Central Council and Central Executive of the Country Party of New South Wales, 1928-1968

Component identifier:

Series 4

Content Summary:

The main decision-making body of the Party, the Central Council draws its membership from the chairs of each of the Federal and State Electorate Councils. Although it is unable to change the Constitution and must share some authority with subordinate bodies, the Central Council retains final power over all other aspects of Party activity. To ease the Council's workload, an annual election is made of members to the Central Executive, to join with leaders of the State and Federal Parliamentary Parties, who are granted automatic membership. Routine administrative activities are delegated to the Executive by the Council, the Executive reporting, in turn, to the General Secretary of the Party, located at Head Office in Sydney. Included in this series are a number of Council circulars, minutes and some comments by Aitkin on office bearers. Other documents concerning Central Council and Central Executive business are filed in Series 2.

Immediate source of acquisition:

In February 1986 the National Library of Australia received, as a donation, papers used by Don Aitkin in his research on the Country Party of New South Wales. The material had been made available to Aitkin whilst a doctoral student and post-doctoral fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, during the 1960s, providing some of the background to his PhD thesis and its published revision The Country Party in New South Wales : a study of organisation and survival.

Names:

Aitkin, Don, 1937-

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