By Stephen Johnson For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 07:12 BST, 20 June 2019 | Updated: 07:20 BST, 20 June 2019
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Large chunks of Australia's 20th century history are in danger of being lost forever unless something dramatic is done by 2025.
The National Archives of Australia has 220,000 hours of film footage on old magnetic tapes with more than half, or 60 per cent of that content, still to be digitised.
David Fricker, the director-general of the commonwealth agency in charge of preserving Australia's history, said maintaining the records was a race against time.
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Large chunks of Australia's 20th century history are in danger of being lost forever unless something dramatic is done by 2025 (pictured is the Sydney Opera House under construction during the 1960s)
'Our international consensus now is that if we haven't rescued this stuff by the year 2025 then a large proportion of it will be lost forever,' he told the ABC's 7.30.
'You have around 220,000 hours of content on magnetic tape and about 130,000 hours of that are still to be rescued.'
During the 20th century, from the era of the silent film to the age of television, footage of historic moments and everyday life were record on magnetic tape.
The formats changed over time, with many of the machines that can play back the film no longer being manufactured.
The National Archives has 220,000 hours of film footage on old magnetic tapes with
