Noel Butlin was born in Sydney on 21 December 1921. In 1942 he graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours and the University Medal. From 1946-1949 he lectured in Economics, University of Sydney and in 1950-1951 was a Rockefeller Fellow at Harvard University. In 1951 he accepted a Senior Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU) and in 1954 held the position of Reader in Economics at ANU. Butlin became Professor of Economic History at ANU in 1962 and in the mid 1970s was Director of the Botany Bay Project, Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. Noel Butlin died on 2 April 1991, aged 69. The Noel Butlin Archives Centre (formerly the ANU Archives of Business and Labour) is named in his honour.

Established in 1851, the original Amalgamated Engineering Union was a branch of the British union. It was registered with the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court in 1905 and became known as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. In 1920 it amalgamated with ten other engineering and allied trade unions and changed its name to the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Australian Section in 1921. In 1968 the union became autonomous from its parent body in Britain, shortening its name to the Amalgamated Engineering Union to reflect this. In mid-June 1972 the AEU began a series of amalgamations with the Sheet Metal Workers, Blacksmiths & Boilermakers and Federated Jewellers to form the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union by 1973.