Known colloquially as the "Washington Post" files, this series        contains the correspondence files of the Australian Embassy in Washington U.S.A., from the Australian Counsellor, British Embassy through the Charge d'Affairs then Legation to Embassy.

This series is contained in buff and brown manilla folders that are slightly larger than the common foolscap size. All have a projecting tab that contains the rather cryptic file titles necessary because of limited space on the tab.

Many files have their titles written on the front cover as well. Some have extra comments on the covers. Many have their original security classification stamped on them. (Invariably this is "Secret").  
Titles are crudely inverted in KWOC (key word out of context) fashion, to bring certain keywords (e.g. 'War', 'Pacific' 'F.P.' (Foreign Policy)) to the leading position determining alphabetical order.

The 'tags' have a colour coded strip on them, colours being pink, green, white, yellow, purple, violet, dark blue and light blue. This colour coding was used to distinguish subjects within the system and was usually changed from year to year; although there is some consistency and some files also have numbers (index classifications?) such as 10/2, 5/1, 6/1, 8/1 and 9/1. Most tabs (except for an anomaly around item [743]) have a rubber stamped date (year) on them which is not part of the title.

Although the series was created and maintained as an annual alphabetical one, a running number system was imposed by Australian Archives at the time of its transfer to archival custody. This was for simplicity in retrieval and at the time it was thought that no more transfers would take place. However, further material came to light and to fit in additional items where they would have been placed in the original system, it was decided to give a letter suffix to the imposed number on the additional item.

A slight anomaly did occur around item [743] where [743A], [743B], etc occur. These items cover the entire date range of the series and appear to be later additions to the series as no date is stamped on the tab. All are colour coded purple. These may have been files kept separately by key persons and therefore out of the mainstream of the series until transfer to archival custody.

As of April 1990, no more items appear to be extant and no control records have been located.