Introduction Australian archives International archives Archives around Australia Introduction Archives are a rich resource for study and enquiry, from formal research to finding out more about your local community and family. The National Archives of Australia is the archives of the Commonwealth government and has offices in each State and Territory. All State governments and the Northern Territory have archives, eg the Archives Office of Tasmania and the Public Record Office of Victoria. Then there are local government archives, archives of statutory authorities and individual departments, and parliamentary archives.
Universities have archives, as do churches, schools, colleges, banks, and companies.
Archivists refer to these as 'in-house' archives, because these institutions manage their own records, the ones they have created themselves. Archives are also found in 'collecting' institutions, which hold records of other institutions, associations, societies, companies and of prominent people. Some universities maintain research collections, such as the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the Australian National University, and there are also many museum and local history collections held throughout Australia. The Australian Science Archives Project locates, documents and places the archives of scientists and scientific bodies in other archives. The archives of prominent Australians in the arts, business and the community are collected by the National Library of Australia, State Library manuscript collections and other research archives.