Our functions in brief

The Archives Office of Tasmania, established through the provisions of the Archives Act 1983 (and previous archival legislation) is the repository for all Tasmanian government records which are no longer of immediate administrative use but which are considered worthy of permanent or long-term preservation.
It is part of the Tasmanian Archive and heritage Office and is currently administratively linked to the Department of Education.

The Archives Act 1983 stipulates that no State or local government agency may dispose of any records without the approval of the Archives Office. The statutory definition of 'records' is extremely wide, covering, for example, letters, minutes, reports, financial records, maps and plans as well as a variety of formats; such as paper, photographs, microfilm, sound recordings, film, video and computer based records.

In general, records are preserved for the following reasons:

they provide the information and precedent which forms part of the basis for future government administrative action
they provide evidence of business transacted between government agencies and between these agencies and the public
they document the activities of government and provide a mechanism for government accountability
they are important culturally for what can be broadly defined as historical research

Records created and maintained by government agencies and the functions they undertake are appraised by Archives Office staff (often in conjunction with staff of that agency) and an appropriate period for their retention is established. This may be only a fairly short time or at the other end of the scale, their continuing value may be such that they will be transferred to the custody of the Archives Office to be preserved for on-going use by the government and the public. In reaching this decision, consideration is given to factors such as future administrative use, legal and accountability requirements, the relationship of records being appraised to records already held in the Archives Office, and potential use to researchers.

Once records have been transferred to the Archives Office they are sorted, listed and incorporated into the Archives' overall control systems to ensure the effective retrieval of specific items. Various finding aids are compiled by Archives Office staff to help users wishing to obtain information from records.

The Archives Office also collects records of individuals, commercial institutions, churches and community organisations and associations which relate to Tasmania. These can be placed in the Archives Office by their owners.

Conditions of access to government records are decided by the creating agency but most records over 25 years old are freely available for public use, although some records dealing specifically with individuals are restricted for 75 years. Some government records less than 25 years old are also open to the public and others within this period may be made available at the discretion of the State Archivist or on application to the creating agency.

Conditions of access to private records held in the Archives are determined by the donors of the records.