Acquisition and Appraisal of Sports Archives

Australia is a nation that appears to be obsessed with sport. Think of Australia, and sport would probably figure prominently somewhere in your image. Think of archives in Australia. Sport does not quickly come to mind. Relatively few sporting organisations have established archival programmes; the personal records of individuals involved with sport do not appear to have a high priority among collecting institutions; records of Government sport administrative bodies seem to be scarcely represented in Government Archival Institutions. Nothing substantial has been written on the position of sports archives in this country and it does not look like there has been any previous public discussion of this issue. Currently in a position of ‘archival obscurity ’ in Australia, trying to compile information on sports archives is somewhat akin to hitting the metaphorical wall of the marathon runner. Why is it, that in a country where sport is of such significance, it is so minimally represented in archival collections