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Access Conditions
Because of the potentially private and personal content of records in this Archival Series, it is only open only to family relations and people who experienced 'care' through the Garden Point Mission upon request.
You may be directed to a digital copy of records in this Archival Collection due to the condition of the original records. Some records deteriorate due to age and are no longer in one piece (they may literally fall apart), become faded, or suffer from mould or water damage etc. In these instances the original record may no longer be legible. Digital copies are used not only to prevent damage to the fragile original records by reducing the amount of handling, but also to present records in readable format.
People who lived at the Garden Point Mission or at other missions or institutions run by the Catholic Church in the Northern Territory may be able to amend records about them.
Records
The Index Cards are divided into two sets to correspond with two collections held in two separate filing cabinets. Each card includes the full name of the child and a list of records relating to that child. Each related record in this list, filed in binders (called 'books') in the two cabinets, is identified through a series, book and page number. This system was presumably implemented by volunteers to improve accessibility to information about children who were accommodated at the Garden Point Mission. Provenance and original order were largely lost, because the binders consist of compilations of documents from a number of sources, including correspondence and invoices. This means that sometimes not all records that relate to an individual will be together or in date order, but may be distributed amongst the 'books'.
