NRS-19826 | Public Works Oral History files [Department of Public Works]

This series comprises of the working files that documents the oral history which was record by the Department of Public Works. The department had had a keen interest in collecting history from senior and retired officers from the late 1960’s. It was realised that Public Works had made an important contribution to the development of New South Wales and it should be documented and acknowledged. The oral history program officially started in 1991 with the establishment of the Public Works Oral History Committee. Prior to the establishment of the Oral History Committee interviews were conducted on an ad hoc basis with a major undertaking to record and publish material for the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. The series contains meeting minutes of the Oral History Committee, project files, administration file and the release forms of the interviewees. The chairperson for each project formulated a business plan to achieve the targeted outcomes, sought funding to undertake the plan, liaised with project managers, monitored progress, authorised expenditure and reported to the committee. The chairperson, generally with administrative support, was responsible for the records of the committee and opened new files for each project. Not all the proposed projects reached the stage where interviews were conducted even though considerable back ground material was assembled. Progress reports were made to the committee from the project managers of each project. System of arrangement and control The oral history files had been part of the main administrative files these files were prefixed with A when migrated to RecFind (electronic records management system) in 1998. The HO files were registered under a previous ARev Fileman (electronic records management system) and were migrated to RecFind as foreign files. The B files were part of a project undertaken by the Heritage Group in the Government Architect’s Office for the Department of Housing. The O file (O for Officers) was created from an earlier classified system that registered personal files of staff and establishment matters. This file was located with the research material for the History Project.The series came together to form the department’s Oral History files. Consignment 1 is physical format and Consignment 2 is digital.