Government. The SRO has legislative responsibility for ensuring government records are appropriately created and maintained. The SRO also manages the State archives collection, defined as those government records recognised as having continuing and enduring value for the State and the community and which have been transferred to the SRO's custody. The legislation has its genesis in the recommendations of the 1996 Commission on Government – Specified Matter 9. The Commission on Government was itself the result of the Royal Commission into the commercial activities of government and other matters, better known as WA Inc. State archives collection The State Records Office maintains approximately of archival records, comprising approximately 2 million items and created by over 1,300 individual State and Local Government agencies, many of which are now defunct or have had significant changes in name or function. The state archives collection is the largest collection of documentary heritage in Western Australia and archives date from the foundation of the Swan River Colony in 1829. The state archives collection includes: Records about Aboriginal Western Australians The architectural and engineering plans of the Public Works Department Records of land surveys, grants and purchases from the 19th and early 20th centuries Colonial/Chief Secretary's Office records from 1828 until early 20th century Records of convicts transported to Western Australia, 1850-1868. These have been inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Court records; including those of the Supreme Court dating from 1832 until the mid-20th century. Records of the Education Department and various state schools Harbour and shipping records and 19th-century passenger lists Health Department and hospital records The records of local government in WA Mines Department records Police Department and police station records Premier, cabinet and parliamentary records Prison records Records about the development of railways , it was estimated that approximately of archives were awaiting transfer to the SRO but could not be accepted owing to "a lack of specialised storage space." Annual award Since 2003 the Margaret Medcalf award has been given to published and unpublished research utilising and referencing State archives held by the SRO records. Recent winners have been: 2022: Joint winners: Emily Lanman for Prisoners, Power and Panopticon: Investigating Fremantle Gaol, 1831-1841; and Leigh Straw for The Petticoat Parade: Madam Monnier and the Roe Street Brothels from Fremantle Press. 2021: The Carceral Colony an edition of Studies in Western Australian History. 2020: Dr Tiffany Shellam for The Collective