The latest tranche of archival records has been released in the Bank’s digital archive, Unreserved. It includes early economic analysis conducted by the central bank from 1930 to 1970. The published series are:  

Research Department

• General Economic Conditions: Letters to other central banks providing statistics on economic conditions, papers from meetings of the university economists, and reports from the state offices on economic conditions in the states.
• Investments: Records relating to hire purchase finance, including minutes of the Hire Purchase Committee, and papers and correspondence on consumer credit and liquid asset holdings.
• Miscellaneous Correspondence: Correspondence with prominent Australian economists, public servants, research bodies and other banks containing economic statistics and information about economic policies.
• Legislation: Records and copies of Acts relating to banking legislation between 1944 and 1958, the Bank Nationalisation Case of 1948, and the projected banking legislation about the separation of the Bank’s central banking functions from its commercial banking activities.

Other series released

• Records have also been released about the early savings banks in New South Wales and Western Australia between 1832 and 1932. These are accompanied by research guides on School Banking in Australia (which began in the late 1870s to teach children basic financial literacy), the 1890s Depression in Australia (which directs users to primary source banking material about this episode) and a Family History Research guide (which shows users how to find a family member if they worked for or engaged in financial transactions with the banks in our collection).

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