Items medium note

Summary heading

The twenty volumes of this series (11 folders and 9 bundles) consist of folders containing minutes of meetings, submissions (explanatory memoranda) and in the early years, agenda papers.

Within each volume papers are arranged chronologically by date of Cabinet meeting. Within each meeting the minutes are generally followed by submissions in numerical order. In the first eleven volumes the meetings are arranged from bottom to top; this order is reversed in the remainder of the series. At this time, only Members of Cabinet could be present at Cabinet meetings and it was the practice for one Minister to act as 'Secretary to Cabinet', recording decisions informally. While some minutes have been formally typed, authenticated by the 'Secretary's' initials, others are in their original draft form, sometimes written on scraps of paper. This 'Secretary to Cabinet' was also responsible for circulating agenda papers and submissions before meetings, using officers of the Prime Minister's Department.

Agenda numbers were assigned consecutively, controlled by register volumes (CRS A2695 and A3254), then from December 1937 by cards (CRS A2696). Both CRS A2695 and A2969 cite agenda number and title, and date(s) of meetings at which agenda were discussed. As agenda were not discussed in numerical order, the registers provide a means of locating the texts of submissions and decisions in this series. This is also possible for 1935-1939 through alphabetical indexes as follows: 1935-1937: CRS A3256, 1937-1939: CRS A3255 Volume 4 (Note: for details of these series see entry 11 of this form).

In the later period, minutes of several meetings were often found grouped within one folder. Occasionally, minutes of two meetings were even typed together. In this case, the minutes of each meeting are followed by the submissions relating to these agenda discussed, in the order discussed.

The series is not complete, minutes and submissions being absent for dates on which meetings are known to have been held. Gaps can sometimes be filled by other series. For instance, there are no minutes for the period April-December 1934; copies are contained in A3259. Copies of submissions can be found within CRS A3258.

The sequence of agenda numbers (1-2269) covered the period January 1932 to December 1937. Then a new sequence was begun, and Numbers 1-625 cover the period to April 1939. Agenda of the early system were top-numbered into the next, as required, and minutes refer only to the current number. The first eleven volumes (originals) appear to have authentic folders and the remainder of the series to have been kept in bundles fastened with binding tape. The copies held by Australian Archives are stored in 'visidex' folders, and because of size differences between the original volume and the 'visidex' it has been necessary to break up some volumes into parts. For further details on this consult the inventory.

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Quantity in agency custody