The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library

The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library staff have been busily processing material received for the Bob Hawke Collection. In the last year, over 100 packing boxes have been arranged into 77 new series with descriptions and box lists discoverable via the Special Collections Catalogue and housed in the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library.

Recent work has focused on Mr Hawke’s Correspondence Files and the Subject Files that were maintained after his resignation from Parliament and kept by his office until his death in May 2019. The Subject Files document his life and work after leaving Parliament. Subjects include:

• Records relating to the Referendum on an Australian Republic, 1999. Bob Hawke was an ambassador for the Australian Republican Movement, lending his name to a chorus of prominent Australians for a Yes vote.
• Records relating to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Bob Hawke was appointed an Olympic Attache for the Malaysian Olympic team. His role was to represent the Malaysian National Organising Committee (NOC) and provide assistance with arrangements for visits, training facilities and equipment, transport, functions, and out-of-village accommodation.
• Records relating to the National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac Centenary. Bob Hawke joined Malcolm Fraser and Ken Doolan as inaugural members of the National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac Centenary, steering public consultation in regard to how the Government should mark the Anzac Centenary 2014 - 2018.
• Records relating to Antarctica including the commemoration of the 20th and 25th anniversaries of the Madrid Protocol and a campaign for Southern Ocean Marine Protection 2012.

The Correspondence Files in the Bob Hawke Collection document Mr Hawke’s activities across most of his career. They include his correspondence as ACTU President, ALP President, as Member for Wills (1980-1992) and his post parliamentary correspondence. However only a small amount of correspondence relating to his time as Prime Minister is in the Collection, with most of these records held by the National Archives of Australia. There is now a guide to Bob Hawke’s correspondence files available from the Bob Hawke Collection Guide.

The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library is currently showing an exhibition about the history of Australian industrial relations from the colonial period to the present day. This can be viewed in the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery alongside the Hawke Centre’s Advancing Australia Fair, Bob Hawke and his Government exhibition. The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library welcomes you to explore the Bob Hawke Collection, to arrange an appointment to visit or for further information contact ask.library.unisa.edu.au.

Images: Left and Centre, Before and After - Bob Hawke Collection; Right: Greeting Cards received by Bob Hawke, 1991-2018.