This series was the central correspondence series for the Department of Defence, dealing with all matters of organisation and administration of Australian defence forces including accounts, artillery, CMF, enlistment, cadets, trainees, horses, staff appointments, personnel, pay and leave.

In terms of the administrative functions covered, this series can be divided into three periods:

June 1906 - April 1911: Correspondence relating to central administration of military, naval and general defence matters, including correspondence marked to members of the military and naval boards of administration.

April 1911 - July 1913: A separate Navy office registry commenced operation in 1911 and this greatly reduced the amount of material relating to naval matters handled by the Defence Department registry (only those naval matters referred to the Minister for Defence or affecting other Commonwealth or state authorities were registered within this series). The series continued to deal with military and general defence matters and to direct correspondence to the members of the military board.

July 1913 - April 1917: Very few papers were registered in this series, a new series having been commenced for military and general defence matters. Only the subjects relating to naval matters retained their original numbers and continued to be registered within this system. As mentioned above, from April 1911 the Defence registry had handled few naval papers. The number of naval papers decreased still further after the appointment of a Minister for the Navy in 1915.

At the time of registration, papers received either an oval or rectangular Defence stamp in which the registration was written. Files were built up by attaching related papers with the latest attachment on top. Papers were put away according to the latest number. In general files tend to be small and contain few, if any, attached papers.

The series is arranged using a classified three number system:

Primary numbers: these were allocated to principal subjects arranged alphabetically within eight divisions.

1 - 300 NSW                   

301 - 600 Victoria

601 - 900 Queensland            

901 - 1200 South Australia

1201 - 1500 Western Australia

1501 - 1800 Tasmania

1801 - 2100 Commonwealth and coordination affairs

2101 - 2400 Naval Affairs

Some numbers at the end of each block remained unallocated and were used when the need for new primary numbers arose.

Secondary numbers denote subsidiary subject divisions, and are constant within each state block.  Tertiary numbers are consecutive folio registration numbers for papers within the subject division.

This accession is controlled by the number MP84/1, and should be retrieved using this number.   However, it is intellectually part of the series registered in Canberra as A289, Correspondence files, multiple number series, 1906-1917.

All items in this series have been entered into RecordSearch.

History Prior/Subsequent to Transfer:

This series was transferred to Department of the Army from the Department of Defence in 1939, with the exception of the Navy section (Nos.2101-2400)which was transferred to the Department of the Navy. It was screened by Army Board of Survey. Authorised destructions have also taken place under Disposal Schedule S.169

Administrative information

The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:

Form number:              CA 17

Creating department:      Defence, Central Registry,

Transferring department:  Army, Headquarters, Central Registry

Date of transfer:         20/06/1954

Archives file number:     RWM30/2/11