Digital resources tagged with ‘leadership’

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.

Anzac Day

General John Monash strived to ensure soldiers that had fought in the Great War received due honour, recognition and assistance. He played a pivotal role in creating Anzac Day commemorations.

Armistice Day, 1918

By 1918 General John Monash and the AIF (Australian Imperial Forces) played a crucial role in defeating Germany on the western front.

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.

Captain Cook - Cook Claims New South Wales

After spending some time observing an Aboriginal tribe, Cook claims the entire east coast of New Holland for Britain.

Captain Cook - The Polynesian Tupaia Joins the Endeavour Voyage

Cook takes on board an additional passenger, Polynesian priest and fellow navigator Tupaia. Tupaia shares his remarkable navigational skills, convinced that the notion of a great land mass is a European fantasy.

Charles Darwin - the father of evolutionary biology

Dr Maryanne Demasi is a science journalist on the ABC science program Catalyst. In this clip she introduces us to the ‘scientific giant’, Charles Darwin.

Francis Ona

Francis Ona was the man who single-handedly sparked Bougainville's civil war.

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’.

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.

Imparja: Indigenous Broadcasting

Imparja Television allows Indigenous communities to tell their stories and to communicate both with each other as well as the wider Australian community.

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

Monash and Billy Hughes

John Monash was a most unlikely Digger hero. Of Prussian-Jewish extraction, cultured, he was a middle-aged, overweight citizen-soldier with no active war experience when hostilities broke out in 1914.

Monash at Gallipoli

The terrible defeat suffered by the Australian and New Zealand forces under British command at Gallipoli changed General John Monash's attitude to how to fight the Great War.

Neville Bonner - Change

By the early 1960s, it was clear that Indigenous people were not being assimilated — discrimination against Indigenous people continued and many Indigenous people refused to surrender their culture and lifestyle. The assimilation policy had failed.

Parliamentary Representation

The strength of democracies is founded on the breadth of the representation of it's parliamentarians.

Questioning Tradition

Tonga's constitutional monarchy is undergoing change.

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.

Royal Tongan Celebration

The people of Tonga prepare to mark their King's birthday and 25th anniversary of his reign.

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 Forgotten People

The Indonesian province of Papua has a turbulent history and rich culture. Yet it remains largely unknown.

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.