What is 'Too fragile to issue'?
Many State archives have been badly damaged during their lifetime. The damage may have been caused by poor storage practices, unfortunate disasters, or bad handling in the past.
State Records refers to these archives as being “Too fragile to issue” and these archives cannot be accessed either by staff or readers until they have been treated by Conservation.
The State archives most commonly in this category are:
- Insolvency records
- Probate records
- Divorce records
- Equity records
- State Rail rolled plans
Insolvency
Many Insolvency files have been damaged by flood water and mould. The paper has become pulpy and weak, and pages have stuck together making access without conservation treatment impossible.
Probate
A proportion of Probate records have been eaten by insects and damaged by mould. They have areas of loss and the pages are often stuck together with insect debris.
Equity records
The Equity records, like many other court records, contain parchment documents. Many of these parchment documents have been damaged by flood water. Contact with water has caused the parchment to stick together, shrink and become discoloured. Many of them also have physical damage from poor storage.
Plans
Large plans are very difficult to store and handle without causing damage. Plans are often amongst the most highly used documents in Agencies which can result in severe physical damage. Examples of these types of plans now in the custody of State Records NSW are the State Rail plans.
