The papers comprise family correspondence, general correspondence, handwritten and typed drafts (including the original sketches for many of his stories and the drafts of three novels which were never completed), notebooks of articles and book reviews, newspaper cuttings, invitations, printed material and other papers. There are also papers relating to Waten's membership of the Literature Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, his Presidency of the Melbourne Centre of International P.E.N. papers on his membership of the Communist Party of Australia and Socialist Party of Australia.
The collection contains approximately 300 documents, comprising correspondence and other documents of Sir Joseph Banks. The documents originating with Banks include letters and copies of letters, speeches, notes and minutes of meetings. The remainder of the collection includes correspondence addressed to Banks from some 83 people, including Lord Bathurst (2), David Collins, W.B. Conyngham (5), Alexander Dalrymple (3), James Fleming, Georg Forster (20), J.R. Forster (5), John Hunter (4), Philip Gidley King (7), Lord Nelson, William Paterson (5), W.P. Perrin (11), William Perry (5), William Petrie (7), Arthur Phillip and Lord Radnor. Also contained in the collection are memoranda and journals of Sarah Banks.
The papers comprise letters, speeches, speech notes, a diary, a few photographs and some miscellaneous printed items, together with the typescript biography. They form a relatively small and uneven collection. Apart from some speeches and the 1929 diary, they provide little information about Bavin's distinguished career as a New South Wales parliamentarian and Premier. They are, however, an important source on Australian politics and law in the period 1900-1920 and, in particular, document Bavin's close association with the first two Prime Ministers of Australia.
Microform reproductions of mainly Australian local, church and school history pamphlets, arranged by state and locality, collected by John Alexander Ferguson. The collection includes material relating to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea and Antarctica and some Pacific islands.
Transcripts, created by Frederick Danvers, of selected Dutch documents relating to India and the East held in the State Archives in The Hague. They deal with all activities of the Dutch in the East from the regulation of trade to the treatment of indigenous peoples, and particularly relations with Chinese, French, Spanish, English and Portuguese traders and officials.
MS 2923 comprises correspondence from 1959 to 1969 with writers, publishers and book collectors in Australia and overseas, especially with P.R. Stephensen, Dorothy Blewett, Rigby Graham and Philip Ward. There are proofs of most of the Wattle Grove Press publications between 1959 and 1965, as well as notes on philology and sociology and some earlier publications of Rolf Hennequel (15 boxes, 2 fol. items).