At an Imperial Naval Conference in 1909 it was agreed that the British Admiralty would relinquish control of Australia's Fleet Unit, and soon after, on 10 July 1911, King George V granted the title of 'Royal Australian Navy' to the Permanent Commonwealth Naval Forces. As part of these changes in 1911 the Naval Board of Administration, which first came into existence on 12 January 1905, was reconstituted and a Navy Office established in Melbourne, but responsibility to the Minister of Defence was maintained until the appointment of a separate Minister for the Navy in 1915.

Prior to 1911 all classified correspondence dealing with naval matters had been registered in the Defence secret series. However with the establishment of a Naval Office and an increase in Naval activities it was decided to establish a separate naval records system and only those matters dealing with high naval policy or requiring the ministers' approval continued to be registered in the Defence series. After the creation of the separate Department of the Navy in 1915 even this was no longer necessary. The first part of this series was therefore created by the Navy Office within the Department of Defence.

By 1921 the administration of the Navy had reverted to the Minister of Defence and in July 1922 this series was closed and replaced by a multiple number series (CRS B5573 ). This was in accordance with the recommendations of a Royal Commission into Naval Administration held in 1917-1919.

A parallel unclassified correspondence series (CRS B2882) was maintained until 1921, on occasions papers registered in the classified series were de-classified and subsequently re-registered in the unclassified series, and sometimes the reverse applied.

Personnel matters were registered into the main unclassified series or into the secret and confidential series according to the nature of the contents.

The series initially used a 'docket' system. The docket system was based on that used in the Admiralty and was introduced for Navy records in 1911. The docket system operated by each piece of inwards correspondence being registered with an annual single number. For the secret series an 'O' prefixed the single number to distinguish the registrations from the unclassified series which was also an annual single number series. The inwards letter was then placed inside a linen jacket which was designed to contain it, any internal minutes relating to the letter and the reply, and was classed as the one 'docket' with all papers bearing the registration allocated to the original letter. In the classified series "Confidential" or "Secret" was stamped on the cover. Ensuing inwards correspondence on the same subject was not placed in the same docket, but a new docket was registered with related dockets being noted in the location book (CRS B1116). Related dockets were then attached to each other by laces with the number of the original docket being the put away number.

The docket system was discontinued by 1919, classified papers in the later period being attached to green file covers for circulation. These files were compiled with documents arranged in date order and serially numbered, the top number becoming the file number.

Although from 1913 Navy Office branches maintained separate series of records relating to their functions, central registry continued to be responsible for all classified documents and from July 1921, when central registry was divided into sections, classified records were the responsibility of one section within the central registry. There are various stamps and markings on the records. Early documents are stamped 'Secret' or 'Confidential' in red or purple ink or have the security classification within the rectangular or oval registration stamp. Later papers have a rectangular 'Confidential Records' stamp. Nearly all are stamped 'Retain' in purple ink, the result of the culling of files at a later date. Many papers in the early period have the registration marks of the previous Defence series (CRS B197), having been transferred to Navy Office and re-registered into the new Navy series in 1911.

Subjects security classified included intelligence, ship construction, shipping movements, examination service, traffic regulation acts, staffing (naval and civil), censorship, foreign shipping, naval munitions, fuel, reports of Naval Representative London, coastal defences, etc.

The records in series MP1049/1 are part of the Commonwealth Record Series B2887, Secret and confidential correspondence files, annual single number series with 'O' infix, but have not been physically converted to series B2887. They should be requested under the MP1049/1 number. The other physically unconverted element of Commonwealth Record Series B2887 is MP1185/5.

Administrative information

The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:

Form number:  CA 11

Transferring department:  Navy, Central Registry, Classified and Unclassified

Date of transfer:  27/04/1971

Archives file number: RWM31/2/38