OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE AND CURTILAGE HERITAGE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2008–2013

I0. Collection Management Policy
Part C – Implementation Tools
Old Parliament House and Curtilage Heritage Management Plan 2008–2013
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3 ACQUISITIONS
Acquisition is the act of obtaining an item or group of items. It involves taking legal possession
and ownership of the item/s to develop and enhance the OPH collection.
3.1 Objective
Development of the Old Parliament House collection stems from three of OPH’s main roles 8 :
1. bringing alive the significance of Parliamentary democracy to the lives of Australians,
2. managing, conserving, interpreting, and presenting the building and its collections; and
3. providing relevant, effective and entertaining educational and public programs in
actual and virtual environments 9 .
OPH acquires material for its collections either through purchase or donation. Purchase can be
either through direct purchasing of a particular item (eg at auction) or through the commissioning of
works. Donations include items gifted to OPH via the Cultural Gifts program, bequests, gifts, or copies
made of material loaned to OPH for short periods specifically for copying for the collection.
3.2 Acquisition categories and priorities 10
Category 1 - A representative collection of material which documents and illustrates Australian political campaigns and movements
relating to the development of Australian democracy.
OPH’s goal is to illustrate and document significant changes and the development of major
trends and traditions in Australian political life through collections of original material. We
have a particular concern to collect ephemeral material which is not sought after or collected
comprehensively by other public collecting agencies such as libraries and museums.
In this field OPH will collect original materials such as:
a. party manifestos, handbills and programs
b. political campaign ephemera such as badges, bumper stickers
c. political posters
d. constitutional referenda documents,
e. ephemera caricaturing political figures,
f. other emblems of political association, affiliation and allegiance such as
election day ephemera (balloons, caps, t-shirts etc.), and
g. artistic representations, two and three dimensional.
and copies of:
a. film and television advertising,
b. party political radio broadcasts,
c. election night broadcasts,
d. press advertising and commentary, including photographs & cartoons / caricatures, and
e. internal party documents such as minute books, and
f. artistic representations, two and three dimensional.
Collecting priorities:
i. charters, legislation and instructions relating to establishment of Australian system of law -
18th and 19th centuries
ii. early development of democracy in Australia, in particular colonial campaigns for representative
government, especially Chartist movement, miners’ rebellion at Ballarat, female suffrage
iii. campaigns for democratic reform overseas in which Australians have played a significant role
iv. the Federation movement and the 1901 federal election
v. the 1903 election and women’s participation in particular
vi. federal provisions for conciliation and arbitration
8 Adapted from the OPH Collection Management Policy 1999
9 Old Parliament House Corporate Plan 2003-06
10 The OPH Primary Collecting Priorities as presented to the Governing Council August 2004