Everything old is new again and as vinyl records enjoy a resurgence, we’re perusing Canberra’s largest record collection (more than 100,000), just in time for Record Store Day on Saturday 12 April.

Unlike those of us who regret chucking out records with the onset of CDs, the National Film and Sound Archives has been collecting vinyl (45s, 10-inch and 12-inch, everything) in a temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse in Mitchell since 1958.

They also have 78s (phonograph records) from the 1930s. They’re not back in vogue (yet), but who knows, maybe DJ Albo will revive the heavy turntable and horn-shaped speaker.

Most of us remember buying our first vinyl record — mine was INXS Kick in 1987 for six bucks from Brashs. The NFSA acquired its first vinyl record from 1946 — a radio transcription disc, which was a special recording made exclusively for radio broadcasting during the golden age of radio.

The lucky guy tasked with collecting records for the NFSA is senior curator Thorsten Kaeding, who happens to have a “small” personal record collection totalling 600 (the first album he purchased was Heroes by David Bowie).  

So why, when we have thousands of songs at our fingertips on MP3, has the bulky vinyl record returned?

“Part of it’s the sound, but it’s having something physical that you own,” Thorsten said. “With record covers, you’ve got artwork as well, so you get not only the music, but you get an object, a piece of art, something to read with liner notes. I love Spotify. It’s an amazing thing to have that much music at your fingertips but you don’t own any of that.”

Unlike some fastidious collectors who wrap their prized possessions in plastic and keep them off-limits, the NFSA sets aside about 5,000 vinyl records for what they were intended — playing. These are usually multiple copies (three copies of each record are acquired if possible as an insurance policy).

If you fancy listening to these records (or bring your own) on a sweet 1960s sound system with massive speakers from England that will melt your face off (Thorsten keeps it to a minimum), allow me to introduce you to the NFSA’s Vinyl Lounge, a feast for music aficionados. There’s nothing digital about this second-hand stereo, it’s all analogue and old school.

At one of these special Vinyl Lounge sessions (the only event like it in the country and the envy of hip Melburnians), Thorsten found a rare album via a member of the public.

“It’s a live record called The Loner by Vic Simms,” Thorsten said. “He was an Indigenous artist who recorded in Bathurst prison in the early 1970s, and it was released by the prison authorities at the time.

“There was a really limited run that was pressed, we’d been looking for it and could never find a copy — Vic himself didn’t have a copy of it. Then someone brought it in, he got it in Cowra in 1973.”

All records in the NFSA archive (95 per cent of which are donated) are strictly Australian or Pacific artists (except the Vinyl Lounge collection) — but Australians claim New Zealand’s Crowded House, Split Enz and Dragon as our own anyway.

Perhaps the weirdest record in the NFSA collection is a recording of a séance (complete with sounds of objects moving around) by an anaesthetist called Dr Val Stephen — the first Aussie artist to have his electronic music released internationally on a commercial label.

If it sounds like Thorsten has a cushy job of buying records on e-bay and spinning vinyl, he’s actually rather busy. Last year, he added 160,000 items to the collection, bringing the total to 4 million (including digital, games, film, sound, TV and sport).

But on his day off this Saturday, you can probably catch him at Landspeed Records (in the rock/pop or experimental music section). Happy Record Store Day.

Vinyl Lounge is on the first Friday of every month at NFSA. Info: nfsa.gov.au/events-experiences