CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Russell McDonald

Australian politician (1913-1980)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ21604931 ↗
Source-derived summary

Russell Stanley Leslie McDonald (12 May 1913 – 20 January 1980) was an Australian politician.

Biography

McDonald was born in Kyabram to labourer Donald Alexander Leslie McDonald and Jessie Taylor. He ran a service station in Echuca before entering politics, and was also a local councillor (1947–58) and mayor (1956–58). Around 1938 he married Barbara Catherine Hall, with whom he had three children. In 1964 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Country Party member for Rodney. He held the seat until his retirement in 1973. McDonald died at Echuca in 1980.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Russell McDonald” as australian politician (1913-1980). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Russell, McDonald and Australian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 1980, 1947, 1956—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913-05-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Russell, McDonald and Australian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Russell McDonald”, the useful work is to connect “australian politician (1913-1980)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q21604931. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1980, 1947 and 1956.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Russell McDonald”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Russell McDonald primary sources, Russell McDonald archive and Russell research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Russell McDonald”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Russell McDonald” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.