Northern Territory, 1942-1944

Component identifier:

Subseries 48-18

Content Summary:

In 1944, only weeks before his 82nd birthday, Hughes was granted permission to tour the Northern Territory. 'It was a trip', wrote Fitzhardinge, 'which might well have exhausted a younger man, but Hughes radiated energy and vigour, nor did heat, dust and travel abate his impish delight in the incongruous'. The files in this subseries record the tour.

There is some correspondence, Hughes' itinerary, notes on daily activities, copies of one of his broadcasts, notes on the resources of the Territory, photographs of farms on the Ord River, material on the Northern Territory Development League, and some pamphlets including A.A. Griffiths' Development of Northern Australia (1942).

Comprises Folders 124-125.

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)

Access and use