Series M163consists of a master set of media releases relating to the Hon Edward “Gough” Whitlam AC, QC, which was compiled by Press Office staff. The series covers the period of Mr. Whitlam's Prime Ministership and consists of a master set of: press releases; speeches; and, transcripts from press conferences and interviews on radio and television. The records were controlled in numbered folders arranged by month. Papers within the folders were kept in chronological order.

The series contains gaps. It is unknown whether folders 1 - 5 are still extant. The series begins with items 6.1 - 6.3, which contain transcripts for the period 3 December 1972 - 16 July 1974. As well as containing papers, 6.1 houses two notebooks that serve as subject indexes to the contents of the transcripts for the period 5 Dec 1972 - 3 April 1974. Items 7 - 23 contain press releases and speeches for December 1972 - April 1974. Originally housed in ‘blue’ folders, each folder had an index to its contents attached to the inside front cover. An examination of the ‘blue’ folders revealed that some press releases and speeches were not included. These papers were found amongst loose material in the series. For reasons of completeness the Archives compiled a set of folders, numbered 7A - 23A, to house these estray documents.

The blue folders referred to above ceased to be created in April 1974. From December 1972, the Press Office kept duplicate sets of the records (in red or green folders). From that date only certain months had folders and these folders were not numbered or indexed. The Archives has included these folders in the series to create a master set of records as complete as possible. Additional folders were prepared by Archives containing material not included in the red or green folders, or for those months which did not have folders. Where control symbols did not exist, the Archives imposed control symbols following the original single number system.