This series is artificial in the sense that it incorporates many different formats of the official minutes and associated agenda papers for the Council of Defence.  All of these records share the same provenance, having been housed in the same registry location in the Department of Defence for some time prior to their transfer to Australian Archives in 1970 and 1971 (see CRS A5954/1, item 1917/30).

Since the council itself has had at best a discontinuous existance by way of actual meetings (despite being constituted by regulation continuously since 1905 to the present) and there never being any formal control of any of these Council of Defence records within the Department of Defence, Australian Archives feels it appropriate to arrange the council's records to provide the easiest means of access to them.  This has meant that some records have been easily defined as series according to the Commonwealth Record Series system and others have been grouped together to arrive at the most simple means of arranging and describing the records for enhanced accessibility, even though such an arrangement may not strictly define an actual series of the CRS system.

The first two items in this series record the proceedings of the council between 1905 and 1915 (item 1) and between 1918 and 1920 (item 2).  In general, both are bound volumes with glued in pages of minutes and sometimes agenda papers and associated correspondence.  Apart from (in the main) boxes 762, 907, 908, and 1756 of the Shedden Collection (CRS A5954), these two items are the only record of the council's activities during this period, spanning the first two manifestations of the council (CA 482 and CA 1345).

The next 7 items (items 3 to 9) document the proceedings of the council between 1923 and 1924.  At this time, there were two types of meetings - ordinary and general.  Minutes of each appear to have been kept in separate booklets (see items 3,4,5 and 8).  For more information on this meeting format, see the agency registration for CA 8054 as well as Commonwealth Statutory Rule 159 of 1923 (Council of Defence regulations under the Defence Act 1903).  Records of the council's activities between 1923 and 1929 are also contained within the Shedden Collection (CRS A5954), particularly boxes 762, 907, 908 and 1933.

Items 10 to 110 inclusive effectively comprise a near complete record of agenda papers and minutes of meetings (called summary of proceedings) of the council between 1935 and 1939.  The majority of these records are housed in orange folders, printed on the front cover with "secret//confidential, Department of Defence Secretariat". Most of the contents of the files are roneoed 'copies' of minutes and agenda items - they are however 'originals' in the sense that no roneo masters have been kept.  They may have been collected by the then secretary of the department and the council, (then) Frederick Shedden.  Certainly, the file covers seem to be the same as those housed in his personal collection of records (CRS A5954).  It seems though that these records of the 1935-1939 period represent a consolidated residue of the council's records, comprising a sort of master set of council documents from this period (see related records in A9791).  Many more council records from this period (1935-1939) can be found in A9791 and also the Shedden collection (A5954), particularly boxes 762, 906, 909-915, 1027, 1028, 1040 and 1072.

Items 111 to 114 are a complete set of minutes of meetings of the council between 1946 and 1950, composed by VW Quealy and HL Port (see series registration for A9786).  Item 111 and 113 are original typed minutes, signed  on most occasions by the Prime Minister and the notetaker.  These two items are housed in bound three-ring black binders.  Items 112 and 114 are carbon copies of the originals.  Associated records of the council between 1946 and 1950 can be found in the Shedden collection (A5954), particularly boxes 851, 852, 1559, 1605, 1637, 1673 and 1797.