Electorate Council, 1928-1962

Component identifier:

Series 5

Content Summary:

Positioned above branch level, Electorate Councils represent the second stage in the Party organisation, with separate Councils being established for each of the Federal and State electorates in a particular region. Electorate Council delegates are drawn from all branches in the electorate, together with office bearers from the geographically corresponding Federal or State Electorate Council. Effectively, it is at the Electorate Council level that local area decision-making takes place, with each Council maintaining control over election and referenda activity in its jurisdiction. Resolutions received from branch level may be rejected by Council although, apart from candidate endorsement, its powers may be delegated back to branches or to other councils. Included in this series are minutes and financial records of various Federal and State Electorate Councils in New South Wales. Other documentation related to Electorate Council activity is located in Series 3, Series 4, Series 6 and Series 7.

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-

Contents

Access and use