NNBAQH ▰ The Australian Queer Archive

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A motion put forward by Graham Carbery to establish the archives was approved, giving the organisation the imprimatur of the movement. The collection began with a carboard box in the corner of Graham’s bedroom in Melbourne and now extends across more than 600 shelf-metres.

We hold the only complete collections of queer newspapers and magazines held anywhere in Australia, as well as badges, tshirts, audio-visual material, banners, posters, ephemera, personal and organisational papers … all up, we organise under 30+ collection types. Early on, we decided to focus on Australian material, though we do hold some overseas newspapers.

We are entirely self-funded, receiving no government money at all, except for occasional grants for specific projects. We rely on membership fees, donations and bequests to fund our work, and over the years we have accumulated funds recently to employ a part time office manager and volunteer coordinator.  We have consciously never tried to get ongoing funding, recognising that this would put the Archives at the mercy of governments who could at any time withdraw their support.

The Archives, after decades of relying on the kindness of strangers (bedrooms, basements, backrooms of shops, the Victorian AIDS Council), for our accommodation, now rents space in the Victorian Pride Centre, built by state and local governments, which is itself self-funded for its ongoing operations.

Our work is summarised in our slogan ‘collecting, preserving and celebrating Australia’s very queer history’. The ‘preserving’ part is done by volunteers who rehouse, list and describe our collections. ‘Celebrating’ covers the provision of access to the collection for researchers, writers and artists, students .. as well as publishing, conducting history walks in various parts of Melbourne, assisting museums and galleries to stage their own exhibitions and displays.

We are living in a very queer moment in Australia, a time when all the major institutions (government, arts and museums, businesses) want to be, and to be seen to be, committed to diversity, inclusion, and equality (which is essentially Australia’s national project), including queer inclusion. While this benefits the Archives, as well as queer people more generally, it puts demands on our people to provide access to our holdings. Many bodies imagine that they are doing us a favour by highlighting queer history and the Archives, and assume that we should gratefully provide unlimited access without charging. We are trying to reset our thinking (and theirs) around this. Community-based groups are rarely charged.

Our greatest challenge is our reliance on volunteers. Not  a shortage of volunteers, but an overabundance. In order to supervise the volunteering we need experienced, long-term members, but so many of them have jobs that we simply can’t be open for as many days as we would like. Too many people wanting to volunteer is a good problem to have, but it is a problem.

The collection holds a myriad of wonderful stories, but it is also a resource for researchers working to understand Australia’s very queer past. Historians in particular have worked to understand how Australia has developed its vibrant queer culture and achieved a hight level of acceptance of its LGBTIQ+ people – overturning laws and regulations, repealing  professional opinion, reversing  hostile public attitudes…

Graham Willett researches and publishes on Austarlian queer history. He has volunteered at the Archives since the 1990s. He is the publisher of Queer Oz Folk.