Lodged company documents of defunct companies (GRS/513)

These files contain documents lodged by companies in accordance with the varying Companies Acts.

Company files may contain some or all of the following lodged documents: Memorandum of Agreement, Articles of Association, Certificate of Incorporation, lists of shareholders, lists of directors, special resolutions ie. issues of shares, underwriting agreements and annual returns.

The term 'defunct' refers to the Companies Act definition of the word rather than its common meaning. For example, there are a number of files in this series for Cooper's Brewing, a company which at the time of writing (2007) is very much not defunct.

This series is composed of the dockets of companies, culled periodically from the registry of the controlling agency, and folios stripped from dockets in accordance with the Companies Act, 1962. At the time of culling, those files and documents which related to defunct companies were transferred to archival custody as separate consignments.

At its inception the series was merely shelved in the Office of the Master of the Supreme Court. There was no numbering system. This practice continued until 1865, when an annual single numbering system was adopted. The last registration in this run was file number 56/1935, and on 1 March that year a new continuous number registration began (using the suffix 'a'). These various numbering systems are reflected only in the archival holdings of defunct companies. The active files were all top-numbered during the 1970's to produce a single continuous number run of registered companies.

This series ends in 1980, when the Department of the Corporate Affairs Commission changed to a microfiche format for its holdings of current company files. In about 1991, the function of registering companies was transferred to the Commonwealth and the microfiche of company files from 1980 to 1991 was transferred to the Australian Securities Commission. At 2000, this microfiche was at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission's IPC [Information Processing Centre] at Traralgon. For all companies which were registered at the time of the changeover, or have since been registered, researchers must approach the Australian Securities Investment Commission and pay the necessary fees to search its records.

On 22 May 1995 the Libraries Board of South Australia approved Records Disposal Schedule 1429 covering disposal of this series as follows:

South Australian company files - retain permanently
Foreign company files ('foreign' included interstate companies) - destroy
Stripped documents - destroy

INDEXES AND LISTINGS

Because of the way files were accessioned into archival custody (see above), the files are no longer in a continuous run. In order to facilitate access, State Records has prepared a number of Special Lists giving details of files held and their respective consignments. Not all consignments have been listed as yet.

For the following, manual Special Lists are available in the Research Centre and an online copy can be found at http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/content/company-records:

GRS 513/1
GRS 513/2
GRS 513/3
GRS 513/7
GRS 513/9
GRS 513/11
GRS 513/21

If the name of the company is known online searches can be made of:

GRS 513/3
GRS 513/7
GRS 513/9

If the file required cannot be located in any of the manual Special Lists, or a thorough search needs to be made for type of company, use GRS 518/4, Defunct Company Index, on microfiche in Research Centres.

Use the following guide to locate individual files found in GRS 518/4, Defunct Companies Index:

ANNUAL SINGLE NUMBER FILES

These have a file number of the type '34/1901'. It may be necessary to request from more than one consignment.

Files 1/1865 - 142/1872 request from GRS 513/2.

Files 17/1866 - 56/1935 request from GRS 513/3.

Files 1/1881 - 49/1935 request from GRS 513/7.

Files 69/1902 - 102/1934 request from GRS 513/9, units 1 - 6.

Files 4/1874 - 55/1935 request from GRS 513/11.

Files 16/1877 - 35/1935 request from GRS 513/21, units 1 - 51.

CONTINUOUS SINGLE NUMBER FILES

These have a file number of the type '3456'. It may be necessary to request from more than one consignment.

Files 1 - 4284 request from GRS 513/4.

Files 3 - 14230 request from GRS 513/8.

Files 29 - 16396 request from GRS 513/9, units 7 - 59.

Files 2 - 8844 request from GRS 513/12.

Files 11 - 43942 request from GRS 513/21, units 51 - 762.

Files 24 - 58708 request from GRS 513/22.

Files 372 - 44132 request from GRS 513/23.

Files 5 - 25629 request from GRS 584/1.

UNNUMBERED FILES

Request from GRS 513/1.

Note regarding GRS 513/19, Mining Company Files:

This consignment, although sentenced as permanent under RDS 1429, was destroyed due to negligence. The State Records Council was informed of the loss at its meeting of April, 2000. Other mining company files may be found in other consignments, however.