Fellow Australians,

Many of you will be aware that Tuesday 8 August is census night. The Census of Population and Housing comes around every five years and is an opportunity for the Australian Government, through the Australian Bureau of Statistics, to obtain information that is vital to planning for the future.

My main reason for writing though is to draw your attention to a particular aspect of the census. Question 60 in fact, which deals with the time capsule.

The time capsule is an opportunity for you to be remembered forever. That is, your personal information will, in 99 years time, become a valuable resource for future generations, and will provide researchers, genealogists and historians with a complete picture of the year that was 2006.

Here’s how it works. By answering ‘Yes, agrees’ (it’s the second last question on the census form), you will ensure that your personally identified information is securely stored by the National Archives of Australia until its release in 2105.

There are two questions that I am often asked about the time capsule. They concern the security of your information, and why would you want to have your personal details made available in 2105 anyway?

It’s a question I asked myself back in 2001 when the time capsule was included in the census for the first time. Overseas experience demonstrates the value of historic census data for all sorts of research. By opting into the 2006 time capsule, as nearly 10 million Australians did in 2001, I hope that future Australians will benefit by knowing more about what life was like in 2006.

As for the security aspect, well you’ve got nothing to worry about. The confidentiality of the information you elect to have stored in the time capsule is guaranteed under the provisions of archives and census legislation for 99 years. Once your information has been transferred to microfilm by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it will come to us at the National Archives where it will be stored in one of our secure vaults. After 99 years, we will make this wonderful resource available for research.

I hope you will consider electing to have your census information stored in the time capsule by the National Archives of Australia. It’s your chance to be remembered.