HISTORY OF THE NFSA
KEY DOCUMENTS CHARTING ITS EVOLUTION
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia had its beginnings in the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library, created by Federal Cabinet in 11 December 1935 “to secure and permanently preserve within the Commonwealth National Library approved historical films and sound recordings”. It was to operate under the joint administration of the Library and the Department of Commerce Cinema Branch, and collection development was to be controlled by a committee comprising the heads of both bodies and a representative of the Motion Picture Distributors’ Association.
World War II disrupted activities, and in 1945 the collection gravitated to the Library’s newly established Film Division, primarily a 16mm film lending library. The “historical collection”, as it became known, was an unstaffed activity of the Division until 1972, when a dedicated National Film Archive unit was established. A separate sound archive was inaugurated around the same time. Advocacy for a separate institution to manage the nation’s audiovisual heritage grew during the 1970s and culminated in the creation of the National Film and Sound Archive by Cabinet decision on 26 March 1984. The film and sound archiving responsibilities of the National Library were thereby transferred to the new institution, and the relocation of staff and collections followed over the succeeding months.
On this site documents charting the NFSA’s journey are being progressively posted.
A POTTED TIMELINE
Reproduced from the Australian Film Institute’s Projections Newsletter for September/November 1983, you can trace the succession of steps, over many years, leading to the NFSA’s creation.
- Anatomy of a crisis: AFI Article.
- Chronology of Events: Part 1, Part 2
THE AFI CONFERENCE OF 12 SEPTEMBER 1983
After 18 months of disregarded advice, the National Library’s own Advisory Committee on the National Film Archive sponsored an independent study by Nicholas Clark and Associates on future development options for the Archive, including possible autonomy, to be funded by the Library. When the Committee discovered that the study had dismissed this possibility, it accused the Library of bad faith and of predetermining its outcome. The Australian Film Institute had already convened a national film industry conference on the Archive’s future. It rejected the Clark report, and likewise called on the Government to immediately separate both the film and sound archives from the Library.
PAT LOVELL ON SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 1983
Film producer Pat Lovell publicly resigned from the Advisory Committee on the National Film Archive in protest over the National Library’s predetermining of the Clark report. On the current affairs Sunday program she called for autonomy for the Archive, in the context of a special feature on the Archive’s situation.
- (link to be added)
CABINET SUBMISSION AND DECISION
The Cabinet formally established the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) on 26 March 1984. Nine days later, on 5 April, Arts Minister Barry Cohen would announced this in Parliament.
The new NFSA took over the National Library’s film and sound archiving responsibilities, collections and staff. The NFSA modelled the pattern of institutional autonomy more commonly followed overseas.
There were strong voices for and against the Cabinet decision. The new Hawke Government embraced the challenge, despite dissenting arguments from the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Finance, the Public Service Board, the National Library and Australian Archives. These are all documented in the Cabinet submission, and make interesting reading today.
Development of the submission over several months was led by the Prime Minister’s Senior Advisor, Bob Hogg, who recalled: “It was a rather instructive period for myself in observing at close hand the bureaucracy working to thwart the clear objective of the Government. Fortunately, in this case their efforts were not productive.”
- The Cabinet decision and submission: The documents
(Documents courtesy of the National Archives of Australia, Cabinet Decision 660 – National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) and Decisions 2971/LA and 2982) NAA: A13977, 660)
ADDRESS BY HARRISON BRYAN TO NATIONAL LIBRARY STAFF on 10 APRIL 1984
Following the public announcement on 5 April 1984 of the NFSA’s creation, National Library Director General Harrison Bryan addressed his assembled staff to explain the practical arrangements for the separation of the film and sound archives from the National Library. In a nuanced speech, he convey his own and the Library Council’s views on the government’s decision and the associated controversies.
- The audio file is here. (19'20", mp3)
LAUNCH OF THE NFSA AND ITS HEADQUARTERS BY PM BOB HAWKE – 3 OCTOBER 1984
The Cabinet decision of 26 March required the new NFSA to move out of the National Library as soon as possible. Minister Barry Cohen secured a Canberra landmark, the former home of the Australian Institute of Anatomy, to become the NFSA’s headquarters. Following refurbishment, it was officially opened at a spectacular party at which Prime Minister Bob Hawke publicly launched Australia’s newest national cultural institution. The speech he delivered set out the Government’s vision – to stop the loss of these vital expressions of Australia’s national creativity, to preserve them and make them permanently accessible. The speech can be read here.
NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE: THE QUEST FOR IDENTITY - 2011
Ray Edmondson’s doctoral thesis covers the history of the NFSA and its National Library-based predecessors from the creation of the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library in 1935, through establishment of the NFSA as an outrider of a government department in 1984, up to the passage of the National Film and Sound Archive Act in 2008, at which point the NFSA finally became an independent statutory authority and a legal entity in its own right.
PETER BURGIS SOUND RECOLLECTIONS - 2023
In 1974 Peter Burgis inaugurated the sound recording collection in the National Library and in 1984, when the collection became part of the new NFSA, Peter was the first head of the NFSA’s Sound and Radio Branch. He compiled this wide ranging and witty memoir last year as a record of how the collection grew. The saga of saving radio transcription recordings from the brink of destruction is lightened by the description of National Librarian Harold White arriving at Peter’s home in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, and promising unlimited funds to set up the sound recording collection! In 1983, as events moved towards separating the NFSA from the National Library, Peter took a pillow case full of protest letters across to Parliament House: a unique lesson in advocacy.
