National Archives websites, including RecordSearch and online inquiry forms, will experience intermittent outages on Saturday 7 November from 10 am until 2 pm AEDT while we perform system upgrades.
Thank you for your patience.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the National Archives' website and collection contain the names, images and voices of people who have died.
Some records include terms and views that are not appropriate today. They reflect the period in which they were created and are not the views of the National Archives.
Researching your family
The National Archives' collection documents the interactions between people – from the ordinary to the famous – and the Australian Government.
The key to finding what you want is to identify how the person you're searching for had contact with the government. This will tell you what types of records we might have about them.
Search for specific people or browse the collection