Exhibitions

At the ANU Archives we care for many kilometres of records of all kinds: files, photographs, maps, company and trade union records, journals, sound recordings and more. We display a small selection of this material in our reading room, and we often lend material for exhibitions at other locations such as the National Archives, the National Museum and the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Exhibitions held here are free and open on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm. For information on location, please see Location and Facilities.

Current exhibition

Prime Ministers at the ANU

August 2010 – September 2011
Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Menzies Building, ANU

The ANU Archives holds various records relating to Prime Ministers’ association with the ANU in the University Archives and their involvement in business or the labour movement in the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.

Prime ministers have been regular visitors to the ANU to lay foundation stones, open buildings, launch books, deliver addresses and to announce new programs and centres. Within the business and labour collections of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre prime ministers are lobbied and lampooned, and those on the labour side of politics begin their political careers as trade union officials.

Documents, photographs and videos from the archives show different facets of 12 of Australia’s 27 prime ministers’ lives – Barton, Watson, Hughes, Bruce, Menzies, Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Gillard.