National Film and Sound Archive celebrates 30 years

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is celebrating its 30th birthday and has published a timeline of highlights from the past 30 years on its website.

The original NFSA collection was founded in 1935 when the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library was established by the federal government.

Today, the collection contains more than two million items spanning over 100 years of creative production in film, sound and broadcast. Holdings include 516,000 moving images; 444,000 recorded sound items; and 1,205,000 documents and artefacts. Around 7000 titles are preserved annually.

One of the oldest items in the collection is The Hen Convention, a sound recording on wax cylinder from 1896. Iconic items include the world’s first feature-length narrative movie The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) and Slim Dusty’s unreleased pre-1946 demos.

CEO Michael Loebenstein said in a statement: ‘As the custodians of the national audiovisual collection we are proud to celebrate our first three decades. Our reason for being is to develop, preserve and share a significant collection of sound and moving image—the ultimate ‘living’ record of people, places and events. The NFSA plays an essential role in the long-term survival, interpretation, enjoyment and re-use of our audiovisual heritage.’

View the NFSA timeline here.

Category: Library news