Guide to the Papers of Gordon Bryant, 1917-1991

Summary

Collection number:

MS 8256

Creator:

Gordon Bryant and Bryant, Pat, Mrs.

Extent:

46.74 metres and (326 ms boxes, 5 folio items + 1 rolled items box)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Gordon Bryant, National Library of Australia, MS 8256, [series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Biographical Note:

Gordon Munro Bryant was born on 3 August 1914 in Lismore, Victoria and obtained tertiary qualifications at Melbourne Teachers' College and the University of Melbourne. He taught in primary and secondary schools from 1935 to 1955.

In 1934 Bryant joined the Citizens' Military Force. During World War II he was on full-time duty with the CMF and AIF from December 1941 to October 1946. He served in the Army in Northern Australia, then went to Indonesia with the 7th Division as a member of the 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion AIF. Between 1954 and 1961 he held the rank of Captain Staff Officer in the CMF, after which he retired with the Efficiency Decoration. He continued to take an active interest in defence and ex-service affairs through the Naval and Military Club and the RSL. He was one of the first active opponents of Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and closely monitored the affairs of East Timor.

Bryant first stood for Parliament in 1951 for the seat of Deakin, and again in 1954 - both times unsuccessful. In 1955 he was elected to the House of Representatives for Wills, Victoria (ALP), a seat he held until 1980. He was appointed as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs from 19 December 1972 to 9 October 1973, then as Minister for the Capital Territory from 9 October 1973 to 11 November 1975. For a short time, from 9 October 1973 to 12 November 1973, he acted as Minister for Repatriation.

Among the numerous Parliamentary committees on which Bryant served were: Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Committee Enquiring into the Grievances of the People of Yirrkala, Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Committee on Aboriginal Land Rights, Committee on Environment and Conservation and the Committee on the New and Permanent Parliament House.

In 1964 Bryant was Deputy Leader of the Australian Delegation to the 53rd Annual Conference of the Interparliamentary Union, Copenhagen. He was a member of the Interparliamentary Union Council Meeting in Lucerne, 1964 and Canberra, 1966. As a member of the ALP, Bryant was the Party's first delegate to the Socialist International at Brussels in September 1964. In 1978 he was a delegate to the 33rd United Nations General Assembly.

Bryant's involvement in Aboriginal issues led him to become President of the Aborigines Advancement League in Victoria from its inception in 1957 to 1964, and Senior Vice-President of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) from 1957 to 1973. Among his chief concerns were the rights of Aborigines in Arnhem Land during mining development. The national campaign for the 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal powers was conducted from his office.

As well as being a member of the National Library Council from 1976 to 1980, Bryant had a lifelong interest in education from the days of his early teaching career. He was Chairman of the Northern Metropolitan Regional Board of TAFE and Associate Fellow of the La Trobe University. Other educational councils on which he served were the Newlands High School, the Batman Automotive College and the Pascoe Vale High School.

On 5 December 1942 Bryant married Patricia Jean Hilton Grant. They had two sons, Robin and Linton.

Bryant died in Melbourne on 14 January 1991, survived by his wife, sons and several grandchildren.

Provenance:

The Bryant Papers were received in two consignments. The first was transferred from the Victorian Regional Office of the National Archives of Australia in November 1991, in accordance with Mrs Bryant's wishes.

These papers had been deposited there in 1975. Just over half of them had been assigned the control number MP1803/1. The remainder had been registered into 31 individual record series and held under Commonwealth Record Series control numbers. Further papers at Mrs Bryant's home (in a garage) had been put into cartons by NAA staff in 1991 and brought to the National Archives of Australia on a temporary basis.

At the time of transfer to the National Library, NAA staff retained series or parts of series which related to periods when Gordon Bryant was Minister, as well as diaries from 1973 to 1975 and one notebook.

In 1992, papers relating to Bryant's post-parliamentary activities were transferred direct from Mrs Bryant's home to the Library. Amongst these cartons was material which had been packed from his office at La Trobe University's School of Economics and Commerce and returned to Mrs Bryant.

Arrangement:

National Archives of Australia staff provided copies of their lists, marked to show which groups of papers had been retained. These original inventories, together with copies of biographical information on Bryant, are held in the lists cabinets in the Manuscript work area.

Because of its size, the Bryant collection was sorted and listed by a team of four Manuscript staff. Taking into account the fact that many of the original NAA boxes, although listed, were not sorted and that some of their contents had been removed by the National Archives of Australia as Commonwealth records, it was decided to amalgamate the boxes with the unprocessed cartons and sort the entire archive into 28 designated series. Descriptions from the NAA inventories have been incorporated into the final list where appropriate.

A large number of duplicates of leaflets, articles and reports, as well as publications, were culled during the sorting process. Items which were obviously readily available from the Library's printed collection (such as government publications) were discarded, while others were forwarded to the appropriate section of the Library for consideration.

Indexed terms

Names:

Bryant, Pat, Mrs.

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn496691).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Gordon Bryant, National Library of Australia, MS 8256, [series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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