The Colonial Record Records of Colonial Australia

The Lodgement Office

Lodge a document.
We'll do the rest.

Bring us a historical document — a scanned PDF or a photograph — and our transcription engine will produce a faithful transcript and a fully searchable facsimile, while you watch it work. Most documents are ready in a minute or two.

The bargain of the Office: the transcription is done at our expense. The transcript and facsimile are yours to keep. In return, we may — after one of our archivists has reviewed it — add your document to the public Record for the researchers who come after you. You can ask us to keep it private at any time, and documents about living people are never added.
I.

Lodge

Sign in and present your document at the counter — PDF or image, up to 40 pages. We look for material roughly 50 years or older. Declare that you have the right to deposit it.

II.

Examination

The Examiner checks the document — its age, nature and suitability for a public archive — before a penny of transcription is spent. Material about living people is set aside, not transcribed.

III.

Transcription & delivery

Your document is checked twice for accuracy, every page. In a minute or two you receive the transcript and searchable facsimile — yours to keep. An archivist later reviews whether it joins the public Record.

Present your document

Deposit the document here

Drag a PDF or photograph onto the counter

— or —
Choose a file…

PDF or image · up to 40 pages · 60 MB

Accession note optional, but it helps the archive

The Examiner reads this as a claim to check against the document — it never influences the transcription itself.

Ready in a minute or two. The transcript and searchable PDF are yours to keep — you can ask us to keep your document private or remove it at any time.

Lodgement docket

This usually takes a minute or two — you can leave this page open and watch each page come in.

Received

Document accepted at the counter.

Examination

The Examiner assesses age & suitability.

Transcription

Two engines read every page.

Collation

Pages assembled into the transcript.

Facsimile

Searchable text laid invisibly over the scan.

Delivered

Transcript & facsimile ready for you.
— The Examiner

The pages

We couldn't take this one in

Nothing was charged and nothing kept. The Record holds material that's roughly fifty years old or older and suitable for a public archive — if your document is older than it looks, or you think we've got this wrong, write to the Examiner with your docket number and a real person will take another look.

The transcript


    

The facsimile

Your original pages with an invisible, searchable text layer — select, search and copy directly in any PDF reader.

Download searchable PDF

File under a research file

Build a file per ancestor — every record you lodge or find can be filed to a person. Open your research files →