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Lost and damaged records

Find out your obligations if you have lost or damaged records.

Lost records

If you have lost records, you must notify Queensland State Archives.

You will need to provide background details about the lost records, the circumstances surrounding the loss, supporting evidence, and any remedial actions taken to reduce the risk of future loss.

Your application will be assessed and written notification of the outcome provided.

The State Archivist may seek additional information, clarification and/or action from your agency if necessary.

Damaged records

The first thing you should do if you have damaged records is to find out if they can be salvaged. Records affected by water, smoke, mould, and pests can often be salvaged.

If records cannot be salvaged, you must seek approval to destroy them.

Your application will be assessed and written notification of the outcome provided.

Where authorisation to dispose is given, an approved retention and disposal schedule will be provided to allow you to dispose of the damaged records.

The State Archivist may seek additional information, clarification and/or action from your agency if necessary.

See an example of when you could seek approval to destroy damaged records following a disaster.

Document disposal of lost and damaged records

You must document the loss of records and the destruction of damaged records.

For lost records, both the notification of lost public records and the acknowledgement received from the State Archivist in response need to be retained as part of this disposal documentation.

For damaged records, retain both the application to destroy damaged records, including all supporting information, and the disposal authorisation from the State Archivist in addition to normal destruction documentation.

Find out what other disposal information needs to be captured.