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| Welcome
to the September edition |
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This month highlights the records we hold on HMAS
Sydney, a brush with the rich and famous, and
shows how fiction can emerge from our vaults. Our quirky
quiz continues to be popular, with our first
international winner last month, Val Sherwood from
Auckland, New Zealand. |
| HMAS Sydney inquiry
sparks huge interest |
Always popular with researchers and visitors to
the National Archives, the records of HMAS
Sydney have sparked even greater interest
following the findings of the recent Cole inquiry.
A showcase
highlighting some of these records can be found on
our website.
Among about 2000 records on HMAS
Sydney are plans,
including one from 1935 which details the ship's
profile.
Theodor Detmers was the Commander of the
Kormoran and recorded the details of the
attack in code when he was imprisoned in
Australia. Listen to historian Peter Hore describe
his efforts to decode
and translate Detmer's account of the
battle.
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| Who do you think you
are? |
Family history research can throw up
interesting and sometimes emotional tales, as AFL
footy legend Ron Barassi discovered recently from
his family's records at the National Archives. His
story can be seen on the new Australian series
of Who
Do You Think You Are? ® on SBS television at
7.30 pm, Sunday 27 September.
Did members of your family come from overseas
or serve in the defence forces? If so, we may have
their records. Visit our online database RecordSearch,
to start your family history journey.
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| Waterhouse comes to
Canberra |
The Waterhouse
Natural History Art Prize is Australia's
richest natural history art competition.
The 33 prize-winning and highly commended
entries, which reflect the beauty and fragility of
our environment, will be on show at the
National Archives from Thursday 24 September to 15
November.
The exhibition in Canberra is the only chance
to see these these artworks – paintings, works on
paper, sculpture and objects – on the east coast
of Australia.
Caption: Sylvia Griffin (NSW) Beetles III
(detail)
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| Mick Jagger in
Australia |
The recently revamped Memory
of a Nation exhibition in Canberra holds many
fascinating items, including paperwork filled
in by the rich and famous, like singer Mick
Jagger.
Complete with signature and details of
accommodation, Jagger's passenger card was
submitted during the Australian leg of the Rolling
Stones’ 1965 Far East Tour.
The band members performed 16 concerts in
Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne before flying to
New Zealand for 10 shows. They re-entered
Australia to continue the tour with a further
seven concerts in Melbourne, Adelaide and
Perth.
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| A spotlight on our prime
ministers |
It's 70 years this month since Prime
Minister Robert Menzies spoke these chilling
words: 'Fellow Australians, it is my
melancholy duty to inform you officially that in
consequence of a persistence by Germany in her
invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war
upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also
at war.'
Prime Minister Menzies was Australia's longest
serving prime minister. He won all 12 federal
elections in his parliamentary term (1934–63).
Learn more about our prime ministers by visiting
the revamped website Australia's
Prime Ministers, a particularly helpful
resource for teachers and students.
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| Aunty Jack introduces
colour TV |
Do you remember the introduction of colour
television in 1975? What about TV personality Aunty
Jack introducing this exciting new medium?
Sit back in our virtual reading room Vrroom
and enjoy this comical farewell to the days of
black and white television.
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| Document Z: Cold War
emerges from the Archives |
The National Archives' collection might be
known as a place for historians, but award-winning
novelist Andrew Croome's latest work, Document
Z, highlights how fiction can emerge from the
vaults.
Croome treads the fine line between history and
fiction, using records of the defection of
Soviet spies Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov held by
the Archives as the basis for his winner of the
2008 The Australian/Vogel Literary
Award.
The latest edition of Memento
features Document Z and the facts behind
the fiction.
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| Quirky quiz |
Congratulations to last month's winners, Val
Sherwood, of New Zealand, and Elizabeth Shrimpton,
of Victoria, who correctly answered 'a stamp'.
They have each received a surprise pack of goodies
from the National Archives.
This month's winners will receive a set of two
beautifully illustrated lighthouse drawings. The
lighthouses, from Green Cape and Montague Island
on the New South Wales south coast, date back to
the 1880s.
I am a type of speech, not everyone I
will reach. From Australia I did start, but
from these shores I didn't really part. You have
to speak fast, to understand, or else you will be
last.
Search
here for a hint. Email us with
your answer in the subject line and your postal
address in the body of the email. View terms
and conditions.
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| Tip of the month |
When it comes to family history research,
photographs of unidentified people or places can
be frustrating. Photographs with captions
containing names and places are more helpful,
but labelling them can be a problem.
It’s best not to write on the photograph, as
illustrated by the image on the left. Writing
captions on the album page is a great
alternative.
If you have to write on the photograph, you
should always write on the back with a soft
graphite pencil (a regular 2B drawing pencil is
perfect). Don’t press too hard and avoid using any
kind of ink. Search here
for more information about protecting your
photographs.
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