Summary heading

Function and purpose

This series consists of correspondence files relating to private submissions to the Royal Commission by individual persons (including officers of the security agencies in their private capacities) and organisations.

A file was created for each person who was in contact with the Royal Commission, whether merely a request for a copy of the terms of reference or notice of intent to make a submission, actual submissions received or cases where the Royal Commission approached private persons inviting them to make submission. Original submissions received were generally incorporated in the files except where they are too bulky in which case they were contained in a separate folder controlled as an attachment to the file.

The files also contain other record of contact, including transcripts of verbal evidence at hearings, records of conversations, summaries of submissions, comments by Royal Commission officers on aspects of submissions and requests for background information on persons making submissions or file notes.

This file series was begun in April 1975 at the general re-organisation of the recordkeeping system, with some files being top-numbered from the original general correspondence file series (described in the Inventory of Records as series HF1). The series continued to the end of the Royal Commission. An incomplete reference set of private or individual submissions is contained in CRS 12387.

 The files are of standard type and size, mostly green with white labels across the top showing ‘Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security’.

System of arrangement and control

The files are controlled by a multiple component system which is a simple numerical sequence within an alpha primary component. The alpha component is itself composed of two parts with one or two letters indicating the state of origin of the correspondent followed by the letter ‘I’ for ‘Individual’ (ie private as opposed to Official)  The range of files within each numerical sequence is as follows:

AI/1 – AI/50   (where ‘A’ = ACT)

NI/1 – NI/88   (where ‘N’ = New South Wales)

NTI/1 – NTI/3          (where ‘NT’ = Northern Territory)

OI/1 – OI/7    (where ‘O’ = Overseas?)

QI/1 – QI/19        (where ‘Q’ = Queensland)

SAI/1 – SAI/19    (where ‘SA’ = South Australia)

TI/1 – TI/2     (where T = Tasmania)

VI/1- VI/61    (where ‘V’ = Victoria)

WAI/1 – WAI/14      (where ‘WA’ = West Australia)

While in custody of the Royal Commission the ‘O’ sequence (for Overseas, or perhaps ‘Other’) was physically arranged last in the series, and the ‘NT’ sequence preceded the ‘N’ sequence. Note that the description of series HF6 in the Inventory of Records (CRS A12396) shows the range as AI/1 to OI/7.   However, the series has been re-ordered so that the physical arrangement matches the intellectual progression as above.

Relationships with other records

 File K/26 series A12384 is a register of private submissions received, showing the file in series A12385 on which the submission was placed.

File K/23 of series A12384 is a summary of private submissions that had been received as at 5 Feb 1975 categorised under headings such as ‘interesting - general’.  It shows subject matter and some with comments by a Royal Commission officer.

File K/24 is a file of requests to ASIO for Guidance checks on the background of some persons making submissions (such as where the persons were not already known to the Royal Commission staff).

Finding aids

 There does not seem to be a nominal index of persons making submissions or of giving evidence in any form – as part of the record keeping system, but the Inventory of Records (A12396) contains at Section 16.3 a nominal index, which appears to cover all persons in contact with the Royal Commission.

Custodial history

Following the closure of the Royal Commission in 1977 the records were transferred to the custody of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (in Canberra) where they remained until transferred to National Archives of Australia in 2001.