Documents and artefacts

The NFSA’s collection of documents and artefacts began to develop in the late 1950s and consists of photographs, posters, scripts, publicity packages, costumes, vintage equipment, glass slides and negatives, sheet music, private papers and memorabilia. Today these account for half the items in the collection.

This collection is becoming increasingly significant in the digital era as so many recording formats and types of exhibition or playback equipment are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Material in this collection includes:

• papers, costumes, awards and other memorabilia from iconic Australian rock band The Angels ;
• production documentation and animation models for Mary and Max (Adam Elliott, Australia, 2008);
• the handwritten notes of director Charles Chauvel on his copy of the script for Jedda (Australia, 1955);
• personal memorabilia of Peter Dawson;
• images and publicity for Australian and international films released in Australia from the 1920s through to the present. This includes the Taussig Collection of over 5000 stills collected in Europe prior to 1940;
• a major documentation collection provided by producer Tony Sattler, relating to flagship television and radio productions from the 1970s and 1980s, including The Naked Vicar Show, Kingswood Country, Bullpitt and Chuck Chunder and the Space Patrol.