The Australian Bicentennial Authority (ABA) was incorporated on 21 January 1980. The ABA's role was to plan and manage a national programme of celebrations to commemorate the Bicentenary in 1988. The Commonwealth, the States and the Northern Territory have, in principle, to share in the costs of the Bicentenary. JB Reid held the position of Chairman and DP Armstrong was appointed as General Manager on 14 January 1980. The ABA has a Board of 17 Directors.
Dr. Bruce Radke was the winning designer of the logo and Mr. Don Goodwin, was responsible for the final version of the symbol based on Radke's original design. The blue & gold colours were the official colours of the Australian Commonwealth. In April 1984, the Australian Commonwealth colours were officially changed to green and gold and therefore the colours of the ABA logo were also changed.
In August 1984, Chief Executive, Dr. David Armstrong left the Authority and in September Mr. John Reid resigned as Chairman. John Utz was made acting Chairman during 1985. In 18 November 1985 Jim Kirk was appointed Chairman.
The Bicentennial Collection entitled Publications refers to all material that was produced for National or State funded projects. The collection includes pamphlets, posters, leaflets, publications, booklets, media kits, BCC kits, annual reports, administrative forms, stationery, audio visual material and items of clothing.
The collection of this series began in December 1987. It was created for research and historical purposes. There are 53 boxes and bundles of material. In some instances other agencies, e.g. ABC, SBS, DAS were involved in the creation of the records. There are still some records to be included in the series, e.g. Denis O'Brien's book concerning the Bicentenary and the Arts photographic publication. This is not a complete set of the promotional material the ABA produced.
All items have been listed in an index, which provides the information concerning the title, type of product, some details, ABA funded and/or produced a catalogue number and an accession number, the date the material was entered in the listing and the box it is located in. The catalogue number is taken from the American catalogue system used for their Bicentennial activities. A number of indexes have been produced to enable material to be easily located.
Quantity in agency custody
17.5m held by CA 1726, Australian Archives New South Wales Regional Office