promoting our state's history.

I was able to visit State Records over the winter break and see firsthand the important work it undertakes at its facilities at Gepps Cross, particularly seeing firsthand the sheer scale of records that are held for future generations. Whether it is old council minutes, railway maps—parliamentary records for some reason are kept for posterity—the founding documents of the colony of South Australia or children's artwork from state schools, all sorts of records and documents are treated with great care and sensitivity.

It was a particular pleasure to meet with archivists, conservators and volunteers at Gepps Cross, who showed me some of the work that they do. The conservator showed me some of the truly incredible and high-quality photographs of then Premier John Gunn laying the foundation stone at the Adelaide Railway Station, just a day before he suddenly resigned and moved to Melbourne. I was told about the work making urgent repairs to fragile historic documents, as well as digitising countless photos from their original glass plate negatives.

Digitisation is a very strong focus of State Records, with a small but dedicated team of volunteers having digitised many thousands of records of all kinds, and from all sorts of collections. It enables people to have a look at some incredible parts of South Australia's history, and different regions of South Australia, that are held by State Records: documents like the original Letters Patent founding the Province of South Australia, issued by King William IV in 1836.

We are very fortunate to have such access to our rich history, and that is in no small part to the staff, and particularly the tireless volunteers, at our State Records. I would like to congratulate everyone who works at State Records preserving South Australia's history in a way that preserves it for future generations, but also, importantly, in a way that preserves it for researchers and for South Australians to look back not just on their family but the South Australian community as a whole.

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