State Records Authority of New South Wales

The State Records Authority of New South Wales (commonly known as State Records NSW) is the archives and records management authority of the Government of New South Wales in Australia. It can trace its history back to the establishment of the office of Colonial Secretary and Registrar of the Records of New South Wales in 1821. However, in the early years of the Colony's history, little attention was paid to the management and preservation of non-current public records. This was mainly because the government of the day was fully focussed on the administration of the convict system, law and order, immigration and land settlement. Documents which were not required for the day-to-day running of the government were usually neglected or were destroyed.

It was not until the late nineteenth century, with the approach of the Centenary of the Colony, that an awareness of the value of public archives as fundamental sources for Australian history was recorded. This interest led to the appointment of an Archivist of New South Wales, and the publication of Historical Records of New South Wales. At the time the term 'archives' was used broadly to include manuscripts, pictorial material and maps from a wide range of private sources as well as to denote non-current official records.

The Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales were active from about 1870 in the preservation of books and manuscripts relating to Australia, but it was the opening of the Mitchell Library in 1910 that provided the first real stimulus to action in the area of public records. At the request of the acting Premier and the Attorney General, The Trustees of the Public Library prepared a report on the present and future dangers of the neglect of State records, which included recommendations on the establishment of an Archives Department in the Public Library Building.

This proposal lapsed but during the period 1911–1918, some action was taken towards establishing an archives office. A number of instructions were issued by both the Premier and the Public Service Board, advising departments to transfer non-current records considered to be of historical value, to the Mitchell Library. On the authority of these instructions, the Trustees of the Public Library became in effect, the archival authority for the State, and much work was done in the Mitchell Library to collect and preserve NSW State archives.

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