AUSTRALIA 1901–2001 A Narrative History
By Andrew Tink. NewSouth Publishing. $34.99.
Andrew Tink begins his story of 20th century Australia with the blunder of Lord Hopetoun in choosing Sir William Lyne, rather than Sir Edmund Barton, to be the first Prime Minister of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia.
The story of the century ends with a computer failure at the Sydney Olympic Games which left Indigenous sprinter Cathy Freeman standing for four long minutes in freezing water while lighting the Olympic cauldron at the end of the torch relay.
Both blunders were soon corrected but they symbolise the journey of Australia from six British colonies to a proud multicultural nation. The ceremonies in 1901 included no women and no indigenous people at all.
Andrew Tink, barrister and former MP, is the author of several acclaimed books of Australian history, including a biography of W C Wentworth. Now he offers us a narrative history of 20th century Australia. He candidly admits that Trove searches and the online edition of the Australian Dictionary of Biography were the mainstays of his research.
He has succeeded magnificently and this book is both authoritative and readable. He has a great story to tell. Those picking up his book might turn to the time when they were born. My birth year was 1939. The Prime Minister was Robert Menzies who announced on 3 September that, because Great Britain was at war with Germany, Australia was also at war.
Both the World Wars were turning points in Australian history. In the First World War how many of us know Australia had the British Empire's highest casualty rate at almost 65 per cent, considerably more than Britain at 51 per cent, and that every digger serving overseas was a volunteer? More than 500 Aboriginal soldiers served. But the author reminds us of the lifelong physical and mental injuries suffered by many survivors.
The author examines events within the living memory of many readers, such as the dismissal of Gough Whitlam and the election of Malcolm Fraser and his government in 1975. Tink claims that Fraser, by allowing 70,000 Indochinese refugees to settle in Australia, may have made the most far-reaching decision of any Australian prime minister, and changed the ethnic mix of Australia forever. Whitlam, though no racist, would never have done that.
One of the tests of a good historical book is that one can open it at any page and find oneself absorbed by the sheer pace and drama of the story. Andrew Tink's narrative history of Australia in the 20th century passes that test with flying colours. Every reader will learn from it.
Robert Willson is a Canberra reviewer.
