What do you think of when you hear archives, paperwork and number counting? The National Archives of Australia is like an enormous scrapbook that captures moments from Australia’s history, culture and inner workings.

The collection boasts more than 45 million items with records detailing key events and decisions that have helped pave the way for the Australia of today, through items of both Government and public life.

With so many items, it can be hard to know where to start when searching through the collection.

Government and public life intersect in all kinds of different ways, which means the National Archives of Australia have items in their collection that might surprise you.

CW spoke with the team of experts at the Archives and asked them to share interesting and unexpected items in their collection. Here are just five of the most surprising items:

1. Incoming/outgoing passenger cards

Creeping up to the mid-1960s, Beatlemania was taking the world by storm and Australia was lucky to get in on the action. The NAA collection contains the incoming passenger cards for the Beatles band members and their entourage, featuring handwritten signatures from the superstars.

Many travel and immigration documents have been digitised for browsing via links on the NAA website.

2. Vintage cookbooks

Have you ever wondered what Australians were eating in the 1950s? Wonder no more. The collection at the NAA will even allow you to create some of your own vintage dishes. With the Archives required to capture official records produced by Commonwealth Government agencies, they have plenty of publications, including cookbooks.

Some of the cookbooks have been digitised and are available for reading via Recordsearch, including these dessert recipes. Honey sundae pie, anyone?

3. ASIO records

Spies have long been a fascination for authors, and television and film producers – and why wouldn’t they be? Their extraordinary lives can often be stranger than fiction.

The NAA collection allows you to peek behind the curtain and into some of the ASIO records that document the investigation and surveillance of individuals, groups and organisations, with paper files and photographs like those pictured from Merle Thornton’s ASIO records.

4. Service records

Any military history buff will know that the NAA holds many records that relate to wartime service and defence.

If you are interested in discovering more about your own family and their involvement in defence, contact the NAA team.

5. Patents

The black box flight recorder, wi-fi, the electric drill, permanent pleats in skirts, and Speedos, Australians are an inventive bunch. Always thinking of ways to make life easier and more efficient, each time a new product is dreamt up a patent is created.

The NAA houses many of these patents in its collection, including former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s swimwear of choice, the Speedo.

Visit the NAA in person or online

Keen to start your hunt through the Archives’ incredible collection? Visit the National Archives of Australia website or the treasured national institution right here in Canberra (at Parkes), open seven days a week.

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