Deposit P94 - Geoff McDonald Collection deposit 3

Open original digital objects

Identity area

Reference code

AU NBAC P94

Title

Geoff McDonald Collection deposit 3

Date(s)

  • 1850 - 1971 (Creation)

Level of description

Deposit

Extent and medium

19.3 m

Context area

Name of creator

(1930 - 2003)

Biographical history

Geoff McDonald was born in Yarraville, Victoria on 19 May 1930 and joined the Eureka Youth League at the age of eighteen. In 1948 he became a member of the Communist Party of Australia but was later expelled in 1961 for his Trotskyist beliefs. He then joined the Australian Labor Party becoming the founding president of the Diamond Creek Branch. From 1950-1967 he was an organizer with the Building Workers' Industrial Union. In 1967 he was the Victorian Branch secretary of the Federated Fodder & Fuel Trades Union of Australia. From 1967-1970 he was an industrial officer for the Australian Association of Social Workers, the Roof Tilers' Union, the Bricklayers' Society, the Solid Plasterers' Society, the Brick Tile and Pottery Union, the Deep Sea Divers' Union, the Mannequins and Models Guild of Australia, and the Fuel and Fodder Workers' Union. Between 1970-1976 McDonald was the Industrial Relations Officer with the Royal Australian Nursing Federation and the Victorian Mothercraft Nurses' Association; he was the industrial consultant for the Hospital Scientists' Association and the Hospital Pharmacists' Association from 1976-1980; and the Pastrycooks, Biscuit Makers and Allied Trade Union, and Mannequins and Models Guild from 1980-1982. From 1982 he began writing and publishing books: Australia at Stake (1977), Red Over Black (1982), The Evidence (1984), Shadows Over New Zealand (1985) and The Kiwis Fight Back (1986). McDonald's views shifted from left to right and in 1984 he was involved in a campaign organised by the Australian League of Rights against Government Aboriginal policies and Asian immigration. In 1985 he went to New Zealand promoting the same ideas about Maori land rights movement. McDonald died on 9 September 2003.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The collection includes records of various Australian trade unions and organisations. Minutes, reports, correspondence, financial material, wages and membership records, subject files, arbitration material, printed and roneoed material, typescript material, photographs and illustrations. Also includes records relating to the Australian Nursing Federation Employees' Section, Victorian Branch, 1950; 1958-59;1963-1971.

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System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Researchers must sign an access agreement

Conditions governing reproduction

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Finding aids

Item list

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Digital copies of one volume of United Operative Masons Benefit Society, Melbourne minutes (1850 - 1858) are available at https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/123238

Related units of description

Geoff McDonald Collection: NBAC P32; NBAC P39; NBAC P100; NBAC P122; NBAC P127; NBAC N94
NBAC E186 - E191
University of Melbourne Archives: 1992.0030 [MCDONALD, GEOFF]

Related descriptions

Notes area

Note

One volume of United Operative Masons Benefit Society, Melbourne minutes (1850 - 1858) is inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register as part of the Minute Books of Pre-Federation Australian Trade Unions (http://www.amw.org.au/register/listings/minute-books-pre-federation-australian-trade-unions)

Note

Conservation treatment of the United Operative Masons Benefit Society, Melbourne minutes (1850 - 1858) was generously funded by the Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre in 2016.

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Description control area

Description identifier

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Rules and/or conventions used

Dates of creation revision deletion

Entered from deposit description on 26 September 2011

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digital objects (Master) rights area

digital objects (Reference) rights area

digital objects (Thumbnail) rights area

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