The Australian Party, 1929-1933

Component identifier:

Series 34

Content Summary:

Having been expelled from the National Party, Hughes formed a new political party, the Australian Party, soon after the October 1929 election, from those now tired of the main parties, some disaffected Nationalists and another new party, the Australian Peoples Party. Due largely to Hughes' autocratic methods and lack of money, the Australian Party lasted for little more than a year, and fought only one election, the New South Wales State election of October 1930. A full account of the party can be found in P. B. Westaway's 'The Australian Party formed by William Morris Hughes, 1929-30' (B.Ec. Honours thesis, University of Sydney, 1956).

The series comprises Hughes' correspondence with people wishing to join his party, with branch secretaries and officials and some former Nationalists like Maxwell and Marks. There are also papers on the first annual convention (April 1930), notes for speeches, drafts of the constitution, lists of branch secretaries, press statements by several officials who left the party, some leaflets and cuttings, and a minute book of the Publicity and Propaganda Committee of the State Councils.

Material on the October 1930 New South Wales State election is in Series 28, and papers on Hughes' pamphlet Bond or free, which caused serious resentment among some important Australian Party members have been placed in the Depression file of Series 32.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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