The remarkable story of the University of New England's Heritage Centre 4 - UNE only institution interested in preserving the records of the North

David Drummond in later years. Australian National Librarian Harold White wanted the Drummond papers to come to the National Library as a collection of national importance. To White's annoyance. Drummond insisted that they go to the University of New England Archives.

This is the fourth in a short series on the remarkable story of the University of New England's Heritage Centre and Regional Archives. 

Writing in the Australian Library Journal in March 1963, University of New England Archivist R J McDonald commented that the distinctive feature of the UNE case was the absence of any other intuitions interested in the records of the North.

If  "the University had not begun collecting records in this area they would not have been collected at all", McDonald wrote.

By now, the holdings had begun to expand rapidly, a process continued under the second archivist Alan Wilkes. Wilkes was determined to collect and preserve as many records as he could and would go to considerable lengths to do so, including collecting remote records by horse!

The 1960s marked the start of a period of great change.

Many smaller organizations such as dairy and banana cooperatives were closing. Long standing pastoral families who held records dating back to the foundation of the first runs were making hard choices about the retention or destruction of property and family records. Newspapers were deciding what to do with their records and past editions.

Under Wilkes’s vigorous collection policies these records started to flow to the UNE archives from across Northern NSW, a process aided by the loyalty felt by many to UNE and the North.

The transfer of the Drummond papers in the early 1960s is one example.

National Librarian Harold White, a good friend of David Drummond, had expected the collection to go to the National Library as a collection of national importance. He was not pleased when Drummond chose to pass them to the UNE Archives.

Drummond would not be budged. To his mind, the papers belonged with the University he had helped found.

The rapid rise in the collection saved many records that would have been lost, in so doing creating an archival collection of national importance. However, Alan’s vigorous approach also created a difficulty, the need to document the collection and to create finding aids that would allow easy access. This remains a problem today.

While the UNE archives were expanding, another move was taking place in a sister institution that would form the third important leg in the future New England Heritage Centre and Regional Archives.

From its foundation in 1928, the Armidale Teachers’ College focused on the practical craft of teaching as compared to the more academic approach followed at Sydney Teachers’ College.

One outcome was the work of Eric Dunlop on building museums including Armidale’s Folk and Education Museums, a second the creation of the Historical Resources Centre by Lionel Gilbert.

Now these moves would come together with the UNE Archives, creating the Heritage Centre and Regional Archives that we know today. 

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020