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Manuscript Items Relating to the Australian Country Party


  • Party History
  • Party Organisation
  • List Structure
  • Collections

Party History

A movement formed from rural disillusionment with urban politics, the first Country Party electoral success occurred in Western Australia in 1914 and by 1921 the organisation had won representation in each of the seven Australian Parliaments.

Each of the state and national arms of the Party has had several changes in name, the Federal organisation being known from January 1920 as the Australian Country Party, before becoming the National Country Party of Australia in May 1975. The name National Party of Australia was adopted in October 1982 in an attempt to dispel the organisation's purely rural image.

In contrast to the national impetus of the Labor and Liberal Parties, most of the strength of the Country Party is concentrated at State level.

Party Organisation

Structurally, the Party is organised around branches, formed with a minimum of ten members, who meet no less than once a year to elect office bearers. Branch delegates are elected to to each of the Federal and State Electorate Councils in their region. It is at the Electorate Council level that local area decision-making takes place, with each Council maintaining control over election and referenda activity in its jurisdiction.

Representatives from Electorate Councils and Branches are nominated in turn to attend the Party's Annual Conference at which broad policy and Party platforms are determined. While Conferences construct general Party objectives, successful Parliamentary candidates are not bound by its directives.

Above Conference level stands the Central Council, drawing its members from the chairs of each of the Federal and State Electorate Councils. Although the main decision-making body of the Party, the Central Council is unable to change the Constitution, which can only be undertaken at Conference level, and must share some authority with subordinate bodies. To ease the Council's workload, routine administrative activities are delegated to a Central Executive, which reports in turn to the Party General Secretary.

List Structure

The following list of sources is not intended to be comprehensive. There is likely to be relevant material in the papers of both Country Party and non-Country Party politicians, and journalists, and in the records of other political parties.

Quantities given refer to the component of a collection which relates to the Country Party. Where a list to an individual collection is available, please consult this for further details.


Collections

MS 4744 - ABBOTT, Charles Lydiard Aubrey, 1886-1975 (5 folders)

Member for Gwydir and Federal Minister. General correspondence and some printed material relating to his parliamentary career; letters concerning his electoral defeat and subsequent appointment as Administrator of the Northern Territory.

Available for reference. List available (3 p.)

MS 2202 - ABBOTT, Joseph Palmer, 1891-1965 (4 volumes)

Member for Gwydir and Federal Minister. Scrapbooks covering the period, 1937-65 containing correspondence about his political career, association with the Country Party and aspects of the pastoral industry.

Available for reference.

MS 7990 - AITKIN, Don, 1937- (5 boxes)

Academic and Country Party historian. Original minutes, correspondence, financial records and notes relating to Australian Country Party (N.S.W.) activity in the period 1919-72, especially in the New England district. Includes State records of the Progressive Party, Annual Conferences, Central Council and Central Executive, and Electorate Councils and a large body of Gunnedah Branch records. Other documents, including press releases, relate to the New England New State Movement, elections and election broadcasts.

Available for reference. List available (14 p.)

MS 1785 - AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY PARTY (1 page)

Notes prepared in 1947 suggesting Country-Liberal Party cooperation.

Available for reference.

MS 2160 - COOPER, Sir Walter Jackson, 1891-1973 (7 boxes)

Federal Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Country Party in the Queensland Senate. Correspondence, 1949-68; speeches, 1939-64; Parliamentary questions, 1962-65; documents relating to 1948 Annual Conference.

Available for reference.

MS 1006 - ELLIS, Ulrich, 1904-83 (12 folders)

Political Secretary to Earle Page and Director, Federal Country Party Secretariat. Documents relating to his career as a journalist and his association with the Country Party, 1900-1961. Material includes: newspaper clippings; correspondence; notes and sources on the formation and history of the Country Party, as used for his study A History of the Country Party in Australia; election papers; collections of speeches by Arthur Fadden, John McEwen and Page; subject files on the constitution, transport, water resources, centralism and postwar reconstruction. Also documented are Ellis' work on the executive of the New England New State Movement and the political figures Lyons, Menzies and Bruce, and academic Don Aitkin.

Available for reference. List available (5 p.)

MS 748 - ELLIS, Ulrich, 1904-83 (14 boxes)

Includes: Australian Country Party (N.S.W.). Annual Conference record of proceedings, 1949-51; summary of decisions on resolutions submitted, 1951-52; notes on White Australia Policy.

Available for reference. List available (7 p.)

MS 8471 - GRAHAM, Bruce Desmond, 1931- (2 folders)

Academic and Country Party historian. Notes on oral history interviews made in 1956-57 while he was writing his history The Formation of the Australian Country Parties. The interviewees include Page, Weiley, Vincent, Bruxner, Buttenshaw, Budd, Main, C.L.A. Abbott, Latham and Bruce; emphasis is given to the activities of the New South Wales division of the Party. Also included are some documents relating to the New England New State Movement.

Information pertaining to interviews is available for reference; restricted access to documents concerning the New England New State Movement. List available (4 p.)

MS 2438 - GRAHAM, Bruce William, 1919- (1 folder)

Liberal Member for St George. Lists of minutes and correspondence relating to the Country Party; letters referring to Tenterfield and Byron Electorate Council and Tenterfield and Murwillumbah Branch minutes; letters referring to a minute book of Mt Russell and Inverell Branch meetings of the Farmers' and Settlers' Association.

Available for reference.

MS 2122 - GREEN, Roland Frederick Herbert, 1895-1947 (1 volume)

Member for Richmond. Newspaper cuttings documenting his political career.

Available for reference.

MS 554 - HILL, William Caldwell, 1866-1939 (1 folder)

Member for Echuca and Federal Minister. Letter to Bruce, 1928 requesting relief from his ministerial duties; letter from Earle Page, 1939; newspaper cuttings of election results; speeches.

Available for reference.

MS 2243 - KATER, Sir Norman, 1874-1965 (3 volumes + 4 folders)

Grazier and Member, NSW Legislative Council. Scrapbook containing press cuttings concerning NSW politics; minutes and summary of evidence of the Federal Pastoral Advisory Committee Enquiry Into the State of the Industry, 1927-28.

Available for reference. List available (1 p.)

MS 4654 - McEWEN, Sir John, 1900-1980 (70 boxes)

Leader of the Australian Country Party. Large collection of papers, mostly created between 1950-71, including: correspondence; appointment diaries; speeches; press statements; interviews; Hansard extracts; newspaper cuttings; Country Party minutes, agenda papers, policy papers, and other documents relating to Federal, State and Branch levels of the Party; election material; papers concerning positions held as Member for Murray, as Federal Minister and Deputy Prime-Minister.

Speeches, press cuttings, press statements and Hansard extracts available for reference; all other documents, incl. diaries and correspondence, closed for 30 years from their date of creation. List available (15 p.)

MS 7507 - NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA (148 boxes)

Comprehensive collection of Federal, State, Electorate and Branch records, 1915-1983 (bulk, 1950-83) including: minutes; files; election material; documents relating to Young Australian Country Party.

Restricted access. List available (19 p.)

mfm G675, G7320, G7748 - NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Microfilmed minutes of Inverell and other Branch Councils, 1927-56.

Restricted access to G675; G7320, G7748 available for reference.

MS 1633 - PAGE, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton, 1880-1961 (ca. 250 boxes)

Leader of Australian Country Party. Substantial collection of personal, semi-official and official documents, consisting of subject files of correspondence, telegrams, cables, cuttings, reports, memoranda, speeches, Cabinet papers, press statements, parliamentary bills, statistics, election material and notes. Topics covered include primary industry, taxation and banking, foreign affairs, national insurance, federalism, industrial relations, constitutional reform and referenda, social services, immigration, trade, new state movements, formation of the Bruce-Page Government, and the Country Party. Bruce, Bruxner, Casey, Latham, V.C. Thompson, Lyons, Paterson, Spender, Menzies and Fadden number in Page's various correspondents.

Official and non-official papers available for reference; restricted access to Country Party papers. List available (43 p.)

MS 1383 - PAGE, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton, 1880-1961 (6 leaves)

Three speeches, 1937.

Available for reference.

MS 5351 - PROWSE, Edgar Wylie, 1905-77 (3 boxes)

President, Country Democratic League (CP) WA. Diaries, correspondence, speeches, press cuttings. Also available on microfilm (mfm G24,543-G24,553).

Available for reference. List available (1 p.)

Other material relating to Country Party activity can be found in the papers of Albert Badman (MS 3710), Horace Nock (MS 2100) and Victor Thompson (MS 2182)

Guide prepared October 1995. Last updated 21 August 1996
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