Archived News 2007
October 2007
Pacific Research Archives
Recent additions to the Pacific Research Archives have come from current and
past Pacific scholars in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
including the papers of:




Professor John Ballard on Papua New Guinea administration and
provincial government, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia
Dr Ric Shand on agricultural policy, labour and economic development in
Papua New Guinea
Dr James Jupp - research papers and publications on Vanuatu
Dr Stephen Henningham - research papers on New Caledonia
Other donations to the collection have been:




interviews, including transcripts and translations, with Jean-Marie Tjibaou
in New Caledonia made by Sarah Walls, a Sydney Morning Herald and
Age journalist, in 1988-89
papers of Professor Alan Ward (University of Newcastle) on land matters
in the Pacific Islands
photographs of Lihir in Papua New Guinea by Dr Martha Macintyre and
Dr Simon Foale
copies of cartoons and Our World Too published in Samoa by Dr Colin
Macpherson
The Pacific Research Archives has a new website at
pacificarchives.anu.edu.au which includes the collecting policy and finding aids
for the Pacific Research Archives. The finding aids cover both the University
Archives and Noel Butlin Archives Centre collections for personal papers, unions
and organisations, and companies, with a separate guide for CSR Limited.
Pacific Archivist Karina Taylor recently returned from New Caledonia where she
attended the conference of the Pacific Regional Branch of the International
Council on Archives. In July she presented a session on the Archives to the
Archives and Records Association of New Zealand conference in Auckland and
to the Australian Society of Archivists Conference in August in Alice Springs.
2007 Annual Lecture
Professor Ann Curthoys delivered the 6th Annual Lecture for the ANU Archives
Program and the Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre on 18 September
2007 in the Coombs Theatre. Ann is the Manning Clark Professor of History at
the Australian National University and spoke on the topic 'Harry Potter and the
Holocaust: Reflections on History and Fiction'. A podcast of the lecture is
available.
2008 Eric Fry Labour History Scholarship
The Eric Fry Scholarship will be offered again in 2008. The scholarship is
sponsored by the Canberra Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study
of Labour History and the National Institute for Social Sciences and Law at the
Australian National University for research at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre. It
honours the contribution of the late Dr Eric Fry to labour history as Senior
Lecturer in History from 1959 and as Reader 1967-1986 at the Australian
National University and as a founder and office-bearer of the Australian Society
for the Study of Labour History. Applications close on 31 January 2008.
Conference presentations
Senior Archivist Sarah Lethbridge and Archivist Dr Pennie Pemberton presented
sessions at the 2007 Royal Australian Historical Society Local History
Conference on 20 October 2007 at University House. Sarah spoke about the use
of Tooth and Company Limited records in the restoration of hotels in 'From
Public Bar to Private House' and Pennie presented 'Liberating Sir Edward' on the
experience of editing the letters of Sir Edward Parry, Commissioner of the
Australian Agricultural Company, to produce the two volumes of In the Service of
the Company, available online. After the presentations, delegates to the
conference visited the Archives reading room to view original records.
Exhibitions
Material from the Archives is on display in the following exhibitions:




Rub a Dub Dub in the Archives reading room features the records of
Lever Brothers Pty Ltd, W H Burford & Sons Ltd and J Kitchen & Sons
Pty Ltd which are part of the Unilever Australasia collection held by the
Noel Butlin Archives Centre and provide an insight into the early
development of the soap manufacturing industry in Australia in
the twentieth century
Scarred and Strengthened: Australians in the Great Depression at Old
Parliament House in Canberra until February 2008
Australia's Muslim cameleers: Pioneers of the inland, 1860s-1930s, a
South Australian Museum travelling exhibition, at Broken Hill Regional
Art Gallery, September – October 2007, then at the National Library of
Australia, Canberra, December 2007 – March 2008
Tough men, hard times: Policing the depression, Justice and Police
Museum, Historic Houses Trust, Circular Quay, Sydney until February
2008
Photographs by Max Dupain from the CSR Limited Collection in the Noel Butlin
Archives Centre will feature in the exhibition Max Dupain on Assignment at the
National Archives of Australia, Canberra from December 2007. Archives staff
have been involved in the development of the exhibition, selecting from the
hundreds of photographs taken by Max Dupain for the company.
Additions to the Noel Butlin Archives Centre


Publications by Professor Noel Butlin, donated by his family
Records of the Armed Forces Federation of Australia, the Oyster Farmers
Association of NSW and the Grains Council of Australia


Waterside Workers Federation photographs of union officials and wharf
labourers' activities in the 20th century
Records of Audrey Johnson, author of Fly a Rebel Flag, a biography of
former Senator and trade unionist Bill Morrow, and Bread and Roses, a
history of left and trade union women activists
New acquisitions for the University Archives




Papers of Professor Malcolm Gillies, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor; Dr
Ernest Spinner, Senior Research Fellow, John Curtin School of Medical
Research; and Dorothy Cameron, author of Symbols of birth and death in
the Neolithic era
Records and publications of the Graduate School 1990-2006, the Centre
for the Mind, and the National Institute of Asian-Pacific Studies
School of Music programs from 1965
Manuscripts of composer Harold Allen, 1962-1982
More images on PictureAustralia
There are now over 700 images from the ANU Archives on PictureAustralia as a
result of progressively uploading images which researchers have requested digital
copies of. Recent additions have come from the Amirah Inglis collection and
records of CSR Limited, Tooth and Company Ltd, the Federated Furnishing
Trade Society of Australasia and the Printing Industry Employees' Union of
Australia.
March 2007
Pacific Research Collection
Funding from the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies, the
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the Division of Information,
has allowed the appointment of a Pacific Archivist for three years to establish a
Pacific Research Collection based in the Menzies Building. Karina Taylor from
the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand has been appointed
to the position and has already received the papers of a former Director of the
Research School, Professor R Gerard Ward in the Department of Human
Geography. His extensive collection includes research data relating to migration
patterns in Polynesia and maps documenting surveys of land use in Fiji. It is
anticipated that many research papers will be received from former and current
scholars at the Research School.
2007 Eric Fry Labour History Scholarship
The Eric Fry Scholarship for 2007 was been awarded to Graham Burke, an
Honours student in History at the Australian National University. Graham's
research topic is the development of trade union policy on Aboriginal workers
from the 1960s to the 1990s. The scholarship is sponsored by the Canberra
Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and the
National Institute for Social Sciences and Law at the Australian National
University for research at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre. It honours the
contribution of Dr Eric Fry to labour history as Senior Lecturer in History from
1959 and as Reader 1967-1986 at the Australian National University and as a
founder and office-bearer of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour
History.
2006 Annual Lecture
Dr Gordon Briscoe of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the
Australian National University presented the 5th Annual Lecture for the ANU
Archives Program and the Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre in April
2006. His topic was pastoralists in the Northern Territory with particular
emphasis on the half-caste children born to Aboriginal women and white men
involved in the pastoral industry in the Northern Territory. The Archives issued a
brief subject guide on records about Aboriginal people.
Outreach
To celebrate the University’s 60th birthday in August 2006, an exhibition was
displayed in the Menzies Building featuring photographs and documents about
the campus buildings which have been named after people: Chancellors, ViceChancellors and other University staff, such as Lord Bruce, Dr H C Coombs and
A D Hope. One of our treasures, the minute book of the Operative Stonemasons’
Society which records the early attempts to secure an 8-hour day in 1856, was lent
to the University of Melbourne for the exhibition ‘Under the burning sun of the
colony: the 8-hour day movement’ at the Ian Potter Museum of Art from June to
September 2006.
We presented five sessions in 2006 to groups of history students undertaking
courses in ‘Researching and Writing History’ and ‘Australians at Work’. Apart
from showing examples of correspondence files, minute books, staff registers,
cash books and ledgers, we included demonstrations of press copy letterbooks and
carbon copies. We also presented a session for music students focused on the
records of the Musicians’ Union.
NSW Industrial Relations and Labour Archives
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre has taken custody of the Industrial Relations
and Labour History Archives previously held in the Community Research
Archives at the University of NSW, after obtaining the agreement of all
depositors. The Community Research Archives was established in 1980 but in
recent years the records have been virtually inaccessible as the archives was no
longer staffed. There are sixteen collections which mostly relate to NSW unions,
organisations and people. The nine pallets of records arrived in late 2006 and are
being progressively shelved.
Noel Butlin Archives Centre additions




records of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, the
Canberra Times Trade Union Chapel of the Printing and Kindred
Industries Union, and the Cairns branch of the Waterside Workers
Federation
further nineteenth-century records of Victorian lodges of the Manchester
Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows
records of the industrial equipment manufacturer William Adams and
Company (1884-1994)
a small collection donated by Jon Belmonte who was employed by
Patricks during the 1997 Maritime Dispute
University Archives additions





the records of Dr Eric Fry, Senior Lecturer and Reader of History (1959–
86) and of Professor TH Rigby, Professor of Political Science, Research
School of Social Sciences
photographs from the North Australia Research Unit in Darwin
our first transfer of electronic records into the University’s digital
repository from Pandanus Books in the Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies
an extensive collection of photographs documenting the demolition of
heritage buildings at Mt Stromlo Observatory following their destruction
by bushfires in January 2003
a framed document from the Law Library, an indenture between John
Burton and Elizabeth Venn dated 1734 – it is likely that it was donated to
the University by a past staff member
Conservation projects
Reboxing of the collection into acid-free containers has commenced. The first
priority is to replace over-sized cartons which when filled present an occupational
health and safety hazard for staff. The reading room was closed for the week
before Christmas so that all staff could work in the repository to rebox and shelve
material in cartons held on pallets. A contract conservator was engaged to flatten
several hundred rolled-up maps to enable their assessment for retention and
disposal of duplicates, and to house those retained in map cabinets.
Staff news
Sarah Lethbridge, formerly with the National Archives of Australia and the
Victorian Department of Human Services, joined us in August 2006 as Senior
Archivist. She replaces Mary Paton who is now at James Cook University in
Townsville. In September 2006, Leslie Learmont who has worked with the ANU
Library for many years became our Administrative Officer following the
retirement of Deirdre Ward.