This document summarizes a study of the Ara OB1a stellar association based on new optical photometry. The key findings are:
1) New UBVIC and Hα photometry is presented to provide more robust estimates of the fundamental parameters (age and distance) of the two prominent clusters NGC 6167 and NGC 6193.
2) NGC 6167 is found to be an intermediate-age cluster (20-30 Myr), NGC 6193 a very young one (1-5 Myr) containing pre-main sequence stars and Hα emitters.
3) The youngest object is the IRAS 16375-4854 source, containing several young stellar objects. This supports sequential star formation