[1] It was founded in 1945 as a co-operative microfilming scheme under which historical materials of Australian and Pacific interest held in collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland were copied and made available to participating libraries in Australia and elsewhere.
[8][9] The AJCP reels are an invaluable resource for researchers and historians in Australia, as it allows access to records that otherwise would have to be viewed in Europe (UK or Ireland).
Libraries and archives throughout the world also hold parts of the AJCP, including in New Zealand, the United States of America, Canada, South Africa, and Pacific island countries.
[2] The importance of British and Irish records in documenting the history and development of Australia was recognised by historians in the late nineteenth century.
In the formative years from 1788 to the granting of responsible government in 1855, Britain held supreme authority over the Australian colonies.
He exercised censorship and excluded material that reflected poorly on individuals whether government officials, the military and free settlers, or drew attention to convict origins.
However, the method of transcribing documents still resulted in a selective rather than comprehensive coverage required by researchers and publication was suspended after editorial difficulties with the last volume appearing in 1925.
Under the agreement the two libraries agreed to share the task and cost of microfilming material of Australian and Pacific interest held in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
This led to the publication of Mander-Jones reference work: Manuscripts in the British Isles relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific (1972), and ultimately the Miscellaneous or M Series.
[18] The scope of the Project is defined in geographical rather than thematic terms with filming covering records related to Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific area and Antarctica.
[13] A full time AJCP Officer and an assistant based in the Australian High Commission in London were responsible for selecting and listing records to be filmed.
These included the governor’s reports or dispatches collected comprehensively with enclosures and minutes, departmental registers and indexes.
The publication by Phyllis Mander-Jones “Manuscripts in the British Isles relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific” was used as the basis for the Miscellaneous Series.
This reference work, sponsored by the National Library of Australia and the Australian National University, uncovered the wealth of source material in institutions such as libraries, archives, museums, county record offices, missionary societies, business archives and collections held in private hands.
The finding aids can be browsed A-Z in two distinct sequences: Detailed descriptions of the records are accompanied by the digitised images.