Australian Union of Students
The Australian Union of Students was formed in December 1970 as the successor to the National Union of Australian University Students 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. 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.
The archives of the Australian Union Of Students are held at the National Library of Australia.
John Bannon, who would later be elected the 39th Premier of South Australia, was President of NUAUS in 1968. The 28th Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, attended AUS in 1977; whilst Julia Gillard, the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, was elected President of the Australian Union of Students in 1983. American laser physicist and author Frank Duarte was a Macquarie delegate to AUS in 1980. 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.
