Search

MS 7692 comprises draft scripts, notes, business and personal correspondence, fan mail, photographs, theatre programs, posters, music scores and clippings documenting Archer's musical shows, plays, songs and publications. Also included are the papers of Diana Manson, former partner and personal manager of Archer. These papers mostly relate to Archer's career, but also document the activities of Manson's management companies Black and Blue Inc. and Diehard Productions, including contract negotiation and publicity. Papers relating to Manson's professional association with performers Meryl Tankard, Jeannie Lewis, Jane Clifton and Noni Hazelhurst and with Hessian Records, are in this part of the collection. There is also correspondence, subject files, drafts and files relating to the National Festival of Australian Theatre (79 boxes, 3 fol. boxes).

Material in the Geography and Travel ephemera collection covers significant information about the geography, history, and tourist activities of places in Australia, its Antarctic and island territories. This includes geographical features, national parks and reserves, regions, cities, towns, buildings and other man-made structures. The collection includes advertising material, pamphlets, price lists, tokens, area and accommodation guides, brochures, postcards, stickers, labels and tickets.

Correspondence 1858-1945 Subjects include: New Zealand lizards; mud fish from Hokitika, New Zealand; lizards and butterflies from New Hebrides; sponges from the Philippines; butterflies and insects from New Guinea; appointment of taxidermist for Public Library, Museum and National Gallery of Victoria; and sale of Gilbert Raynor's collection of Australian lepidoptera.

The collection comprises correspondence, diaries, photographs, speeches, reports, press releases, notes, memoranda and tape recordings relating to Richard Boyer's work with organisations such as the Industries Assistance Commission, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Tariff Advisory Committee of Papua New Guinea. There are also papers relating to the management of the family property ”Durella” in Queensland. The correspondents include Bob Martin, Neil Heelan, Alan Harriman, Ian McMahon, Bill Selfe, Fred Bryant and Ian Lilburne.

The papers comprise: personal and professional correspondence (including copies of Hope's replies); notebooks; manuscript and typescript drafts of Hope's works and proofs of some that were published; manuscript and typescript articles, lectures, reviews and broadcasts; photographs; family and personal papers, including correspondence between members of the extended Hope family; and manuscript and typescript prose and poetry of other writers.

MS 5332 comprises correspondence, drafts of most of his poems, newspaper cuttings, notes, drawings and printed material. Correspondents include: Ang Cheon Geok, Iain Bamforth, David Campbell, Gary Catalano, Hal Colebatch, Jennifer Compton, Bruce Dawe, Bob Ellis, Peter Goldsworthy, Alan Gould, Christopher Koch, Andrew Lansdown, Penelope Nelson, Robin Norling, Mark O'Connor, Geoff Page, Peter Porter, Philip Roberts, Myra Schneider, Douglas Stewart, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Derek Whitelock.

MS 6186 comprises one volume of ABC Radio talks by Frederick T. Macartney, 1931-1934; Len Barsdell's diary of war events of 1941-1942; official circulars and correspondence with reference to military censorship, 1940-1945; Barsdell's experience with General Douglas MacArthur in the south-west Pacific in 1943-1945; newspapers and clippings, some relating to Japan's English-language press during World War II; and, the text of a radio broadcast relating to the death of war correspondent Bill Smith in action at Balikpanan, Borneo in July 1945 (1 box).

The papers of Les Blake reflect his long career as a writer, educationist and historian, and include well-organised research files, literary manuscripts, correspondence and personal papers. The main subject strengths are local history (Victorian localities, especially Geelong, Prahran and the Wimmera), history of education in Victoria, Australian literature, overlanding (including the original diaries of the Mollison Family, 1845-1870) and gold. Blake prepared biographical studies of many Victorians, the most notable being Peter Lalor, Percy Leason and John Shaw Neilson. All the research material for his unpublished biography of Steele Rudd, based on a manuscript by Winifred Hamilton, is in the collection, as well as correspondence with a great many Australian authors represented in Blake’s book Australian Writers (1968). Over the years Blake served on a number of Victorian commemorative committees (Captain Cook, Matthew Flinders, C.J. La Trobe, Norman Lindsay) and his papers include minutes and reports of those committees.

The content of this collection spans most of Dr Smith's career and consists of five different instalments between 1975 and 2004. It includes correspondence, manuscript poetry, transcripts of interviews, publications (including copies of Smith's published poems), articles by or about Smith, reviews, newspaper cuttings, works by other poets and writers, ephemera, notebooks, Smith's PhD thesis on Vance and Nettie Palmer, research notes relating to Smith's publications on the Palmers, (including original and photocopied letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer), notebooks and typescript drafts. Also included are papers relating to Smith's position in the English Department at the University of Sydney, and his role as literary editor of Quadrant. A major component of this collection is the correspondence which includes numerous letters from other poets, writers, academics and individuals involved or interested in Australian literature. Three appendices have been attached to highlight the range and names of principle correspondents.

The bulk of the MS 6163 collection comprises research material, drafts, reference cards and other papers relating to Rae-Ellis' publications: Lively libraries, Menace at Oyster Bay, Queen Trucanini, The tribe with no feet, Louisa Anne Meredith, Trucanini: queen or traitor?, The Cavendish affair, and, Black Robinson, Protector of Aborigines. Also included are business, personal and family correspondence, 1968-1983; drafts of scripts written for ABC radio, drafts scripts of her film 'The Midland pubs', programs, short stories, cuttings of reviews, and a box of household receipts issued to Louisa Anne Meredith, 1870-1880 (23 boxes).