Large corporations are dominating institutions in Australia, their influence pervading economic development, social structures and political relationships. Whether they provide the cost efficiencies and overseas contacts to drive economic growth and increased wealth or, alternatively, are bureaucratic leviathans that use their power to extract rents from the rest of society, is a question of sustained interest and discussion. While our principal corporations today are well known, we are far less familiar with their early development and predecessors. By investigating their evolution over the course of the twentieth century we intend to uncover a much closer understanding of Australia's leading corporations, particularly the bases of their success and their role in modern economy and society.

It is surprising how little we know about the growth of big business in Australia. Economic historiography has focused primarily upon the broad macroeconomic changes of the economy and the role of government in those changes. Little attention has been paid to analysing the evolution of business enterprises and their contribution to the nation's economic development. Recent research in business history, however, indicates that Australians are slowly discovering the similarities and differences between domestic and overseas corporate development. However, at this stage there is no comprehensive identification and investigation of Australian corporate leaders – that is, our major business enterprises – in the twentieth century. We propose to fill this gap in our nation's knowledge.