NRS-16735 | Card index to Indecent Articles and Classified Publications

Full description

These cards index publications classified under the provisions of the Indecent Articles and Classified Publications Act 1975, as amended. Under this legislation publications could be identified as 'unrestricted', 'restricted' or available only by direct sale. Restrictions were based on the manner in which sex, drug addiction, horror, crime, cruelty or violence was depicted in the publication. Classified publications were required to be notified in the NSW Government Gazette. The Gazette proclamation was evidence that a publication had been classified, that a direction regarding the publication had been made, and that the classification or direction was in force. Any previous notification in regard to the publication was revoked by the Gazette notice.

The cards are arranged alphabetically by the title of publication. The following information is shown - author and publisher if known, classification – R (restricted), UR (un-restricted), or DS (direct sale), date of the NSW Government Gazette in which the classification notice was published, and if reviewed, date of publication for any subsequent classification notices. Individual issues of classified periodicals and magazines are usually represented by separate cards.

A computer printout of a "Book List at 31/5/1978", comprising details of classified publications from 1975-76 is also included, with the information detailed on the computer printout identical to that found on the Card index for the relevant publications.


Some of the publications listed on the Card index are held as part of NRS 16733, Copies of Indecent Articles and Classified Publications 1960-82.