Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1947-1989 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
1 box
Context area
Name of creator
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.
Repository
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
Notes area
Note
Some documents have handwritten emendations.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Brown, Ron H., 1916-1980 (Subject)
- Young Communist League of Australia (Subject)
- Brisbane Young Communist League (Subject)
- Communist Party of Australia (Subject)
- Eureka Youth League (Subject)
- Trades and Labor Council of Queensland (Subject)
- North Australian Workers' Union (Subject)
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.