This series of subject files was maintained in the Prime Minister's Office during the Prime Ministership of J M (Malcolm) Fraser (1975-83). It covers the entire period of his term in office with the exception of the final six weeks (February - March 1983).

The files are titled according to their subject, a particular person or an institution. These include Aborigines, Australia Council, Australian Science and Technology Council, Cabinet, Interdepartmental and other committees, Commonwealth and Olympic Games, Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Australian Constitutional Conventions, various countries, economic matters, education, elections and electoral redistribution, Australian Heritage Commission, herbicides used in Vietnam, honours, Loans Affair, Medibank, Sir Robert Menzies, individual Ministers and state Premiers, Office of National Assessments, Parliament, referendums, Royal Commissions, royalty, Sinclair Pastoral Company, superannuation, uranium, VIP aircraft etc.  

The files include correspondence, notes, reports, publications and other reference material. In general they were maintained in lexicographical order, although this is not always apparent. For example, individual countries are arranged alphabetically under the keyword 'Country'. Some other sequences resulted from separate storage arrangements or were affected by different transfers to archival custody. They are, nevertheless, considered to be part of the same overall filing system.

The records were transferred to archival custody in several consignments. The first two accessions (AA1983/691 and AA1983/692) were received in 1983 and registered as series M1268 in December that year. Three other accessions were initially transferred to the Victorian office in August 1983 (part VA1983/338) and then to Canberra in February 1984 where they were re-accessioned (AA1984/94, AA1984/96, AA1984/98). Another accession (AA1984/130) was transferred in March 1984 and inter-sorted into the series at that time, together with the accessions relocated from Melbourne. A single number system was imposed on the items in August 2005 and the series registration was revised in November 2006 as part of the Prime Ministers Papers Project. The series title was amended when the registration was revised to reflect a long-standing practice by Fraser's staff to maintain subject files for different periods of his political career. Part of the series was transferred to the custody of the University of Melbourne Archives on 7 December 2006.