Inside the Bookcellar
A History of the Bookcellar
1958 – 2020
Melbourne
Dedicated to
John Carroll, founder of the Bookcellar
and
Ken Gott, previous Chair and author of the original history
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A note on nomenclature
Is it ‘Book Cellar’ or ‘Bookcellar’? The former was generally used until recent decades, and we have retained that spelling in those sections which are reprinted from previous editions. The name’s origins are discussed in those venerable pages.
However, we heartily endorse Walt Whitman’s dictum that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”, and will readily accept either – indeed, a third variant of ‘BookCellar’ is occasionally encountered!
Foreword to the 2020 (Fifth) Edition
It had become clear that we needed more copies of Inside the Bookcellar, our veritable publication given to each speaker. Three options were considered: simply reissue the “fourth” 2009 edition with a new foreword, add a chapter or two or undertake a comprehensive revision.
The first option fell short as much had happened in the last decade. We chose the middle course as the previous forewords and editions provide a link to our history and it would be disappointing to lose the insights they provide.
Hence this probable fifth edition is released. It does not celebrate a significant anniversary as other editions have done, although we did consider a revision to celebrate our 60th anniversary in 2018 but somehow the task was overtaken by other events. We think it is rather special to celebrate a 62nd anniversary as no other organisation probably does this. An option was to celebrate our anniversary in two years which would align with the Lennon and McCartney song When I’m Sixty-Four and pertinent because the Beatles mostly formed in the same year as the Bookcellar. Despite these alignments, we thought it wise to complete the probable fifth edition while we are able.
This probable fifth edition focuses on the period 2009 (when the last edition was prepared) to 2020, and it also attempts to document in some systematic way the significant array of illustrious speakers over the last forty years. Unfortunately, no records can be found prior to 1980 and circulars were not issued prior to that date. Additionally, very few records exist for the years 2012 and 2013.
In drafting this edition, we have taken guidance from the thrust and tenor of previous editions. The Preface and Acknowledgements (to Earlier Editions) states “The task of writing this history of the Book Cellar has been eased considerably by the complete absence of written records covering the group’s first twenty years.” Conversely, it can be argued that this edition has been made considerably more complex by the retention of records and with the availability of modern technology! We have tried to nod some acknowledgement of this fact.
Previous editions of Inside the Bookcellar can be summarised thus:
· the first edition to celebrate the group’s 25th anniversary in 1983 was written by Ken Gott;
· the second edition (same as the first with a new Foreword dated July 1992) to celebrate 35 years was produced by Brian Buckley, Bob Murray and Ian Jelfs;
· the ‘probable’ fourth edition (same as the second with a new Foreword dated January 2009 and minus the sections titled Envoi and Some Recent Speakers) was produced by Brian Buckley, Bob Murray, Ian Jelfs and Mike Provis; and
· the latest and ‘probable’ fifth (2020) edition is the same as the second edition but with a new Foreword, the addition of a new Chapter 5 and two appendices, one of which is the re-introduction of the list of speakers and topics as introduced in the 1992 edition. It was produced by Neil Perry with assistance from John Foley.
We do not have a record of a third edition, or perhaps we just haven’t understood the previous methodology!
In this edition we chose to include the Foreword to the 2009 Edition, the Foreword to the Second (1992) Edition, and the Preface and Acknowledgements (to Earlier Editions) for historical completeness. And for clarity, the Preface and Acknowledgements, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 (previously 5) as well as the Envoi were written by Ken Gott in 1983 and remain unchanged.
It is probably appropriate to refer to the period covered by this update as the Foley-Perry era. John Foley took over as Chairman in 2013 and was joined briefly by Peter Eltham and shortly afterwards by Neil Perry as Secretary. It also covers the first year of the Court-Perry partnership when Geoffrey Court took over the chair in 2020, a challenging year for all.
We pay tribute to our long-standing previous duo of Chairman Brian Buckley, who died in May 2013, and Secretary the historian Bob Murray. These members ran the show from 1990. They were ably supported by Mike Provis and Ian Jelfs. The strong memories, good filing systems as well as detailed banking records of these latter three have proven invaluable in informing this volume.
We also respectfully acknowledge all former Bookcellar leadership. A quote from the Second (1992) Edition reads “In keeping with the practice of lagging a few years behind the Soviet Union . . . ”. Following that tradition, in the last little while the ‘new guard’ made the decision to create a website where members can find copies of the circulars that have been located and is also used to announce our forthcoming gatherings and speakers.
Neil, John, Geoffrey and Peter
December 2020
Contents
Foreword to 2009 Edition
The Bookcellar went multicultural in February 2007 and moved to the Post-Deng Café in Little Bourke Street.
Ken noted in 1983 that the first edition used “the latest technology”. The type was set on a Tandy TRS-80 word processor and daisy-wheel printer, both long since consigned to the technology scrap heap in the sky.
In 1983 The Book Cellar had been meeting for three years at the Hotel Imperial on the Bourke-Spring Streets corner, which remained our home until 2007. Speakers in 1983 included Bob Hawke and Jeff Kennett, both yet to begin their reigns as head of government in Canberra and Melbourne.
The Book Cellar has survived for more than 50 years without rules, records, elections or votes - or even proudly, a consistent spelling of its name. That surely is remarkable, in age when speakers often want more than a free feed for their effort and when a faster, more efficient society allows ever fewer long lunches.
Extracts from introductions to previous editions take up the story.
Our former chairman, the late Ken Gott, wrote this little account to mark the 25th anniversary of The Book Cellar in 1983. This edition is only slightly amended from the original, which itself dealt mainly with the early years. If it now seems a little dated, the gap of 26 years and Ken’s chief objective at the time – to capture the story of the origins – is the explanation.
In the first edition of the book Ken suggested that The Book Cellar reflected some of Melbourne’s traits including the willingness for adversaries in political, religious, aesthetic, philosophical, academic and conflicts to meet and talk socially. He added: “At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think The Book Cellar has a lot to do with civilisation, with civilised behaviour and in living in a pluralistic, democratic society”.
Not that meetings have always revolved solely around adversary relationships, meetings going back to 1958 have reflected members’ desires to be better informed on a variety of matters.
This, if anyone ever wanted to write it down, could sum up the philosophy of The Book Cellar’s meetings, but it is also true that Ken and the other founders never believed that procedures and rituals should be set in stone and certainly the membership and style has changed over the years.
Ken died in 1990 and the present crew then took over: Brian Buckley as chairman, Bob Murray as secretary, Ian Jelfs as treasurer and Mike Provis as assistant secretary.
We had a second edition of the history reprinted in 1992 to mark 35 years of The Book Cellar. As we have no spare copies of this edition left, a fourth edition was due anyway and we decided that a present of it to each member (paid from accumulated reserves) would be a suitable way to mark its production.
Brian, Bob, Ian and Mike
January 2009
Foreword to Second (1992) Edition
The Book Cellar is now in its 35th year. We have reprinted Ken Gott’s silver anniversary history of our group, published in 1983, to mark this approach to the human halfway mark. We hope it will keep the Book Cellar tradition alive for a few more years.
Ken wrote the original history at the high point of the Gott era of the Book Cellar, which lasted from the late 1970s until Ken’s sudden death in February 1990. There was a change of pace in 1987, when – probably because of Ken’s health and energy were fading faster than we realised – meetings lapsed and we lost the traditional first Tuesday booking and switched to the first Wednesday of the month.
In keeping with the practice of lagging a few years behind the Soviet Union, we also began moving then to the Troika system of management, which was poised to take over when Ken died. Bob Murray became Secretary at the time to help Ken and after Ken’s first heart attack Brian Buckley became chairman and Ian Jelfs (who unlike most of us can add up) became treasurer. (We use the vague word “became” because nothing as definite as an election or appointment was involved; it sort of happened, in the inscrutable Book Cellar way).
Mike Provis became the Troika’s righthand man, as General Manager – Communications, looking after the mailing list on his computer. Mike also set the revised version of this book in type suitable for ageing eyes, as a mark of respect for Ken.
Brian, Bob and Ian
Preface and Acknowledgments
(to Earlier Editions)
The task of writing this history of the Book Cellar has been eased considerably by the complete absence of written records covering the group’s first twenty years.
Historians usually go to great pains to adorn their books with prefaces and forewords expressing gratitude to librarians, archivists and others who have made research materials and raw data available to them. Actually, these expressions are self-serving hypocrisy of the worst kind. Historians are like the rest of us - they hate to be confused or interrupted by facts. Most of them would like to be in the happy situation in which I find myself at the moment, writing on a topic in a period from which no documents survive to impede the free flow of imagination.
The lack of minutes or other written records of the Book Cellar prior to 1979 owes nothing to any epochal bibliophilic disaster, such as the fire which destroyed the library in Alexandria while Julius Caesar was besieged in the city, or the vanity of Shi Hung Ti, the Chinese Emperor who ordered all books burned in AD 213, in the naive hope that all recorded Chinese history would then begin from his reign. The lack of written records about this period of the Book Cellar is not due to any act of accidental or deliberate destruction, since there were no records to destroy. It is entirely due to sloth and carelessness, combined with members’ penchant for secrecy.
Even so, it is surprising that virtually nothing about the Book Cellar is to be found in files of newspapers and journals of this period.
After all, here is an organisation which for a quarter of a century largely set the agenda and style of Melbourne life, made and unmade governments, and exercised a profound and pervading influence on the moral and cultural values of the entire nation. It is even more remarkable when one considers the frequent innuendoes and speculation about supposed influence of the Melbourne Club which one hears and sees so frequently.
Only once has the name of the Book Cellar appeared in print. This was in Nation, a famous fortnightly published and edited by Tom Fitzgerald and George Munster between 1958 and 1972. The reference to the Book Cellar caused considerable consternation among members. It is reprinted, discussed and analysed later, in Chapter 4.
The fact that only once in twenty-five years have Book Cellar discussions leaked to the media is a great tribute to the respect shown by past and present members to the Book Cellar’s code of silence about what is said at meetings. Indeed some members are so punctilious in this regard that by due exercises at meetings, and at the bar before and after meetings, they ensure that they are in no position to betray subsequently anything that transpired.
However, we do have one invaluable source of scholarly data for the Book Cellar’s first twenty years. Befitting a group whose motto is Bibliotheca Garellia (which can be roughly translated as “bookworms are garrulous”), we have a two-hour tape recording of facts, reminiscences and admonitions by our founder and former chairman, John Carroll. This is referred to throughout subsequent chapters of this work as the John Carroll Oral Archive (JCOA). It has been immensely valuable in shaping this history, in providing detail, depth, verisimilitude, understanding of the characters of members, and insights into what are essentially inscrutable historical processes. However, it has not in any way inhibited the writing of this history. Moreover, since there is only one copy of this tape, which is safely in my possession, I can still write without any fear of contradiction. Even if challenged on any point I can, like ASIO, say it is all a misunderstanding due to a transcription error.
I therefore must express, on behalf of us all, thanks to John Carroll for the trouble he took to describe the history of the Book Cellar over so many years, and to compliment him on his vivid recollections of so many individuals and occasions along the way. In my case, the thanks to John are particularly enthusiastic, since I can lay at his door any inaccuracies or embarrassments in this history.
It would be invidious to single out any other individuals who have contributed to compiling this history, or to sustaining the Book Cellar for twenty-five years.
Having invoked that cliche, it would also be very vidious NOT to mention at least the following:
Des Niall, Ross Alexander, Bob Murray, Ian Jelfs, Stan Keon, Mike Provis, Vince Scully, Dean Bunney, Alex Frierley, Neil Clerehan, Frank Leonard, David Hardy, Stephen Murray-Smith, John Tilton, John Hope, Howard Nathan, Brian Buckley, Tony McAdam, Peter Austin, Rex Banks, George Birch, Dick L’Estrange, Barry Sinion, Tony Adair, Jim Byth, John Fogarty, Tom Dobson, Ray Marginson, Sir Zelman Cowan, Jack Conheady, Brian Johns, Ian Mair, John Fitzgerald, Roberts Dunstan, Michael Keon, John McLaren, Peter Cullen, Leo Hawkins, Les Waters, David Morton, Aurora Keon, Jim Staples, Senator Peter Rae, Allan Kellock, Peter Maund, Keith Dunstan, Jane Mullett, Brian Merrett, Don Hayward, Sir Billy Snedden, Bill, Mandy and Roma Burns, Bob Hawke, Denis Warner, Mike Bell, Ken Bradshaw, Kell Arnold, Terry Morris, and Jeff Kennett.
Scores of other names are saluted at appropriate places in the chapters which follow.
Ken Gott
1983
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Chapter 1
CARLTON AND THE CELTIC CLUB
When the Book Cellar was founded, Bob Menzies was Prime Minister and Henry Bolte was Premier. Jack Lang was still thundering away in his weekly Century, and Sir Arthur Warner was both Victorian Minister for Transport and chief of Electronic Industries Ltd. Dr Evatt was leader of the Labor Party and an aboriginal artist, Albert Namatjira, had been gaoled for six months for leaving a bottle of wine where one of his tribe could pick it up. Copper coins were still worth keeping, Boris Pastemak’s Dr Zhivago had just been published in English and solicitors representing Ezra Norton and Cyril Pearl were exchanging letters following the publication of the latter’s Wild Men of Sydney. The pubs in Victoria shut at 6 pm and BYO had not yet been coined. There were no massage parlours, op shops, funeral directors or loan offices; people had to manage with brothels, secondhand shops, undertakers and pawnshops. The Flinders Street railway yards were about to be roofed over. The Herald reported the death of a fertile duck in the Botanic Gardens with a poster reading:
MOTHER DUCK TRAGEDY
In 1959, two civil servants, John Carroll and Raymond O’Dea, opened a clandestine secondhand book shop in Carlton, opposite Peter Poynton’s Pink Pussy Cat Hotel. It was clandestine, not because of the nature of the books it sold, but because it was uncomely for civil servants to engage in such enterprise. It was a very exclusive shop, being open only two hours a day - at lunchtime. These limited hours were advertised in The Age and customers appeared. Some proved good company, fit to share the wine and food that the proprietors had brought for lunch, but others tended to be interruptions to the eating, drinking and talking.
Beneath the shop was a roomy cellar, stuffed with rubbish. Ray O’Dea suggested that if it could be cleaned out, it could serve as a meeting place for a discussion group which he and John Carroll had organised a year earlier. The executants of this idea were John Carroll, Des Niall and two of their sons. A truck and driver were borrowed to remove the contents of the cellar.
The proposal to hold the discussion group meetings in the cellar was mentioned to one of the book shop browsers, Ivo Hammett, who suggested calling it the Book Cellar. As John Carroll says in JCOA, it can be written as one word or two, “but two sounds better.”
However, no Book Cellar meetings were ever held in the book cellar. John and Ray, having rendered it habitable, decided that it was too far from their offices and too close to the counter lunch and other attractions at Peter Poynton’s pub. Another venue was suggested by Phil Garrett of the State Library, but before following this proposal we must look to the origin of the Book Cellar as a discussion group, as distinct from the origin of the name of the group, adopted at Ivo Hammett’s suggestion.
Soon after the Melbourne Olympic Games of 1956, the Celtic Club lured an outstanding chef from the kitchen of the Air Force Association. Alas, his considerable culinary skills did little to lure members from the Celtic Club bar. Food, fit for the gods, was going untouched. As members of the Club, John Carroll and Des Niall thought they could redress the imbalance between bar and dining room by arranging regular fortnightly luncheons with announced speakers and topics. They hoped this might also inspire other club members to arrange similar functions to boost use of the dining room. It was not to be. The club continued with a crowded bar and deserted dining room.
The Carroll-Niall lunches were, however, very successful. Regular participants, apart from Messrs Carroll, O’Dea, and Niall, included Tom Brennan, solicitor; Jack Gardiner, accountant for the Victorian Railways; Bill Allen, later to become Victorian director of the Department of Labour and National Service; Col Brennan, then doyen of law court reporters and later PRO for the Law Institute of Victoria; Bill Robeson, editor of the Industrial Information Bulletin; Brian Luscombe, the private secretary to Harold Holt and subsequently PRO of Telecom; Jack Lynch, parliamentary draughtsman; Terry O’Connor, magistrate; Martin Ryan, Chief of the Victorian Public Lending Library; Don Graves, then with Labour and National Service and more recently with the UN; and Bill Burt of the Commerce Faculty at Melbourne University.
These were the first Book Cellar lunches, although the name had not been coined at that time.
The impending move of the Celtic Club from Howey Court to new premises at the corner of Queen and Lonsdale Streets caused Carroll and Niall to look for a new venue for their luncheon group, as the new club location was too far from their offices. As mentioned above, it had been decided that the Carlton book cellar was also unsuitably placed. It was at this stage that Phil Garrett of the State Library made his suggestion.
Stan Keon had gone into the wholesale wine and spirit business in a warehouse in Waratah Place, off Little Bourke Street. The State Library was looking for a space for book storage but had declined space which Stan had available at his warehouse. Phil Garrett suggested to the two book shop operators that this warehouse space could serve both as a meeting place for the Celtic Club discussion group and as a base for continuing the book business. So began a very colourful era of the Book Cellar.
The luncheon discussions started by Carroll and Niall were continued at the Celtic Club’s new premises for some years by Jim Florance. When he died, the Book Cellar group, then operating from Waratah Place, joined the memorial luncheon to him at the Celtic Club in 1964. John Carroll recalls that the speaker was a young journalist, Bob Murray, who came under questioning by a veteran colleague, Col Brennan, regarding the average age of the staff of the newly-formed Australian for which Murray was working. The thrust of the questioning was that boys, not men, were running the Australian.
John Carroll has another memory of that lunch:
“Arthur Calwell was coming, but when he realised that Frank McManus was there he refused to sit in that room and sat just outside the door where he could hear what was going on, but he wouldn’t take part in it. Later on that conflict between these two was resolved, but not long before Arthur’s death.”
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Chapter 2
WARATAH PLACE
Stan Keon’s warehouse was an ancient wooden building with superb potential for a spectacular fire in a choice inner city area. It was of such inherent combustibility that it could have been razed to the ground without arousing even the merest suspicion of insurance fraud. Difficulty of access to the narrow lane in which it was situated would have ensured that the fire engines arrived too late, while the hogsheads of brandy and other potable spirits within would have provided some magnificent pyrotechnic effects.
A heady aroma of mature wines pervaded the building, particularly the ground floor, with its massive oak casks. Book Cellar meetings, however, were on an upper floor with access by a vertical ladder, or by the last remaining hydraulic lift in Melbourne. Its wooden cage was not unlike the cages you see in television programmes of Changi prison, the Burma railway and other epics in which prisoners- of-war toil as captives of the Japanese. To operate it, one had to pull a cable passing through the cage. Distantly would come the sound of water meeting its own level as the cage groaned and squeaked its way upwards. The descent was even more exciting.
The floor used for Book Cellar meetings and for the piles of volumes from the Carroll-O’Dea trading venture had at one time been used as a studio for creating theatrical scenery and later to store scenery and costumes. Here were cardboard Corinthian columns, wood and plaster representations of elegant eighteenth century gardens, Baroque balconies, and Venetian palazzos, all somewhat dusty. Picture hats, red jackets, pigtail wigs and huzzars’ uniforms brought back memories of Floradora, Maid of the Mountains, Chu Chin-Chow and the Chocolate Soldier. It’s a wonder that the Book Cellar didn’t forsake its political, literary and other discussions in favour of charades.
Stan Keon recalls at least one occasion when the hydraulic lift, having taken contingents of Book Cellar members up, refused to bring them down. Members had to make descents by ladder, not in itself a hazardous enterprise, except that the wine at lunch had, as usual, been generously supplied and greatly appreciated. He managed to shout to his assistant, Angelo, to pad the floor at the foot of the stairs with sacks and bags.
The warehouse was owned by the Melbourne City Council, which employed the only two maintenance men who could service the hydraulic lift. They belonged to a guild formed in medieval times by the craftsmen who made and operated the huge wooden catapults used in attacks on castles and fortresses. This was their trade union and up to 1940, when it had about a dozen members, it was affiliated to the Melbourne Trades Hall Council. The Guild’s headquarters was in Verona, Italy, and when Italy entered the war, the Guild was disaffiliated by the TUC. After the war the two guildsmen lodged complaints against the THC with the International Labor Organisation in Geneva. After some years the case was referred to the International Court at The Hague, which has yet to give its decision. However, the two guildsmen had long since died.
Having established the discussion group at Waratah Place and named it the Book Cellar, John and Ray decided to expand it beyond its Celtic Club base to include “people of varying religions, political beliefs, race and creed” from among their friends and acquaintances to have “as wide a spectrum as possible.”
“We stuck to our principle that the speaker on any occasion would be one of our own members. But, of course, among our membership we didn’t have complete omniscience, so from time to time we would recruit new members who knew more about a particular subject than we did - but not as a guest speaker. The whole object of this was to have a group of friends and acquaintances who would entertain each other.
“So the way we got over inviting a guest speaker was to invite a person to become a member and the price of membership was to give a talk - not necessarily on the first occasion.”
In a nutshell, only members can address the Book Cellar, but anybody who addresses it is therefore a member. This, mark you, was formulated long before Heller wrote Catch 22.
It is also a reminder that there are a few IOU’s around for the Book Cellar to collect in the form of addresses.
The confidentiality of Book Cellar discussions has been a fundamental principle from the beginning, and the political composition of some of the gatherings at Waratah Place made it more essential that ever.
The JCOA records that there were sometimes frank exchanges in a group which included Senator Frank McManus (DLP), Senator Bill Brown (ALP), Bill (later Sir Billy) Snedden (Lib.), Bob Brodney, solicitor to the ACTU and a foundation member of the Communist Party, although long lapsed by then. Plus Bob Santamaria, and George Crawford of the Plumbers’ Union, then as now on the left of the ALP. These frank exchanges “might not have taken place if those participating did not know that the other people who heard them would respect their confidence.”
Chairing some of those meetings must have called for considerable skill at times.
Those who joined the Book Cellar in this period included: Fred Flowers, of the Herald and Weekly Times, Brian Buckley, “Panzee” (later Sir Roy) Wright, Professor Oscar Oscar, Zelman (later Sir Zelman) Cowan, Julian Phillips, Jim Perkins, John Fogarty, Tom Dobson, Conrad Rabl and George Thomas, all of Melbourne University, Ken Piesse, an industrial officer in the off-shore oil industry, Peter Russo, Geoff Gleghorn, David Balderstone and Cyril Pearl, journalists all; two architects, Robin Boyd and Neil Clerehan; Bill Cook of the Rationalist Association; John Feely, Chief State Librarian, and Phil Garrett, mentioned earlier; two curators, Brian Finemore (art) and Alex Brierley (gardens); Ian Sharp, later to become a presidential member of the Arbitration Commission; Ken Carr of the Furniture Trades Society; Ken Stone from the Trades Hall Council; Gus Alford, secretary of the Victorian Branch of the Waterside Workers’ Federation; Jack (later Sir Jack) Egerton, whose ACTU business brought him frequently to Melbourne; Vince Scully, then secretary of the Victorian Education Department; a Scot with the unlikely name of John O’Rourke, who was a TV expert; Colin McDonald, first-class cricketer and a Melbourne City Councillor; Ian Turner, historian; Bob Carroll, accountant; Jack O’Driscoll, chief of the Licensing Court; Ken Bradshaw, Stephen Murray- Smith, Keith Dunstan and Michael Whiteman.
Ross Alexander and Bob Ansett came into the group during this period, as did Roy Snee, later to become Victorian Regional Director of the Department of Labour and National Service. Athol Townley appeared at some meetings, and the JCOA also lists Jimmy Demetri, licensee of the Canada Hotel, and Denis Warner.
There was also an American called Smith who appeared to be a refugee from the Teamsters’ Union and a South African trade official called Jan whose surname has been lost in the mists of time.
After Stan Keon moved his business to West Melbourne the Book Cellar met in several establishments - No 1 Swanston Street, better known as Young & Jackson’s; the Travellers’ Hotel opposite the Public Library; the Kelvin Club, the Canada Hotel in Swanston Street, the Latin Restaurant; and the Continental Hotel on the corner of Russell and Lonsdale Streets. The move to the Imperial Hotel came in 1981.
John Carroll describes the meals in Waratah Place as “frugal but satisfying”. On some occasions they consisted of cold cuts, cheese and rolls obtained from Coles, served on paper plates. On other occasions a cauldron of minestrone would be fetched by taxi from No 1 Swanston Street or beer soup brought in from a nearby Polish restaurant. Simple fare, with members helping themselves, left more time for discussion and with fewer interruptions to it.
What topics were discussed prior to the period for which there are records? John Carroll recalls the pill, censorship, Anzac Day, sculpture, architecture and many literary subjects. He feels that the group was sometimes “lukewarm” in choosing subjects, notably over Vietnam when the war there was creating such deep divisions and feelings in the community. At the same time, he recognises that there was some climate of fear at certain times over discussing Vietnam and other issues, particularly on the part of Commonwealth civil servants.
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Chapter 3
THE MELBOURNE SPY LOOKS IN
The only printed reference to the Book Cellar during its first twenty five years was in Nation of October 22, 1960. Nation was a fortnightly, published in Sydney, which did much to expand the horizons of journalism in Australia. Like its short-lived rival, Observer, it published on topics which were often taboo in Australian weeklies and dailies. Much of its material was contributed by working journalists who had information or stories which could not find homes in the papers which employed them. This gave Nation an “insider” quality, but it was always considered scrupulous in its handling of facts. Although working to deadlines several days before publication, it often scooped the dailies with stories of national significance.
One of Nation’s most widely read features was a column by its “Melbourne Spy”. There was much speculation about the Spy’s identity, but internal evidence suggests that more than one writer provided these columns. Often the finger was pointed to Cyril Pearl and sometimes to Ken Gott. Neither, however, has ever been seriously accused of writing the article on the Book Cellar which so upset members.
Melbourne Spy’s account of the Book Cellar was part of an article on Melbourne’s past and present secondhand book shops - revealing, perhaps, that the Book Cellar’s role in this trade was still noteworthy. It was headed:
“The Melbourne Spy wines and dines with the secondhand book elite.”
The article reported that “the secondhand book business is booming as never before,” although it noted with regret the demise of the famous Bookshop of Ellis Bird at the top end of Bourke Street and the destruction of Hanley’s Book Exchange, a block away, to make room for the Southern Cross Hotel. It took a glimpse at Gaston Renard’s shop, describing its owner as “bearded and fierce.”
It then had this to say:
But the most original and interesting of all the newer establishments is the “Bookcellar”, where matters bibliophilic are associated with two other important activities - eating and drinking. Those who have been initiated can find the Bookcellar on the top floor of a romantically derelict old building adjoining the Chinese quarter of Little Bourke Street. The ground floor is occupied by wine merchant Standish Michael Keon (better known in earlier days as the stormy and able member for Yarra). The top floor is devoted to books and an indescribable miscellany of tattered and discarded theatrical props and costumes.
The joint proprietors of this establishment conduct it as a sideline. They are John Carroll, a pleasant civil servant of middle age, with a bald head, a taste for classical scholarship, and a rather engaging hesitancy of manner, and his partner, Raymond O’Dea - younger, darkhaired, and a graduate of Melbourne University, with a touch of undergraduate enthusiasm and volubility still clinging to him.
Every Thursday lunchtime (according to the report of an apprentice Spy) the aged hydraulic lift creaks its way to the top floor of the old prop store, bearing a cargo of weirdly assorted bibliophiles. They range from former pillars of the extreme left, such as Stephen Murray-Smith of the Teachers’ Union, to former pillars of the extreme right such as Mr Bill Bourke, former Federal Member for Fawkner and former staunch upholder of the Democratic Labor Party. Doctors, lawyers, architects, University lecturers, journalists, PR men, civil servants - of every conceivable political, religious and social variety, they gather round a table piled with rude plenty and an ample supply of uncorked bottles of Mr Keon’s good red Australian wine. The books stand in serried rows behind the diners, and such is the civilising balm of food, wine and scholarship that this association of seeming incompatibles has never heard a voice raised in expostulation.
Though cheerful and unguarded conversation flows all the time, it is sometimes arranged that one member will be asked to open discussion on a set topic with a few leading remarks. Thus, the genial Stan Keon may talk about his stock-in -trade, wine, later to be knowledgeably cross-examined by the urbane Cyril Pearl. Steven Murray-Smith, on another occasion, may attack the Australian idolatry of Anzac Day, while across the table, above his Naval and Military Club tie, the face of the officer who differs from him will not so much as turn a deeper shade of pink.
Flattering though this may have been to the Book Cellar, it nevertheless represented a report of things said and done “in club”. Somebody had leaked.
Worse was to come when the report turned to what purported to be a direct quotation and attribution to members:
Indeed, perhaps the only subject which may have gone near to ruffling scholarly calm was related, strange to say, to books. The gathering heard a spirited defence of book censorship by Melbourne’s new Public Librarian, Mr J A Feely. Cross examination was, if anything, a trifle warmer than usual.
Sample:
“Are you in favour of banning Lolita, Mr Feely?”
“Yes!”
“Have you read Lolita, Mr Feely?”
“No!”
But perhaps it was as well that the topic was aired where it was, and not in another well-known secondhand bookshop further down Bourke Street. Seward’s Bookshop, largely controlled by Mr Feely’s Chairman of Trustees, the Rev Dr C Irving Benson, would have to empty shelf after shelf of curiosa if censorship were applied on the principles laid down by the new Chief Librarian.
It was no laughing matter for four Book Cellar members who personally suffered embarrassment or worse as a result of the Spy’s perfidy. As a wholesaler, Stan Keon was not supposed to allow consumption of liquor on his premises. Ray O’Dea, who was handling a particularly important case at the time, was carpeted by the union which employed him for not devoting himself fully to his work. As a civil servant, John Carroll was not expected to engage in other enterprises. John Feely had delicate negotiations in process which he considered were jeopardised by the breach of confidentiality displayed in the article.
However the Book Cellar survived this unwelcome spotlight on its meetings, with the chairman emphasising more strongly than ever that proceedings were confidential.
Since then, there have been twenty-three years (Now 50 Ed.) golden silence about Book Cellar proceedings and no repetition of the trauma of October 1960.
The Carrolline era lasted well into the ‘70s, but eventually lapsed for a short time after John retired from the Public Service. However, the Book Cellar was able to draw timely strength from another stream of Melbourne lunching tradition. In the mid-60s, Norm Fisher and John Patterson had begun regular lunches at the Francis Hotel in Lonsdale Street for what were then “young blokes (and occasional birds) interested in the Labor Party”.
The younger John Button and Ralph Willis were among the regulars at these. Although these lapsed, Bob Murray and Peter Fisher, who had been in this group, decided that informal, but non-political discussion of public administration questions would be a good idea.
They drew on the inspiration, and to some extent membership, of these earlier lunches to get a new series going. These met at the Continental Hotel in Russell Street, but foundered for want of a good mailing list.
Ross Alexander was the entrepreneur in arranging, over a beer with Bob Murray, a merger of these lunches with the remains of the Book Cellar, which immediately returned to its old self. The Alexandrian Epoch, with Ross as Chairman/convenor, lasted for two or three years, until the takeover of the Ansett group changed that organisation’s old lunching habits. Ross then handed over his dictatorial powers to Ken Gott in 1979.
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Chapter 4
INTO THE EIGHTIES
Unfortunately some written records of the Book Cellar survive from 1980 onwards. Their stern testimony must oblige a shift of gear on the part of this historian, rather like abandoning the method of a Manning Clark for that of a Geoffrey Blainey. The records are mainly copies of notices to members, along with copies of letters to potential speakers.
There are also two pages, numbered 25 and 26, known as the Marginson Fragment. The earlier twenty- four pages are not to be found, nor any pages beyond twenty-six. The two pages were distributed by biochemist Max Marginson when he spoke on Drink and Food in April 1980. When one notices that he spoke on April 1, it is obvious that he distributed these two pages as part of an elaborate joke to set off a search for the missing sheets.
The two pages, incidentally, relate entirely to drink, the ethanol content of various wines, beers, spirits and liqueurs, and per capita consumption of these. Food is not mentioned.
Written notices of Book Cellar meetings were not always sent out. At periods, members came along by intuition or were notified by a chain-letter system of telephone calls – “You phone Ross and ask him to phone Dave and Mike and for Mike to tell John”. The system worked reasonably well, particularly since meetings were always on the first Tuesday of the month (except in November and January when for obvious reasons, there could not be meetings).
However telephoning, even if decentralised, is messy, uncertain and time-consuming compared to opportunities afforded by such technological marvels as word-processors and photocopying machines, particularly when allied with the profound sense of community responsibility felt by many leading corporations. All companies have discovered Public Relations, but beyond that arcane realm is another, even vaguer and less tangible - Community Relations. This is not the place to discuss whether PR subsumes CR or vice versa, but merely to note that Community Relations includes such things as giving employees time off to attend municipal council meetings and duties and to allow photocopying of minutes of Parents and Teachers Associations in which employees are involved. The splendid letter-head of the Book Cellar is due to the enlightened sense of Community Relations in a leading Australian transport group. Members would also notice that invitations to meetings in the 1980s came in envelopes showing that the mailing originated from a variety of solid, leading Australian companies. That, too, was Community Relations at work.
Written invitations provide a record of occasions, speakers and topics since 1980. At that stage we were meeting at the Continental Hotel, corner of Russell and Lonsdale Streets. For lunch, there was a choice of steak or fish, and a show of hands soon had the food under preparation.
Speakers in this era included Kate White (the first woman to address the group) on the turbulent politics of the Cain (Snr.) and Hollway governments in Victoria, Max Marginson, who distributed the fact sheet which forms part of our sparse archives; Barry Jones spoke on the new technology, well ahead of the book he later published on the same subject; Ken Gott demonstrated that the political spectrum could not be illustrated by a line running from left to right, nor even in two- dimensional terms, but could only be adequately represented by an onion; Mr Justice Staples drew a large December attendance and argued that radio was properly a matter for the States, not the Commonwealth.
At the start of 1981 the hospitable and efficient Greek syndicate which had run the Continental Hotel ceased to have the lease. The new owners did not wish to know us. It was not easy to find another suitable venue in time for the February, meeting at which Senator Peter Rae was to speak on “Qangos”. Bill and Roma Burns were willing to accommodate our meetings at the Imperial Hotel, but were not taking up their hotel in time for Senator Rae’s meeting.
The Peter Rae meeting was held at a nearby establishment which was also undergoing a change of management. This probably explains the failure of service (no food arrived until about 1.40 pm) and the bill was well beyond the ambit agreed upon. The chairman paid about half the bill as evidence of good faith and offered to negotiate for any extra. This reasonable offer was utterly ignored, despite his repeating it several times. Instead he received a stream of dunning letters, rising to a crescendo of threats of legal action, garnishees and debtors’ prison.
It is only fair to repeat that the establishment concerned was not only undergoing a change of management, but also major reconstruction, and this may explain its uncouth recalcitrance. Nothing was heard of the matter for over two years. The funds which were set aside for a negotiated settlement were banked, and it seemed fitting (and safe) to use them, plus accrued interest, to subsidise the Book Cellar’s silver jubilee.
Later that year Stan Keon spoke on “What it means to be Irish” and Steve Crabb characterised Victoria as “the state of decay”. Other speakers included John McLaren on Labour politics in the UK; Allan Kellock of Telecom on “The Wire Society”; John Fitzgerald, the former editor of The Herald, after a decent interval in public relations, spoke on “The view from the other side of the Jordan”. Other speakers included Barry Simon and Brian Johns.
Members (including some who appear rarely) and potential members provided most of the 1982 addresses. They included Peter Maund (then with the SEC), Leo Hawkins (“Why should nice people join political parties?”), Peter Cullen, Les Waters and Keith Dunstan.
Bob Hawke drew a record attendance when he addressed the first 1983 meeting. Before the week was over, he was de facto Leader of the Opposition, before being confirmed as such by the ALP caucus. The rest is history. If only in retrospect, many probably share my view that the way he spoke on that occasion implied that he already knew he had the ALP leadership.
The Bob Hawke lunch was the first Book Cellar meeting organised by amateur radio on the 80-meter band. The group had two licensed amateurs among its members, Mike Provis VK 3KKA and Ken Gott VK 3KGX. Ken, as usual, was on Erith Island in Bass Strait in January and in a hook-up with Mike:
“Remember that eminent figure who promised to address us about ten months ago?”
“Yes.”
“Would you phone his secretary and see if he is OK for February 1?”
The following night Mike reported that the eminent figure would speak. Thus was secrecy preserved.
‘The inviters - Stan Keon, Ray 0’Dea and myself. In view of his occupation and preoccupations at that time, that trio of names, especially taken in conjunction with those of Frank McManus and Bill Bourke, could have opened up a frightening prospect On the other hand, any guilt by associating with them may well have been diminished by an equal association with Bob Brodney, Steven Murray-Smith, Ian Turner, et al.”
As a change of tempo, the March meeting was addressed by Jane Mullett, trapeze artist from Circus Oz. It evolved into a seminar, relaxed yet stimulating, on politics and popular culture and on the artist’s enduring dilemmas over integrity and survival.
State Opposition Leader, Jeff Kennett, addressed the April meeting, frequently reminding the chairman that he had to be away by 2.15 pm for urgent business on the other side of Spring Street. He remained for at least half an hour beyond that time. If there has been a Book Cellar meeting which has finished at 2.15 pm or even 2.30 pm then I must have missed it (and here I speak only of discussion at table, as distinct from the bar).
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Chapter 5
BEYOND THE NOUGHTIES
This probable fifth edition of Inside the Bookcellar enables us to extend the story to the period 2010 to 2020.
The last ‘crew’ to update this tome did not say much about the speakers and activities of the Bookcellar between the eighties and 2009. However, the presenters they attracted were impressive (see Appendix 2) covering a notable range of local, national and international topics. The ‘crew’ were well-connected and were able to attract senior politicians and business-people currently in office. For example, Alan Stockdale spoke when he was the Victorian Treasurer as well as Richard McGarvie, then Victorian Governor.
Many of the themes from the 2010-2020 period are worthy of comment and reflection. A stand-out is the location of the Bookcellar lunches. This topic has attracted a great deal of interest over the years and the Foley-Perry era has continued to add to the intrigue.
By way of background, previous editions of Inside the Bookcellar reveal that meetings were held at the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Spring and Bourke Streets for 24 years from 1983. The Imperial was ideally suited to the Bookcellar given its proximity to the seat of power in Spring Street. Members could quickly arrive at the scene if there was a coup, a change of government without notice or even a petty squabble between parties. The Imperial also met former chair Ken Gott’s ‘ideal size’ of being able to cater for 50 members.
All was going well until there was a change of management at the Imperial in 2007 and the fare was unilaterally raised to what members considered to be an exorbitant $30 per person. The Bookcellar ‘board’ rather cleverly changed the meeting place to the west and east at the same time when they selected what was then known as the Post Deng in Little Bourke Street as the new venue. Perhaps they also went a little south as well, as the new venue was very much down market? However, a much more reasonable $20 per person tariff was afforded, which is a stunning 33% reduction. It is interesting to note that our current charge is only $25 per person some 13 years later. A few years ago, Foley-Perry daringly proposed an increase to $30 per person which was met with strong opposition from some influential members and the motion was quickly abandoned.
Members of the Bookcellar quickly developed a taste for exotic oriental food and enjoyed the ambiance of this rather clandestine but large upstairs venue. The stairs were steep, but it was well worth the journey. And this was in keeping with the Bookcellar ethos. The service was under the direction of our maître d’ Fai Sing (Simon) Yiu. Things worked very efficiently under Simon’s authoritative style of managing the event and directing staff.
The Bookcellar then took two other momentous steps aligning with twenty-first century technology. In a similar vein to Ken Gott’s proud announcement in 1983 that the ‘latest technology’, a Tandy TRS-80 word processor and daisy-wheel printer was being used for its publications, other technological great leaps forward were made.
First, a basic public address system was acquired. There is an unsubstantiated rumour this single-wired microphone model was a left-over from Deng Xiaoping’s administration and came from China with the name of the restaurant. Another rumour is equally incredible; Ian Jelfs found it on the side of the road! That could be partly true, as being a technology whizz Ian linked a pair of home stereo speakers to a found amplifier and connected it all with some magic wires and a cheap Dick Smith microphone. Regardless of its origin, whatever the system lacked in sound quality and quantity it probably more than made up for in age and providence and required a special knack to make it work at all let alone for the entire luncheon. This writer offered the device plenty of social distancing even before the term was invented!
Encouraged by the fact that the membership had become enthusiastic late adopters of technology, the Perry-Foley team made a second great leap forward. This was to communicate with members exclusively by email. The business of posting circulars to members was cumbersome, time-consuming and becoming increasingly expensive. Thus, it was in the enlightened self-interest of the new Secretary to manage the database electronically rather than to stuff and post envelopes. While Mike Provis had made a start at emailing circulars to a limited number of members using his own account, our own Bookcellar email account was established and members were given three months to convert. The transition was successful and at the time of writing there are only three members continuing to receive circulars by ‘snail mail’.
The Foley-Perry team also undertook a covert and until recently top-secret project to establish a Bookcellar website. This was created despite some long-term members expressing doubts about the efficacy of such a move. The reasoning behind Foley-Perrys’ initiative was having a website would streamline the process of attracting speakers. Instead of writing a long email or having a lengthy phone call explaining the Bookcellar, we could simply provide the link. The underlying truth may be that the current mob is less well connected and articulate than our predecessors and we need such technological aids. Naturally, we kept the website quiet for a few years and only opened it for public viewing when we knew a potential speaker would search the site. We are pleased to report there have not been any security breaches or breakdowns of the Chatham House rule and the Official Secrets Act remains intact.
Things seemed to be going well at the Post Deng, although it was wise to remain ignorant about the goings on behind the scenes. For example, this author left a pair of reading glasses at a lunch and returned to collect them in the mid-afternoon. It seems staff used the restaurant as their day dormitory between shifts as there were about half a dozen people sleeping on the benches and the floor.
Then we had our own Mother Duck Tragedy (see Chapter 1). In a story that sounds too bizarre to be true, in early 2015 our Post Deng maître d' Simon Yiu was charged with murder, defensive homicide and manslaughter. The incident occurred in a car park near the restaurant. Simon was placed in remand for the remainder of the year.
The subsequent court case revealed that our maître d' had been living illegally in Australia for more than 30 years. He initially borrowed $2,000 from another party to gamble in 2007 and continued to borrow more money from him despite being charged interest on the loan until the debt reached $24,000 – and so the incident occurred.
Simon’s stoic demeanour was missed, although it would be an exaggeration to suggest we were fond of him. Not long afterwards, the Post Deng ceased trading without notice. This scribe fronted up at the restaurant one day before the April 2015 meeting to confirm the arrangements only to find the restaurant was locked – as in chains on the door and a sign in Mandarin posted large. A local Chinatown passer-by helped with the translation and confirmed that indeed it was permanently closed. We hurriedly booked a restaurant next door for the upcoming meeting and agreed a price. Clearly, we were at a disadvantage in this negotiation. The meeting went ahead but the venue was totally inappropriate and so new premises were urgently sought.
After a quick search of the city and inspecting some shortlisted sites we eventually settled on Max on Hardware. The main advantage of this venue was that it had a twenty-first century, Western public address system that we could utilise. Otherwise, it was a bit cramped, perhaps too modern for the ‘old guard’, nowhere near as mysterious and devious and it was also probably too much of an uphill trek for our ageing membership despite the fact that no internal staircase needed to be ascended. And in truth it was probably too far from the seat of power in Spring Street. Nevertheless, we persisted for the rest of 2015 until someone spotted that our old haunt was now back in business. It was time to again head back east in both senses.
We returned to 214 Little Bourke Street in February 2016 only to find poor old Deng’s name had been erased from the front door for conforming to CCP sensitivities. Initially we were flummoxed as to the correct new name of the restaurant – was it the Spicy Tongue or Mao Please? Eventually we settled on the latter and that is where we have remained.
During this period of upheaval we were pleased to learn that our former maître d' was found ‘not guilty’ of murder and the other charges – although we have not seen him since at either Post Deng or its successor Mao Please.
The removal of the Post Deng designation also meant our Deng model public address system was missing. Perhaps it had been repatriated to the homeland? Or perhaps someone put it out on the nature strip? As fond as we were of the old model, its disappearance was a blessing in that we upgraded to a twenty-first century system of our own with two cordless microphones. It is sensible to have the second microphone ‘roaming’ so questioners can be heard. However, as with all groups, some people seem to have a natural affinity with a live microphone and care is needed when managing question time. We have established a well-practised protocol for handling questions, which will remain secret for now.
It seems we are well entrenched back at 214 Little Bourke Street and we really don’t care what it is called. While the food isn’t to everyone’s taste at least we don’t receive complaints about the quantity served. There is always some remaining at each table at the end of the meal. Since Simon’s demise we’ve had some excellent waiters in charge – perhaps we’ll reserve the title maître d’ for Simon. Christine did an excellent job of keeping the show on time, Bryan’s more flamboyant style was interesting and Jess’s no-nonsense demeanour is efficient. And the restaurant has been extremely accommodating with some members’ increasingly demanding dietary requirements, some of which are probably completely foreign to Chinese cuisine.
We have had a few interesting ‘moments’ at the restaurant. At one meeting the food seemed to be very late in coming. Upon investigation it turns out the chef had spat the dummy and walked out and the other staff were hurriedly preparing the food. Whilst our meals were late no one noticed the difference! And on another day four hefty men arrived mid-meeting to shift a large commercial refrigerator down the perilous stairs. Whatever – we just carried on.
Membership of the Bookcellar is another topic worthy of reflection. Our founders sensibly set no relevant rules, criteria or qualifications. They reasoned everything should be left to individual members – if they consider someone is worthy of joining then that was that.
John Foley revealed at one meeting that members join after being speakers or guests on the say-so of members. Termination of membership occurs under clauses (a) or (b):
· Clause (a) – “no running on the stairs” – is the physical test of climbing the stairs;
· Clause (b) – “Kurtzke 10” – is a measure of physical disability applicable to the deceased.
So it is that no formal records of the membership have been kept and probably never will. That said, thanks to the diligence of Mike Provis, Bob Murray and Ian Jelfs for keeping some informal records, we have been able to piece together some ‘time capsules’ of the membership at various periods over the years.
Examination of these historic caches embedded in the ‘archival’ documents reveals there were 87 members in 1987, which has a pleasing symmetry. About a decade later in 1998 there were 97 members and 93 in 2009. Then things become volatile. In 2014 we had 86 members and in 2020, 193 members. The latter assumes an entry on the database represents a member. Perhaps the more than 100% increase in the Foley-Perry era is the fact that we converted to almost entirely electronic distribution of circulars? There was no longer a cost impediment to inviting people along.
However, there is a dark statistic on which we must shine a light: our record of female membership. In the ‘time capsule’ years reported above, the proportion of female membership is startling and damning – five in 1987 (6%), three in 1998 (3%), four in 2009 (4%) and six in 2014 (7%). Our current membership (2020) has only 30 females (18%). This is a matter for the urgent attention of all members as it cuts to our very future and viability as a relevant group. We hope whoever produces the next Inside the Bookcellar update can report at least 50% female membership.
Another interesting dynamic about the Bookcellar is the level of participation of members. Generally, this is low. Looking at the scraps of evidence we have been able to uncover, it seems that only 25 – 30% of members attend meetings. This ratio was true over the long period from the late eighties to the early noughties when the membership was ‘about 90’ and most meetings only attracted 20 – 30 members. A big meeting was when Sir Zelman Cowan addressed the group in 1998 and 47 turned up.
The same ratio is also true over the last year. Only around 50 of the nearly 200 members regularly come to a particular meeting. Perhaps this means serendipity is a wonderful thing given Ken Gott’s proclamation (refer Chapter 6) that 50 is an ideal number of attendees. He wrote the limitation of that number of people at the Imperial Hotel was appropriately intimate as even “at that number, the concept of information, spirited, spontaneous, uninhibited, meaty discussion is endangered.” We will return to participation when referring to Zoom meetings but suffice to say for now that we have blown our attendance records out of the water.
The Foley-Perry era also produced a very interesting range of quality speakers including former senior politicians from all sides, a High Court judge, senior business-people, police, journalists, academics and a pilot. The current team has also made a significant departure from previous dynasties.
In 1983 a previous chairman Ken Gott stated (refer Chapter 6):
“The present Chairman accepts the John Carroll rule that members of the CIA, ASIO, the Police Special Branch, and similar organisations should not be in the Book Cellar and for John’s reasons, namely that their duties may oblige them to report what was said to their superiors.”
The Foley-Perry team breached this covenant many times. Not only did we have several serving and retired senior police officers address the group, a former ASIO spy (Molly Sasson – November 2016) also made a most impressive presentation along the lines of ‘more cloak than dagger’.
Unfortunately, we haven’t had the foresight to invite a Circus Oz trapeze artist to speak as a previous group did. While the records show she probably was not the most inspiring speaker, when two of our more recent speakers were being ‘recruited’ they both mused how they could not refuse the opportunity to appear on the same stage as a trapeze artist. And Malcolm Turnbull commented that being a trapeze artist must be like being in politics as both involve a lot of aerial stunts and contortions!
The majority of Foley-Perry era speakers told a compelling tale. A couple of the ‘highlights’, especially in terms of the number of members who attended by reaching the capacity of the restaurant (about 70 persons), were Michael Kirby, Sir Rod Eddington, Alexander Downer, Richard de Crespigny, Kel Glare and Geoffrey Blainey. Each had their own story which they projected well. It never ceases to amaze how we manage to attract such high quality speakers for nothing but a cheap Chinese meal and a modest bottle of wine. Let’s keep that secret to ourselves.
It is worth reflecting on speakers in a wider context. There have been 398 known Bookcellar speakers since 1980 (see Appendix 2). While the Bookcellar has been in ‘hibernation’ a couple of times over the years, unfortunately there are some big holes in the records. We have probably had around 600 speakers since 1958.
Although there have been many varied and interesting speakers and topics, another conspicuous dark statistic is the low number of female speakers. As previously mentioned, Kate White was the first female speaker invited to the Bookcellar in March 1980. Sadly, this was 22 years after the group’s inception. Her topic was the turbulent politics of the Cain (Snr) and Hollway governments in Victoria. Our founders proffered the involvement of women would be inevitable and gradual. Neither has been the case.
From the available records, of the 398 known speakers only 30 are females – or 8% of the total number of presenters. This low level of female participation has not altered over the years. In fact, the female participation run-rate has slightly decreased in more recent times. For example, only including speakers since 2000, 2010 and 2015 yielded 7%, 6% and 7% of female presenters respectively. This is another matter for the urgent attention of all members as it cuts to our very future as a viable and relevant group. We hope whoever next updates this history has a more positive story to tell about the proportion of female speakers.
Past Bookcellar chairmen have continued for decades. John Foley respected no requirement to die in office although he adheres strictly to John Carroll’s dictum that the Bookcellar can only operate satisfactorily with a chairman who adopts L’Etat, c’est moi, as his motto.
To that end, the Foley-Perry era terminated in December 2019 and the new chair, Geoffrey Court, took up the cudgel of chairing meetings, securing speakers and managing other challenges – including the COVID-19 pandemic. Our long-standing Treasurer, Ian Jelfs, also relinquished his role at the end of 2019. Not only did Ian leave the financial records in good order, he was meticulous in documenting and accounting for every cent. This is reflected in our healthy bank balance. Ian left our new Treasurer, Peter Coatman, some large shoes to fill.
The Court-Perry year of 2020 started with some controversy. Our January speaker was Margaret Court (disclosure – also related to our chair) on the topic of becoming a tennis champion. For reasons widely known, the Bookcellar and Mao Please were threatened with a ‘huge’ protest outside the restaurant with media in attendance. In true Bookcellar style, a cunning plan was hatched. A surreptitious and covert rear entry passage to the restaurant via a car park with a friendly attendant willing to open a locked gate was found. We secreted the speaker and her party through the food preparation and kitchen areas of which, by the way, the less known about the better! This operation would have been fitting if our speaker was a former ASIO spy. However, the protest only attracted three people. As that veteran campaigner, Bob Murray, said when he saw the demonstrators in full flight – “I would be disappointed if I had organised that one”.
It was this meeting which became only the second occasion (see Chapter 3 for the first) when the Bookcellar was mentioned in the media. In a flagrant breach of both the Bookcellar history and the Chatham House Rule, some alleged comments made at this meeting reached The Age. This history cannot confirm or deny whether the media report was correct.
The next two meetings ran without controversy and were well received, especially former ACCC head, Allan Fels. Then the defecation hit the rotary oscillator as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The April meeting was cancelled (subsequently rescheduled for November 2020) and we all sat there looking at each other wondering what to do and whether the world would survive. Perhaps the Bookcellar was heading for another period of hibernation as well?
It was Max Berry’s suggestion that we should consider conducting meetings using the Zoom video conferencing facility that prompted us into action. Although very few of us had even heard of Zoom, let alone knew how it worked, we did so. A lack of knowledge and experience has never been a hindrance in the past. In fact, the Zoom meetings have been a great success both in terms of interesting speakers and achieving record attendances.
The first Zoom speaker was Dr Geoff Love, former Director of the Bureau of Meteorology and head of the World Meteorological Organisation. The June speaker was former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull who attracted record numbers. He was followed by former news director and journalist Garry Linnell, who told a ripper yarn about the convict William Buckley.
Since then we have held Zoom sessions about the rise of India with Robin Jeffrey, former High Court Chief Justice Robert French spoke about the view from the High Court, John Barron from the ABC about the forthcoming US elections and Peter Edwards on intelligence agencies impacting on our civil liberties.
We are all learning about Zoom ‘etiquette’. For example, members are urged to turn off their camera if they are going to read the paper, speak on the phone, have lunch or pick their nose! And in one very amusing incident Malcolm Turnbull said he felt like a skin specialist when Max Berry’s camera kept zooming on his face to a macro setting whilst asking a question.
It turns out that we are not the first Bookcellar mob to use ‘modern’ technology for meetings. In a way we don’t understand, Mike Provis (VK 3KKA) and Ken Gott (VK 3KGX) applied the magic of amateur two-way radio to facilitate some meetings. Somehow Mike linked Ken to the meeting when he was based at Erith Island in Bass Strait. We’ll leave the details to the imagination.
The introduction of Zoom into our ‘arsenal’ poses some interesting questions. Should we always insist on an ‘in person’ meeting? – if or when we are allowed. Zoom enables us to engage speakers from anywhere in Australia and around the world without the travel (and accommodation) costs. The technology also allows participation of members who find the stairs at the Mao Please a step too far. And we ponder if we might be able to attract younger and more technology savvy members to the group by using such applications as Zoom to shore up our future? These are interesting questions for the post Foley-Perry era to contemplate.
In the first edition of Inside the Bookcellar Ken Gott suggested that the Book Cellar reflected some of Melbourne’s traits including the willingness for adversaries in political, religious, aesthetic, philosophical, academic and other conflicts to meet and converse socially. We now try to link occasionally with fellow reprobates across our nation and even from Sydney!
Not that meetings have always revolved solely around adversarial relationships – more members desire to be better informed on a variety of matters. This, if anyone ever wanted to write it down, could sum up the philosophy though certainly the membership and style has changed over the years. Our style is irreverent, respectful of differences, tolerant of eccentricity and Australian. All that said, an equitable gender balance both in membership and speakers should be a priority.
We seem fascinated with topics like crime, history, books, politics, sport, international affairs and also partial to sewerage, transport, power and Melbourne more than economics and philosophy. The current team hopes we have continued with at least some of these themes.
The hard task of securing great speakers has been greatly assisted by a committee which includes Bob Murray, Mike Provis, Ian Jelfs, Miriam Lasky, Michael Folie, Geoffrey Court, Rene Blazak, Peter Edwards, John Foley and Neil Perry. Perhaps the current committee might ask the same questions about gender equality of itself as we have posed regarding membership and presenters?
After 62 years of ‘continuous’ operation this probable fifth edition was well overdue. We have decided to make it available to all members as a PDF file. Can anyone name another organisation that has celebrated its 62nd anniversary? Another first for the Bookcellar!
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Chapter 6
AUTOCRACY, THE HIGHEST FORM OF ANARCHY
The Book Cellar is undoubtedly an anarchist organisation, but in the finest sense.
It has no written rules or constitution, no agreed forms for electing office-bearers, and indeed, no office bearers beyond a chairman. It is not registered under any of the acts relating to companies, cooperative societies, charities, non-profit foundations, trade unions, learned bodies, churches or copyright. (Somebody could sell our good name and we couldn’t do a thing about it). It keeps no minutes and although it accidentally acquired a savings bank account in 1981, this was largely emptied by the Silver Jubilee function.
John Carroll believed strongly that it could only operate satisfactorily with a chairman who adopts L Etat, c’est moi, as his motto. Otherwise you have elections, committees, resolutions and all sorts of things adding up to anarchy in the worst sense. People quarrelling with you against their own best interests.
That’s the way John Carroll operated and that was his advice to the present Chairman. It does not preclude the chairman from seeking advice and views from members - and utterly disregarding these if he so chooses.
At least two members in former times suggested that the Book Cellar have a committee. One subsequently became Governor-General and the other became a judge. Neither got over the first obstacle of persuading John Carroll that there should be a committee. That should tidy up the constitution issue and nonsense about elections, leaving the way clear to consider membership. What are the qualifications?
According to the John Carroll canon, “there are none really....except the ability to think, talk and discuss, and be acceptable to other members and accept the ‘in club’ atmosphere”. As to acceptability, “there are no votes and no blackballs,” meaning that the decision rests on one individual, namely the Chairman.
The present Chairman accepts the John Carroll rule that members of the CIA, ASIO, the Police Special Branch, and similar organisations should not be in the Book Cellar and for John’s reasons, namely that their duties may oblige them to report what was said to their superiors. He has not, however, accepted John Carroll’s views on women and the Book Cellar. His approach has been a Fabian one - the inevitability of gradualness.
The present Chairman has one thing to add to the membership rules and that is that potential new members should have some sort of a sense of humour, be it wry, ribald, subtle, ironic or even sardonic. When the Book Cellar ceases to reflect the human comedy, and to create its own versions of it, he won’t be there.
One of the temptations to be indulged in at times, but not habitually, is to enlist big name speakers. We now have a recent track record that includes a prime minister, several state and federal ministers, and important academics, bureaucrats and writers among our speakers, quite apart from out past glories. With this to show there is virtually no public figure in Australia who will not seriously consider an invitation to address the Book Cellar.
While the time, the place and the loved one may not always coincide, or not coincide for several months, virtually the only people who will not consider invitations to address the Book Cellar are: (a) those who are inherently shy and who dislike public speaking, and (b) the true professionals, such as Ron Barassi and Lou Richards, whose jaws can only be activated by cheques of $500 and upwards.
I hope that all of us are aware of the need for human replenishment and will be on the lookout for new members of the Book Cellar. These promising colts will have to address a luncheon, but if the promise is sufficient the occasion can be postponed for up to three years, subject of course to the Chairman’s approval.
Then there is the question of intimacy, and I do not use the word in the sense that it was used in newspapers thirty years ago. Our facilities at the Imperial Hotel limit us to attendances of fifty. That’s good, because even at that number, the concept of information, spirited, spontaneous, uninhibited, meaty discussion is endangered. At large conferences, where plenary discussion is rarely if ever meaningful, the important exchanges, communications and contacts take place at the coffee breaks. So if Book Cellar meetings defeat their own purpose by becoming too large, there’s always the bar below.
In fact, there’s always the bar nearby even if they don’t.
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NVOI
(to the First and Second Editions)
The Book Cellar’s first quarter century suggested that it filled some need in our community and reflected some of its traits. This certainly does not imply rituals written in stone in 1958. Over the years its membership, procedures and possibly its style have changed.
Yet there are continuities, some of which we can easily recognise while others are more difficult to define.
At the risk of sounding parochial, I think the Book Cellar reflects a trait which Melbourne has to a greater degree than other Australian cities; the willingness of adversaries in political, religious, aesthetic, philosophical, academic and other conflicts to meet and talk socially.
Not that the Book Cellar revolves solely around adversary relationships. Many of our meetings – right back to 1958 – reflect members’ desire to be better informed on a variety of matters, some topical, some eternal.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think the Book Cellar has a lot to do with civilisation, with civilised behaviour and in living in a pluralistic, democratic society.
Long may it flourish.
Ken Gott
1983
Appendix 1
LIST OF OFFICE BEARERS
Chair
1958 – mid 1970s John Carroll
Mid 1970s – 1979 Ross Alexander
1979 – 1990 Ken Gott
1990 – 2013 Brian Buckley
2013 – 2019 John Foley
2020 – current Geoffrey Court
Secretary
Mid 1980s – 2013 Bob Murray
2013 (part) Peter Eltham
2013 – current Neil Perry
Assistant Secretary
1990 – 2013 Mike Provis
Treasurer
Mid 1980s – 2019 Ian Jelfs
2020 – current Peter Coatman
___________________________________________________________________
Appendix 2
(INCOMPLETE) LIST OF SPEAKERS, TOPICS AND DATES
Notes:
Prior to 1980, no written meeting invitations/notices were distributed
Where month only is listed, day is unknown
* no meeting notice has been found
o month and day unknown, but probably spoke in the order presented; no meeting notice has been found
1980
March * Kate White
The Cain and Hollway governments
April * Max Marginson
Drink and food as seen by a biochemist
May * Dr Stephen Murray-Smith
Subsidies of culture and the arts
June * Barry Jones: MHR
The new technology
July * Ian Reinecke
Computerisation in publishing
August * Ralph Willis: MHR
The coming federal budget
September * Ken Gott
Political geometry – a new frontier of science
October * Dr Kevin Foley: MLC
Parliamentary reform in Victoria
December * Mr Justice Staples
Legislating for human rights
1981
o Senator Peter Rae
Qangos
o Stan Keon
What it means to be Irish
o Steve Crabb: MLA
Victoria today – the state of play in the state of decay
o John McLaren
Labour politics in Britain
o Allan Kellock: Finance Director, Telecom
The wired society
o Roberts Dunstan DSO: MLA
The Victorian parliament
o John FitzGerald: Managing Director, IPR (International Public Relations)
The view from the other side of the Jordan
o Brian Johns: Publisher, Penguin Books (Aust)
Australian publishing and the media
o Peter Ross-Edwards: Leader of the National Party
o Barry Simon
The uses of power and persuasion in politics
1982
February * Peter Maund: SEC
The depository of power is always unpopular
March * Leo Hawkins
Can nice people (like us) still join political parties?
April * Brian Merrett
The politics of confusion (i.e. Papua New Guinea)
May * Peter Cullen
Lobbying – sin or salvation
June * Dr Cliff Periam
Argentina
July * Richard L’Estrange
Media developments – London, New York and Australia
August * The Hon Don Hayward: MLC
The Victorian Liberals – What happened? What next?
September * Tony McAdam
Bias in the media
October * Dr Les Waters
No man is an island – and vice versa
December * Keith Dunstan
USA
1983
February * Bob Hawke: MHR
Where is the light? On the hill – or at the end of the tunnel?
March * Jane Mullett: trapeze artist
Circuses
April * Jeff Kennett
The Victorian Liberals today
May * Brian Buckley
The Fraser years – an early retrospective
June * Brigadier Ian Gilmore OBE: Director, Australian Counter Disaster College
Coping with disasters
October * Frank Knopfelmacher
December * Phillip Adams
1984
No records have been found
1985
No records have been found
1986
May 6 Frank Bennett: US Consul-General
Australian – American relations: the view from Melbourne
July 1 John McLaren: Head, Humanities Department, Footscray Institute of Technology
Reflections on his first trip to the US
August 5 Jim Lynch: Federal President and Victorian Secretary, Australian Timber Workers’ Union
Conservation and development in perspective
October 7 Ray Evans: Executive Officer, Western Mining Corporation
The intellectual history of the New Right
December 2 Rupert Lockwood: journalist and author
Meanderings
1987
March 3 Sam Lipski: journalist and media critic and analyst
Outcome of takeover contests in the media industries
April 14 Michael Danby: editor of Australia-Israel Review and ministerial advisor
The Soviet and Libyan drive in the Pacific
May12 Don Hayward: Liberal MLA for Prahran and shadow minister for industry, commerce and technology
Critique of the Cain government’s economic performance
June 2 Don Larkin: Secretary, Australian Hotels Association
Deregulating the liquor industry: too little, too late? or too much, too fast?
July 7 Ray Beatty: Proprietor of Ray Beatty Advertising
How in the hell do you sell trade unions?
August 4 The Hon Neil Batt: Leader of the Opposition, Tasmanian Parliament
The economics and politics of an offshore island
September 1 Alan Drew: Chief Executive Officer, Victorian Tourist Commission
Tourism: Australia’s growth industry
The Bookcellar went into recession from September 1 1987 to August 3 1988 primarily due to the ill health of our illustrious Chair
1988
August 3 Malcolm Maiden: journalist and reporter, The Australian Financial Review
What’s happened to charisma? – Reflections on the US presidential campaign
November 2 Max Marginson: senior lecturer in biochemistry, The University of Melbourne
Food and drink – an update
1989
February 1 Boris Schedvin: Professor of economic history, The University of Melbourne
Stalking the ‘80s (and a peep into the ‘90s)
March 1 B A (Bob) Santamaria: leader of the National Civic Council
Retrospective – and prospective, an informal, interactive group exchange
May 3 John Avieson: Associate Professor of journalism, Deakin University
The other Murdoch - Sir Keith and Gallipoli
July 5 David Cragg: Private Secretary to Senator Robert Ray
Can the Liberals win?
o Kevin Hindle
Liberal Party and market research
August 2 The Hon Mark Birrell: leader of the opposition, Victorian Legislative Council
Defeating apathy and the ALP
September 6 Frank Knopfelmacher: retired academic, The University of Melbourne
Central Europe 1939 – personal memories
October 4 Simon Boyle: editor, reporter and producer with Channel 2
TV current affairs – why we get what we get
November 1 Mike Bell: PNG expert, CRA
Bougainville–- recent disturbances
o Marcus L’Estrange
A new boy looks at the class
1990
o Alan Castleman
The very fast train
April 4 Roger Pescott: Deputy Liberal Leader of the Victorian opposition
Transport – how to manage
May 2 John Marsden: Director of Research, Australian Bankers Association
Why don’t the banks . . . ?
o Peter McKeown
On the waterfront
July 4 Gerry Kitchener: previous editor and industrial officer, Hospital Employees Federation No. 2 Branch
What sort of creature is the socialist left?
August 1 Lionel Wisbey: Chief Executive, Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation and Chairman, Australian Scientific Industry Association
The scientific Australian
o Harry Torrens
Financial institutions in the eighties
October 3 Geoffrey Goode: secretary, Port Phillip Conservation Council and longstanding member of the Australian Conservation Foundation
Growth of the Greenies
November 6 Kerry Milte: barrister and former superintendent of the Central Crime Intelligence Bureau of the Commonwealth Police
The sources of crime in Australia
o Barry Dunstan
Business in the eighties
o David Pryce-Jones
Iraq and the Arab mind
December 5 Brian Buckley, Ian Jelfs and Peter Maund: Bookcellar members
The rest of the world
1991
February 6 Peter McLaughlin: Executive Director, Business Council of Australia
Whose fault: Canberra or business?)
o Creighton Burns
Problems of the press
o Nasseh Mirza
War and peace in the Middle East
o Jeremy Reynolds
Where will we live?
o Jan Martin
Australia’s great treasure – Aboriginal art
o Julian Beale
The privatisation revolt
o Jock Rankin and Michael Danby
Debate on ABC bias
o Neville Brent
The coalface and Mr Kerin’s budget
o James Kimpton
Airlines, deregulation and recession
o Jeff Kennett
The way ahead
o Michael O’Connor
Reflections on Pearl Harbour
1992
o Barney Cooney
Making Australia a republic
o Sir Zelman Cowan
Reflections on the Governor-Generalship
o Ranald Macdonald
Radio and the ABC
May 6 Morag Fraser: editor
Women in church
June 3 Peter Austin: public spokesman for the Australian Wool Corporation and Rob Morton: Manager, Corporate Affairs for the Wheat Board
Free markets and the bush
July 1 John Rashleigh: Managing Director of Health and Life Care
The health care and hospital crisis
August 5 The Hon Marie Tehan: Victorian Liberal MLC
Victoria under the Liberals
o The US Election, as guests of the Australia-America Association
o Peter Alford
Australian politics
1993
February 3 Cr Desmond Clark: Lord Mayor of Melbourne
Making Melbourne marvellous again
o Graham Nicolls
Political research
o Bob Smith
The trade union movement
July 7 Michael Duffy: MP for Holt and previous Federal Minister for Communications, Minister for Overseas Trade and Attorney General
Life at the top – the last ten years
August 4 Phil Cleary: MP for Wills
An independent view of politics
September 1 Richard McGarvie: Governor of Victoria
Governorship in Australia today
October 6 John Birt: former league footballer, coach and Collingwood senior executive
Is the AFL destroying football?
o Neville Brent
The job of a union organiser
November 3 * John Brumby: Leader of the Victorian Opposition
December 1 * Bill Pratt: US Consul’s office
1994
February 2 * Elizabeth Proust: Melbourne City Council
March 2 * Tony Staley
The state of the Liberal Party
April 6 Peter Ellery: Executive Director, WA Chamber of Mines and Energy
Media, Mabo and mining
May 4 Alan Stockdale: Victorian Treasurer
The Victorian revolution – what remains to be done
June 1 Susan Crennan: QC, Chairman of the Victorian Bar Council
Sex and the law
July 6 * Dr David Cuthbert: war historian
August 3 Ian Bremner: Chief Executive, Real Estate Institute of Victoria
The great Australian dream
September 7 Kate Redwood: Executive Director, Victorian Council of Social Service
Social welfare and the welfare state
October 5 John Monks: journalist, editor and author
The Murdochs
November 2 * Rowan Callick
Papua, New Guinea
December 7 * Max Teichmann
The years go by
1995
March 1 John Nicol: distinguished local government official
Revolution in local government – how the government got it half right
May 3 Norman Huon: Executive Director, Victorian Association of Forest Industries and Francis Grey: consulting environmental economist
The future of native forests
June 7 * Paddy and Ann Morgan
Czechoslovakia
July 5 Lindsay Tanner: Labor MP for Melbourne
The future of the left
August 2 Denis Warner: war correspondent and writer
The invasion of Japan
September 6 * Dr Bob Marshall: veteran surgeon
Diagnosing our hospitals
October 4 Brian Kavanagh: film producer, director, editor and writer
Films off the boil
November 1 * Robert Manne
The Demidenko affair
December 6 * Jim Griffin
The life and times of John Wren
1996
February 7 * Sharon Firebrace
Aboriginal politics and policy
March 6 * David Beckingsale and Peter Fisher
Land Care
April 3 * Susan Oliver
A look at the future
May 1 * Jim Young
Industrial relations
June 5 * Cr Peter McMullin: Melbourne’s Deputy Lord Mayor
July 3 * Terry McCrann: financial columnist
August 7 * Ross Wilson: US Consul
September 4 * Sid Spindler
Democrats
October 2 * Brian Howe, Former Deputy PM
Reforming the welfare sector
November 6 * Brian Dixon and Neil Cordy
The future of the AFL
December 4 * Peter O’Brien
Business in the city
1997
February 5 * Mark Armstrong: former Chairman of the ABC
March 5 * John Rashleigh: CEO, Whittlesea
April 2 * Dennis Flentje
The car industry
May 7 * Sally White
Educating the Chinese media
June 4 * Jim Carlton
The Australian Red Cross
July 2 * Leigh Hubbard
The Victorian Trades Hall
August 6 * Haydn Park, National Australia Bank
Banking in Australia
September 3 * Colin McLeod
The stolen generation
October 1 * Dr Kendall Francis
Advances in medicine
November 5 * Richard McGarvie
Reforming the constitution
December 3 * Bill Burns
Liberal politics
1998
February 4 * Dr Gunter Heisch: German Consul
March 4 * Howard Nathan
The Victorian Supreme Court
April 1 * Race Matthews
Socialism in Australia
May 6 * P P McGuiness
Trendies in the media
June 3 * Brian O’Sullivan
The National Party
July 1 Rob Hulls: MLA
Opposing J Kennett
August 5 Phillip O’Carroll: school principal and commentator
The Fitzroy Community School
September 2 Sir Zelman Cowen: previous Governor-General of Australia
Memories of Munich
October 7 * Jim McCausland, on behalf of Michael Smith
What ails “The Age”
November 4 * Susan Davies: MLA
Being an independent member
December 2 * Greg Kemp
Our Indonesian neighbours
1999
February 3 * Jan McGuiness
ABC politics
March 3 * Peter Evans
Toyota and the electric car
April 7 * Frank Mount
East Timor
May 5 Jim Barry: leading sports administrator
A hard look at the Olympics
June 2 * John Bayley
Planning suburbia
July 7 * Henry Bosch
Corporate corruption
August 4 John McPherson: Public Transport Users Association
Privatising public transport
September 1 David Cuthbert: war historian
Hitler makes a war – 1 September 1939
October 6 * Daryl Joyce
Ericsson and the internet
November 3 Father John Hill: ancient Israel scholar
Apocalypses – 0 and 2000
December 1 * Dr Bob Marshall: veteran surgeon and Brian Buckley
The nature of humans and human nature
2000
February 2 Ian Carson: accountant and a Vice-President of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party
Victoria’s Libs – crises or chance
March 1 * Bernard Wheelahan: Shell
Venezuela
April 5 * Alan Castleman
May 3 * Professor Peter Swannell
June 7 * Peter Howson
July 5 * Professor David Karoly and Bob Foster: CSIRO
August 2 * John Gilmour
September 6 John B Cox: transport consultant
Freeways, cars, trains, trams and bikes
October 4 * Reverend Alan Nicholls
November 2 * George Brazier: US Consul
December 6 * Peter Costigan
2001
February 1 * John Lahey
March 7 * Dr David Karoly: Ozone
April 4 Diana Carlton
Life in Mongolia
May 2 * Doug Buerger: Bendigo Mining
June 6 Frank Vincent: Principal Judge of the Criminal Division, Supreme Court of Victoria and Chairperson, Victorian Adult Parole Board
Perceptions of sentencing
July 4 * Denis Napthine
August 1 John Hearsch: rail transport consultant
Developments in Australian railways
September 5 Bill Shorten: National Secretary, Australian Workers Union
Kicking back the union can
October 3 Campbell Fitzpatrick: Director of Water Resource Management, Department of Natural Resources and Environment
Future water availability in Victoria
November 7 Michael O’Connor: Executive Director, Australian Defence Association and student of terrorism and defence questions
War and terrorism
December 5 Dr Mark Johnston: History teacher at Scotch College and scholar of Australian army history
Australians in World War II
2002
February 6 Kendall Francis: surgeon
A medical look at East Timor
March 6 Miles Lewis: Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, The University of Melbourne and recent Vice-President, Save our Suburbs
Planners v people
April 3 Matthew Ricketson: former journalist and academic journalist at RMIT
Trial by media?
May 1 Tzvi Fleischer: Editor, The Review and student of international relations
Islam, Judaism and the world
June 5 David Feeney: State Secretary of the Victorian Branch of the ALP
Modernising the ALP
July 3 Michael Danby: MP for Melbourne Ports and Opposition Whip
Glory without power?
August 7 Andrew Darbyshire: Executive Director, B33hive Pty Ltd (technology company) and previous Qantas pilot
The pocket-sized future
September 4 Geoff Easdown: business and feature writer and author
The Ansett tragedy
October 2 Tony Clifton: foreign correspondent
Reporting on the Middle East
November 6 * Tony Abbott: MP
December 4 Robert Gottliebsen: national business commentator for The Australian
Australia’s CEOs
2003
February 5 Alister Purbrick: Managing Director, Tahbilk Wines
The world taste for Australian wine
March 5 Dr David Martin Jones: Asia and Pacific affairs academic
Iraq to Indonesia to PNG to Korea – Australia in danger from the arc of hostility
April 2 Alan Castleman: previous career BHP manager and chairman of Australian Unity
Why health costs!!
May 7 Tuma Hazou: previous senior official, advisor and speech-writer for the royal house of Jordan and (from New Zealand) consultant on Middle Eastern affairs
Iraq, Palestine, Israel and the US
June 4 Gregory Hywood: publisher and editor
Running a newspaper
July 2 Howard Nathan: reserve judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria
Smiling Buddhists versus Tigers – adjudicating between Sinhalese and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka
August 6 Professor Tom Triggs: Professor of Psychology and Deputy Director of the Accident Research Centre, Monash University
Governments, research and the road toll
September 3 Blair Trewin: climatologist, National Climate Centre, Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology
The drought
October 1 Rowan Callick: Asia-Pacific editor, The Australian Financial Review
The arc of instability
November 5 Professor Ian Plimer: Professor of Geology, The University of Melbourne
Can earthlings survive climate change?
December 3 Michael Keats: veteran journalist and Information Officer with the UN
Bush’s White House
2004
February 4 The Hon John Brumby: Victorian MLA, Treasurer
Budgets v welfare
March 3 Jim Griffin: academic and author
Reviewing John Wren
April 7 Neil James: long-time Australian army officer and Executive Director, Australian Defence Association
Never never land
May 5 Craig Ingram: MLA for Gippsland East
Water, wood and independence
June 2 Dr Bob Birrell: Director, Centre for Population and Urban Research, Monash University
City and suburban follies
July 7 Bob Marshall and Kendall Francis: veteran surgeons
The health of health care
August 4 Captain Peter McKeown: harbour pilot
Deepening our Bay
September 1 Ian Cummins: Russian historian
Russia 1914 and 1917
October 6 David T Hopper: principal officer, US Consulate-General in Melbourne
The 2004 US presidential election
November 3 Matt Sharpe: lecturer in Philosophy, Deakin University including its Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies
Hidden hand behind the White House
December 1 Andrew McIntosh: barrister and MLA for Kew
Corruption in Victoria
2005
February 2 Bob Foster: consultant in energy economics, previous Shell Petroleum geologist, GM Marketing for BHP
How the world works
March 2 David Cragg: organiser for the Australian Workers’ Union
Today’s workers and their bosses
April 6 Dr Leon Loftus: tertiary education management consultant
Rorts and rackets in tertiary education
May 4 Jennifer Williams: Chief Executive Officer, Bayside Health
Challenges of the hospital system
June 1 Dr Steven Welch: senior lecturer in odern German history, The University of Melbourne
Hitler, war and holocaust in today’s Germany
July 6 Dr Nouria Salehi: prominent member of Australia’s Afghan community and senior nuclear medicine physicist, Royal Melbourne Hospital
US mistakes and successes in Afghanistan
August 3 Dr Charles Schencking: senior lecturer in Japanese history, The University of Melbourne
Looking back on August ’45
September 7 Howard Nathan: reserve judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria
Judging the Asian judges
October 5 George Brouwer: Victorian Ombudsman
Police integrity in Victoria
November 2 Hec Gallagher: previous senior education administrator and Gary Israel: immediate past headmaster, Northcote High
Sliding state secondary schools
December 7 David Broadbent: political commentator for Channel 9 and columnist for The Sunday Age
Bracks, Doyle and doing better
2006
February 1 Will Bailey: previous Chief Executive Officer of the ANZ Group, previous Deputy Chair of Coles-Myer and a director or office-holder of a number of companies and community organisations
20 years of deregulation
March 1 Ian Cummins: former senior lecturer in Russian history, Monash University and Tony Wood: senior lecturer in American history, Monash University
The Cold War
April 5 John D’Arcy: last Chief Executive of the old, independent Herald and Weekly Times and the first under its new owner, Rupert Murdoch
Media mayhem – Hawke, Murdoch and Packer
May 3 Jackie Fristacky: Mayor of the City of Yarra and Deputy Chair, Metropolitan Transport Forum
Transport and liveability
June 7 John Hirst: academic historian, Reader in History, La Trobe University and author
Making sense of Australian history
July 5 Peter Coghlan: social work manager and Manager, Brosnan Centre
Caring for ex-prisoners
August 2 W A Meaher IV (known as “Four”): American scholar
How we weren’t prepared for World War II
September 6 Fraser Brindley: Melbourne City Councillor
Green strategies and the state election
October 4 Mike Keats: foreign correspondent and close observer of US politics
The US mid-term elections
November 1 Tim Colebatch: economics editor of The Age
The November state election
December 6 Dr Michael Coughlan: Head, National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology
The big dry
2007
February 7 Alan Nichols: author, journalist and Anglican minister
Good news out of Africa
March 7 Dr Kevin Tolhurst: senior lecturer in fire ecology and management, The University of Melbourne
The use and abuse of bush fire
April 4 Dr Bob Birrell: demographer, Reader in Sociology and Director, Centre for Population and Urban Research, Monash University
Higher education and the workforce
May 2 Jacqueline Knopfelmacher (replacing Peter Faris, QC)
Crime: organised and disorganised
June 6 Malcolm Maiden: Associate Editor (Business) of The Age
Private equity buy-outs
July 4 Terence Maher: writer and student of the political economy of modern Ireland
Holding the Celtic tiger by the tail
August 1 * Senator Robert Ray
September 5 John Marsden: water economist
Ensuring our water supply
October 3 The Hon Tony Abbott: MP, Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ageing
Health and politics
November 7 Craig Milne: Executive Director, Australian Productivity Council
The car business
December 5 Bert Dennis: housing developer – Dennis Family Corporation
Affording houses
2008
February 6 Dr Joseph Poprzeczny: academic, writer and author
Masterplan East – Hitler & Himmler: their plan for the east
March 5 Kendall Francis: veteran surgeon
Evidence-based medicine
April 2 Dr Michael Folie: Chairman, Regis Resources
The mining boom
May 7 Dr Peter Yule: research fellow in the History Department, The University of Melbourne
Canberra’s defence spending and the Collins Class submarine
June 4 Jane Kennedy: TV personality, showbiz entrepreneur and mother of five
Comedy and satire on the screen
July 2 Dr Robyn Vines: practicing psychologist
What can psychology do for us?
August 6 Scott Hargreaves: Manager, Government and Public Affairs, Monash Energy
Changing and greening brown coal
September 3 John W Crowley: Acting US Consul General
The American elections
October 1 Dr Craig Emerson: Federal Minister for Business, Independent Contractors, and the Service Economy
Challenges now facing the Rudd government
November 5 Steve Bracks: former Premier of Victoria
Rebuilding East Timor
December 3 David Cuthbert: military historian
The armistice
2009
February 4 Dr Geoff Walker: specialist in agricultural development and marketing
Working in the Middle East
March 4 Kenneth Davidson: economics writer and commentator
Water and politics
April 1 Bob Marshall: veteran surgeon
Health care problems
May 6 Ann Blainey: author, board member
Melba
June 3 Graham Freudenberg: political speech writer and author
Churchill and Australia
July 1 Rowan Callick: Asia/Pacific Editor of The Australian
China – what next?
August 5 Greg Hunt: MP for Flinders, opposition spokesman on climate change, environment and water
Clean energy and the clean water revolution
September 6 Paul Howes: National Secretary, Australian Workers’ Union
Making more in Australia
October 7 Elida Brereton: Principal, Camberwell High School
“Summer Heights High” – spoof or reality?
November 4 Michael Buxton: Associate Professor, Department of Social Science and Planning, RMIT
The shape of a bigger city
December 2 Paul Austin: political commentator
The year past and the year ahead in Victorian politics
2010
February 3 Gavin Dufty: manager of policy and research, St Vincent de Paul Society, Victoria
Identifying the really poor
March 3 Justin Madden: Victorian Minister for Planning
Planning for Melbourne at 5 million
April 7 Paddy O’Sullivan: General Manager, Public Affairs, Australian Hotels Association
Publicans’ problems
May 5 Kelvin Thomson: FederalLabor MP for Wills
The population bomb
June 2 Jerry Ellis: former Chairman, BHP
New developments in mining and energy
July 7 Stephen Mayne: founder of Crikey
Inside team Brumby
August 4 Judith Sloan: Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Institute for Economic and Social Research
The Gillard ‘Fair Work’ regime
September 1 Ken Coghill: Director, Monash Governance Research Unit and Co-director of the Parliamentary Studies Unit, Monash University and former Labor MP and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly
Taking government off the market
October 6 Michael O’Connor: previous Director, Australian Defence Association
Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam
November 3 Dr Mark Durie: Anglican Vicar, St Mary’s, Caulfield and student of Islamic society
Islam and violence
December 1 Dan Denning: American economist, publisher and investment analyst
Washington’s wrong direction
2011
February 2 Darren Ray: Director, Policy and Public Affairs, Victorian Local Government Association
Local government battles
March 2 Steve Ingrouille: Principal, Going Solar Pty Ltd and consultant on energy sources, city design and development, water use and transport
Alternative energy
April 6 Andrew MacLeod: Chief Executive Officer, Committee for Melbourne
Making Melbourne work better
May 4 Peter Day: writer and follower of Middle Eastern events
Radioactive Egypt
June 1 John Freebairn: Professor of Economics, The University of Melbourne
Can we feed a bigger world?
July 6 Dr David Pollard: Chief Executive Officer, VicForests
Our forest future
August 3 Dr Matthew Fagan: businessman and scientist
Challenging climate change
September 7 Dr Peter Yule: historian
The Baillieus
October 5 Dr Ben Jensen: Director, School Education Program, Grattan Institute
Teaching gens Y & Z
November 2 Jeff Dabb (replacing Matthew Guy: Minister for Planning)
Government, planning and people
December 7 Andrew McIntyre: broadcaster, commentator and author
The real agenda of Bob Brown and the Greens
2012
February 1 Neil Batt AO: Executive Director, Australian Centre for Health Research, former National President of the ALP and former Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Tasmania
Labor’s problems
o Julian Reeves: Economist, Morgan Stanley
State of the Reserve Bank
o (Christopher) Michael Barter: Ariadne Australia
o Mark Birrell: Board Member, Infrastructure Australia, former Victorian government cabinet minister
How Infrastructure Australia works
There were other speakers but no records have been found
2013
There were speakers in the first half of the year but no records have been found
August 7 The Hon John Brumby: former Victorian Labor MP, former Victorian Premier and Treasurer, and Chairman of the COAG Reform Council
The future of federalism
September 4 * Bob Condon
Collingwood – the suburb
October 2 Representative from the Public Transport Users Association
Shaping Melbourne’s transport future
November 6 Michael Danby: former Victorian Labor MP
A view from caucus 2007 – 2013
December 4 Andrew Tink: author and a former Liberal member of the NSW Parliament
The 1940 Canberra air disaster
2014
February 5 Detective Sergeant Mick Ferwerda: Victoria Police
The ice man speaks – destruction by ice
March 5 Jane Garrett: MLA (Victoria) and Federal Vice-President of the ALP, and former Mayor of Yarra
Daily grind, groundwork and greens – really representing people
April 2 Phil Davis: former Liberal MLC
Backroom boy – picking leaders (and winners) or managing leadership aspirations in the parliament
May 7 Tim Colebatch: former journalist and author
Abbott v Hamer – A liberal Liberal and the new Liberals
June 4 Steven Welch: modern European historian
The July crisis 1914 – one hundred years on: why WW1 began
July 2 Robert Murray: author of
The making of Australia – a concise history
August 6 Ken Phillips: Executive Director of the Independent Contractors’ Association
Too cosily big corporate Australia
September 3 Dr John Daley: inaugural Chief Executive of the Grattan Institute
We want more – but where's the money coming from?
October 1 Norman Hermant: journalist
In from the cold – Vladimir Putin's long game
November 5 Dr Peter Edwards: war historian
Vietnam, conscription and confrontation half-century perspective
December 3 Josh Gordon: journalist
Victoria's new government – state infrastructure money from asset sales, Canberra and borrowing
2015
February 4 Anne Henderson: historian and author
Menzies at war – was Menzies a reactionary Anglophile or an Australian nationalist?
March 4 Colin Macleod
Islam and the West – Moslems and us
April 1 Dr John Basarin
A Turk at Gallipoli
May 6 Liam Houlihan: former lawyer, journalist
Murder in Melbourne
June 3 Sue Knopfelmacher: educator and philosopher
Pommy pollies on view – impressions of the UK and its politicians
July 1 Robert Doyle: Lord Mayor of Melbourne
Melbourne’s future – the Melbourne we're building
August 5 Sam Lipski: journalist, TV producer, chief executive of the Pratt Foundation
Australia and Soviet Jews
September 2 Mark Wild: Chief Executive Officer, Public Transport Victoria
Trams, trains and buses
October 7 Sam Kekovich: former AFL footballer
You know it makes sense
November 4 Peter Walsh MLA: Nationals Leader and Deputy Opposition Leader in the Victorian Parliament
Water – infrastructure and pipe dreams
December 2 Miriam Lasky and Bookcellar members
Documents from our past
2016
February 3 Joel Deane: journalist, speech writer and media advisor, and author
Ten lessons from Bracks and Brumby
March 2 Dr David Dunstan: journalist, public servant, university lecturer, and author
Planning, developers and zoning – history of Melbourne’s planning
April 6 Chip Le Grand: journalist and author
The Essendon drug crisis – the straight dope on Essendon and drugs in sport
May 4 Peter Reith: former MP, author and political commentator
The Reith Papers – insights from the past into good and lacklustre governing
June 1 Dr Steve Welch: military historian
The Battle of the Somme
July 6 Bookcellar members
The Australian election result and Brexit
August 3 Dr Tim Lynch: associate professor of American politics, The University of Melbourne
2016 US presidential election: the Donald and Hillary show
September 7 Detective Superintendent Patrick Boyle: Victoria Police
Street gangs in Victoria – what is going on?
October 5 Russel Howcroft: Executive General Manager of the TEN Network and previously boss at Young & Rubicam Brands
Free-to-air television and news – just the old media?
November 2 Molly Sasson: former intelligence officer
ASIO – Molly Sasson's insight
December 7 Malcolm Maiden: journalist and editor
The plight of “The Age”
2017
February 1 Ian Cummins: author and expert on Russia
The 1917 Russian Revolutions
March 1 Brad Norington: journalist
Planet Jackson – power, greed and unions
April 5 Brian Negus: General Manager of Public Policy at RACV
Trams, trains, cars and planes – Melbourne’s future transport
May 3 Dr Charles Livingston: academic and gambling expert and Paul Bendat, lawyer and anti-gambling activist
600-pound gambling gorilla
June 7 Sir Rod Eddington: former CEO of British Airways, company director
China a global power
July 5 Brad Dunstan: key figure in the Australian automotive industry (replacing Christopher de Fraga: motoring journalist)
Autonomous vehicles are coming
August 2 Philip Hopkins: journalist
Power prices – some facts
September 6 Captain Richard de Crespigny AM: airline pilot
QF 32 and the black swan
October 4 Dr John Carroll: former academic and author of
“Land of the Golden Cities”
November 1 Dr Robert Horvath: academic and author
Putin’s Russia
December 6 Bob Murray, Neil Perry and Geoff Richards: Bookcellar members
Three members’ tales
2018
February 7 The Hon Alan Stockdale AO: former Treasurer of Victoria
Reforming Victoria – reflections
March 7 Professor Glyn Davis AC: Vice-Chancellor, The University of Melbourne
The Australian Idea of a University
April 4 The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG: international jurist, educator and former judge and former Chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korea
North Korea
May 2 Dr Richard Chauvel: academic and researcher of Indonesian politics and history, the Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne
Terrorism, religious change and democratisation in Indonesia
June 6 Gavin Silbert: QC, former Chief Crown Prosecutor of Victoria
Sentencing in our courts
July 4 Professor John Fitzgerald: sinologist
Australia and China
August 1 Professor Rob Adams AM: Director of City Design at the City of Melbourne
Planning a Melbourne for people
September 5 Kim McGrath: writer and researcher
The country upstairs – Australia and Timor L’Este
October 3 Michael L’Estrange AO: former senior public servant, diplomat and academic
Australia’s intelligence agencies – current reforms and future challenges
November 7 Peter Khalil: Labor MHR
The Middle East
December 5 Patrick Morgan: writer and academic
The Mannix era – a story of triumph and tragedy
2019
February 6 Elliot Cartledge: author
Inside the AFL
March 6 Leo Kennedy: lawyer and author
Ned Kelly
April 3 Peter Austin: agricultural journalist
Taking in the waters
May 1 Lucia Cade: Chair, South East Water and a Global Advisor on water to United Nations Global Compact – Cities Programme
The value of water
May 15 The Hon Alexander Downer: former Minister for Foreign Affairs and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
Brexit and a changing world
June 5 Richard Gluyas: business correspondent
Banking – Hayne and the four pillars
July 3 David Cragg: former Assistant Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council
From Bob to Sally – the ACTU, the CFMMEU & Unions after May 18
August 7 Rowan Callick: journalist and author
On China
September 4 Professor de Villiers Smit: Director, The Alfred Emergency and Trauma Centre
Emergency and trauma in Melbourne
October 2 Russell Skelton: founding editor of ABC Fact Check and now Director, RMIT ABC Fact Check
In a time of post-truth, alternative facts and fake news
November 6 Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC: historian and writer
“Before I Forget”
December 4 Kel Glare AO APM OStJ: former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police
The state of policing in Victoria
2020
January 29 Margaret Court AO MBE: former champion tennis player
From Albury to Wimbledon – journey of a champion
February 14 Professor Allan Fels AO: inaugural Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, former academic and author
Chasing a better deal for battlers
March 4 Michael Danby: former Federal MP
Australia’s response to China
May 6 Dr Geoff Love: former Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau of Meteorology and Director of the World Meteorology Organisation
What’s going on with the weather?
June 10 The Hon Malcolm Turnbull: former Prime Minister
“A Bigger Picture”
July 1 Garry Linnell: journalist, editor and author
“Buckley’s Chance”
August 5 Professor Robin Jeffrey: academic and researcher of Indian history, society and politics
India’s role in Australia and Asia
September 10 The Hon Robert French: former Chief Justice of the High Court
The view from the High Court
October 8 John Barron: journalist, anchor of the ABC’s Planet America, honorary associate at the US Studies Centre, The University of Sydney and political documentary film maker
The US elections
November 4 Dr Peter Edwards AM: historian and author
Are Australia’s intelligence agencies protecting national security or threatening civil liberties?
