Summary heading

Function and purpose

This series is a digital copy of the National Archives-registered series B6654, ‘Negative films of aerial survey photographs of Australia, single number series with CA prefix’.

This series consists of digitised negative films of aerial survey photographs of Australia. These images were digitised as part of a proactive preservation project undertaken by Geoscience Australia and the National Archives of Australia.

The original photography was captured for the purposes of army and civil topographic mapping, hydrographic charting, exploration for the development of natural resources and various engineering and agricultural applications. Most of the photography was taken systematically with the aircraft flying across the block taking photographs in parallel strips. These blocks usually correspond to 1:100,000 or 1:250 000 map areas.

Related legislation

Using the series

Language of material

Physical characteristics

The series consists of high resolution TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) scanned images of black and white survey aerial survey photographs. These images have also been preserved as PNG (Portable Networks Graphics) files as per the National Archives’ digital preservation process.

The images depict a large variety of locations in all States.

System of arrangement and control

The primary system of control is the film number with a CA prefix followed by an alpha character that indicates which state or region the map refers to and if this is also followed by a /C this indicates the film is colour, otherwise they are black and white films. This primary system matches to the physical items in series B6654 and the possible variations are set here:

CAB relates to black and white film of Queensland,

CAB/C relates colour film of Queensland;

CAC relates to black and white film of New South Wales,

CAC/C relates to colour film of New South Wales;

CAD relates to black and white film of Victoria,

CAD/C relates colour film of Victoria;

CAE relates to black and white film of South Australia,

CAE/C relates to colour film of South Australia;

CAF relates to black and white film of Western Australia,

CAF/C relates to colour film of Western Australia;

CAG relates to black and white film of Northern Territory,

CAG/C relates to colour film of Northern Territory;

CAH relates to black and white film of Tasmania,

CAH/C relates to colour film of Tasmania;

CAI relates to black and white film of ACT and IslandTerritories,

CAI/C relates to colour film of ACT and IslandTerritories;

CAJ relates to black and white film of Papua New Guinea,

CAJ/C relates to colour of Papua New Guinea and;

CAS relates to black and white film of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic Region,

CAS/C relates to colour film of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic Region,

The secondary system of control for this series of digitized copies is an 8 digit number range - for example 5001-5009.  This differs from the B6654 physical item series where the secondary system is the physical container or reel number which is used in addition to the film number. The film number and the container/reel number together identify a photograph of a particular location. While the location can also be identified from the title the physical control symbol has been included as the alternative control symbol in RecordSearch.

Relationships with other records

Film created by the RAAF can be found in B5424 which is a previous series to this. Films created by RAAF and transferred to National Mapping’s custody retained their original film number (i.e. MAP or SVY number) but were allocated a new National Mapping container number. Films created by National Mapping were given a film number with a CA prefix (Commonwealth of Australia), plus a container number.

Finding aids

Access conditions

Series history

Provenance

Immediate source of acquisition

Custodial history

Quantity in agency custody

Disposal history

Publication note

Additional information

End notes

Sources