Menzies Centre for Australian Studies Report for the Year 2006-7

Supervisory Board Membership 2006-7 Chairman Mr Michael Cook

Ex officio members

The Head of the School of Humanities, KCL (Professor Ann Thompson) Rhodes Professor of Imperial History, KCL (Professor Andrew Porter) The Head of the Centre (Professor Carl Bridge) The Dean of the School of Advanced Study (Professor Nicholas Mann) Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (Professor Tim Shaw) From the KCL Academic Board Professor John Phillips 1 vacancy From Monash University Professor Graeme Davison Nominated members A representative of the Australian High Commission (Ms Frances Adamson) A representative of the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (Professor John Hay, University of Queensland) A representative of the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Trust, UK (Mr Richard Link) A representative of the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation, Australia (Sir Daryl Dawson) Other persons Mr David Buckingham (Agent-General for Victoria)* Dr Carol Nicoll Mr Michael Cook Lady Garland Professor Guy Robinson (Kingston) * from May 2007 meeting

Staff Head: Lecturer: Lecturer: Lecturer: Distinguished Visiting Fellow: Public Service Fellow: Rydon Fellow: Menzies Foundation Fellow: Secretary:

Professor Carl Bridge, BA, Dip Ed, PhD Dr Ian Henderson, BA, PhD Dr Catherine Kevin, BA, PhD, until December 2006 Dr Robert Crawford, BA, PhD, from January 2007 Michael Cook AO, LLB vacant Dr Kent Fedorowich, BA, MA, PhD Dr Stephen Ashton, BA, PhD Kirsten McIntyre, BA

Menzies Centre for Australian Studies

Report for the Year 2006-7

Menzies Centre for Australian Studies King’s College London

Contents Supervisory Board Membership Staff Objects of the Menzies Centre An overview Public lectures Conferences & symposia Teaching & supervision Staff research, public & other activities Research project report Seminars Readings & book launches Menzies-Advance Briefings Monash-Menzies seminars Menzies Centre publications Other publications Scholarships & fellowships Visitors Research Associates Subscriber universities Corporate supporters The future The Menzies Centre in brief

inside front cover inside front cover iv 1 1 2 4 5 9 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 15 15 15 15 inside back cover

Page iii

Objects of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies The object of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies within the School of Humanities, King’s College, London, shall be the promotion in Britain, and in Europe more widely as opportunity offers, of the understanding of Australia, its past, its present, and its future directions, by means appropriate to an academic institution including: •

teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, supervising theses, and engaging in research, particularly in the fields of history, literature, and the social sciences

•

organising public seminars, conferences, briefings, readings and lectures, and promoting publications, where appropriate in conjunction with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies or the Australian High Commission or Australian Business or like bodies

•

developing the Centre’s role as a major source in Britain of public information and comment on Australia, particularly in political, social, economic, educational, historical, literary, cultural and business fields

•

providing opportunities for discussion and personal contact among those interested in Australia

•

arranging for British scholars to work in Australia and for Australian scholars to work in Britain

•

administering the Australian Bicentennial Scholarships and Fellowships scheme, the Northcote Graduate Scholarship, the Menzies Studentships and like schemes.

Page iv

An Overview This year saw the Menzies Centre complete its planned restructure in order to enhance its teaching and research capacities. With the appointment of Dr Frank Bongiorno to a senior lectureship the Centre now has three tenured academic staff and a broad disciplinary reach in the humanities and social sciences. As Dr Bongiorno was not due to arrive until October 2007, Dr Robert Crawford, from Monash University, was appointed to a one-year lectureship. We welcomed Dr Stephen Ashton as Menzies Foundation Fellow, working with Professor Bridge on a documentary volume on Australia, Britain and the Withdrawal from East of Suez, 1961-75, and Dr Kent Fedorowich as Rydon Fellow, also working with Professor Bridge, on Anglo-Australian diplomacy during the second world war. After a splendid contribution, Dr Catherine Kevin left the Centre at the end of her contract to take up a lectureship in history at Flinders University. It was a particular pleasure this year to welcome Mr Tim Causer, from the University of Aberdeen, who is the Centre’s first AHRC-funded PhD student. Ms Robyn Archer, the distinguished South Australian singer and festival director, gave the Menzies Lecture and Professor Andrew Thompson, University of Leeds, the Reese Lecture. Several conferences and symposia were held: ‘Australian Film’, with the Britain-Australia Society (Lincolnshire Branch); ‘England versus Australia: the Ashes and All That’, with de Montfort University; ‘Feminism and the Body’; ‘The Australian and New Zealand Libraries and Archives Group’; ‘The Dominion High Commissioners during World War Two’; and ‘Wolfenden 50: Sex/Life/ Politics in the British World, 1945-69.’ Our weekly seminars, literary readings and book launches remained popular, as did the Menzies-Monash Seminars on Public Policy. Mr Maurice de Rohan left the Centre’s Supervisory Board after sterling service and Mr David Buckingham joined. Ms Kirsten McIntyre discharged her duties at the Centre’s secretary with her usual tact and efficiency. Sadly, there were two deaths during the year: Mr Maurice de Rohan and Dr David O’Reilly, Research Associate and long time

Centre stalwart. Each is remembered with fondness by all and greatly missed.

Public lectures The Menzies Lecture This lecture is one of two major public lectures organised each year by the Menzies Centre. It is designed to provide an opportunity for a distinguished person, of any nationality, to reflect on a subject of contemporary interest affecting Britain and Australia.

The 2006 Menzies Lecture The 2006 Menzies Lecture, ‘Reflecting identity: the inevitable role of culture’, was delivered by Ms Robyn Archer, AO, on 27 September 2006 before a rapt audience in the South Range Theatre, King’s College London. Ms Archer gave an exhilaratingly wide-ranging lecture on the subject of personal and national identity, discussing new technologies of DNA testing, issues of language, the role of the media, the significance of sport in Australian culture, and the policies of successive Australian governments in promoting particular notions of national identity. This contextualized her passionate advocacy of the role of the arts in spurring curiosity and fostering consciousness of identity as a complex and continuous process of change. The lecture also surveyed the wide field of contemporary Australian arts and offered insights into Ms Archer’s own brilliant career as an Australian artist working on the world stage. About a hundred people attended.

The Trevor Reese Memorial Lecture This lecture is an annual event of the Menzies Centre in association with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. It is in honour of Dr Reese, a distinguished historian of the British Commonwealth and Australia who was Reader at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Centre’s home from 1982 to 1999. The lecture is always given by a younger scholar in the disciplines of history or political science.

The 2007 Reese Lecture The 2007 Reese Lecture was delivered by Andrew Thompson, Professor of Commonwealth and Imperial History at the University of Leeds, on 26 April in the Great Hall on the subject: ‘Living the Past: Public Memories of Empire in the TwentyFirst Century’. About a hundred people attended. Professor Thompson began by noting the public revival of interest in the history of the empire in the last decade or so, remarking that empire was like a mooring rope, in that the more distance you travel away the more you feel its pull. He examined three broad vectors of memory: ‘because it’s still there’; ‘as reconciliation’; and ‘as part of the “national narrative”’. The first he dismissed quickly, pointing out that the last remnants of empire, such as the Falklands, really aroused little interest in metropolitan Britain and that the handing over of Hong Kong caused barely a murmur. Post-imperial Britain had arrived a generation before. ‘Reconciliation’ and ‘reparation’ were important issues in contemporary Britain and Australia, as in other countries like Spain, South Africa and Japan. History, he argued, furnished us with moral obligations. Recordis, the Latin for memory, meant literally ‘passing back through the heart’; and he mentioned three important examples. Burnum Burnum’s ceremony on Brighton Beach in January 1988 claiming Britain for Aboriginal Australia led eventually to the repatriation of a great many Aboriginal remains from British museums and this has helped to heal a long-term wound. Debate about pre-1967 child migration led in 1998 to the setting up by the Home Office of a Support Fund which along with the voluntary Child Migrants Trust helped bring families back together. Lastly, Baroness Flather successfully campaigned recently for memorial gates on Constitution Hill to the Indian, African and Caribbean soldiers of the two world wars. He then turned to the ‘national narrative’ as represented in museums, which ought, he argued, be forums for debate rather than secular cathedrals. Aspects of recent exhibitions and displays had been highly contentious; for example, on slavery at the Bristol Empire and Commonwealth Museum and the National and Mersey maritime museums, and on the darker side of the East India Company at the

Page 2

British Library. However, this ferment was meet and right in today’s boundary-crossing, multi-ethnic societies. If an agreed story was beyond reach, at least agreement on the importance of debate about the past was a civic virtue. He finished by quoting the Australian historian Graeme Davison’s criticism of Geoffrey Blainey’s national balance sheet: ‘we cannot put tears in one pan of the balance and laughter in the other?’; and Nietzsche’s aphorism: ‘only something that has no history can be defined.’ Clearly the history wars must rumble on, as they are a civic necessity.

Professor Andrew Thompson at the Reese Lecture

Conferences & symposia Australian Film: the 2006 Lincoln Australian Dialogue 15-17 September 2006 This year’s Lincoln Australian Dialogue, organised by Canon Emeritus Rex Davis, Lincoln Cathedral, and Professor Bridge, discussed the Australian film industry in historical perspective. It was held in honour of Betty Bryant (Silverstein), who starred in

Charles Chauvel’s Forty Thousand Horsemen, had Lincoln associations, and who died during the year. The keynote lecture was presented jointly by Dr Felicity Collins (LaTrobe) and Dr Therese Davis (Newcastle) on ‘Australian Cinema after Mabo’. Other speakers and papers included Dr Henderson on ‘Jedda’, Dr Janet Wilson (Northampton) on ‘The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith’, Dr Anne Pender (UNE) on ‘ The Adventures of Bazza McKenzie’, Dr Jonathan Rayner (Sheffield) on ‘Steve Irwin as an Australian Media Phenomenon’ and Dr Therese Davis on ‘Ten Canoes’. Fifteen invited people attended the Dialogue.

England versus Australia: The Ashes and All That 28 October 2006 This one-day conference was jointly convened by the International Centre for Sport History and Culture, De Montfort University, Leicester, and the Menzies Centre, in association with the BBC History Magazine. It was held at DMU as the sixth in their annual Historians on Sport series, and about forty people attended. Professor Mike Cronin (Boston College Dublin) began with a re-assessment of Douglas Jardine, the England ‘Bodyline’ skipper, which portrayed him as a thoroughly modern technocrat, streamlining the boundaries of his sport, rather than as an imperialist fossil. Mr Simon Briggs, cricket correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, spoke entertainingly and revealingly on the history of ‘sledging’ and other issues of cricket morality. Mr David Frith, the cricket historian, analysed the evolution of the Ashes myth, pointing out that the term was barely used before the 1970s and quoted Sir Robert Menzies on sledging: ‘We know each other so well that thank heaven we don’t have to be tactful to each other’. Professor Tony Collins (Leeds Metropolitan University) addressed the issue of the other Ashes, in Rugby Union and Rugby League. He quoted two gems: a Scottish journalist wrote of the 1908 Wallabies that they were ‘sublimely unconscious of their delinquency’; and Jersey Flegg, the great Australian League administrator, who said between the wars that ‘we [working-class Australians] are just as British as you are’. Collins pointed out that Britishness, both Australian and

Home-grown, as articulated in Rugby League before the 1960s, had a distinctively northern and demotic flavour. Professor Graeme Davison (Monash) spoke about the ‘imaginary grandstand’ in Australia where bettering the English was and still is the ultimate measure of success, whereas the English were more likely to measure themselves against the Europeans or Americans, cricket apart. The official British Council Ashes poet, David Fine, read some impromptu cricketing verse. Dr Dominic Malcolm, (Loughborough) charted the curious rise of the Barmy Army. And finally, Professors Carl Bridge and Mike Cronin, Dr Dominic Malcolm, and Messrs Simon Briggs and David Frith, participated in a panel discussion on ‘The Ashes and the Media’ in which it was suggested, inter alia, that both the English and Australians, usually fully selfconsciously, cherished and embellished their completely anachronistic and grotesque stereotypes of each other as part of an ancient bonding ritual.

Feminism & the Body 25-27 January 2007 ‘Feminism and the Body’ was an international conference exploring both new theoretical approaches in feminist studies that focus on the body, and the impact of new medical technologies on women’s bodies. The conference was the culmination of Dr Kevin’s contribution to the Menzies Centre and was organised by her in association with William Goodenough College. It was interdisciplinary, drawing speakers from Women’s Studies, English, History, Nursing, Sociology, Cultural Studies, and Law to name a few, and was remarkable for the genuine dialogue it opened up across these fields. Particularly successful was the panel on ‘Feminism, Ethics, and Reproductive Technologies’, with contributions from Professor Sarah Franklin (LSE), Dr Isabel Karpin (Sydney), and Professor Clare Williams (KCL). No less provocative was the keynote paper by Professor Judith Allen (Indiana) discussing ‘Cultural Genealogies of Anovulation: revisiting abortion, the pill, and feminist sexual politics’. Other plenary papers included Dr Cornelie Usborne (Roehampton) on reproductive self-determination in First World War and Early Weimar Germany, and

Page 3

Professors Steven Wainwright and Clare Williams (KCL) on the ballet Giselle. Papers on subjects as wide-ranging as pornographic art and hen’s parties, and addressing life in Britain, America, Australia, Peru, Africa, Thailand, and Germany led to lively debates throughout the entire conference. There were fifty-seven attendees.

Commission’; Dr Fedorowich, ‘“Directing the War from Trafalgar Square”: Vincent Massey and the Canadian High Commission 1939-42’; and Dr David Lee (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) ‘S. M. Bruce, Australia’s High Commissioner in London during World War Two’ (read by Professor Bridge). Twenty people attended.

Australian and New Zealand Libraries and Archives Group

Wolfenden50: Sex/life/politics in the British World 1945-69

20 April 2007

28-30 June 2007

The first meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Libraries Group took place at the Menzies Centre on 20 April 2007, attracting delegates from a range of libraries with collections pertaining to Australian Studies. Speakers represented libraries at Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Toulouse Universities, King’s College London Archives, The Royal Society, The British Library, and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Paul Dourlay demonstrated the latest database resources from RMIT publishing who also sponsored the event. ANZLAG is supported by the Menzies Centre’s Southern Cross Resource Finder, the British Library, and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, and the workshops will now take place annually. ANZLAG is an initiative of Dr Lara Cain-Gray, formerly Curator of the Australasian collection at the British Library, and is a network to support and assist the collection of Australian material in the European Union. It is coorganised by David Clover (Institute of Commonwealth Studies).

This conference marked the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the Wolfenden Report, and took place in the Edward J. Safra Lecture Hall at King’s College London. The conference was co-organised by Dr Graham Willett (Australia Centre, University of Melbourne) and Dr Henderson and attracted delegates from Britain, United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand to discuss the inquiry leading up to the Report, its impact and legacy throughout the British World. The conference commenced with a paper by Professor Jeffrey Weeks (South Bank). Dr Helen Self spoke on the Wolfenden committee’s attitudes towards prostitution in Britain. Working from transcriptions of the inquiry, Professor Judith Allen (Indiana) gave a provocative and insightful paper on Wolfenden’s status as a reformer. Discussions were also enriched by the contribution of delegates Professor George Chauncey (Yale), one of the most important United States historians of gay life and politics, and veteran campaigner Allan Horsfall. About fifty people attended.

The Dominions High Commissioners during World War Two 4 May 2007 This one-day symposium was organised at the Australia Centre by Dr Fedorowich. Speakers and their papers were Dr Ashley Jackson (JSCSC, KCL), ‘A Prodigy of Skill and Organization? The EmpireCommonwealth at War, 1939-45’; Professor John Lambert (University of South Africa),‘“To back up the British Government”: Sidney Waterson’s role as South African High Commissioner in Wartime Britain, 1939-42’; Dr Andrew Stewart (JSCSC, KCL), ‘William Jordan and the New Zealand High

Page 4

Teaching & supervision Dr Henderson taught the following BA English semester courses: Australian Literature (39 students); Australian Literature and Film (41 students); and Comparative Literature (20 students). Dr Kevin and Dr Crawford taught the full-year BA Australian History survey course (7 students). Professor Bridge taught the full-year ‘special subject’ BA History course on ‘Australia and

the Second World War’ to 3 students, and supervised 3 undergraduate dissertations. The Menzies Centre had 1 part-time and 2 full-time MA students. Professor Bridge supervised with Dr Henderson the following theses: Rowena Altheer, ‘“Little Gems or Tough Nuggets?”: Children, The Hidden Treasures of the Australian Goldfields, 1851 to 1880’ (MPhil); Tim Causer, ‘“Only a place fit for angels and eagles”: the Norfolk Island penal settlement, 1825-1855’ (MPhil); Katharine Haydon, ‘George Henry Haydon: An Anglo-Australian Life’ (PhD); Helen Idle ‘Display, perception and reception of contemporary Australian Indigenous art in western Europe (MPhil); and Luisa Pèrcopo ‘Australian Ethnic Minority Autobiographies’ (PhD). Professor Bridge also supervised with Dr Kevin, Roger Beckett, ‘The 1st Australian Imperial Force in Britain, 1915-19’ (PhD). Rowena Altheer successfully completed her MPhil and Luisa Pèrcopo her PhD during the year.

Staff research, public & other activities Professor Carl Bridge In September Professor Bridge attended the BASA Biennial Conference at the University of Exeter, Tremough, Cornwall; he co-convened the Centre’s Lincoln dialogue on ‘Australian film’; met with Professor Stephanie Fahey, Monash Deputy ViceChancellor-International; and chaired Robyn Archer’s Menzies Lecture. In October he chaired the Northcote Scholarship Selection Committee; spoke on ‘The Australian Diaspora in Britain’ to a ‘British Empire and the British World’ workshop at the University of Texas, Austin; and co-convened the Centre’s ‘Ashes and all that’ conference with the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at DeMontfort University, Leicester. In November he examined a PhD thesis for the University of Sydney and another for the University of Melbourne; lectured on ‘Australia’s Foundation Myths as

History’ at the University of Copenhagen; lectured on ‘Anzac Day’ to the Historical Association, Norwich; gave the Remembrance Sunday address, ‘Reflections on the Somme’, at All Saints Church, Ingham, Lincs; was interviewed by Dr Jane Kenway, Monash, for her research project on Australians as international academics; interviewed by BSkyB TV World News on ‘Anglo-Australian relations and the Ashes’; and visited Campion Hall and Rhodes House, Oxford. In December he was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland News on ‘Australia, Uranium and Nuclear Non-Proliferation’, and by BBC Radio Asian Network on the Ashes. In January he appeared in BBC Radio 4’s The Long View programme at Lord’s Cricket Ground comparing the Ashes whitewashes in 1920-21 and 2006-7; gave a paper on Australians in Britain to the Metropolitan History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London; met with Professor John Hay, Vice-Chancellor, University of Queensland; and attended a briefing by Gerard Henderson at the Australian High Commission; and launched Dylan Nichols’ What are you doing here?. In February he met with Ms Kate Parker of Advance and Mr David Buckingham, Agent-General for Victoria; lectured to the History Club, Durham University. In March he chaired the Australian Bicentennial Scholarships and Fellowships Committee; was external member of an appointment board for a senior lectureship in war studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; advised the Australian National University on a promotion; and examined a PhD for the University of New England. In April he visited Australia and had meetings in Melbourne with Professors Graeme Davison and John Nieuwenhuysen and Dr David Dunstan (Monash), Professor John Coghlan (Menzies Foundation), and Professor David Lowe (Deakin), in Canberra with Dr David Lee (Head, Historical Documents Project, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), Ms Fiona Buffinton (International Director, Australian Department of Education, Science and Training), Dr Peter Shergold (Secretary, Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet), Mr Paul Hetherington (National Library of Australia),Dr John Connor (Australian War Memorial) and Dr Peter Stanley

Page 5

(National Museum of Australia), and in Sydney with Associate Professor Neville Meaney and Professor Alan Atkinson (Sydney); he also conducted research at the National Archives in Canberra; attended Anzac Day ceremonies in London; and chaired the Reese Lecture. In May he delivered a paper for Dr David Lee at the Centre’s ‘High Commissioners’ symposium; attended the Institute of Commonwealth Studies International Council; met Mr Grahame Cook (Deputy Secretary, Australian Department of Education, Science and Training) and Dimity Fife (Australian Volunteers Abroad). In June he attended the Western Australia anniversary service at the Savoy Chapel; chaired Professor Tim Flannery’s Menzies-Advance Global Professionals seminar; played for the High Commissioner’s XI in the annual Sutton Veny cricket match and attended a meeting of the Britain-Australia Society at East Coker, Somerset; opened the Centre’s ‘Wolfenden’ conference and chaired a session of the AngloAmerican Conference at the Institute of Historical Research. In July he attended the ‘British World’ conference in Bristol. Throughout this period his research focussed on finishing his critical edition of R. G. Casey’s Washington diaries, 1940-42, A Delicate Mission, to be published by the National Library of Australia, working with Dr David Dunstan (Monash) on an edited collection for Monash e-Press, Australians in Britain: the Twentieth Century Experience, and with Dr Ashton on a documentary volume on Anglo-Australian relations in the 1960s and 1970s. He also prepared a joint ESRC-ARC research grant application on ‘Australians in Post-war Britain’ with Professors Graeme Davison and Alistair Thomson (Monash) and Dr Robert Crawford (KCL), and coedited Reviews in Australian Studies, nos. 6-9, and nos. 14 and 15 of London Papers in Australian Studies.

Publications Refereed Book Chapter: ‘Other People’s Wars? Australia’s Military Involvements in the Twentieth Century’ in Victoria Mason, ed., Loyalties, API Network, Perth, WA, 2007, pp. 145-54, 194-6. Refereed Article: ‘Australia and the Commonwealth from Menzies to Howard’, Round Table, vol. 95, no. 387, Oct. 2006, pp. 661-5.

Page 6

Dr Robert Crawford In January Dr Crawford attended a briefing by Mr Gerard Henderson at the Australian High Commission. In February he submitted an ARC Fellowship Application; and was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about casinos. In March he consulted with Metromedia Publications; attended the first Menzies Centre-Advance Global Professionals briefing by speaker Mr Lynton Crosby, AO; and submitted Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship Application. In April he presented a seminar in the Menzies seminar series on ‘Ockers in Adland Australia’; and moved the vote of thanks at the Reese Lecture. In May he met with Dr Colin Jevons (Department of Marketing, Monash). In June he was interviewed by BBC Wales radio and television on the Stolen Generations; and submitted an ESRCARC grant application. In July he submitted a grant application to AHRC; presented a paper on Advertising & Britishness at the ‘British World’ conference, Bristol. In August he undertook research at the History of Advertising Trust; submitted a grant application to the Wellcome Trust; was interviewed by the Daily Express on convicts and by the BBC ‘Asia Report’ radio programme on John Howard. Throughout the year he worked on his history of Australian advertising, But Wait, There’s More …, for Melbourne University Press, and coedited Reviews in Australian Studies, nos. 6-9.

Publications Refereed Article: ‘“Drink Beer Regularly – It’s Good for You (and Us)”: Selling Tooth’s Beer in a Depressed Market’, The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Spring 2007, pp. 160-82. Refereed Article: ‘ “Anyhow … Where d’yer get it?”: Ockerdom in Adland Australia’, Journal of Australian Studies, no.90, 2007, pp. 1-15, 179-80. Refereed Article: ‘Dealing with Depression: Australia’s Advertising Industry in the 1930s’, Advertising & Society Review, vol. 8, no. 3, 2007.

Refereed Article: ‘Selling Modernity: Advertising and the Construction of the Culture of Consumption, 1900-1950’, Australian Cultural History, no.25, 2006, pp. 115-43. Refereed Article: ‘Changing the Face of Advertising: Australia’s Advertising Industry in the Early Days of Television’, Media International Australia, no.121, 2006, pp. 105-18. Refereed Article: ‘“Truth in Advertising”: The Impossible Dream?’, Media International Australia, no.119, 2006, pp. 124-37. Refereed Article: ‘Fighting a Lost Campaign: Austac and Australia’s Advertising Industry’, Media History, vol.12, no.1, 2006, pp. 61-76.

Dr Ian Henderson In September Dr Henderson moved the vote of thanks at the Menzies Lecture. In October he attended a meeting of Northcote Scholarship committee; was interviewed on the set of Bad Girls about ‘Prison Films’ by BBC4’s The Cinema Show. In November he attended a reception hosted by the Hon. Peter Beattie, Premier of Queensland, to mark the donation of works by Indigenous artists of Queensland to the British Museum; introduced a special screening of Rolf de Heer’s and Peter Djigirr’s Ten Canoes (2006) at the October Gallery; hosted a meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Libraries Group executive committee; launched Katherine Gallagher’s latest poetry collection, CircusApprentice (ARC), playing flute to original music by Kwêsi Edman. In December he organised the Menzies Centre Christmas party which had performances from musicians John Lattin and Kwêsi Edman, Kathleen McCormack and others. In January he met with Dr Graham Willett (Melbourne) to discuss the Wolfendon50 conference; attended a briefing by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Mr Gerard Henderson at the Australian High Commission; and presented a paper ‘Sybylla’s Body in Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career’ at the ‘Feminism and the Body’ conference. In February he met with Ms Kate Parker, director of Advance, to discuss a series of briefings on Australian

politics and culture; assisted in developing an ARC Discovery Grant application with Professor Bruce Bennett (UNSW@ADFA) and Dr Anne Pender (UNE); attended the opening of Birkbeck’s New Zealand Studies Centre, meeting with director Dr Ian Conrich; met with Mr David Clover (Institute of Commonwealth Studies library) and Dr Lara Cain Gray (British Library) about the forthcoming ANZLAG conference at the Menzies Centre. In March he met with Dr Conrich and M. Bernard Bories, President of Cinéma des Antipodes, about a forthcoming New Zealand and Australian film conference as part of the St Tropez festival. In April he chaired the Menzies-Advance Briefing with speaker Mr Lynton Crosby, AO, an event organised in association with Advance Global Professionals; co-hosted the first workshop of the Australia and New Zealand Libraries Group with Lara Cain-Gray (British Library) and David Clover (Institute of Commonwealth Studies). In May he introduced and fronted a question-and-answer session at a special screening of Jindabyne (Lawrence, 2006) with Revolver Entertainment; spoke on recent Australian film at the Australian Studies Round Table at the University of Copenhagen, organised by Dr Stuart Ward; launched Jessica White’s A Curious Intimacy (Penguin 2007); chaired a session at Abstract, KCL English Department’s postgraduate conference. In June he chaired the Menzies-Advance Briefing by Professor Tim Flannery, on World Environment Day in the Great Hall at King’s; spoke on Jack Davis’ The Dreamers (1982) at the ‘Postcolonial Transformations’ conference at the University of Prešov, Slovakia; spoke on Chauvel’s Jedda (1955) and Moffatt’s Night Cries (1990) at the ‘Antipodean Childhoods’ conference at the University of Innsbruck; hosted the Wolfenden50 conference. In July he introduced a special screening of Ten Canoes (de Heer, 2006) at the ‘Re-Routing the Postcolonial’ conference at the University of Northampton; hosted the launch of ATLAS magazine at the Nehru Centre of the High Commission of India, chairing poetry readings with editor Sudeep Sen; met with Dr Lissant Bolton about fostering links between the British Museum and the Menzies Centre; and also met Ms Karen Leary, Director of Print and Digital Media at the National Museum of Australia. Throughout the year

Page 7

he continued research for his book on the reception of Australian colonial writing and was editor of Studies in Australasian Cinema, vols 1 & 2. He received an award for Excellence in Teaching 2006-7.

Publications Refereed Article: ‘Looking at Lady Audley: Symbolism, the Stage, and the Antipodes’, Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Film, vol. 33, no. 1 (2006), pp. 3-25. Refereed Article: ‘Mid-Victorian Reading and the Antipodes’, Australian Literary Studies, vol. 22, no. 3 (2006), pp. 294-307.

Dr Catherine Kevin In September Dr Kevin presented paper at the Medical Humanities Conference, KCL, entitled ‘Race, sex and ‘pulling on a rope’: Grantly DickRead’s birthing woman’; attended the British Australian Studies Association conference in Cornwall; and attended the Lincoln Dialogue on ‘Australian Film’. In October she attended the celebration of Arthur Phillip in Bath hosted by the Britain-Australia Society; presented a paper entitled ‘Raising the Right Against Reproductive Rights: Politics and Religion in Australia and the US’ at the Australian Studies Colloque hosted by CIClaS at the Université Paris-Dauphine; presented a paper entitled ‘Great Expectations: Episodes in a Political History of Pregnancy in Australia’ at the Gender and History Reading Group at Oxford University. In November she presented a paper at the Women’s History Seminar at the Institute for Historical Research. In December she co-hosted the Menzies Centre Christmas party (this involved a rendition of ‘Bound for South Australia’ on the ukulele).

Publication Refereed Article: ‘Subjects for Citizenship: Pregnancy and the Australian Nation, 1945-2000.’ ReVisions of Australia: Histories, Images, Identities, special edition of The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, vol.12, no. 2, Autumn 2006, pp. 98-108.

Page 8

Rydon Fellow 2006-7 Dr Kent Fedorowich Dr Fedorowich, Reader in History at the University of the West of England, Bristol, was Rydon Fellow for 2007. He worked on the Australian High Commission in London, 1939-45, and convened a symposium on the ‘Dominion High Commissioners during World War Two’ in association with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. He delivered a paper in the Centre’s seminar series, ‘“At War with Canberra”: Sir Ronald Cross and the UK High Commission in Canberra, 1941-42’, will be published in the Menzies Centre’s London Papers series. His second task as Fellow was to organise, in association with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (University of London), a one-day symposium on the role of the Dominion High Commissioners in London, 1939-42 (See Conferences). Plans are advanced to publish these papers as an edited collection.

Menzies Foundation Fellow 2006-7 Dr Stephen Ashton Dr Ashton, formerly editor of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, was Menzies Foundation Fellow for 2006-7. He worked with Professor Bridge on a documentary volume on Australia and the British withdrawal from East of Suez. He has also been appointed an Honorary Senior Research Fellow. From October 2007 Dr Ashton spent three months at the National Archives in the UK during which he completed the British research for the first of the two volumes on Anglo-Australian relations 1961-75 which will be published in the official Australian series, Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. The volumes will be published by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra in association with the Menzies Centre. The years 1961-75 were significant ones in the evolving Anglo-Australian relationship. Australia forged a new sense of national identity as Britain withdrew from its global role and sought new ties with Europe. The first of the two volumes, provisionally entitled ‘Defence and the

Constitution’, covers defence relations between Britain and Australia in the context of Britain’s withdrawal from East of Suez, and official exchanges between the two governments on those aspects of the Australian constitution within which Britain still held residual authority. These concerned appeals to the Privy Council in London, the appointment of state governors and the channel of communication between state governments and the government in London, the Royal Styles and Titles, and the appointment and accreditation of Australia’s diplomatic corps. Also covered are the issues of Australia’s national anthem, the flags to be flown on ceremonial occasions, the royal depiction on Australian coinage, and the place of the monarchy in Australia’s political culture. The UK research was completed at the end of last year. March was spent in Canberra at the National Archives of Australia. The record series searched were those of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of External Affairs, the Department of Defence, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Governor-General’s files, the correspondence files of Sir Alexander Downer as Australian High Commissioner in London 1964-72, and a little known series of Records of the Australian National Anthem and Flag Quests Committee 19714. Over 1200 pages of documents have been collected and the process of selection and editing has started for a volume scheduled for publication in July-August 2008.

Publication Refereed Article: ‘British Government Perspectives on the Commonwealth 1964-1971: an Asset or a Liability?’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 35, 1, March 2007, pp. 73-94.

Research project report The Australian Diaspora since 1901: An Exploration Professor Bridge and Dr David Dunstan, Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash, won a research grant (AUD$ 78,572) from Monash University’s Institute for the Study of Global Movements in 2005, to research what is known and what might be found out about Australian communities in Britain since 1901, mapping the dynamics of the Australian presence in Britain over the last century. The 1901 census of England and Wales, digitised by QinetiQ, reveals that there are 15,295 individuals who identified Australia as their place of birth. The project has used this database to establish the age, gender, occupation and geographical distribution of the Australian-born in England and Wales in 1901 as well as their places of origin in Australia. A second element of the project, conducted by the Menzies Centre’s Dr David O’Reilly, a Monash graduate, involves researching and writing profiles of 16 prominent Global Australians operating from Britain today. Preliminary findings for both elements of the project were presented at an international workshop on ‘The Australian Diaspora in Britain since 1900’ organised by the Centre in September 2005. These papers are to be published as an edited book by Monash ePress in 2008 and the Menzies Centre and the Institute for the Study of Global Movements will publish a volume of Global Australians profiles in late 2007. Two collaborative large grant applications to the ESRC and ARC are under way.

Page 9

Seminars First Term 4 October 2006 Christina Spittel (Freiburg) Storying the Present: Australian Novels from the Great War 11 October 2006 Luisa Pèrcopo (KCL) The Fabric of Cultural Memory: Weaving Australia in Ethnic Minority Autobiographies 18 October 2006 Mark Bennister (Sussex) Blair and Howard: predominant prime ministers compared 25 October 2006 Therese Davis (Newcastle) Remembering the Ancients: Collaboration and the Mediation of Indigenous Pre-Contact History in Ten Canoes (Rolf DeHeer, 2006) 15 November 2006 Diana Solano (KCL) The Subjects of Mary MacKillop: reading the subject into cultural history 22 November 2006 Fiona Paisley (Griffith) Australian Women in the Transnational Pan-Pacific: the Pan-Pacific Women’s Association and Cultural Internationalism, 1928-1958 23 November 2006 Robin Skinner (Victoria University, Wellington) Colonel Balneavis’s Model: a Maori fighting pâ in London 29 November 2006 Radhika Mohanram (Cardiff) The Wages of Whiteness: Mourning and Melancholia in 19th Century New Zealand 6 December 2006 Caterina Colomba (University of Lecce) History and Fiction: Australia’s obsession with its past in contemporary novels

Page 10

Second term 10 January 2007 Sally Gray (UNSW) Lost in Music: art and the underground dance club 24 January 2007 Susan Bradley-Smith (Southern Cross) Beyond the medical record: creative writing and well-being for Australian doctors 7 February 2007 David Jones (Queensland) The Australian perception of security in an era of globally interconnected disintegration 14 February 2007 Frank Cain (UNSW@ADFA) Surveillance and Non-Surveillance of Nazis in Australia 1933 to 1939 21 February 2007 Cath Ellis (Huddersfield) Telling the Story of Colonial Conquest in the Opening Ceremonies of Olympic Games in Canada, the USA and Australia 7 March 2007 Kent Fedorowich (Menzies Centre) 'At War with Canberra': Sir Ronald Cross and the British High Commission in Australia, 1941-45 14 March 2007 Daniel Boetker-Smith (Chester) Bill Henson: in flagrante delicto 21 March 2007 Clem Gorman (Sydney) ‘Gentle Invasion, Fleeting Diaspora’: African American Cultural Influences in Australia 4 April 2007 Robert Crawford (Monash and Menzies Centre) Ockers in Adland Australia

Third term 16 May 2007 Ooi Keat Gin (Universiti Sains Malaysia) Operation OBOE VI: The Australian Amphibious Landings in Northwest Borneo, 1945 30 May 2007 Michael Anderson (Sydney) Mediatised Performance in Drama Education and Theatre for Young People: How TYP and educators are responding to Digital Natives

Readings & book launches 11 October 2006 Mark O’Connor Poetry reading 1 November 2006 Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Melbourne) Poetry reading

28 February 2007 Kathryn Heyman (author) Reading 28 March 2007 Geoff Page (poet) Reading and discussion of Australian poetry Launch of the first issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema, foundation editor, Ian Henderson 2 May 2007 Gary Crew (Sunshine Coast) Reading 23 May 2007 Jessica White (London Consortium and author) Launch of A Curious Intimacy 24 May 2007 Gail Jones (Sorry) and Susan Elderkin (The Voices) Launch of Sorry and The Voices

8 November 2006 David Gilbey (Charles Sturt) Poetry reading

MenziesAdvance Briefings

29 November 2006 Katherine Gallagher Launch of The Circus Apprentice

4 February 2007 Mr Lynton Crosby AO on ‘The Choice: Howard or Rudd’

6 December 2006 Laurie Duggan (Queensland) Poetry reading

5 June 2007 Professor Tim Flannery (Macquarie) on ‘The Weather Makers’

24 January 2007 Susan Bradley-Smith (Southern Cross) Launch of Marmalade Exile 31 January 2007 Dylan Nichols Launch of ‘What are you doing here?’ The Question of Australians in London

Page 11

Monash-Menzies Seminars

Menzies Centre publications

Issues in Public Policy

Public Lectures

20 September 2006 Reg Graycar (Sydney) Compensation for historical harms: challenges and possibilities

The 2006 Menzies Lecture, Reflecting identity: the inevitable role of culture by Robyn Archer

28 September 2006 Daniel Meagher (Deakin) The Failure of Criminal Racial Vilification Laws in Australia 19 October 2006 Patrick Troy (Australian National University) Aspects of Domestic Water Consumption in Australian Cities 26 October 2006 Helen Caldicott Nuclear Power is Not the Answer 16 November 2006 John Nethercote (ANU) Public Services today: Are they too responsive? 6 February 2007 David Wright-Neville (Monash) Terrorism and the Politics of Dashed Expectations 19 March 2007 Matt Trinca (National Museum of Australia) Representing the nation in the twenty-first century: The National Museum of Australia 20 March 2007 Harry Gelber (Tasmania) Australia: Between China and America 18 April 2007 Elizabeth van Acker (Griffith) Relationships, Work and Families in Australia: The Policy Agenda and Choice

Page 12

The 2007 Trevor Reese Memorial Lecture, Living the Past: Public memories of empire in twenty-first century Britain by Andrew Thompson

London Papers in Australian Studies No. 14, Peter Shergold, From ‘frank and fearless’ to ‘fumbling and forgetful’? The perceived decline of the Australian Public Service No.15, Kent Fedorowich, ‘At War with Canberra’: Sir Ronald Cross as British High Commissioner in Canberra, 1941-2

Other publications The following publications also emanated from work done at the Centre: The Poetry of Peter Porter (Critical Survey, vol.18, no.1, 2006). Essays by Bruce Bennett, Clive James, Peter Steele, John Lucas and Adrian Caesar from our 2004 conference with the Institute of English Studies. David O’Reilly, The New Progressive Dilemma: Australia and Tony Blair’s Legacy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Nancy Underhill, ed., Nolan on Nolan: Sidney Nolan in his own words, Viking, 2007.

David Vadas, Science, University of Sydney Kate Watson, Literature, Cardiff University Moyra Wilson, Geology, University of Western Australia Jodi Young, Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

Northcote Graduate Scholarships This scheme enables students to undertake a postgraduate degree at an Australian university for a period of up to three years. Awards were made to: Denise Bunting for a PhD in Marine Ecology, University of Sydney Madeleine Bottrill for a PhD in Integrative Biology, University of Queensland Glenn Carter for an MFA in Glass, Australian National University

Scholarships & fellowships The Menzies Centre administers a number of scholarships and fellowships. These are advertised annually and awards are on a competitive basis.

Australian Bicentennial Scholarships & Fellowships This scheme enables British and Australian scholars to visit each others’ countries to study in approved courses or to undertake approved research at tertiary or post-tertiary level. Scholars and fellows who gained awards were: Tony Collins, History of Sport, Leeds Metropolitan University Matthew dal Santo, History, University of Cambridge Amy Dickson, Music, City University Sheena Gordon, Biochemistry, University of Cambridge Tara McIntosh, Science, University of Sydney Hila Shachar, English & Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia Joshua Smith, Biology, University of New England

Page 13

Visitors Distinguished visitors Professor Gavin Brown, Vice-Chancellor, Sydney Mr Grahame Cook, Deputy Secretary, DEST, Australia Professor Alan Frost, Pro Vice-Chancellor, La Trobe University, Mildura Professor John Coghlan, Director, Menzies Foundation Mr Grahame Cook, Deputy Secretary, DEST, Canberra Professor John Hay, Vice-Chancellor, University of Queensland Professor Richard Larkins, Vice-Chancellor, Monash Dr Carol Nicoll, DEST Counsellor, Australian Embassy Brussels

Academic and other visitors Judith Allen, Indiana Stephen Alomes, Australian Studies, Deakin Michael Anderson, Sydney Arlette Apkarian, Universite de Provence Andrew Arthy, History, UNE Justin Bengry, California Bruce Bennett, English, UNSW@ADFA Alan Bensussan, Western Sydney Fionnuala Bhreathnach, Literature, Université de Toulouse-le Mirail Frank Bongiorno, History, UNE Chris Bradbury, History, King’s School Parramatta Susan Bradley Smith, Creative Writing, Southern Cross Andrew Brown-May, History, Melbourne Diana Brown, Sydney Anisa Buckley, Islamic Studies, Melbourne Frank Cain, ADFA Helen Caldicott, Adelaide Vanessa Castejon, Université Paris Nord George Chauncey, History, Yale Ian Coates, National Museum of Australia Caterina Colomba, Lecce Gary Crew, Sunshine Coast Ann Curthoys, History, ANU Therese Davis, Newcastle Kate Davison, Melbourne Emma Dawson, Monash

Page 14

David Day, Australian Studies, Tokyo John Docker, Humanities Research Centre, ANU Louise Douglas, National Museum of Australia Laurie Duggan, Queensland David Dunstan, NCAS, Monash Susan Elderkin, writer Linda Evans, Alexander Turnbull Library Stephanie Fahey, Monash Dimity Fifer, Australian Volunteers International Cecile Fouache, Universite de Rouen Harry Gelber, Politics, Tasmania David Gilbey, Charles Sturt Ooi Keat Gin, History, Universiti Sains Malaysia Clem Gorman, History, Sydney Reg Graycar, Law, Sydney Sue Green, UNSW Sally Grey, UNSW Kathryn Heyman, author Gail Jones, English, Western Australia David Martin Jones, Politics, Queensland Paul Jones, History, Melbourne Welby Ings, Auckland University of Technology Alastair Kennedy, Multicultural Studies, ANU Garry Kinsman, Laurentian University Jaroslav Kusnir, Literature, University of Presov, Slovakia John Lambert, History, University of South Africa Anthony Lambert, Macquarie Alison Laurie, Victoria University of Wellington Karen Leary, Director of Print and Digital Media, National Museum of Australia Kirsten Leng, Michigan University Dunya Lindsey, English, Monash Imran Lum, Islamic Studies, Melbourne Roy Macleod, History, Sydney Claire McLisky, History, Melbourne Anthony Manion, Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa Liz Manning, Queensland Ged Martin, historian, Ireland Nicholas Matte, Toronto Daniel Meagher, Deakin Joanne Meyerowitz, Yale Peter Murphy, UNSW John Nethercote, ANU John Niewenhuysen, Monash Mark O’Connor, Canberra Goldie Osuri, Macquarie

Geoff Page, poet Annamaria Pagliaro, Prato, Monash Fiona Paisley, Griffith Garth Patten, Australian War Memorial Holly Randell-Moon, Macquarie Robert Reynolds, UNSW Elizabeth Richards, History, UNE Eric Richards, History, Flinders Libby Robin, National Museum of Australia Cristina Rocha, UWS Anne Scott, Queensland Roger Scott, Classics, Queensland Alesssandra Senzani, Florida Atlantic University Robin Skinner, Victoria University, Wellington Belinda Smaill, Monash Benjamin Smith, ANU Christina Spittel, Literature, Universitat Freiburg Owen Stanley, Economics, James Cook University Matt Trinca, National Museum of Australia Patrick Troy, Urban Studies, ANU Elizabeth van Acker, Griffith Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Australia Centre, Melbourne Eibhear Walshe, UC, Cork Rosemary Webb, Literature, Southern Cross Maureen West, Victoria University, Wellington Patrick West, Griffith Jessica White, London Consortium and author Chris Waters, Williams College, USA Graham Willett, Australia Centre, Melbourne David Wright-Neville, Politics, Monash Matthew Zagor, Law, ANU

Research Associates The Menzies Centre provided a home for the following United Kingdom-based researchers and writers: Associate Professor Jim Davidson, Rhodes Trust Fellow, A biography of Professor Sir Keith Hancock Dr Dan Foley, Early New South Wales Ms Sara Joynes, Australian Archives & Bibliography

Dr David O’Reilly, contemporary British and Australian politics Associate Professor Nancy Underhill, Sidney Nolan

Subscriber universities In 2006-7 the following universities and institutions were members of the Australian Universities Subscription Scheme: Australian Catholic University Australian Defence Force Academy Australian National University University of Ballarat Curtin University of Technology Edith Cowan University Macquarie University University of Melbourne Monash University University of Newcastle University of New South Wales University of Queensland Queensland University of Technology Southern Cross University University of Sydney University of Technology, Sydney University of Western Australia University of Western Sydney

Corporate supporters P&O supported the Menzies Lecture. The Government of South Australia supported the Reese Memorial Lecture.

The future The Centre will develop an integrated research plan in 2007-8, linking it to the teaching and publications programmes. A new Menzies-Monash Fellowship scheme will be inaugurated for young Monash staff. Conferences are planned on: ‘The Australian High

Page 15

Commissioners’, with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; ‘Beveridge at 60’, with the Voluntary History Society and the University of Western Sydney; and ‘Patrick White’, with the Institute for English Studies.

Page 16

The Menzies Centre in brief

T

he Menzies Centre for Australian Studies was established at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, in 1982. Initially known as the Australian Studies Centre, it assumed its present name in 1988. In 1999 the Centre became part of King’s College London, and was endowed by the Australian Government. Other financial support is received from the Menzies Foundation, Monash University, Australian university subscriptions and P&O. The Menzies Centre’s object is to promote Australian studies at British and European universities. In its broadest manifestation, the Centre is an Australian cultural base in London, providing a highly regarded forum for the discussion of Australian issues. The Centre’s conferences, seminars and briefings attract a diverse audience and help to produce a more comprehensive, detailed and balanced perception of Australian politics, economics, life and culture than is popularly available. The Centre also administers a range of scholarship and fellowship schemes which help cement intellectual links between Australia and Britain. The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies offers an MA in Australian history, literature, film and politics and supervises MPhils and PhDs. It also teaches undergraduate courses in Australian history and literature. The Menzies Centre offers, as well, an Australian bridge into Europe, both western and eastern. The Centre’s staff are closely involved with the British Australian Studies Association and the European Association for Studies of Australia. In particular, staff lecture throughout Europe and offer informed advice on matters Australian to academics, the media, the business world and governments. The Menzies Centre constantly updates its informative website and publishes a newsletter three times a year, which includes news about the Centre’s conferences, seminars and other activities, and about Australian studies in general.

Menzies Centre for Australian Studies The Australia Centre Corner Strand and Mel bourne Place London WC2B 4LG email [email protected] website www.kcl.ac.uk/menzies