A complete set of Fisheries and Game Department newsletters from No. 1, December 1957 to No. 139, November/December 1972. Some duplicates, and index for some copies. It contains authoritative and scholarly articles, and department 'news and views'.

Alfred Dunbavin Butcher was a methodical and thorough record-keeper and this aspect of his character is reflected in the vast collection of newsclippings. Mostly Victorian in origin, they historically portray over forty years of conservation and wildlife issues. This series ontains loose press cuttings, mainly from the Melbourne newspapers: the Age, Argus, Herald, Sun, various regional and interstate newspapers, and the Australian. Topics include wildlife and natural resources, mainly Victorian.

This Series also includes a fair amount of photographs and some other papers.

Alfred Dunbavin Butcher was awarded the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in 1978. This series includes notification from Buckingham Palace of the award, formal correspondence regarding investiture, personal notes and telegrams of congratulations from friends and colleagues including Prince Philip.

Includes carbon copies of replies from Alfred Dunbavin Butcher. Also correspondence and accounts relating to donations to the Order of St Michael and St George, and the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace attended by Alfred and Bessell Butcher.

Alfred Dunbavin Butcher was awarded the Order of Australia in 1987. This series includes related correspondence, news clippings and other material, details of proceedings and personal congratulations from friends and colleges. Includes carbon copies of replies from Alfred Dunbavin Butcher.

Alfred Dunbavin Butcher retired as Chairman of the Zoological Board of Victoria in 1987. This series contains mostly related letters and telegrams of congratulations to Alfred Butcher, and his replies. It also contains news clippings, and minutes of the Zoological Board meeting in which Alfred Dunbavin Butcher announced his decision to vacate the Chair. Includes an extract from Hansard.

Papers about Alfred Dunbavin Butcher's retirement from the position of Deputy Director of the Ministry for Conservation in 1978. This series contains mostly letters and telegrams of congratulations to Alfred Dunbavin Butcher, and his replies. It also contains news clippings, notes supporting his nomination for Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technical Sciences, and published reports and materials.

Papers about Alfred Dunbavin Butcher's Honorary Doctorate, which he received in 1986. This series includes newsletters, award speeches, and congratulatory correspondence from colleges and friends. It also includes photographs of Alfred Dunbavin Butcher and news clippings.

Series 8 comprises a vast array of Alfred Dunbavin Butcher's personal memorabilia, speeches, research articles, correspondence, travel itineraries, details of membership of and various committees. It also includes reports, journals, loose notes, lists of publications and newsclippings.

This series accurately reflects the many professional and social interests of Alfred Butcher, and facilitates a deeper understanding of the many and varied facets of his working life and the range of subjects on which he wrote and was expert.

This series contains a small number of files of Alfred Dunbavin Butcher's correspondence in regard to various research projects. It includes letters dating from the 1930s and 1940s. Topics documented in this series include the Victorian Freshwater Research Committee, CSIRO Wildlife survey section and kangaroo conservation, Geelong Fish Protection Society and Angler's Club, Salmon and Freshwater Commissioners.

Series 10 contains assorted notes made by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher during tours he made of various countries including New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa and Europe. Subjects include environmental and wildlife issues.

Papers about Alfred Dunbavin Butcher's speaking commitments and range of popular writings. Butcher was a popular guest speaker, both at informal social gatherings and at more formal, professional gatherings, and a large number of speeches are retained in this series. He was also a prolific writer of magazine and journal articles, and authored and delivered radio talks for the ABC during the 1950s.

This series reflects the extraordinary range of Alfred Butcher's interests and expertise and reveals his very hectic work schedule.

This series mostly contains documents produced through the work of the Australian Conservation Foundation and its councillors and supporters. Papers in this series include minutes, agenda papers, notices of meetings, discussion papers, financial statements, articles and conference papers, newsletters, planning documents, correspondence (official communications with the Australian Conservation Foundation staff and council members) and memoranda.

This series contains a considerable body of correspondence relating to the formation of the Australian Conservation Foundation (1964-1967), as well as to the "takeover" of the Australian Conservation Foundation by more radical members associated with the Save Lake Pedder Committee (1972-1973). This latter event led to the resignation of a number of members of the Australian Conservation Foundation, including Alfred Dunbavin Butcher. Other people involved in the Australian Conservation Foundation with Alfred Butcher included Francis Ratcliffe, S.Bailieu Myer, J.G. Mosley, R.D. Piesse, Donald McMichael, R.D. Malcomson, Sir Garfield Barwick, R.G. Downes, J.S. Turner, C.Warren Bonython, Doug Dorward, John Blanch, and Prince Philip.

Much early material was produced prior to the formation of the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1964, for example the Working Committee which functioned until 1965, when the Council was established.

This series also includes drafts and finished publications of "Newsletter" (originally "News Letter"), "Viewpoints", and Australian Conservation Foundation "Occasional Papers". It also includes handwritten notes by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher.

This series includes memorabilia on subjects to do with fish.

This series contains files produced through official work for the Fisheries and Wildlife Department, including departmental publications such as the Fisheries Circular series, official correspondence, special memoranda to the government by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher on matters of importance, newspaper clippings including extracts from regional papers and specialist newsletters such as fisheries clubs reporting on departmental activities, catalogues, invitations, and papers on staff.

Unusual items found in the files in this series include slides, fisheries tags, and a one page abstract from 1887 regarding the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, or platypus.

This series mostly deals with activity undertaken or promoted by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher, such as carp eradication, Tower Hill conservation works and interpretation centre, development of Snobs Creek Fish Hatchery and development of the Arthur Rylah Institute.

This series deals exclusively with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences' aquaculture mission to the People's Republic of China, which was led by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher. Topics of correspondence in Series 15 include the mission itself, the return mission by the Chinese, and publication of the report about the mission.

Robert Ingpen was a family friend of Bessell and Alfred Dunbavin Butcher, as well as a commissioned artist for many of Butcher's projects. Robert Ingpen created many beautiful works for Fisheries and Wildlife, the Melbourne Zoo, and other bodies connected to Alfred Butcher. This series illustrates many of these commissions with reprints and some original drafts, sketches and submissions.

Slides taken by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher during his travels around the world. Alfred Butcher also acquired some of the slides in this series from the Fish and Wildlife Service (United States), or from commercial slide collections.

Butcher was a gifted amateur photographer of some renown. An enormous collection of zoological subjects are portrayed in this series, together with some indexes and explanatory notes. The quality of the slides in this series is generally quite superb.

Butcher was a significant participant in this ecologically important study. This series contains a comprehensive range of correspondence, reports and discussion papers in relation to the Westernport Bay Environmental Study.

Series 19 contains reprinted publications written either by Butcher, his colleagues, or other members of the the Fisheries and Wildlife Division.

The articles, reports and other papers in this series were not found in a discernable systematic order and seem to have beeen haphazardly retained rather than systematically collected, given the meticulous order of the rest of the papers in the collection. They have been retained in their original order as found.

Also included here are a number of files containing drafts, typescripts and handwritten manuscripts, with accompanying editorial forms or illustrations, for articles, pamphlets and reports by Butcher and other Fisheries and Wildlife staff.

Complete collection of Wildlife Australian Nature Magazine dating from October 1938 to the final issue in 1954.

The magazine changed its name from Wildlife Australian Nature Magazine to Wildlife in 1951, and then to Wildlife and Outdoors from the August 1952 issue, before being absorbed into the Sun News-Pictorial newspaper in Melbourne.

Series 21 contains news clippings, notes, journals, correspondence, photographs and ephemera collected by Alfred Dunbavin Butcher during his time as Chairman of the Zoological Board of Victoria.

This series contains much information on social aspects of Zoo life and records informally some of the projects undertaken during Butcher's time with the zoo.

In May 1992 Australian Science Archives Project (ASAP) conducted a detailed appraisal survey of the records of the Melbourne Zoo. Over one hundred metres of records were located. The material surveyed included Le Souëf family records dating from the 1840s to the 1980s, records of Alfred Dunbavin Butcher deemed personal, records of the Zoological Board of Victoria, and administrative records of the Zoo mostly from the 1950s to the late 1980s. The Butcher and Le Souëf records were separated from the Zoo records and transferred to the Public Record Office of Victoria. Control codes for these records are those used by ASAP during appraisal in 1992, and will be found on the records of the Zoo and Le Souëfs.