Most of the files in this series relate to subjects concerning the promotion of secondary industry in Australia by the Division of Industrial Development (DID).

The DID's main functions were to promote secondary industry, recruit foreign labour and skills, provide technical advice to business, lease munitions factories, and attract overseas firms to Australia.

This series does not contain a great deal relating to the leasing of munitions factories compared to other DID series (see for example MT105/8).

Subjects in this series include:

Patents Compensation
Travel sponsorship
Factory sponsorship
Taxation
Imports and exports
Industrial information
Books and publications
Requests for technical reports and microfilm
Financial assistance to industry (capital issues)
Foreign investment
Overseas firms establishing in Australia
Recruitment of German scientists to work in Australia (ESTEA)
Japanese and German war reparations

As well as containing a large amount of correspondence with small and large Australian and overseas firms, the series contains quite a few samples of manufactured products from overseas companies, who would often send samples to the Division of Industrial Development. These can take the form of brochures, photographs or manufactured goods (eg fabrics, building materials, buttons). Where samples are present this has usually been indicated after the item title in RecordSearch and the series packing list (a printout created by National Archives).

The series is also notable for its links with immigration to Australia. Many people from overseas countries (mostly the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States) would write to the DID wanting to establish businesses or join existing businesses in Australia. These people would often provide personal particulars, such as education and work backgrounds, and families if any. A number of these people were ex-servicemen who had been stationed in Australia during the war or, in the case of British ex-servicemen and their dependants, would likely qualify for free passage under the Australian immigration scheme then in operation. DID would then assess the applicants chances of establishing in Australia and refer cases to the Department of Immigration to handle the immigration side (due to the housing shortage applicants would often precede their wives and families and establish themselves first). The DID also liaised closely with the Customs Department (particularly in cases where overseas firms wished to import machinery into Australia) and this series reflects that liaison in its correspondence. The series is thus valuable for its reflection of the state and character of Australian manufacturing industry in the 1940s and early 1950s and the policies adopted in its promotion; for its depiction of social conditions and the legacy of war in the immediate postwar period in Australia (eg housing and labour shortages, rationing and price control, import and export controls, currency crises); and may also have a useful genealogical research value aspect.

Departmental personalities in the series include Dr H C Coombs, H P Breen, B W Hartnell, A J Simpson (Representative of DID at Australia House, London), and Commander R G A Jackson.

This series was partially converted in 1998. Two additional series were created: B6410 and B6414.

Administrative information

Some of the above data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number: CA 11
Transferring department: National Development, Division of Industrial Development,
Date of transfer: 15/04/1952
Archives file number: RWM36/1/242