Former Prime Minister, The Right Hon Malcolm Fraser, CH, AC, will officially open the new Melbourne premises of the National Archives of Australia in the Victorian Archives Centre at 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne on Thursday, 20 May 2004at 6 pm.

The media is invited to attend the opening or to call in after 3 pm to see a display of original records including dispatches of Australian WWI battle plans, correspondence of Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, WWII Defence inventions, oddities from the PMG’s Department and correspondence from Malcolm Fraser on equal pay for Aboriginal Australians.

At the launch, Archives Advisory Council Chairman, Paul Santamaria, will introduce an excerpt from a 50-year-old tape recording (held by the Archives) of Vladimir Petrov indicating his intention to defect. Paul is the son of legendary political commentator, the late Bob Santamaria.

Since 1997, the National Archives has shared a reading room with the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) at Casselden Place in the CBD. Both organisations have now made the move to the Victorian Archives Centre, continuing their close association.

National Archives Director-General, Ross Gibbs, said that the partnership between the Archives and the PROV had been the first of its type in Australia.

‘By sharing our reading room and facilities, we made it convenient for researchers and visitors to consult records of all levels of government, without needing to travel from place to place,’ Mr Gibbs said.

‘For the past seven years, our partnership has been beneficial to both organisations and to people searching our collections. Our spacious new reading room can only enhance that access,’ he said.

‘For those who still need city access to the Archives database, we have established an online presence in the Genealogy Centre at the State Library of Victoria with finding aids and publications,’ Mr Gibbs said.

The National Archives collection includes records of Commonwealth departments, statutory bodies, Royal Commissions, defence, immigration, lighthouses, courts and tribunals, personal papers of Cabinet Ministers, Governors-General and Prime Ministers, including Malcolm Fraser.

The collection in Melbourne is especially rich because the Commonwealth government was located there until 1927 and remained a centre for federal government activity until the 1960s.

The Archives reading room is open Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm.