MORE INFORMATION ON THE PROPOSAL:

Saturday's "Canberra Times" (14 Nov., p 2) carried news of NAA's cost cutting decisions. The first 5 paragraphs only appeared in the online edition. See http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/costcutting-forces-national-archives-to-close-offices/1677412.aspx
 
Because the print edition provided considerably more information you may find interesting, including quotes from the Director of the Brisbane Darwin and Adelaide offices David Swift, I'm providing it here. Please forgive the length. I begin from paragraph 6 onwards, which continues to quote the Director-General:
 
"We are still in the planning stages of working out where the collections will be absorbed," he said. "We are consulting with colleagues in local archives, libraries and museum. The timing of the closures will allow us to deliver a planned approach - a change program will commence in the near future."

Director of the Brisbane, Darwin and Adelaide offices David Swift said the decision, while unexpected, was an economic one.
"They're the smallest of the offices and the least-used collections," he said. "They're very small collections by comparison [to other states], and it's very expensive to maintain a physical presence for such a small body of material, and low usage."
Mr Swift said he was still unsure as to how the current collections in the three offices would be dealt with, although many would be absorbed by the larger remaining offices in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

"With Commonwealth records, they need to remain in the custody of the Commonwealth, so they will be retained by the National Archives on the whole," he said, adding that other records might now be more suited to be held by state governments.
"A lot of those things need to be worked out - this is just a result of the budget cuts, so at this stage, it's just a matter of working through the staff preferences, whether they want to move to another office or whether we can find them other work," he said.
"But [the offices] are not shutting quickly, they're shutting as the lease is expired, so that will be a process over the next two to three years."
There are six staff members in Hobart, six in Adelaide and seven in Darwin.
"There's an enormous amount of material to relocate and of course that's going to take some time," Mr Swift said.
Mr Gibbs confirmed the archives would be looking for a local solution to housing some of the indigenous records in the Northern Territory.
He also told Hobart staff that efforts would be made to keep Tasmanian heartland records in their home state, and held meetings with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the State Library of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office to discuss how they would help relocate parts of the collection.
Mr Gibbs said he was not aware of any other cost-cutting measures that would be required in the near future."