Digital resources tagged with ‘Prime Ministers’

A Successor for Harold Holt

With Prime Minister Holt's definitive disappearance a new leader had to be appointed. John McEwan was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor General on December 19, 1967 on the understanding that he would have this role until the Liberal party appointed its new leader.

Andrew Fisher’s Lunch Box

Andrew Fisher’s tin lunch box reminds us that humble beginnings informed his political career: he went from union organiser to three-time Prime Minister, inventing the Australian ideal of a ‘fair go’ along the way.

Ben Chifley - The Aftermath of the Miners' Strike

The coal strike of 1949 would come to exemplify the new cold war world, and drive the Chifley government from power.

Ben Chifley's Australia

For most of the 1940s Australian Labor Party had managed to be the automatic choice for those wishing for an intelligently progressive future.

Ben Chifley’s Pipe

Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, and a former train driver, Ben Chifley was rarely seen without his pipe, as he guided the country through the austere post-war years.

Edmund Barton and the Velvet Soap Advertisement

The Velvet Soap advertising campaign is a tongue-in-cheek reminder of Edmund Barton’s hand in formulating the White Australia policy.

Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister

One of the hardest working of Australia’s Cabinet ministers and after 32 years as a parliamentarian, Harold Holt reached the prime ministerial office in 1966.

Harold Holt's Australia

Harold Holt’s prime ministership represented a major social shift from the tradition and conservatism of the Menzies era, to that of the ‘swinging sixties’.

Harold Holt’s Briefcase

The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, during a beach holiday sparked countless conspiracy theories. The items left in his briefcase are a significant time capsule of his last days as Prime Minister.

Holt Government in Crisis

The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, at Cheviot Beach in 1966 during a beach holiday sparked countless conspiracy theories and ultimately overshadowed his political accomplishments.

James Scullin And The GCMG

James Scullin inspired the people when he offered to rent out The Lodge during the Depression, but his fierce nationalism is best revealed in his campaign to install an Australian-born Governor General.

John Curtin’s Australian Journalists’ Association Badge

John Curtin’s journalistic instincts came in handy during World War Two when he kept the media onside with secret press briefings. He wore his AJA badge every day he was in office.

Joseph Lyons’ Love Letters

Politics rarely produces impassioned romantics, which makes the hundreds of letters Joseph Lyons wrote to his adored wife and confidante, Enid, as fascinating as they are unexpected

Menzies - Early life and the Empire

In 1941 Australia’s Prime Minister Robert Menzies, like most Australians, would have thought of England as the ‘home country’.

Menzies and Churchill

Menzies traveled to London during the dark months of 1941 where he took on British Prime Minister Churchill over the strategic direction of the war.

Menzies' Forgotten People Speech

With the “Forgotten People” radio talks, Robert Menzies begins reaching out, pitching himself in more domestic, family friendly, homely terms.

Robert Menzies’ Camera

Robert Menzies’ lifelong passion for home movies resulted in a surprisingly personal record of the war years, including footage of a young Princess Elizabeth.

Snowy Mountains Scheme

An estimated 100,000 people worked on the Scheme between 1949 and 1974, the year of its completion. Two-thirds of the them were immigrants from over 40 countries around the world. They changed the face of Australian society.

Stanley Melbourne Bruce's Cigarette Case

Stanley Melbourne Bruce treasured Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s gift of a gold cigarette case throughout his life.

The Death of Harold Holt

With Australia at war in Vietnam in 1967, suddenly Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared without a trace—an event unparalleled in the history of western democracy.

The Effect of Cartoons

Bruce Petty investigates the effects of political satire and cartooning.

William Hughes and the 1916 Conscription Badge

William Hughes, “The Little Digger”, campaigned twice for national conscription to boost an Australian army decimated by World War One.