The office of Prince Charles has been made aware of the situation facing the National Archives and in particular the plight of the Pitcairn Island register.Credit:National Archives/Getty Images
The register is disintegrating,along with many other unique archives including wartime speeches of John Curtin and personnel files of RAAF non-commissioned officers from World War II.
The heir to the British throne was alerted to it by Philip Davies,a globally recognised architectural historian and the chairman of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum,which was launched last year at the Australian High Commission in the United Kingdom to help poorer members of the Commonwealth to protect architecturally important heritage.
Mr Davies said he was dumbfounded when he heard the Pitcairn Island register was at risk of disintegration.
“That we have such an important document that could simply be lost is not far from scandalous,” he said. “It’s unthinkable that this should be put at risk of loss.”
Pitcairn Island’s registers of inhabitants and births,deaths and marriages are at risk of decaying before they can be digitised.Credit:National Archives of Australia
The island’s register is held by the National Archives. It came into Australia’s possession after Pitcairn Islanders moved to Norfolk Island in the 1850s and remains one of the few primary documents that shows direct links to Bounty mutineers such as Fletcher Christian.
It follows years of funding cuts to the institution,which is struggling to protect 384 kilometres of records that are growing rapidly every year.