UMA Bulletin NEWSFROMTHEUNIVERSITYOFMELBOURNE ARCHIVES

www. lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives No. 24, December 2008

Searching for a Forgotten Life W.L. Baillieu in the Archives

opular perception is a strange and At the same time he took over the fickle thing. I recently wrote a stricken stockbroking firm of W.J. Malpas Phistory of ’s Collins Class & Co. and built up a stockbroking busi- submarines. I began that project sharing ness with his brothers Edward (Prince), the almost universal belief that these Clive (Joe), Norman and Maurice (Jac), submarines are ‘noisy as a rock concert’ which as E.L. & C. Baillieu has been one — I was rather surprised to find out that of the leading stockbrokers in Melbourne they are, in fact, the second quietest for over 100 years. Throughout his busi- submarines in the world. ness life WL worked closely with five of Since I have begun working on a his brothers and, while he was always biography of W.L. Baillieu I have discov- acknowledged as the leader, their business ered that, while the Baillieu family is well success was very much a joint effort. W.L. Baillieu, 1911. known, for most people WL (as he was W.L. Baillieu played a large part in a universally known) is remembered solely dramatic resurgence of Victorian gold- alliance of companies, of which WL was as a landboomer who paid sixpence in the mining in the 1890s, promoting, man- the unofficial but unquestioned leader. pound on his debts when the land boom aging and raising capital for several of the The group was named for Collins House collapsed in the early 1890s. I suggest this most productive mines, notably the Duke at 360 Collins Street, an office building is like remembering Don Bradman for his mines at Maryborough and the Jubilee built and owned by the Baillieus in which bowling or Robert Menzies for his contri- mines at Scarsdale. In the same decade he most of the companies, as well as associ- butions to the Wesley College magazine. also worked closely with Theodore Fink ated professional partnerships such as It is true that Baillieu was a leading to put together the Herald and Weekly lawyers Arthur Robinson & Co. and figure in the Melbourne land boom of Times group. He was a director of the mining agents Bewick Moreing had their 1885–1889, the wildest and most extra- Herald for about 40 years and was respon- offices. ordinary boom in Australian history, and sible for Keith Murdoch rather than Closely associated companies one of the notorious group who made Thorold Fink taking charge of the com- included Carlton & United Breweries — secret compositions with their creditors pany after World War I. put together by W.L. Baillieu and Monty in 1892. But it is easy to forget that he In 1905 WL joined with Herbert Cohen in 1907, the Herald & Weekly was only 33 when this happened — and Hoover, W.S. Robinson and Francis Times, Dunlop, Yarra Falls textiles, what is truly remarkable is the way he Govett to establish the Zinc Corporation, Melbourne City Electric Company, and recovered from the collapse of his first and with Montague Cohen to establish numerous other mining, refining and career and built a career in business Amalgamated Zinc. These two companies smelting companies. without parallel in Australia. developed the minerals flotation At the outbreak of World War I over In September 1892 the real estate firm processes which solved the problem of half the lead and almost all the zinc from of Munro & Baillieu was dissolved and separating zinc from the complex Broken Broken Hill was sent to Germany or WL began his own business under the Hill ores and made the Broken Hill mines Belgium for smelting and refining. In name W.L. Baillieu & Co. In spite of the highly profitable for another 70 years. 1915 W.L. Baillieu negotiated the disastrous state of the economy, he made At the same time he became the domi- takeover by the Collins House group of a success of this business, taking in his nant figure in the North Broken Hill and BHP’s run-down lead smelter at Port Pirie, brother Arthur as a partner and devel- Broken Hill South mining companies. which was modernised and became the oping it into one of the largest real estate It was the wealth from these mines which largest lead smelter in the world. The agencies in Melbourne under the name financed most of his later activities and new company Broken Hill Associated Baillieu Allard. To the end of his life he they formed the core of the Collins Smelters was jointly owned by the described himself as an ‘auctioneer’. House group, an informal but close Collins House mining companies.

UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 1 WL was also the driving force behind the formation of Electrolytic Zinc which built the zinc refinery at Risdon near Hobart, one of the world’s first refineries to use electrolysis rather than distillation. It is often forgotten that the Electrolytic Zinc refinery was on the same scale as BHP’s steel works at Newcastle — with the capital raising by E.L. & C. Baillieu the largest in Australia to that date. During World War I the Collins House group also took over the copper- refining works of Electrolytic Refining & Smelting at Port Kembla — previously one-third German owned — and set up Metal Manufactures Ltd, one of Australia’s largest manufacturers. By the end of the War the Collins House Group controlled three of the four enterprises at the heart of Australia’s heavy industry — Port Pirie, Risdon and Port Kembla, as well as the largest and most profitable mines in Australia at Broken Hill. In the 1920s the Collins House Group Broken Hill Associated Smelters plant at Port Pirie, c.1915. led Australia’s industrial expansion with new ventures in paper manufacture, biography in Australian history. Why has Baillieu I was worried that it might end up textiles, cotton growing and many other there been no published biography? being a very shallow study. I had just fin- areas. New companies formed by or There have been several attempts to pro- ished a biography of Sir Ian Potter which closely associated with the Collins House duce one. Several hagiographies were was somewhat handicapped because there group included Associated Pulp & Paper written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, were not more than four accurately Manufacturers, Western Mining, Gold but fortunately they were never pub- recorded facts about him before the age Mines of Australia, British Australian lished. They were totally unbalanced and of 33 and no more than half a dozen sur- Lead Manufacturers, ICIANZ and the riddled with errors of fact, having been viving letters written in the first half of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. based solely on the recollections of a few his life — and he lived for 92 years. The group also financed numerous individuals. However, there turned out to be no attempts to find payable oil fields in The next obstacle to a biography of such problem with W.L. Baillieu. After Australia and New Zealand, developed WL was the ‘landboomer effect’. In about a year of research the over- copper mines in New Guinea — which 1966 Michael Cannon published The whelming problem has become the sheer failed because the only skilled workers Landboomers, a brilliant, if flawed, account volume of material by and about WL. It who would go there were fleeing from of the land boom and bust. This book has has got to the stage where I am almost either justice or their wives — and turned been continually in print ever since, pop- scared to explore new avenues in case down the chance to develop Mt Isa on ularising the view of the land boom as a they open up another cornucopia of WL’s the grounds that the transport costs conspiracy to defraud the public and the correspondence. Far from being a poor would be too high. landboomers as a criminal gang who correspondent, WL was a prolific and Even while building up the biggest should all have been jailed. It is not sur- articulate letter-writer and literally thou- mining and industrial conglomerate in prising that the reaction of many Baillieu sands of his letters have survived. In addi- Australia, WL was also an active politi- family members was to shy away from tion there are a smaller number of letters cian, being a member of the Victorian publicity and public scrutiny. Collections written by his brothers, numerous com- Legislative Council from 1901 until 1922 of letters disappeared from sight and pany records, share registers, account and a minister from 1909 to 1917. During enquiries from historians were met with books and other documents — in fact much of this period he was regarded as responses ranging from polite evasion to enough material to write several books. the power behind the throne in both state blank refusals to cooperate. My search for W.L. Baillieu began — and federal politics, having particularly A further obstacle was that the belief as all such searches should do — in the close relations with Alfred Deakin, developed that WL was barely literate Archives. I knew Stanley Bruce, W.A. Watt and Walter and consequently there could not pos- that the collections held by the Archives Massey Greene, the latter two both sibly be many letters. Michael Cannon would be the most likely place to find working for Collins House after leaving wrote of WL that ‘handicapped by his material on WL, but I did not expect to politics. comparatively low standard of education, find the goldmine I did. When one thinks of the political he found it difficult to express himself on The papers of Clive Baillieu, WL’s hacks, plastic ‘celebrities’, third-rate paper’. Consequently the conclusion was eldest son and the first Lord Baillieu, were sportsmen and petty criminals who have drawn that there was not enough material the obvious starting point. This collection been the subjects of recent biographies, it to write a full biography. is everything a historian could ask for — is hard to disagree with the proposition So when I was asked to investigate the comprehensive, well-sorted and listed, that W.L. Baillieu is the great unwritten possibility of writing a biography of W.L. with a wealth of material about Clive and

2 UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 satisfaction in it for me. I am wondering if House group, as well as more lighthearted they are going to be choked with their own letters on family matters, as the business gold. Today a lunch was arranged by our friends here to meet Keith Murdoch and ties between them were cemented when me, but … only a few could turn up and WL’s son Harry married WS’s daughter little wonder — what do they want to hear Margaret. about Australia when their own house is And then I came to the Baillieu Allard burning down. papers. I had been led to believe that this UMA also holds the records of all the was a ‘dry as dust’ collection of the daily major Collins House companies: North accounts of a real estate firm, and in my Broken Hill, Broken Hill South, the Zinc initial plan I allowed about three days to Corporation and Broken Hill Associated look at it. In the end it took over three Smelters. These all have hundreds (it months. It is an extraordinary collection caption seems like thousands) of archive boxes primarily showing how WL and his full of letter books, correspondence files, brother Arthur built the real estate busi- accounts, contracts, minute books, ness up from the depths of the depression production reports, share records, details in the 1890s to great success in the early of investments, prospectuses, newspaper 1900s. But in addition it has many general cuttings ad infinitum. There are hundreds, business files showing how WL diversi- probably thousands, of letters to and from fied from real estate into gold and W.L. Baillieu. Most of these are business coalmining and then into the Broken Hill W.L. Baillieu with his wife Bertha and daughter Vere. correspondence but given that building mines. While there are not many letters up the Collins House group and its many by WL, there are hundreds of letters his career, and much about other family businesses was the central work of WL’s written to him by Joseph Cram, who was members. Clive Baillieu’s papers were life, and these letters show how this was his agent in in the mid-1890s, reviewed by the legendary University of done, they are absolutely critical for and by his relatives when WL made his Melbourne Archivist, Frank Strahan in understanding his life. first trip to London in 1897. One written 1967. He wrote: ‘There is a wealth of The UMA also has several other col- by Edward Shackell expresses sentiments excellent material. Certainly this is one of lections of great interest for the biogra- which I trust will still resonate with the greatest collections which could come pher of WL. Sir Hugh Brain worked with readers of this journal: from an Australian, and its significance is WL’s brother-in-law, Edward Shackell, at such that it must rank as an outstanding Collins House in a business which pro- Your note to hand and pleased I am to hear that you are enjoying the trip and that both collection in a world context.’ vided company secretarial services to all Mrs Baillieu and you are benefited by the WL and his eldest son were particu- the Collins House companies, giving him change. You speak of London as a great larly close and there are numerous letters good insights into how all the businesses city. It must be and I look forward to the between them. One that has particular worked. While the collection is small, his time when I shall see it myself and compare it with the idea I have formed of it from interest in the light of recent events is a typed reminiscences include many descriptions read me. You are specially letter written by WL from New York on revealing stories about those who worked favoured in seeing the great city during the 29 October 1929, just after the stock in Collins House. For example, Brain Jubilee celebrations. I feel quite envious. market crash: wrote: The occasion is I suppose without parallel in the history of the world and the odds are a million pounds to a brick that the present N.Y. gets on my nerves wonderful and all as The first company meeting I attended was a generation will never see such another. it is, and the market collapse does not board meeting of Electrolytic Zinc, chaired improve matters. I had no idea until the by W.L.B. Its General Manager, Herbert market commenced to crumble the unreal Gepp had just returned from a trip to One perplexing aspect of the Baillieu basis upon which it was all built up. I fancy America. In those days the General Allard collection was a series of large if I had appreciated it I would have been Manager’s expense account for his trip was leather-bound letter books which began board business and Gepp’s substantial ready to take a risk on the Bear side. at number 60 in the early 1900s and The Bull market has been an expression of claims were being gone through. About the American’s mind that there is no end to half way through WL said ‘What are all continued into the 1920s — these mainly their greatness. When we arrived here, on these medical costs, clinics and so on, you contained trivia about rents, properties all sides you heard of the unlimited value in weren’t sick in America were you Gepp?’ for sale, insurance and so on, but I Gepp looking a bit shamefaced said, ‘No, the equities of America’s Industry; in this wondered where the earlier ones were. belief they sat down contentedly on a stock Mr Baillieu but as a matter of fact Mrs yielding 2% or even 11/2% and kidded Gepp had a child while I was there.’ The It was only in March this year that I themselves the increment would offset it, Chairman said, ‘God bless my soul, and you found out that numbers 36 to 60 were and now that the market mania has ceased expect us to pay for it?’ Gepp retired into safely in the care of a family member, and they have wakened up, the very same an embarrassed silence, broken by the people are afraid to buy shares that show a Chairman saying, ‘Oh well, I suppose we’ve together with many other account books dividend position of from 5 to 8% and an got to meet it, but understand Gepp, in of various sorts from the 1890s and early earning position of 10 to 15%. The plug is future if I’m in for any transaction I’ve got 1900s. to be in from the start.’ out and no one can forecast what will Book no. 36 begins in October 1892, happen but I fancy for sound stocks the bottom is about to be reached and if I had Of greater importance, if less immediately after WL’s partnership with any of you here I should want to get into entertaining, are the papers of W.S. Donald Munro was dissolved and WL selected stocks. Motor stocks would not Robinson. Robinson was W.L. Baillieu’s had just set up on his own. The new firm attract me as they will be the worst hit by the crisis. If they don’t peg the market at chief lieutenant in the Collins House kept the same run of letter books going about the present position then there may group and there are many fascinating (if anyone knows the whereabouts of 1 to easily follow a financial crisis. I can only letters between the two of them on the 36 please let me know!). Many of these say it in a whisper but there is a lot of major policy decisions of the Collins letters were written by WL himself and

UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 3 Researching the Melbourne University Boat Club – Australia’s Oldest Boat Club

W.L. Baillieu with his son Clive and grandsons. they give an extraordinary picture of the Melbourne fell by about ten per cent desperation and despair of the dark days between 1890 and 1900 is a clear indica- of the 1890s depression. Strictly speaking tion how tough things were. WL’s letters these are business letters, but I don’t think give some idea of the desperate struggle it is being too much of the amateur psy- needed to survive in business. t the end of 2006 I applied for and chologist to think that something can be I am grateful that I have been given attained the commission to made from them. He wrote on 21 access to other collections held by the Aresearch and write the history of October 1892: family, notably the letters written by WL the Melbourne University Boat Club – to his sons on the land — Tom at Tongy my tenth such project. I knew nothing My position I regret to say does not get (inland from Newcastle in New South about rowing or sport at the University stronger financially. Each day something drops away that one regards as an asset. Wales) and Harry at Torrumbarry near but quite a lot about the and Echuca. These letters show a great the social history of Melbourne, having Another letter says simply: interest in all things agricultural and pas- written several books on related subjects. toral and suggest that WL’s dream would I began with two searches for material If you can forward cheque for anything on have been to be the squire of a large that would form the basis of the work, a/c it will be thankfully received. country estate. Then there have been let- the first was at the State Library of He wrote to George Partridge of ters that have come from the English Victoria (SLV) website for images of the Chancery Lane: branch of the family, the descendants of Yarra and rowing, the other a search of Clive, who in 1922 decided to live in UMA’s online catalogue for all material I regret I have not heard from you in reply to my previous letters re your past due Bill. England. Among these are the letters WL relating to the club at the University of I regret still more that I am badly in want wrote to Clive expressing deep distress at Melbourne. The latter produced lists of of payment. If you are unable to let me Clive’s decision and also letters WL wrote minute books, correspondence and some have cheque I must ask you to give me a to friends and family in January 1931 boxes of personal papers. new Bill that I might discount. when he had a nervous breakdown. These There is no way to describe the And to a tenant in one of his Malvern last letters were never sent, but give an excitement that the first look at what a houses: extraordinarily sad picture of a great man researcher/author hopes will be the basis in a state of mental collapse. of a new work produces. Nor will anyone Referring to your memo of yesterday’s date, who is not a researcher understand the I hope you will carry out your promise and get the rent settled up next week otherwise The conclusion from my year in the trepidation over what is clearly ‘missing’ I shall be compelled to adopt measures I archives is that the real challenge in at this first glance. The images at the SLV much prefer avoiding. writing a biography of W.L. Baillieu is ceased around 1900, when newspapers not, as was widely believed in the 1960s stopped publishing the results of boat As WL was 6 foot and 2 inches tall and a and 1970s, a lack of sources, but rather races in their main pages and delegated boxing champion in his youth, the hint of the vastness of the sources and the them to the sports section. Many such a threat in the letter had some substance. amount of work required to do justice to articles had been accompanied by litho- We sometimes forget that in the scale and richness of the material graphs and photographs of such races. Melbourne the depression of the 1890s available. The MUBC collection at UMA con- was considerably worse than the depres- Peter Yule tained many minute books, plenty of cor- sion of the 1930s — unemployment was respondence and some photographs and higher, asset values fell far more and a Dr Peter Yule is a Research Fellow in the Department cuttings from newspapers. The annual of History. His publications include histories of the higher proportion of businesses collapsed. Collins Class submarines and the Victorian Auditor- reports were pasted into the later minute The fact that the population of General’s Office and a biography of Sir Ian Potter. books which had typed pages pasted in. It

4 UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 was immediately evident however that many minute books were not there. As it turned out, a member of the club who had intended to write its history had the missing minute books. Notes on the club’s first president, Martin Howy Irving (the University’s second classics professor, taking the post in 1856), revealed much about the estab- lishment of the boat club and the kind of place the University aspired to become. Irving had won a Balliol College (Oxford) scholarship in 1848. An outstanding stu- dent, he was Oxford’s junior mathematics scholar for 1850 and obtained first-class honours in classics and second-class in mathematics (BA, 1853; MA, 1856). An adventurous spirit brought him to the colonies and to the fledgling University of Melbourne which had been established just three years before. There could hardly have been a finer Henley on the Yarra, 1914. Opposite: Melbourne University Boat Club. example of a mid-19th century gentleman than Irving. Over six feet tall, wiry and Henley-on-Thames after World War I at the University who wanted to take up handsome, he had been one of the during which he had served as a doctor. the sport. Although it was easy to see leading oarsmen of Balliol College. He Faces of the young university men in how changes at the club continued to believed that playing sport was as impor- his pre-war photos shine like cherubs reflect changes to life in Melbourne and tant to educating young men as academic revealing self-assuredness and calm, while at the University, it was surprising to find training. Four months after arriving in that of the AIF crew, taken just five years that the actions of key MUBC individuals Melbourne, in July 1856, he helped later, reveals men who seem middle-aged, had caused changes to the entire organise the first recorded cricket match their bodies and faces worn by their University. for a university team — with Emerald experience. The most important such individual Hill. The Peace Regatta, a race between (to me as a researcher of the club) was The early years of the boat club crews from the allied forces and the dedicated record keeper John Lang reflected the social strata to which univer- Cambridge and Oxford University crews who not only acted as secretary and treas- sity students and oarsmen belonged. The was won by the AIF crew. His letters to urer but wrote up the club’s missing names of the club’s presidents, committee the boat club in Melbourne, begun when records and kept up the club’s minutes members and rowers read like a who’s he was appointed to train the crew in the and reports from the 1890s until his who of 19th century Melbourne: Sir John winter of 1918–1919, to the time of the departure for England in 1921. These Madden, Sir John Grice, Wolfe Fink, Sir race in June 1919, reveal the spiritual years of recording provided not only facts Henry Wrixon, Sir William Kernot and journey and healing provided by the and figures but accurate accounts of Sir Thomas a’Beckett are just a few of the return to life’s pleasures and the cama- meetings and races, descriptions of club names listed in the minute books. Other raderie of pre-war life. It also marks an personalities, dinners and other social revelations included the importance of early entry to international sport, just as events. He kept up a correspondence the first residential colleges, Trinity, World War I provided Australia’s entry with many key figures. He was also Ormond, Queens and Newman, to the to the world stage. Like many other instrumental in setting up the Melbourne University. During the first 50 years, members of the club, Disher remained University Sports Union. His records and more students lived on campus than off dedicated to it until the end of his life minutes are written like a time capsule, and university life was, therefore, a total in 1976. with a clear eye to the future and the experience, with many students residing Records also revealed that the first knowledge that someone would one day for three or four years and participating MUBC men to participate in an Olympic write the story of the club. in sports, plays, debates and enjoying the regatta were Harry Ross-Soden and In more recent years the club has pleasures of an encompassing culture. Simon Fraser who travelled to Stockholm become a major centre for elite sport, One collection key to the boat club is in 1912 with a crew that was otherwise with members represented at many World the Clive Disher collection. Disher grew made up of New South Welshmen. Championships, Commonwealth and up on his father’s estate, ‘Strathfieldsaye’, Although this crew was eliminated in the Olympic Games. in Victoria. After attending Gippsland semi-finals, they had proved their worth As with the records of so many organ- College at Sale, he finished his secondary by winning the Grand Challenge Cup isations the club’s activities have not been education at Scotch College and entered at as Sydney so well recorded in the 1990s, when com- Melbourne University to study medicine. Rowing Club. puters began to be used to send minutes His photographs of crews and dinners The 20th century brought about a of meetings and the old and excellent and his study in Ormond College are a decrease in numbers of rowers resident at habit of pasting these into a hardback marked contrast to that of the AIF crew a college and coaches more determined book became obsolete. he stroked at the 1919 Peace Regatta at to make rowing available to any student Each such history of the University’s

UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 5 Red Tape – Some Retiring Thoughts

ecause archives arise from done in the past [on a particular matter] … in his files’. Thus administrative activities, Jenkinson coined ‘the golden rule of archive making’, something Bwe are professionally akin to the religious injunction to try always to be ready to meet predisposed to find bureaucracy one’s maker. One ‘must have [one’s files] … always in such a strangely interesting. This is state of completeness and order that, supposing himself and his especially so for many govern- staff to be by some accident obliterated, a successor totally ment archivists and really, any ignorant of the work of the office would be able to take it up of us whose collections mostly and carry it on with the least possible inconvenience and delay comprise the records of large simply on the strength of a study of the Office Files’. organisations. Jenkinson’s rule sounds anachronistic in these days of In my case, it began as an relentless email, abolished registries, succession planning and undergraduate studying Max corporate memory, but it harbours a kernel of timeless good Weber’s theories of bureaucracy sense. I hope my successors don’t end up cursing me, but will and developed while a public servant in where beyond leave my mobile charged up and turned on. If Jeremy Lewis is the officially designated close-of-business (4.51pm), our correct, however, it probably won’t ring, even if my file equiva- favourite TV comedies were Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. lents had been model summaries and my shredding minimal. Eventually I found a copy of Jonathan Lynn and Antony Hay’s As I cast around for the right farewell speech quote, Lewis’s scripts published by the BBC (The Complete ; The Diaries edited anthology The Vintage Book of Office Life (Vintage, 1998) of a Cabinet Minister by the Right Hon. James Hacker MP), but they will saved the day. In his introduction to its final section, ‘The end of always be a pale substitute for the wonderful performances of the road’, Lewis explained that retirement itself was beyond the the perfectly cast Paul Eddington playing Minister James Hacker scope of his book. ‘For a while,’ he wrote, ‘the names and reputa- and as Sir Humphrey Appleby. tions of office tyrants and office characters live on in memory The series titles became so synonymous with political and and folklore; for a while they return to haunt the scenes of their bureaucratic stratagems that in the UK they spawned another past. But every time there are fewer left who knew them, and (and serious) text by Antony Jay entitled How to Beat Sir less and less to say; in the end the connection is broken, and Humphrey: every citizen’s guide to fighting officialdom (Long Barn Books, nothing more remains.’ Good recordkeeping means a little may 1997). Appropriately, the cover has a cartoon of in fact remain to inform or bemuse posterity. And while we do Sir Humphrey wrapped in red tape. not seek it, the memory of archivists (whether tyrants or charac- Not surprisingly then, as retirement approached, my ters) can live on in the thoughts of researchers, and more tenu- thoughts turned to one of the classic statements of bureaucratic ously through the collections we built and managed. perfection. It was written by the great English archival theorist Michael Piggott Hilary Jenkinson in 1922 in A Manual of Archive Administration. Because records were ‘a convenient form of artificial memory’, any administrator returning from an absence or replacing University Archivist and Manager of Cultural Collections, Michael Piggott retires at someone should be able to ‘find a summary of all that has been the end of 2008.

continued from page 5 activities adds to the fabric of knowledge about the University, but there is much more of interest here; the story of the city, its river, its society and its place in the world can all be traced through the material that has taken me two years to trawl through, from which I have created a story that I hope will be interesting to all readers, not just those interested in the beautiful sport of rowing. Dr Judith Buckrich

The history of the Melbourne University Boat Club will be published in 2009.

In addition to her many publications historian Dr Judith Buckrich is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Melbourne’s Cultural Heritage Unit and a Consulting Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation. She is also Chair of the International PEN Women Writers’ Committee and Vice-President of the AIF Crew at the 1919 Peace Regatta at Henley-on-Thames. Melbourne Centre of PEN.

6 UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 and community voices in archives’, the program was diverse, filled with a wide range of both Australian and international speakers. The Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Annual Conference followed, based Left to right: Kathryn Wood, Project Archivist; Nilufer Aylav, Archives at the Parmelia Hilton, also in Administrative Assistant; Denise Driver, Co-ordinator, Collection Management and Storage. Perth. I delivered a report on activities of the Business Principal Archives Taskforce at the visits and explore what other and also available through meeting of the Business, Cor- universities and cultural her- Picture Australia Archivist porate and Labour Special itage groups are doing in Kathryn Wood is a project Report Interest Group. Strong ses- terms of collection manage- archivist who has been sions on emerging digital ment and access. A part of this engaged to work on a number issues and on business archives visit was to explore the means of arrangement and descrip- he second half of the were very relevant, and UMA’s of making some of our student tion projects, including the year seems to hold a Melinda Barrie, Senior cards, dating to pre-1912, Shell Australia archive. This Tsurfeit of Archives and Archivist, Rio Tinto and available digitally. Software very large collection covers Records-related conferences. Business, presented a paper on has been purchased and a trial the company’s activities from The dilemma is which to corporate social responsibility. project is currently underway. 1901 to 1996 and is full of choose? What area of special- In September I attended We have had a number of unexpected riches. isation? The privilege of the Records Management staff changes in the second Christine Kousidis has working at the UMA is in the Association of Australasia’s half of the year: continued her work on the diversity of the collections, not Convention. I presented a Reference Services AXA/National Mutual archive, only in terms of content, but paper on the management of Coordinator, Jason Benjamin which concludes at the end of also their media; and the photographic collections in was recently appointed to the the year. resultant choices for profes- the digital age which was position of Co-ordinator of The Collection Review is sional development come in well received. While the gov- Conservation Programs within drawing to a close, and we are an array of fields. ernment sector is well repre- the Cultural Collections (the now in the midst of planning In August I attended back- sented in terms of managing entity within which UMA sits). for the installation of new to-back conferences in Perth. physical collections in digital Coordinator of Repository shelving. This means that we ICHORA4, the Fourth Inter- space, those archives and and Systems, Maria Gionis has are unable to receive any new national Conference on the records bodies which fall out- left us to take up a position at accessions until March 2009; History of Records and side of their ambit are often RMIT University. however our Reading Room Archives was held from the left to struggle ahead on their Photographer Lindsay opening hours will be return- 3 to 5 August at the State own. As a result an online Howe is back with us, digitising ing to normal: Monday to Library of Western Australia forum for discussion has been the Jack O’Brien photos of Friday and the first Saturday of and at the picturesque campus formed through the RMAA 1950s Fitzroy, as described in each month, when we reopen at the University of Western website. our previous edition. The after the Christmas-New Year Australia. With a theme of I returned to Sydney in images will soon be online on break on 5 January 2009. ‘Minority Reports: indigenous October to follow up with site our image catalogue UMAIC Helen McLaughlin

Needham’s love affair with all things Chinese, the Jane Ellen, Archivist, Access and Outreach Recently Read story of the multi-volume CUP publishing project, Barack Obama, Dreams for my Father Science and Civilisation in China, of which Needham’s (Text Publishing, 2008) first volume appeared in 1954, and the story of This nuanced and perceptive account of his Caitlin Stone, Curator, Malcolm Fraser Collection 3,000 years of Chinese invention. I found this a multicultural heritage and negotiation through black Ian Samson, The Case of the Missing Books fascinating insight into Chinese history. American adolescence and manhood would make (Harper Perennial, 2006) Now to read Science and Civilisation in China … interesting reading even if one had never heard of Israel Armstrong is excited about his new job as Barack Obama. His presidential victory makes it a librarian in a small town in Northern Ireland. enthralling. He arrives to discover the library has been closed Barbara Nicholls, Acting Coordinator, and that his job will be to drive the new ‘mobile Reference Services information centre’ (or ‘bus’). What’s more, all Claire Thomas, Fugitive Blue Denise Driver, Repository Coordinator of the books are missing. The first in the ‘mobile (Allen & Unwin, 2008) Roger Deakin, Wildwood: a journey through trees library’ series provides an entertaining and some- This first novel tells of an art conservator who (Hamish Hamilton, 2007) times scarily familiar read about the world of becomes attached, obsessed even, by the Deakin’s final book is a wonderful evocation information management. painting she is working on and its image of two of how trees are intimately enmeshed in our angels in a blue background of lapis lazuli. This personal and cultural fabric. The naturalist John story begins and ends the book but interwoven Muir wrote that ‘When we try to pick out anything Sue Fairbanks, Collection Manager through the present-day tale is the creation and by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in Simon Winchester, Bomb, Book and Compass: history of the painting. As the painting is being the Universe’ — perhaps none more so than Joseph Needham and the great secrets of China restored, the central character’s relationship with trees. Deakin’s writing is a celebration of the slow (Viking, 2008) her long-term boyfriend disintegrates, as a parallel accrual of quiet observation. The latest in Simon Winchester’s very readable motif. The author is currently undertaking a PhD histories interweaves the story of scientist Joseph at the University of Melbourne.

UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 7 scientific equipment belonging to profes- textiles will be stored in boxes on shelves. sors, sleeping bags of Antarctic explorers A purpose-built hanging frame for rolled and clothing such as sporting blazers and banners and similar textiles has been football jumpers. From building compa- included in the design. Objects will be re- nies and architects’ practices he collected boxed and stored on shelves. There will plans and drawings which are now a vital be more shelves per range to avoid wasted source for students and Melbourne’s con- space and the need to stack boxes on top servation architects alike. of one another. In the 1970s the then Labour Thanks to a grant from the Archivist, Andrew Reeves, began to col- University’s Miegunyah Fund, an Object lect trade union memorabilia. Now Curator will be appointed in 2009 to The Dreams Tinsmith’s Union armour, eight hour day catalogue and pack objects for reshelving. ribbons and the first deed box of the In fact development and trials of the of Archivists Trustees of the National Trades Hall and cataloguing and packaging system have Literary Institute (now the Victorian commenced this year with the help of a Trades Hall Council) compete for space volunteer, art history and curatorship ollection management teams get in the UMA repository in Brunswick. student Stacy Jewell. Stacy’s job has been just as excited about shelving and These objects are currently occupying to unpack, catalogue and rehouse small Cthe latest in archival-quality shelves and plan cabinets at the northern objects currently stored together in larger preservation packaging as they do about end of the repository and need to be boxes. She has enthusiastically embraced the collections which they store. So the moved before the new shelves are this project and her pioneering efforts University of Melbourne Archives is glad installed. They will eventually be will be of great use in setting up the to announce that we have permission to returned to the shelves, and on this larger object project next year. purchase and install two new ranges of account the new shelving design will be a The downside of all of this wonderful shelving in early 2009. departure from our standard configura- improvement in housing for the Archives’ In 1960 the first University Archivist, tion. Our new shelving ranges will incor- collections will be that for up to eight Frank Strahan, commenced eclectic and porate plan cabinets for posters and archi- weeks early in 2009, some collections energetic collecting of University, busi- tectural drawings into the lowest bays, currently housed in plan cabinets may ness and community records. With his thus saving space and providing a safer not be available to researchers while keen eye for exhibition material, he also workplace for staff. Aisles between shelves are installed and plan cabinets collected the pictures from the walls of shelving ranges will be wider to allow are relocated. companies, office equipment such as facing plan cabinets to open completely So, better shelving, an improvement typewriters and company seals, desk fur- and safely into the same space, but still in storage and control of objects, better niture and a huge range of memorabilia. maximise the use of the space available. staff working conditions — what is there From the University alone he collected There will be an area for hanging not to be excited about? sporting trophies from the Sports Union, those items of clothing which are robust Sue Fairbanks, Senior Archivist, framed photographs of academic staff, enough to hang, while other clothing and Collection Management

Victorian XXXXXX Co. Cheltenham UMA Bulletin Select Documents [Undated but c.1960]

from the Archives To Sands & McDougall Pty Ltd Melbourne Editors: Jane Ellen and Stephanie Jaehrling How to Write Sir, Design & Layout: Jacqui Barnett a Letter of Complaint You have impertinently sent us a bill for £3.15.0 for displays in your directory. We did have a rogue call on us claiming that you were Produced by: Publications collecting information for the pink pages of the telephone directory. Information Services We had no use for the villain. He was shown the door for we do not University of Melbourne require or desire such publicity. What information that he got was unscrupulously obtained from neighbours or manufactured as none ISSN 1320 5838 was given by us. It is our opinion that your directory is of no merit or of any use The University of Melbourne to decent, honest merchants. Well do I know that it is made use of by Archives every spiv in the city of Melbourne. If the announcements relating to University of Melbourne, us are not withdrawn immediately from this corrupt publication it is Victoria 3010, Australia our intention to seek the aid of the courts to enforce the matter. I will repeat myself and again state that we do not wish to be called on by Opening Hours: the type of fly-by-nighter who makes a practice of gaining a miserable Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9.30 am–5.30 pm existence moving from one announcement in your scurrilous and Wed 9.30 am–7.30 pm iniquitous door-stopper to another. First Sat. of each month Should a copy of this scandalous tome arrive at our factory, I will personally go to the trouble of finding out when the next board 1.00 pm–5.00 pm meeting of Sands & McDougall’s is taking place when I will make it my Phone: +61 (03) 8344 6848 pleasure to personally throw the rotten thing straight at the chairman whilst he is at his accustomed place at the head of the table. Fax: +61 (03) 9347 8627 We do not intend to be pestered further in this matter. Let this Email: be the last we hear from you. [email protected] We are, The offending tome and Your obedient servant, Website: prospective weapon. etc. www. lib.unimelb.edu.au/ collections/archives

8 UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008

Library Digitised Collections

Author/s: University of Melbourne Archives

Title: UMA Bulletin : News from the University of Melbourne Archives : Issue 24

Date: 2008

Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/116393