The cards held in this series are white, custom printed index identification cards. The majority of the cards concern civilian personnel, but some service personnel are also included.

The provenance of this series is somewhat clouded but it would appear they were used by the security officer at the Maralinga atomic test site. For a long time after Maralinga was closed, the material languished in a bunker at Salisbury (SA), in the Weapons Research Establishment. The Department of Resources and Energy (CA 3496) obtained these cards circa 1982 when they were engaged in an exercise designed to trace all Australians employed at three atomic test sites in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. Maralinga was one of these sites; seven atomic explosions took place between September 1956 and October 1957.

The cards are printed on the back and front. The front carries the bulk of the information and has a square in the top right hand corner for a passport size photograph. Not all the cards have this photograph, about 20 percent show a blank space. The poor storage conditions in which the cards were held in Salisbury may have caused some photographs to become detached and lost.

The cards were created in two formats but the information is the same on both types (the cards appeared to have been redesigned in August 1964). The following information appears on the front of each card: name, address, occupation, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, build, height, hair, eyes, and signature. Signatures appear on only a small number of cards; it appears that they were not consistently obtained. The cards also display an entry titled 'List No..of..', however the meaning of this entry cannot determined. The cards contain some obvious file references but no series of records relating to these numbers has been identified. The back of each card displays a list of temporary and permanent passes issued and some have references to security vetting. 

The original system of arrangement of these cards is not evident. The Department of Resources and Energy imposed a system of arrangement whereby the cards were divided primarily into sets according to nationality. 

Quantity in agency custody
5.00m held by CA 5990, Department of Primary Industries and Energy