Historic building of Canberra's National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), near the city centre of Canberra, holds the country’s collection of audiovisual material – almost 2 million works. The collection includes films, television and radio programs, videos, audio tapes, records, compact discs, phonograph cylinders, and wire recordings. It also holds photographs, posters, scripts, costumes, and memorabilia.

Not only are the contents interesting, but the building itself is historical and worth a look. The 1930 building was originally the Australian Institute of Anatomy. The NFSA collection was transferred from the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia into the building in 1984. The remodelled courtyard gardens were opened in 1991, and a large annex was added in 1999.

The exterior façade is Hawkesbury sandstone from Gosford, New South Wales, with red granite from Tarana near Bathurst NSW at the base and front steps.

On tiled panels between the windows are blue, yellow and green designs inspired by Indigenous Australian bark paintings. Goannas (lizards), ferns, and waratahs (flowers) are carved into the capitals of the columns of the curved portico at the building’s entrance. Around the front door are carved stone open-mouthed frilled neck lizards framed in stylised boomerangs.

http://www.nfsa.gov.au/

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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