Guide to the Papers of Oskar Spate, 1934-1989

Summary

Collection number:

MS 7886

Creator:

Spate, Oskar, Professor and Spate, Virginia

Extent:

(21 MS boxes, 1 map-folio + 1 packet)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Oskar Spate, National Library of Australia, MS 7886, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The National Library took custody of this collection in March 1989. Series 2-9 were transferred to the Library in a total of 32 labelled box files. The contents of these box files have been removed into files without disturbing the order of the papers therein. The three part numbering system used in this list (eg: File 3/1/2) consists firstly of the series number, secondly of the box file number within that series, and thirdly the file number within that box file. The full collection as sorted and listed consists of sixteen manuscript boxes (2.24 metres).

Biographical Note:

Oskar Spate was born in England in 1911 and spent some childhood years in the USA. Back in London, he attended St Clement Dane's Grammar School and was taught geography by Leonard Suggate. In 1930 he moved to Cambridge University and achieved honours in geography. In 1937 he completed his Phd. on the development of London. After a year at Reading he moved to Burma, joined the Army in late 1941, and was wounded in a Japanese bombing raid on Rangoon. After the war he combined lecturing in England with writing a regional geography on the Indian sub-continent.

In 1951 he arrived in Canberra to take up the post of Foundation Professor of Geography at the ANU Research School of Pacific Studies, a position he held until 1967. In 1953 he advised the Australian Minister for Territories on the future economic development of Papua and New Guinea. In 1954 his landmark text India and Pakistan was published, the culmination of nearly ten years work. In 1958-9 he conducted a crucial survey of the economic problems of the Fijian people, his report guiding the colonial administration's economic preparations for Fijian independence. He returned to Fiji in 1969 as a member of the Commission on Education in Fiji, having previously fulfilled a similar role in Papua New Guinea as a member of the Commission on Higher Education (1963-65). This New Guinea Commission recommended a qualified shift away from the sole aim of achieving mass literacy, to one of incorporating access to higher education.

As a result of these reports he subsequently became a member of the councils of the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific.

From 1967 to 1972 he was Director of the ANU Research School of Pacific Studies, and in 1972 moved to the Department of Pacific History. Upon his retirement in 1976 he devoted most of his energies to researching and writing his three volume history The Pacific since Magellan. Throughout his career Oskar Spate has published a wide diversity of papers and essays on the geography of Europe, South Asia and Australia, the exploration of Australia and the Pacific and many other subject areas.

Indexed terms

Names:

Spate, Virginia

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2645399).

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 Oskar Spate, National Library of Australia, MS 7886, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

Contact us