Bulletin of the University of Melbourne Archives UMA No. 20, December 2006 New Website For The Malcolm Fraser Collection Caitlin Stone n 2004, the former Prime Wannon in Victoria’s Western Minister of Australia District. The series covers the Right Honourable Mr Fraser’s entire 28 years in I federal politics (1955-1983). Malcolm Fraser A.C., C.H. made the University of Melbourne the • Speeches from Mr offi cial custodian of his personal Fraser’s 1953 pre-selection papers. In time, Mr Fraser’s speech to the present day. library of several thousand • Records relating to Mr books will also be transferred Fraser’s role as a founding to the University and will be member of the Commonwealth housed in the Malcolm Fraser Eminent Persons’ Group. Room at the Melbourne Law School, where Mr Fraser is a • Press releases, board Professorial Fellow in the Centre papers and other records from for Asia-Pacifi c Military Law. CARE Australia, Australia’s Commonwealth records created largest non-political and by Mr Fraser as a Minister of non-religious overseas aid the Crown will remain at the organisation. Mr Fraser founded National Archives of Australia. CARE Australia in 1987. So far, about eighty metres There are also several of records and several hundred hundred photographs in the photographs have been trans- collection. These include ferred to the University of offi cial photographs recording Melbourne Archives. Among the overseas and domestic visits records are: made by Malcolm Fraser during his Prime Ministership, • Mr Fraser’s notebooks as well as photographs taken from his time as a student at the by Malcolm Fraser himself. University of Oxford. Malcolm Fraser as a boy in the garden at Nareen, the There are also several albums • Correspondence from Fraser family’s property in western Victoria, c.1944. of photographs recording individuals and interest groups Photographer unknown. (Malcolm Fraser Collection the Fraser family’s life at associated with his electorate, Acc. No. 105/36; Album 6) Balpool-Nyang, the station 1 near Moulamein in the Riverina district of New South Wales where they lived until 1943, and at Nareen in the Western District of Victoria. The project involves not just collecting and maintaining Mr Fraser’s papers but also developing a website for the collection. In this way, all of Mr Fraser’s records will – in a virtual sense at least – be brought together in a central location. The website was launched by Mr Petro Georgiou MP on 20 November. Other speakers included the Chancellor of the University, Ian Renard, and Mr Fraser himself. Among the guests were a former senior advisor and speech writer to Mr Fraser, David Kemp; Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations in the Fraser government, Tony Street; Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Professor Glyn Davis; the author of Malcolm Fraser, A Biography, Philip Ayres; Professor of Victorian Parliamentary Democracy at Swinburne University of Technology, Professor, Brian Costar; and National Editor of The Age, Michael Gordon. Above: Malcolm Fraser makes adjustments to his camera while in the Northern Mr Fraser reiterated his hope that Territory on an offi cial visit as Prime Minister in 1978. Photo by Australian the site would be a living resource Information Service. (Malcolm Fraser Collection Acc. No. 105/104; Album 3.2) and refl ect not just his activities as a Member of Parliament, but also his more recent interests in human rights, multiculturalism and the rule of law. He refl ected that while he himself does not enjoy ‘looking through old papers’, he is glad that there are those – namely archivists and historians – who make their living from just this activity. The website is still in its early stages and will continue to grow and develop as more material becomes available in digital form. It can be viewed at http:// www.unimelb.edu.au/malcolmfraser/. For enquiries about the collection, email [email protected] or phone 03 8344 9893. Right: Page of notes used by Malcolm Fraser for his pre-selection speech at Hamilton Town Hall on 11 November 1953. (Malcolm Fraser Collection Acc. No. 105/82; Box 1) 2 Principal Archivist’s Report Helen McLaughlin am pleased to say my knowledge of the holdings and 3. Volunteers to focus on priority projects processes at the UMA has continued to grow since The UMA now has seven regular volunteers, working Itaking up my position in May.May. Over the past months on such projects as the Bright Family papers, various I have attended and presented papers at the Family History business records, labour records, the records of the Feast held at the State Library of Victoria, the Australian Victorian Women’s Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Society of Archivists annual conference in Port Macquarie, Archives, and on the records of J.W. Powling and and travelled to Canberra for the Digital Futures Industry Company. The records of St Michael’s Church have Briefi ng and also had site visits to the Noel Butlin Archives also been listed by a member of the congregation. at the Australian National University, the National Library In 2006 volunteer work has been augmented by participation of Australia and the National Archives of Australia. The in the Student Project Program run for the Cultural visits have given me the unique opportunity to benchmark Collections Group by Helen Arnoldi. Seven student interns and refl ect on UMA’s current policy and procedures. To have participated this year and they are increasingly that end, and because the UMA Strategic Directions working on priority projects (see page 8 for more detail). 2003–2007 plan will expire in March, I am planning (with the assistance of University Archivist, Michael Piggott) a Projects Futures Seminar for all staff at the UMA. From this we A further accession of the papers of the Rt. Hon. hope to develop new directions which will reshape the Malcolm Fraser, from both the National Archives UMA around the three strands of the University’s Growing in Canberra and Mr Fraser’s Melbourne offi ce has Esteem strategy: Research, Learning and Teaching, and been received. Dr Caitlin Stone has worked on Knowledge Transfer. these papers two days per week for most of 2006. Several hundred architectural plans from the Arthur Collection Management Purnell collection were humidifi ed, fl attened and rehoused in preparation for the exhibition by Dr Three goals were identifi ed for collection management for Derham Groves on Purnell’s work (see page 5). This the second half of 2006: enabled the UMA to gain experience in preservation 1. Analysis of holdings to identify high priority of architectural plans, and to purchase technology collections for listing to continue fl attening plans and posters in-house. During 2005 and 2006 funds from the School High-use collections which are unlisted or only of Dental Science enabled archivist Bruce partially listed are diffi cult for researchers to access Smith to sort and list the records of the School and increase staff time locating requested material. The and several pioneering dental organisations. top 60 such collections were identifi ed and work has Finally, in a minor project, Lindsay Howe has spent three begun to list, or revise the existing list, for fi ve of them. months two days per week reorganising plan cabinets at the UMA to enable better storage of fl attened 2. All accessions for 2006 should be processed to a architectural plans. defi ned level of acquisition Access & Outreach A decision has been made to rehouse and fully document Writing and Making Histories on the collections database all collections which contain For the second year running theme-based material fewer than fi ve boxes, but not to list them in further detail. has been provided for the fourth year History All collections of more than fi ve boxes are rehoused, fully subject ‘Writing and Publishing History’. Students described on the collections database, and a processing plan researched and wrote essays on collections of peace completed which assigns it a priority for full processing. movement organisations and protagonists; the result The fi gures for this level of processing have signifi cantly was a volume of essays published by the students. The UMA has also recently produced a bookmark to improved for 2006, and backlog work continues on promote both awareness of the Archives, and our accessions from 1999. interest in accepting donations of archival material and fi nancial support. 3 Mander Jones Awards 2005 n Thursday 19 October during the welcome in Australia written by a person in their own right’. cocktail party for the Australian Society This year it was for the publication of Archives: Oof Archivists (ASA) Conference in Port Recordkeeping in Society, edited by Sue McKemmish, Macquarie, Michael Piggott, Manager Cultural Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Charles Collections and University Archivist, along with Sue Sturt University Centre for Information Studies, 2005. McKemmish, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, was Since its publication, Archives: Recordkeeping in honoured as the recipient of a 2005 Mander Jones Award. Society has been considered indispensable for teaching and In 1996 the ASA introduced the Mander Jones learning in the fi eld and is already into its third printing and Awards for publications of excellence in the fi eld of selling well to university programs and archival societies recordkeeping. The awards honour Phyllis Mander in the UK, Sweden, USA, and Canada. The work has Jones who, amongst other contributions to the been translated into Spanish and is shortly due for release profession, authored manuscripts in the British Isles in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. It is also being relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacifi c.