Bob Walshe papers, ca. 1939-ca. 2014

MLMSS 10457

fonds

ca. 1939-ca. 2014

9631397

1.44 metres of textual material (9 boxes)

Born in Sydney in 1923, Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe left school aged 14. After working as a factory labourer he served in an army ambulance unit in Darwin during World War II and it was during this time that he joined the Communist Party. In 1946 he matriculated from Sydney Technical College and in 1951 graduated from Sydney University with Honours in History and a Diploma in Education. For over ten years he taught English and History in secondary schools and undertook many education-related activities including membership of a communist group within the NSW Teachers Federation and publication of his best-selling school text The Student’s Guide to World History. In 1956 he was expelled from the Communist Party for circulating copies of Khrushchev’s “secret speech” criticising Stalin. He left classroom teaching in 1964 and established a successful educational and academic publishing company which he sold in 1970. Gradually he immersed himself in volunteer activities including writing historical notes for leftist trade unions and helping organise the Centennial Commemoration of the Eureka Stockade Uprising. During the 1970s and 1980s he became a recognised authority on the teaching of writing and helped to form the English Teachers’ Writing Group and the Primary English Teachers’ Association. He became increasingly involved in environmental campaigning and with Milo Dunphy and several others established the Total Environment Centre. He was also involved in a host of other campaigns particularly related to the Sutherland Shire where he lived. In 1998 he was awarded an Order of Australia for services to education and the environment. He died in 2018.
Reference: ‘Obituary’, Labour History, no. 114, May 2018

The donor is executor of the estate of the late Bob Walshe

Bob Walshe papers, ca. 1939-ca. 2014, including: journals kept by Walshe, 1975-2000 containing reflections on life, literature, philosophy, and history. Annotated 1st edition of Students’ Guide to World History. Two files of Walshe’s thoughts, ruminations, talks, newsletters, 1990s onwards, about life, politics, grassroots campaigning, and ageing. Papers relating to the split with the Communist Party of Australia. Papers relating to the formation of the Total Environment Centre, including letters from Milo Dunphy. Files relating to the Eureka Stockade. Draft poems by Walshe published as Lyrics for Laura, 1956. Papers relating to Walshe’s brother Jim, a Japanese POW, including a copy of his wartime diary. Various correspondence files.

BOX 1
Journals
Poetry Collection

BOX 2
Annotated 1st edition Student Guide to world History
3 Folders Primary English Teachers Association

BOX 3
CREDO – Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshes thoughts, luminations 1940s onwards
Assorted obituaries 1990s onwards
“ELDER” file – Thoughts, luminations, correspondence 2000
1956 – 58 Communist Party Australia split and subsequent fallout
TALKS (Purple folders) 1980s

BOX 4
University essays, Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe, 1947
ABC talks 1966
May Day 1956
40 Hour Week
Eureka

BOX 5
Poems – eventually published as Lyrics for Laura
Copy of Lyrics for Laura (Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshes wife Patricia)
Spiritual journal of Patricia Walshes (wife) and her turn to Christian Science in 1980s
Walshe notes, drafts on the Teaching of Writing
Notes on Appreciation (Green folders)

BOX 6
Walshe notes on LANGUAGE
TEC (Purple folder) TOTAL ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
English Teacher Writing Group
Obituaries, Eulogies, Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe
Walshe family tree and biographical data

BOX 7
Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe original research BA Hons, Sydney Uni, late 40s – the basis of many of his future pamphlets and writings
Jim Walshe (brothers; POW, Japan WW2)
Typescripts WWI veteran’s memoir sent to Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe
Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe 1997 Newsletter, notes, responses
Correspondence Terry Irving, Alan Barcan, Rowan Cahill
Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe 1940s/50s standard activism; NSW Reconstruction Trainees

BOX 8
Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe plays, 1950s, for schools (about Australian history)
Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe notes correcting Denis Freney’s accounting of 1956 in MAP OF DAYS
Annotated Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe copy of E W Campbells history of Australian Labour Movement (1946)
2 Folders regarding Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe and Eureka stockholder. Walshe one of the key people who reintroduced Eureka stockholder to cultural history 1956 onwards
2 files regarding MONTH, MILLER, EUREKA hero/survivor includes typescript of his autobiography
Dulcie Mortier

BOX 9
Approach to history 2012 (final luminations on the native of History)
Eureka 2005, and Humphrey McQueen (2013)
Personal: birth Admin Service etc
School plans 1950s by Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe
Mixer – Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe Eureka Plan. Correspondence with Helen Palmer, Eric Fry Lloyd Churchward regarding 1956s Marxist history.
Research and Correspondence re Eureka 1955/56.
Correspondence with Jacobs Christensen, Murray Smith, Russell Ward

Copyright status:: In copyright – life of author(s) plus 70 years
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Contents list adapted from inventory supplied by donor.