The Australian Union of Students (AUS), formerly National Union of Australian University Students (NUAUS), was 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.
The NUAUS formed in 1937 as a representative body for Australian university students.[citation needed]
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]
Australian Union of Students (AUS) was established in December 1970 as a successor to the NUAUS, changing its name to reflect the addition of colleges of advanced education to the tertiary education system in Australia.[citation needed]
The 28th Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, was a member of the AUS in 1977.[3]
American laser physicist and author Frank Duarte was a Macquarie delegate to AUS in 1980.[4]
Julia Gillard, later the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, was elected President of the Australian Union of Students in 1983.[5][6]
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. In 1987 the National Union of Students was established as a successor organisation.[citation needed]
The Black Resource Centre (BRC), established in Melbourne by Cheryl Buchanan in 1975, was supported by the AUS.[7] The BRC produced two publications: Black News Service and Black Liberation. Black News Service was published from April 1975 (vol.1, no.1) and c. 1977;[8][9] Black Liberation was published between November 1975 (no.1) and July 1977 (Vol. 2, no. 3).[10] Buchanan had a large network of contacts, and the newspapers could be distributed to many people and organisations around Australia. These included trade unions, women's groups, gay liberation groups, Friends of the Earth Australia and Greenpeace Australia.[11] Black News Service carried an article about activist and later poet, Lionel Fogarty, then aged 17, in its seventh issue in 1975.[12]
At first the students' union controlled the finances and all BRC activities had to be approved by them, but in 1976 Buchanan negotiated a A$27,000 grant from them that was administered directly by the BRC. The BRC moved to Brisbane, where Buchanan's family lived. Buchanan was a member of the Black Power movement and was quite militant in her approach, and like many other Aboriginal activists, was watched by ASIO. In 1977, the University of Melbourne's National Liberal Student Association took the AUS to court, claiming they were spending student fees wrongfully, contravening the union's constitution. Along with other organisations, BRC was listed as receiving funds illegally, and their funding was withdrawn as a result. BRC and its publications became dependent on donations from readers and other organisations, leading to its demise.[11]
NUAUS and then AUS organised four alternative festivals, between 1967 and 1973, called the Australian Universities Arts Festival and Aquarius Festival, the latter being a starting point for a new development era of Byron Bay area.[citation needed]
The archives of the Australian Union Of Students are held at the National Library of Australia.[13]