Summer Series 2023-4 Part 6: Stephen Wilks, Lyndon Megarrity & Gregory Melleuish

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This sixth episode features Stephen Wilks’s paper ‘Falling Dully On His Ears: Menzies, Bolte, and the Travails of Australian Federalism’, Lyndon Megarrity’s paper ‘Menzies, Queensland and the 1961 Election’ (begins 23:26), and Greg Melleuish’s paper ‘Was Menzies Lucky?’ (begins 44:25).

Dr Stephen Wilks studied economic history at Monash University before embarking on a mixed career in government based in Canberra and overseas. This was leavened by a shadow career writing reviews and articles on Australian history and much else, prior to returning to study in the School of History at ANU. He is now a Lecturer in the ANU’s National Centre of Biography, and is author of ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia (ANU Press, 2020). He recently completed a project funded by the Department of the House of Representatives, published by ANU Press as ‘Order, Order!’: A Biographical Dictionary of Speakers, Deputy Speakers and Clerks of the Australian House of Representatives, and is now researching the Bolte premiership.

Dr Lyndon Megarrity is adjunct lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville and teaches history and political science. His research interests include Queensland, Northern Australia, and overseas student policy. He is also the author or co-author of several books, including Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia, which won the 2019 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award. With Carolyn Holbrook and David Lowe, he co-edited Lessons from History (NewSouth, 2022), a collection of essays on contemporary issues and debates informed by history. Megarrity’s forthcoming book will be the first ever biography of Dr Rex Patterson, Minister for Northern Australia in the Whitlam Government.

Professor Gregory Melleuish is a Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where he teaches, among other things, Australian politics. He has written widely on Australian political thought, including Cultural Liberalism in Australia (1995) and Despotic State or Free Individual (2014), and is considered one of the leading experts on Australian liberalism and conservatism. He co-wrote The Forgotten Menzies (2021) with Stephen Chavura and has also published peer-reviewed journal articles discussing Menzies.