Collection UQFL599 - Ron Brown Papers

Identity area

Reference code

UQFL599

Title

Ron Brown Papers

Date(s)

  • 1947-1989 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

1 box

Context area

Name of creator

(1916-1980)

Biographical history

Ron H. Brown (1916-1980) joined the Young Communist league in early 1933. In 1934, at 18 years of age, he joined the Clerks Union. The Brisbane Young Communist League held together until 1939 when World War Two broke out and the Communist Party of Australia was declared illegal. The Eureka Youth League (E.Y.L.) was established in 1941 and later Brown was one of its National Presidents. At a Clerks Union meeting in 1945 Ron met Clarice Tonkin and they married very quickly. Ron was on a very low wage doing publicity work and assisting Fred Paterson. Although Clarice worked for the left-wing Storemen and Packers' Union, she was sacked because the union opposed married women working. Soon after, Clarice went to work in the E.Y.L. office in the Trades Hall where Ron and her father also worked. Ron was Research Officer with the Trades and Labor Council of Queensland, when Mick Healy was the secretary, assisting with the publication of their Research Bulletin. In 1949 Ron and Clarice moved to Darwin where Ron became the editor of the Northern Standard, the newspaper of the North Australian Workers' Union (N.A.W.U.). In 1952, Ron was sacked from the Northern Standard for not writing what the Democratic Labor Party (D.L.P.) groupers wanted. Despite a "black ban" by the N.A.W.U. on employing Ron, he got a job as a gardener at the Darwin Botanical Gardens. They returned to Brisbane later in 1952 and continued to work and raise their family. In 1959, Ron went to the Soviet Union for fourteen months to study, mainly economics. Ron, regarded as great speaker, wrote and delivered many talks and lectures.

Archival history

Includes material formerly catalogued at F3207.
Collection previously titled as: Papers, 1947-1989.
Collection alternatively titled as: Ron Brown Collection

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Talks, lectures, research material, pamphlets, articles, and notes.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Unrestricted access.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Note

Some documents have handwritten emendations.

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma MMS ID

991013947197703131

Access points

Place access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Migrated

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area