Summary heading

 Correspondence between the Governor-General or his Official Secretary and the armed forces, state governments, organisations, associations, clubs and individuals between 1912 and 1997.

Function and purpose

 This series consists of files of correspondence between the Governor-General or his Official Secretary and the armed forces, state governments, organisations, associations, clubs and individuals. The correspondence deals with a range of subjects mainly in the form of letters, despatches, memoranda, notes, schedules, and telegrams. It also includes a small amount of printed material and newspaper clippings (eg. copies of reports, presentation copies, brochures of towns visited and newspaper clippings from Royal visits etc.). In addition, it contains a number of unusual items such as: an acetate map of the Snowy Mountains (17/1/29); correspondence enclosed in a silk envelope presented by the Republic of China (6/19/74); and two badges of Princess Elizabeth (18/1/6).

Information received from the agency indicates that the early part of the series has been culled extensively, and very little covering the period prior to the early 1950s appears to be extant. The majority of files and documents date from 1965 onwards, covering the incumbencies of the Rt Hon Richard Gardiner Casey, 1965-1969, and the Rt Hon Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck, 1969-1974. The Official Secretary to the General-Governor during this period was Murray L Tyrrell.

The main subject categories retained in this series are:

• Visits and functions attended by the Governor-General and his wife to the Australian states and territories (arranged in state order)
• Official residences (eg. Government House, Canberra, Admiralty and Kirribilli Houses, Sydney), house-guests, balls, and dinners
• Armed Forces (Navy, Army and Air Force)
• Public holidays, national holidays, and anniversaries
• Important visitors to Australia
• Associations, clubs and societies

Requests for Royal favours (eg. to use of ‘Royal’ as prefix to a name or for ‘Royal’ to be included in a badge, and for Royal patronage)

Physical characteristics

 The folios and additional printed matters are housed together in foolscap size folders within acid-free boxes. Oversized items like maps and plans have been flattened out, housed in mylar covers and placed in map drawers. Equally, the badges of Princess Elizabeth have been housed in custom made acid-free boxes and placed on shelves.

System of arrangement and control

 The series is controlled at item (ie. folder) level. The original multiple numbering system has been retained as far as possible, but occasionally large bundles have been divided into similarly sized folders with a fourth level control symbol imposed by the National Archives. For example, control symbol 17/4/4 has been further subdivided into eighteen separate folders (17/4/4/1 to 17/4/4/18). The item title is constructed from the Subject Categories and the Accession Consignment List, in combination with the title written on the item (ie. folder cover). For example, records belonging to the sequence 17/4/4/1 to 17/4/4/18, will all have as the first three parts of their titles: ‘Important Visitors to Australia – Royal Tours of Australia - Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh [Tour cancelled due to death of King George VI]. The, fourth part for 17/4/4/10 is: ‘Summary of Approved Programme’, which is taken from the folder title. Less complex sequences usually have two or three-tiered item titles.

If there is no title on the folder, a title is derived from either the folder’s content or from the index cards (bundle covers) and enclosed in square brackets. All bundle covers with writing on them have been removed from A2880. The bundle covers act as index cards and have been registered as part of control series A12432.

It should also be noted that sequence 17/4/1 to 17/4/12 used to be controlled as bundle 30/1 to 30/12. There is a similarity between these records and records now comprising CRS A12006, controlled as 10/1 to 10/6, and created in the same period (ie. 1926-1927).