70 years of business history research at the ANU

Celebrate 70 years of business history research at the ANU

You are invited to a celebration of the study of business history at the ANU. Join the ANU Noel Butlin Archives Centre and the ANU Centre for Economic History for a celebration of the study of business history at the ANU.

In 1950 Noel Butlin started research at Joseph Schumpeter’s Research Centre in Entrepreneurial History at Harvard University in 1950. At the Centre he developed a firm-perspective on Australia’s economic history. After Butlin took up an academic position at ANU in 1951, he started the acquisition of the first historical records of Australian companies.

In 1956, now 70 years ago, Butlin published the booklet Business Records at the Australian National University. It identified the purpose and requirements of a repository of business records at the ANU.

At that time, Butlin’s ideas for a repository were riding a wave. Australian companies mobilised historians like Geoffrey Blainey to write their histories. Firms saw value in learning from their past. The Business Archives Council of Australia had been established in 1954.

At the ANU, Noel Butlin’s repository became the Archives of Business and Labour and after Noel’s passing in 1991 the Noel Butlin Archives Centre (NBAC). By the 1960s, ANU business historians such as Alan Barnard, Alan Hall and Helen Hughes published seminal studies.

70 years later, the NBAC has become an institution at the ANU and in Australia. Its many treasures tell stories that contribute to shaping Australia’s heritage. The Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre supports its work and accepts tax-deductible donations that help preserve the NBAC collection of company records for posterity.

On 20 October 2026, join us at the ANU Menzies Library for three events:

• up to 5:15pm: explore the NBAC-curated exhibition on Australian shipping company Burns Philp;

• 5:15pm-5:45pm: Andrew Leigh MP launches the recently published book Global Enterprise in Australia: International Business Down Under since Federation. The book draws on the NBAC record holdings and is co-authored by Australia’s business historians Simon Ville, Pierre van der Eng, André Sammartino, David Merrett and Monica Keneley;

• 5:45-6:30pm: three business historians will celebrate Noel Butlin’s initiative and provide an overview of 70 years of business history in Australia and at the ANU: Professor Simon Ville (University of Wollongong), Professor Mark Wilson (ANU) and Associate Professor Pierre van der Eng (ANU) .

After 6:30pm, join us for discussion and drinks in the newly re-opened Fellows Garden of ANU University House and/or a meal at the ANU University House bistro.

Location: McDonald Room, Menzies Library, 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Organisation: ANU Noel Butlin Archives Centre and ANU Centre for Economic History

Everyone welcome. No participation fees, but please register via Humanitix.

Hard copies of the book Global Enterprise in Australia: International Business Down Under since Federation will be for sale. Or order your online copy here.