Guide to collections of manuscripts relating to Australia. The papers include correspondence, manuscripts, notes, research material, minutes, newspaper clippings, newsletters and other printed material. The collection documents McDonald's involvement with the "Australian Dictionary of Biography", Royal Australian Historical Society, Canberra and District Historical Society, ACT Sites and Buildings Committee and Canberra Oral History Project. The files reflect McDonald's meticulous and extensive study of many aspects of Australian history, particularly colonial architecture and the development of mental health services. There are papers relating to his writings on James Barnet, William Wilkinson Wardell and Frederic Norton Manning, together with his history of the shire of Harden in NSW and his unpublished administrative history "Your obedient servants : a history of the Commonwealth Public Service, 1901-1910" The major correspondents are Peter Alsop, John Bennett, Ken Cable, Christopher Cunneen, R.L. Edenborough, J.M. Freeland, H.C. Harper, Marsden Hordern, Peter Hughes, Ken Inglis, John Keaney, Hazel King, Errol Lea-Scarlett, R.A. Littlejohn, T.J. Linane, Peter Martin, Bede Nairn, Patrick O'Farrell, Douglas Pike, Bruce Pratt, Salvatore Restifa, Alan Roberts, Geoffrey Serle, Russel Ward, Teresa Wardell and Stephen Welsh. This collection includes 14 computer discs.
