Records of Chief of the General Staff

The position of Chief of General Staff (CGS), or as it is now known, the Chief of Army, is the commander of the Australian Army. Along with his service equivalents in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) he is responsible to the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF).

Historically, the chiefs of staff presided over their respective service boards of administration and were responsible for their service to the government of the day to whom they provided advice concerning that service. The first CGS, Colonel William Throsby Bridges commenced his appointment in 1909 following a reorganisation of the Australian Army and the implementation of a general staff system.

A Chiefs of Staff Committee was established by a cabinet decision in 1939 at the same time as the War Cabinet. Its function was to provide advice on operational and strategic matters and its members usually attended War Cabinet meetings. The chiefs of staff were also responsible for the operations of the services and for issuing instructions based on War Cabinet decisions. In practice however, and especially after the beginning of the Pacific War, this responsibility was diminished and their role’s became more confined to administrative matters.

In the postwar period the Chiefs of Staff Committee was increasingly displaced as the principal source of advice on defence matters by the Defence Committee, which included the three service chiefs in its membership. In 1957 it was recommended that a distinct position of Chairman, Chief of Staff Committee (CCOSC) be created. This officer who was drawn from among the service chiefs became the principle source of military advice to the Minister.

During the 1973-1976 reorganisation of the Department of Defence by Sir Arthur Tange, the departmental secretary, the three service boards were abolished. The position of CCOSC was replaced by the Chief of the Defence Force Staff who now commanded the forces although he continued to do so through the individual service chiefs. In October 1984 this title was amended to Chief of the Defence Force (CDF).

In February 1997 the title of CGS disappeared and was replaced by the designation Chief of Army. This position remains responsible for the raising, training, equipping, and maintenance of the Army and together with his service equivalents is under the command of the Chief of the Defence Force.

The small number of items in this series were requested from the Office of the Chief of General Staff by Major Ian McNeill in 1974 for research purposes. A note on the series dossier for AWM101 relating to this request states that these files did not represent the complete holdings of the Chief of the General Staff. The Military Assistant to the CGS advised Major McNeill at the time of the request that he was not handing over all files held by the office.

The records in this series were transferred from the Department of Defence (Army Office) to the Australian War Memorial in May 1982. The consignment was accessioned as OW82/22. The series became known as AWM101 in the mid 1980s when the Memorial adopted its new numbering system for Official Records.

• AWM101 2 - Re-organisation study of the AMF Field Force - Report of the study group on the Pentropic Division, 1959-1965