University to house key collection of Malcolm Fraser’s papers
[ UniNews Vol. 14, No. 8
16 - 30 May 2005 ]
Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has donated his extensive collection of personal papers, books, official visits photos and personal and family photos and archives to the University of Melbourne.
Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister (1975–83), Mr Fraser officially handed over the collection to the University early this month. To be known as the Malcolm Fraser Collection at the University of Melbourne, it records Mr Fraser’s contributions before and after political office.
The collection includes personal files, photo albums and 25 shelf metres of electorate correspondence between 1958-1983, files relating to CARE Australia and CARE International, family history materials, papers predating Mr Fraser’s entry to Parliament as Member for Wannon, and notebooks from his days as a student at Oxford University.
Thanking Mr Fraser for “this extraordinary benefaction to the University”, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis, said it was honour for the University to preserve “this great legacy for students and future researchers of the University of Melbourne”.
Mr Fraser says he is delighted the University is to be the custodian of his papers and, in the future, his library. “I also hope that it will be possible for all papers associated with my time in office to be located at the University of Melbourne – in the Faculty of Law and the University Archives.
“From the outset, I have believed that both public and private papers and the library should be located in the one place. I think that is better for researchers and better for the historic record.”
Papers associated with Mr Fraser’s time in office are currently held in the National Archives in Canberra.
Mr Fraser is also happy that key parts of the collection, including more than 3000 books, will be housed adjacent to the Asia Pacific Centre for International Military Law with its strong humanitarian law focus.
Director of the Centre and Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law, Professor Tim McCormack, says that until now, there has been a lack of documentation to support a broader view of Malcolm Fraser.
“This record of his contributions before, during and after political office will allow historians and journalists to make a more complete assessment of his contributions and achievements, particularly those in the humanitarian field.”
The Collection reveals Mr Fraser’s continuing work championing human rights and the ‘rule of law’ in international affairs, his involvement with the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the InterAction Council, his deep interest in photography and fishing, an interest in crime fiction and the works of Ayn Rand, as well as his life at Oxford before entering politics, and on the land.
Three generations of family history materials include those relating to Mr Fraser’s grandfather Sir Simon Fraser and father John Neville Fraser, including the latter’s World War One diaries.
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