New England New State Movement, 1951-1961

Component identifier:

Series 11

Content Summary:

In 1922 Colonel Bruxner formally proposed in the Legislative Assembly the establishment of a separate state in northern New South Wales. Although receiving grass roots support, the idea was quashed by a 1923 Royal Commission which reported that such a state was neither practicable nor desirable. The conception saw a number of revivals: at the time of the 1935 Nicholas Royal Commission, appointed to identify areas within the State suitable for self-government, a boundary was delineated for a new state from the Hunter Valley north to the Queensland border, and in 1948 when support reformed under the title New England New State Movement. At first a non-political force, the movement received Country Party support, and represented a dissatisfaction with a distant New South Wales legislature which was seen to be cumbersome and inefficient. Other items pertaining to the New England New State Movement are filed in Series 10.

Leaflets and general circulars relating to the New England New State Movement include: Northern New State : case outlined in NSW State Parliament on Aug. 22, 1922 by Lieut-Col. Bruxner; Seventh State Newsletter, no. 1, Mar. 1951; draft constitution, 1953; speech delivered by J.J. Cahill in the Legislative Assembly on decentralisation, 15 Sept. 1959; summary of talk by N. Crew on economic aspects of decentralisation, 4 June 1960; notes by J.W. Every-Burns entitled The Destiny of Local Government in New South Wales; A Cheque Book of Our Own : Operation-7th State : New England, New State Movement Appeal for £100 000; campaign car sticker; campaign bulletins; campaign plan, 1961.

(1 file)

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-

Access and use