In 2011, State Records will be marking its 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations, 50 items from the State archives collection will be displayed. This exhibition will showcase the extraordinary richness and diversity of holdings, from our ‘founding documents’ recording the convicts on the First Fleet to items from the time of the establishment of the Archives Authority in 1961.
Items 1-9 are now available, 1788-1820
Some of the key themes of this founding era of the Colony’s history are vividly illustrated through extracts taken from the earliest convict and baptismal records, a chart and journal compiled by a little-known convict explorer, a brief but heartfelt poem written by the Surveyor General, and a request for land from an ex-convict with a most unusual occupation.
