A multi-skilled ambassador who single-handedly set out on a mission in l969 to educate the ignorant British about the real Australia and its sophisticated descendants of convicts visited the Little Darwin sanatorium. He is Peter Burleigh, above, architect , illustrator ,writer , former advertising agency head who dealt with top companies like Ford.
Burleigh arrived at our den in the above swish limo resembling a German Batmobile, driven by his political and IT- savvy wife , Judy , bearing a bottle of French champers and a large iced cake . As they have spent much time over the years in France travelling up the waterways in their cruiser, dropping off at vineyards along the way, champagne and cake is probably their soup du jour .
Anyway, it helped establish entente cordiale. Burleigh,armed with a magnifying glass, is shown examining Little Darwin's rare bound in run of the l969 fortnightly publication, Broadside , published in Melbourne , attracting a stable of talented writers , artists, giving voice to various political figures.
Broadside's editor was Pete Steedman, a longtime activist whose biography was run in serial form in Little Darwin, one part dealing with Broadside receiving 1200 hits .
Burleigh contributed many illustrations to Broadside during its short , but action packed life ,the last edition pulped by The Age management . One of those illustrations, part of which is run below, was a zany strip about his own departure for London to give the Poms the good oil on Australia . It was headed, Burleigh has gone to the mother country,and skilfully demolished the myths and legends held by the British about Orstralians .
It opens with clean cut Burleigh, indicating he is a loveable Aussie, under the age of 26, wearing a slouch hat , a Department of Defence bedroll on his back, waving a flag , setting off,a sophisticated ambassador to dispel myths about kangaroos and meat pies . Packed away was a food parcel for Prince Charles.
He intended telling the Brits that young people in Australia were encouraged to speak their minds and express opinions- illustrated by a panel in which a hippie type in a protest march wanting to make love not war is monstered by a man in an RSL jacket carrying a placard with a call to BAN THE BUMS (NOT THE BOMB).
Red blooded Aussies on the loose, it seems, even whistled at nuns! Aspirational street beggars were encouraged to limit payable tax , a bit like Kerry Packer.
Australia , a proudly independent nation , armed with a spear , declared it stood alone, was part of Asia, prepared to join a posse , actually flew the American flag.
Barry Humphries had to be regarded as a twisted intellectual, not a salt of the earth Aussie .
The comic strip ended with Burleigh , below, proudly displaying a reference from the Victorian Liberal premier, Henry Bolte.
UPCOMING : More Burleigh, a dash of Steedman, Disney targets and Grey Nomads.
