The gift of a remarkable life

Volume 11 Number 4 April 13 - May 10 2015

South African anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo with Malcolm Fraser at his Western District property, Nareen, in 1987 (photographer unknown), from the Malcolm Fraser Collection, University of Melbourne Archives, 2005.0071 item 152
South African anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo with Malcolm Fraser at his Western District property, Nareen, in 1987 (photographer unknown), from the Malcolm Fraser Collection, University of Melbourne Archives, 2005.0071 item 152

The University of Melbourne joins the rest of Australia in marking the contribution of the late Malcolm Fraser to public life. By Gabrielle Murphy.

The University of Melbourne’s long association with the Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser began with his father, John Neville Fraser, who is an alumnus. In 2006, Malcolm Fraser was appointed a Professorial Fellow attached to the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, and in 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law.
In 2004, Mr Fraser nominated the University of Melbourne as recipient of his personal papers, and last year the project to digitise the radio speeches he made almost every week from 1955 to 1983 was completed and made available online.
“Since 2004 over 120 metres of records have been transferred,” says Katie Wood, curator of the Malcolm Fraser Collection at the University of Melbourne Archives.
The collection comprises a fascinating range of documents, photographs, books and material relating to Mr Fraser’s life, family and career, and complements official records held at the National Archives of Australia and a number of other collections in the Baillieu Library.
“In scope, the collection spans from a copy of the Australian Constitution owned by his grandfather Sir Simon Fraser, a representative to the Australasian Federal Convention for a year from 1897, through to papers relating to Mr Fraser’s advocacy of the rights of asylum-seekers in recent years,” Ms Wood says.
Open to academic researchers and the public, the collection includes Mr Fraser’s early childhood correspondence, his relationship with the Wannon electorate, party political matters, the 1975 crisis, the campaign against apartheid in South Africa, through to contemporary issues like the environment, human rights and refugee policy.
In Ms Wood’s estimation, the collection provides an indispensable resource in understanding Australian society and politics during Mr Fraser’s lengthy political career both within parliament and since.
“Mr Fraser remained active in ensuring that the collection continued to grow, become more accessible and used by researchers,” Ms Wood says.
“His collection at the University of Melbourne Archives will remain as an important legacy for future generations of students and historians, just as he envisaged.”
unimelb.edu.au/malcolmfraser