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| Australian Joint Copying Project | |
|---|---|
| Name | Australian Joint Copying Project |
| Established | 1945 |
| Country | Australia |
| Type | archive consortium |
| Collections | British and other overseas records pertaining to Australia and the Pacific |
Australian Joint Copying Project
The Australian Joint Copying Project was a large-scale mid-20th-century initiative that copied archival records held in the United Kingdom and other repositories to assist researchers in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. Initiated through collaboration between Australian state libraries, university libraries, and national institutions, the Project created a distributed corpus of microfilmed documents drawn from British repositories such as the Public Record Office (UK), the British Museum, and the India Office Library. Its outputs have underpinned scholarship on colonial administration, exploration, migration, and indigenous affairs relating to Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.
The Project originated in the aftermath of World War II when Australian cultural institutions sought access to primary sources located in London, prompting discussions among stakeholders including the National Library of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, the State Library of Victoria, and the University of Sydney. Early negotiations involved officials from the Public Record Office (UK), the British Museum, the India Office, and private collectors influenced by precedents like the copying of records for the British Empire Exhibition and exchanges arising from agreements with the Commonwealth of Australia. Funding and governance arrangements reflected contributions from the Australian Government and state authorities, and cooperation with British repositories led to systematic microfilming programs from the late 1940s through the 1960s.
The Project targeted records relating to exploration by figures such as James Cook, William Bligh, and Matthew Flinders, as well as administrative records from colonial offices including the Colonial Office (British Empire), the Board of Trade (UK), and the India Office. Holdings encompassed naval logs, admiralty correspondence, East India Company papers linked to Joseph Banks and Arthur Phillip, missionary collections associated with London Missionary Society and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and private papers of settlers, merchants, and officials connected to families like the Macarthur family and individuals such as Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The corpus included materials from repositories such as the Royal Geographical Society, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich), and county record offices across England.
Participating institutions included the National Library of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, the State Library of Victoria, the State Library of Queensland, the National Library of New Zealand, and university libraries including the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. British partners comprised the Public Record Office (UK), the British Museum, the India Office Library, the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries of London. Administrators and notable figures involved in planning and oversight included librarians and archivists associated with the Mitchell Library (Sydney), the Menzies Library, and other institutional collections. Funding and support drew upon grants and institutional allocations influenced by cultural policy debates involving bodies such as the Australian Council for the Arts and parliamentary committees.
Technicians employed microfilming equipment and standards contemporary to the mid-20th century, copying fragile manuscripts, bound volumes, and government registers held at repositories including the Public Record Office (UK) and the British Museum. Procedures incorporated cataloguing conventions influenced by archivists from the International Council on Archives and principles practiced at the Bodleian Library and the National Archives (UK). Microfilm reels were annotated with descriptive metadata referencing creators such as the Colonial Office (British Empire) and the Admiralty (United Kingdom), and were distributed to participating institutions. Conservation practices addressed issues noted in the collections of institutions like the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) and the India Office Library to minimise handling of originals.
Initially access was through on-site consultation at partner libraries such as the State Library of New South Wales and the National Library of Australia, but later digitisation projects undertaken by bodies including the National Archives of Australia, the National Library of Australia, and university libraries expanded availability. Digitisation efforts integrated materials into online catalogues and discovery services that reference systems used by the Trove platform and link to institutional repositories at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. Some microfilm holdings were incorporated into programs led by the Australian Research Council and cultural digitisation initiatives with partners like the British Library to improve online access for researchers worldwide.
The Project profoundly influenced historiography of exploration, colonisation, migration, indigenous contact, and imperial administration by providing primary source access to researchers studying figures such as Matthew Flinders, Arthur Phillip, William Dampier, and Daniel Solander. It enabled scholarship across disciplines anchored in collections related to the East India Company, the Royal Navy (Kingdom of Great Britain), and missionary societies including the London Missionary Society. The availability of copied records facilitated theses, monographs, and articles produced at institutions like the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, and the University of Melbourne, shaping public history exhibitions at the Australian National Maritime Museum and policy debates informed by archival evidence from repositories such as the Public Record Office (UK).
Highlights include copied series from the Colonial Office (British Empire) covering penal transportation records linked to the First Fleet, admiralty logs from voyages by James Cook and William Bligh, East India Company correspondence involving Joseph Banks and Arthur Phillip, missionary archives from the London Missionary Society, and commercial records from mercantile houses with ties to the Hudson's Bay Company and shipping firms documented in the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich)]. Researchers have used materials for studies on the First Fleet, the Rum Rebellion, the administration of New South Wales (British colony), and Pacific exploration narratives connected to the Royal Geographical Society.