The papers comprise correspondence, newspaper cuttings, talks, photographs, articles, research notes, reviews, handwritten notes, legal documentation, patrol reports and conference papers. The largest series in the collection relates to Manning Clark and consists of extensive newspaper cuttings, correspondence, drafts of articles and notes covering the controversy caused by Ryan's criticism in Quadrant (1993) of A History of Australia and Manning Clark as a historian generally, and claims by the Brisbane Courier Mail (1996) that Clark received an Order of Lenin medal during the Cold War.