The Producers and Directors Guild of Australia (PDGA) was initially formed in Sydney (NSW) in 1968. A Victorian chapter was later established in 1970. The Guild's formation was a response by the founding members to the urgent need to support the performing arts at a critical stage of its continuing development. According to John B. Murray (q.v.), while both the Sydney and Victorian organisations had similar motives and goals, the Victorian chapter was soon moved to act more autonomously and with a more activist philosophy than its status as a chapter suggested. The guild in Sydney, on the other hand, was seen as more conservative and measured in its attempt to achieve the common goal ('Genesis of Libido').
While the PDGA and Guild of Victoria had been established in order to support the performing arts in general, both were also predominantly focused towards cinema and, in particular, the support of an Australian film renaissance. One of earliest steps towards this goal was the staging in Sydney of a national conference on the film industry. Driven in the main by honorary secretary Roland Beckett, the conference's key speaker was Lord Ted Willis (q.v.), a man respected for his political commonsense and knowledge of the arts and the film industry. According to Murray, the event was a timely initiative, one that helped the guild channel its activity and energy towards overcoming political resistance, lethargy, and inertia.
The Victorian guild was a small body, requiring that prospective members had major directorial or producer credits in narrative drama or documentary program material. The regular dinner meetings were subsequently attended by about fifteen core members. Noted guests of honour included Carl Foreman, Lord Ted Willis, Anthony Burgess, and Robert Bolt, along with numerous federal and state government ministers. The guild later comprised a large body of independent filmmakers, music composers, editors, writers, arts administrators, actor/directors theatre, film and television directors, media students, and producers. The Victorian chapter also produced a quarterly magazine and a short film forum.
Although the Producers and Directors Guild of Victoria continued on until 2006, the PDGA itself eventually folded as the various factions (producers and directors) set up independent organisations to look after their increasingly diverse and complex areas. In 1980, for example, the Australian Screen Directors Association (ADSA) was founded as an industry association representing the interests of film, television, and digital media directors, documentary makers, animators, assistant directors, and independent producers throughout Australia. Its name was changed in 2007 to the Australian Directors Guild (ADG). Fourteen years later (1994), the Screen Production Association of Australia (later renamed the Screen Producers Association of Australia) was established in order to better represent the interests of independent film and television producers. It had operated in another guise as the Film and Television Production Association of Australia since 1956.
