The collection comprises correspondence, speeches, articles, personal documents and working papers, photographs, newspaper cuttings, awards and degree certificates of Sir Mark Oliphant, and copies of papers by other scientists and academics; also notebooks, reprints and correspondence of Lord Rutherford and articles about him collected by Oliphant for Rutherford Recollections.

The papers cover the period 1927-1999 and include some records relating to Oliphant's period at Cambridge and his war-time work on radar, but principally document his career as Director of the School of Physical Sciences, A.N.U. (1950-1963), as Governor of South Australia (1971-1976) and subsequent to his retirement from public office.