Bounty descendants mutinous over disintegrating archives

The descendants of the mutineers on the Bounty are pleading to the federal government to protect one of their few original documents, fearful it will be lost to the ravages of time.

Kevin Young, deputy mayor of Pitcairn Island where Fletcher Christian and his supporters established a community after mutinying against William Bligh in 1789, said the loss of its births, deaths and marriages register would be devastating.

The island’s register is held by the National Archives. It came into Australia’s possession after Pitcairn islanders moved to Norfolk Island in the 1850s.

A 1790 painting of William Bligh being set adrift from the Bounty by Fletcher Christian and other mutineers.Credit: British Museum

The register is disintegrating, along with many other unique archives including wartime speeches of John Curtin and personnel files of RAAF non-commissioned officers from World War II.

It follows years of funding cuts to the institution which is struggling to protect 384 kilometres of records that are growing rapidly every year.

The Tune review of the National Archives, released in March, recommended a $67.7 million seven-year project to urgently digitise the records most at risk.

Tuesday’s federal budget will contain extra capital funding for national institutions including $34.6 million for the National Gallery and $9.9 million for the National Library. But there is no extra cash for the Archives.

Mr Young said the register held by the National Archives was the primary record of events from the earliest years of settlement of Pitcairn by the Bounty mutineers.

“The significance to both Pitcairn and Norfolk Island descendants is not only the factual evidence it contains but also because it has rarity value,” he said.

“The register connects the Pitcairn people to the first chapter of their story; a story that has been retold by countless non-Pitcairn authors. The entries in the register were handwritten by our forebears.”

Mr Young, who is the descendant of mutineer Edward Young, said there were precious few original documents from Pitcairn.

“As far as I know, it is the earliest surviving document penned by Pitcairn islanders,” he said.

“The only other written record known to predate it, was the journal of mutineer Edward Young.

“The journal was taken from Pitcairn beyond our living memory and as far as we know, it is lost. We hope the register will not meet the same fate. Please preserve it.”

Angus Dorney, co-chief executive of digital asset management business Kablamo, says digitising the material is only one part of the challenge for the Archives.

“The next question is, how do they make that content available to public? And how do people search it?” he said.

Kablamo has worked with the ABC on its digital archives. Mr Dorney said the smart search capabilities that could be used on digital media led the broadcaster to unearth footage no one knew existed, such as fresh film of Tasmanian tigers.

Other technology allows people to search video collections using a photograph or other images.

“Instead of typing in a word to search it, you can upload a photo, or you could upload a link to a YouTube clip and say search my archives for that something that resembles this video clip, Mr Dorney said. “It absolutely unearths things of value to the nation.”

Mr Dorney said any digitisation process would take time because films and audio had to be played out on “all types of weird and wonderful physical machines that nobody’s seen for years” to be captured anew.

The ongoing degradation of the tapes, film or reels added further complications.

Start your day informed

Our Morning Edition newsletter is a curated guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Get it delivered to your inbox.