Summary heading
Function and purpose
Richard Gardiner Casey became Minister for External Affairs on 27 April 1951. Series A10299 represents the main filing system of the Minister's Office in Melbourne from 1951 to 1955, covering both official and electoral business. The series also contains files from some of Casey’s other portfolios. As well as being Minister of External Affairs, Casey held the post of Minister in charge of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) from March 1950 until his departure from the Ministry in February 1960. A10299 has additional miscellaneous files dating from 1949 to 1950 that relate to Casey’s earlier responsibilities, especially as Minister for National Development from March 1950 to April 1951. The records contain: cables, ministerial correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings and reports on a range of subjects relating to Casey’s portfolios.
System of arrangement and control
The original classification method was a simple subject related alphabetical system. Papers were filed loose in plain manila folders with handwritten titles. A subject heading was typed (for copies of outgoing correspondence) or written at the top of the paper indicating where it was to be filed. The contents of the files were not in a fixed order and it is assumed that individual papers were moved to accommodate changing needs. Files included: specific subjects (e.g. 'Antarctic'); name-based files for institutions or persons (e.g. ‘Ford Foundation’); and, general alphabetic groupings for Casey’s ministerial (one off or miscellaneous) correspondence. At time of transfer into the Archives, the files were controlled by an alphabetical (single letter) system based on the first letter of the subject word and followed by a number suffix (e.g. ‘A3’ for Afro-Asian, ‘A4’ for Antarctic, etc).
Relationships with other records
Series A10300 is a register that was created to provide partial control for A10299. The register was compiled retrospectively in 1956/1957 by Ashley Dorsett, who was called in to organise the files in the Minister's Melbourne Office. It contains handwritten entries for a number of subject files in A10299; with entries listed in (largely) alphabetical order beginning with ‘A’ terminating in ‘H’ (‘Australian-American Association’ to ‘Hylett, RL’). Prominent papers within the subject files are detailed on the right hand side of each page. The register provides a partial control only and does not reflect the entirety of the original filing system.
In 1956 Dorsett, along with departmental staff, developed a replacement filing system to cope with the increasing number of files. Series A10299 was replaced by series A10302, an annual single number system. Highly classified material, however, appears to have been retained in the alphabetical run (or merely left unnumbered), but placed in the Secret or Top Secret file covers printed for the 1956 and inward numbered system. Four boxes of Top Secret files (formerly identified as A4311, boxes 94, 95, 579 and 580) are mentioned in correspondence relating to the transfer of Lord Casey's records into the Department of Foreign Affairs and these papers were incorporated into the system.
Sources
NAA: CP 24 The Rt Hon Richard Gardiner CASEY Baron of Berwick, Victoria, KG, GCMG, PC, CH, DSO, MC
Wikipedia, ‘Richard Casey, Baron Casey’, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Casey,_Baron_Casey, accessed 6 September 2016