Papers of Hal K. Colebatch, an Australian political scientist who taught in Papua New Guinea in the late 1960s and 1970s and became involved in the independence and development of that country. The materials consist largely of subject files (including papers on the Rural Improvement Program), unpublished writings by others, and diaries.
H. K. Colebatch Papers, 1967 - 1976 (MSS 40)
OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW TWO TO THREE (2-3) WEEKS FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Extent: 6.2 Linear feet (16 archives boxes)
Dr. Hal Kempley Colebatch, Australian political scientist, was actively involved with the independence and development of Papua New Guinea, especially during the 1970s. Colebatch received his education in Australia and Britain. He graduated with honors from the University of Melbourne and earned a master's degree from La Trobe University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Sussex, England, in 1974.
In 1968, while serving as a Senior Tutor in Politics at La Trobe University, Colebatch became involved in the process of independence taking place in Papua New Guinea (PNG). He moved to PNG the following year and took a position as Lecturer in External Studies at the Administrative College of Papua New Guinea in Waigami. During his two-year appointment at the College, Colebatch and his wife Peta took an active interest in the 1968 elections for the PNG House of Assembly. Their research focused on the area of the Western Highlands, and they summarized their studies in a chapter written jointly with Marie Reay and A.J. Strathern.
In 1971 Colebatch received a United Kingdom postgraduate scholarship to study at the University of Sussex. There he took an interest in the problems of development in the Third World, with a special focus on Kenya. His dissertation was titled Local Services and Governmental Process in Kenya, and he was awarded a Ph.D. from Sussex in 1974. That year Colebatch returned to the Administrative College of Papua New Guinea, where he became a Senior Lecturer in Administrative Studies. In February of 1975 he served as a consultant to the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration. From 1976 to 1978 he held the post of Senior Research Fellow at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research. Much of Colebatch's research and teaching at this time was focused on the Rural Improvement Program of Papua New Guinea, and he discussed in numerous articles the problems and accomplishments of the program.
Colebatch returned to Australia in 1978. In May of that year he became a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, and the following year he took the additional post of Head of the Department of Administrative, Social and Political Studies.
Papers of Hal K. Colebatch, an Australian political scientist who taught in Papua New Guinea in the late 1960s and 1970s and became involved in the independence and development of that country. The materials consist largely of subject files and unpublished writings by others. Included in the subject files are materials relating to the Rural Improvement Program in Papua New Guinea, a program studied by Colebatch in the mid-1970s. Also included in the collection are Colebatch's diaries of 1968; and diaries of candidates in the 1968 provincial elections in Papua New Guinea, collected by Colebatch's wife Peta. The papers provide documentation on many aspects of Papua New Guinea's transition from territorial status to independent statehood.
The collection includes many files relating to the 1968 elections for the Papua New Guinea representative assembly. The essays of high school students, within the TEACHING MATERIALS series, were collected by Colebatch as evidence of the perceptions toward representative government in the elections. The diaries, written in 1968, concern Colebatch's involvement in studying the election process in the Western Highlands.
Arranged in six series: 1) SUBJECT FILES, 2) TEACHING MATERIALS, 3) CLIPPINGS AND REPRINTS, 4) DIARIES OF HAL COLEBATCH, 5) PETA COLEBATCH MATERIALS, and 6) WRITINGS OF OTHERS.
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