Australian Union of Students

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Julia Gillard the second-last president of AUS.

The Australian Union of Students (AUS) was formed in December 1970 as the successor to the National Union of Australian University Students (NUAUS) as a representative body and lobby group for Australian University and College of Advanced Education students. It collapsed in 1984 and was succeeded by the National Union of Students in 1987.

NUAUS[]

The NUAUS had been formed in 1937 as a representative body for Australian university students, and changed its name to reflect the addition of colleges of advanced education to the tertiary education system in Australia.

An early president (1940) of the NUAUS was Frank Coaldrake, who was also the founding editor of the pacifist newspaper The Peacemaker, the Chairman of the Australian Board of Missions and, just before his death, the Archbishop-elect of Brisbane.[1] John Bannon, who would later be elected the 39th Premier of South Australia, was President of NUAUS in 1968.[2]

AUS[]

The 28th Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, attended AUS in 1977;[3] whilst Julia Gillard, the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, was elected President of the Australian Union of Students in 1983.[4][5] American laser physicist and author Frank Duarte was a Macquarie delegate to AUS in 1980.[6] Almost one year after the end of Gillard's term, in late 1984, a special National Conference of AUS, chaired by the union's Western Australian State Organiser, wound up the union. The reason for its dissolution was its lack of access to funding from previously affiliated University campuses, which disaffiliated in 1983 as a result of a series of student referendums held at campuses around Australia.

The archives of the Australian Union Of Students are held at the National Library of Australia.[7]

Festivals[]

NUAUS and then AUS organized four alternative festivals 1967–1973, Australian Universities Arts Festival and Aquarius Festival, the latter being a starting point for a new development era of Byron Bay area.

References[]

  1. ^ "Australian Dictionary of Biography: Frank Coaldrake". Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  2. ^ Sa Parliament, "John Charles Bannon", "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 September 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Accessed 26 October 2010.
  3. ^ Sheridan, G. (2015). When We Were Young & Foolish. Sydney: Allen & Unwin; ISBN 9781760113391.
  4. ^ Fitzgerald, Ross. "Say, weren't you left-wing? ", The Australian, Sydney, 3 July 2010. Retrieved on 2010-07-03.
  5. ^ "'A tough trailblazer'", The Straits Times, Sydney, 24 June 2010. Retrieved on 2010-07-03.
  6. ^ F. J. Duarte, Laser Physicist (Optics Journal, New York, 2011).
  7. ^ "MS 2412 Records of the Australian Union of Students", National Library of Australia, Last modified on 13 November 2003. Retrieved on 2010-07-03.
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