About the records

Administrative Information

The gathering together of records to be included in this collection commenced in March 1985 when Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was contacted by the Australian Science Archives Project. Over the following months records were transferred from Burnet's home to the ASAP office and others were targeted for transfer. This process was not completed before his death in August 1985, but with the help of the family and Chris Sexton, who was then completing a biography of Burnet, a comprehensive set of records relating to Burnet's personal and professional life was compiled over the following years. The donation of the collection to the University of Melbourne Archives was marked by a ceremony on 31 July 1991. This guide is dedicated to Deborah Giddy, F.M. Burnet's youngest daughter, who very sadly died before work on the collection had been finalized, and to Oscar Manhal who did much of the listing of the files but was tragically killed in a motor-bike accident in February 1990.

In March 2001 the lists were rolled into the Heritage Documentation Management System Version 8, and the processed records were retrospectively accessioned. Additions to the collection included the Audio CD copies to Series 18, and the film reel (and Beta and VHS copies) of Linda and Macfarlane Burnets' wedding. A Series was created to specifically deal with the Appendices, that is, list of records held in other archives.

Scope and Content

This is the first comprehensive set of personal records to be preserved of an Australian Nobel Prize winner in science and as such will be of great interest to a large number of researchers and scholars. Burnet, not only played a major role in the development of medical research in Australia but also contributed consistently to the public debate of many social issues including nuclear energy and weapons, environmental concerns and the philosophy of the modern western world.