We are currently consolidating our collection of Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, often referred to as Hansard. ‘Hansard’ is the term applied throughout the Westminster parliamentary world to the published record of parliamentary debates. The term is derived from the publisher Thomas Hansard, whose commercially-published record of debates of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster in the early 19th century eventually (after 1909) became the official record of British parliamentary proceedings. Such reports were illegal until late in the 18th century. In Australia, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates were published by the Parliament itself from its inception in 1901, and the term ‘Hansard’ is also applied to the published transcripts of parliamentary committee proceedings.

We have two types of Hansard volumes in our museum – designated and non-designated. Designated volumes have a name, a role or a place stamped at the base of the spine in gold lettering. So, for example, it might say Senator Hon. N. Bolkus or Treasurer or Country Party Room. These were specially prepared by the Government printers for particular people, roles or places. Non-designated volumes have no stamp at the base of the spine and were for general use.

Our labour of Hercules, which in many ways resembled both a mental and physical boot camp, has been to retrieve all designated volumes from storage, ensure they are registered in our collection database and put them on display. And we didn’t just put them anywhere. We have grouped the volumes according to which chamber they relate to and the decade and, where possible, matched them to the era of the room. In a room that interprets the Queen’s visit in 1954 when she opened parliament, for example, we have volumes from the 1950s. In the Prime Minister’s Suite, which interprets the prime ministership of Bob Hawke in the 1980s, we have mostly 1970s and 1980s volumes from the House of Representatives.

The museum also holds a full run of Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates from 1901 until 1995 in the Australian Prime Ministers Centre reading room, which is heavily used by researchers and museum staff, and has other shorter runs acquired as part of the collections of parliamentarians, most notably Sir James Killen. We have also been able to provide scarce volumes to the Joint House Department for use in its current project to digitise the whole of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, currently available from 1981 on at www.aph.gov.au/hansard/. Surplus volumes not required for museum purposes have been offered to other libraries and museums.

Outcomes: 4,012 designated Hansards out of storage and on display, room recreations with appropriate era volumes, great teamwork, fitness and muscle development.

An image gallery of the project can be seen at our Flickr stream.