Fees and Payment

The nature of archival records is such that it is often impossible to estimate in advance how difficult or how time consuming a case will be. For that reason most clients wish to work in stages. At the end of each stage you will receive a detailed report with our findings, plus suggestions for further research if indicated, and you may then decide whether or not you wish to continue.

'A deposit is required before work can commence' If you merely require a copy of a document for which you already have an extract Archives location number, please ask what deposit is required.

For all other work the minimum deposit is $50. The unexpended balance of your deposit (if applicable) is refundable.

Fees are based on time taken and costs incurred in handling the commission. This includes time spent on analysing information supplied giving general advice, contacting you for clarification if insufficient data is provided initially, planning the research, searching the records, assessing results, and preparing a report. Clients will be billed for time spent reading and responding to all but the briefest of emails. Charges for photocopies, certificates, postage, phone- calls, parking fees, photographs or other out of pocket expenses are extra.

Fees are $30Australian per hour (plus 10% GST if you live in Australia) plus out of pocket expenses.

The State Archives and State Library charge $1.10 per page for photocopies.

Australian certificates cost between $17.00 and $30, depending on which State or Territory, and if we are required to obtain them for you, we charge a fee (not exceeding $5 per certificate) to cover the time and costs involved in placing the order, interpreting any annotations, and making a copy in case the postal services lose the certificate en route to you.

We prefer payment in Australian dollars, (cheque, banknotes or Aust $money order) or pound sterling (cheque or banknotes). Overseas clients may prefer to contact their bank or Ruesch International to obtain Aus$ cheques. Money orders from post offices outside Australia are not valid here. Presently we do not have credit card facilities.

Other Charges

· You may wish to pay extra to have documents sent by 'registered mail' if the replacement would exceed a certain sum. If so please specify this. It is rare for items to be lost in the post, but there is no compensation for unregistered mail.

· Our reports will include details of all sources searched, including those where nothing helpful was found. Some clients imagine that when nothing is found there is nothing to pay, but please remember that you are charged according to the time taken, and it takes just as long to search a source and find nothing, as it does to search it and find useful references.