Series number

AWM278

Series title

The Official History of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975 – Up top - Records of Jeffrey Grey

Series contents date range

Circa 1988 – circa 1998

Extent

3.5 metres

Access conditions

Subject to the Australian Archives Act (1983)

Agency controlling

Australian War Memorial

Custodial agency

Australian War Memorial

Function and provenance

The Official History Unit of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975 was established in February 1983. With Dr Peter Edwards as the Official Historian (and General Editor), several other authors were also engaged to write what was originally to be an eight volume series.

Initially, Australian naval and air operations during the Vietnam War were to be covered in a single volume, however it was later agreed they should be separate.  Up top: the Royal Australian Navy and Southeast Asian Conflicts, 1955-1972, thus became volume seven of The Official History of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975 series, and covered not only the Vietnam War, but also looked back to encompass the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) activities as far back as 1948.  This volume was written by Jeffery Grey who commenced working on it circa 1993, and published in 1998.  The name ‘Up top’ was a RAN term, being slang for the Far East, obvious given that region’s geographical position north of Australia.

Grey, a history lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), had also co-authored with Peter Dennis, volume five in the series, Emergency and Confrontation: Australian military operations in Malaya & Borneo 1950-66.  He is Associate Professor of History at ADFA and has authored a number of other books relating to Australia’s military history, including A Military History of Australia 1990, and The transformation in air power in the aftermath of the Korean war, 1993.

AWM278 is a collection of papers collated and used by Jeffrey Grey as source and reference material during the writing of the Up top.  The collection was transferred from the Official History Unit in the Memorial to the Official Records Collection on 6 April 2004.

Content

The collection is primarily made up of handwritten notes, photocopies of commonwealth documents – many of which are classified, published journal and newspaper articles and original photographic prints and commissioned maps and figures that were selected to illustrate this volume.  The commonwealth records are characterised by various committee minutes, reports and agendum. 

Several versions of the final draft manuscript are also in this collection, with two drafts and the final manuscript being held in electronic form on computer disk.

System of arrangement and control

The system of arrangement and control for the majority of collection is an informal one whereby manila folders have been labelled with a subject heading and contain various papers and articles grouped loosely together.  These papers and articles are sometimes subdivided within the folder by year or by chapter numbers.

All folders are non registered files and as such have been given an imposed number.  They retain their original titles.  Where no title was found however, one has been imposed that best describes the item’s contents.  All imposed information is enclosed in square brackets.

All items in the series were given control numbers, imposed by the Memorial after the series was transferred to Official Records.  They run serially from item [1] onwards.

Using the series

Each item in this series is recorded on the RecordSearch database which researchers can access via the internet.  Further assistance in finding relevant information may be gained from related series of records (click on Series Links at the bottom of this page).

Sources

Grey, Jeffrey 1998 Up top: the Royal Australian Navy and Southeast Asian Conflicts 1955-1972,Allen and Unwin (in association with the Australian War Memorial), Crow’s Nest, NSW.

AWM administrative file, AWM278 series dossier.

Agency notes for the Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975 (CA 7042) [Online, 26/7/2004] http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/AgencyDetail.asp?M=3&B=CA+7042

AWM263 series notes [Online, 26/7/2004] http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SeriesDetail.asp?M=3&B=AWM263