This guide focuses on fine arts, literary, dramatic and music copyright under colonial and Commonwealth administrations.
This guide comprehensively describes the collection of copyright records held by the National Archives of Australia. In addition to Commonwealth records, this collection includes colonial records from all pre-Federation Australian administrations, with the exception of Tasmania.
Records in the National Archives copyright collection open a window into Australia's past, through which we can discover how Australians viewed themselves, their nation and 'others'. Whether moving, confronting, comic or serious in intent, these records are an invaluable source of Australia's social history and of the events – in peace or war, in good times or bad – that shaped our national identity.