The latest tranche of archival records has been released in the Bank’s digital archive, Unreserved. It includes additional records from the Bank’s Research Department in the 1970s which span issues of contemporary relevance in relation to inflation shocks, the first Research Discussion Papers and early quantitative work on economic modelling and forecasting. The published series are:  

 Research Department

• Management Section: Interactions with the Prime Minister, Treasurer and economic panels, committees and groups on monetary policy and other economic policies.
• General Economic Conditions: statistics and notes on economic conditions and meetings with university economists.
• Activity Section: Reports, papers and correspondence relating to the National Income Forecasting Committee and meetings with economists in commercial banks.
• Balance of Payments: Reports and forecasts relating to the balance of payments, international reserves, and gold and foreign exchange arrangements.
• Population, Employment and Social Conditions: Memoranda, correspondence and notes spanning a wide range of topics on population, immigration, labour markets and housing.
• Forecasting Section: Specifications of the Reserve Bank forecasting model and data produced.
• Special Projects Section: Research Discussion Papers written between 1969 and 1978.

Other series released

Records have also been released about the Bank’s Advertising Department, established in 1913. In the early life of the Bank there was a focus on explaining the role and functions of the new national institution, its locations and services, along with campaigns to raise funds for the war effort and peacetime recovery as well as educational campaigns on financial literacy.

Accompanying these economic records are additional items from the Bank’s photographic collection along with the Coombs Collection of Australian paintings.

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