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A large part of the extraordinary life of longtime activist , editor, publisher , media commentator Pete Steedman was traversed when he made a delayed return trip to Magnetic Island from Melbourne with members of his family and Little Darwin dug out its file on him.
Born the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, December 7 ,l941, he is shown above with some of the many articles written about him over the decades. These covered such events as his time as the controversial editor of two Melbourne university newspapers in the l960s , the period he was in swinging London running the Oz Magazine office while its principals were facing obscenity charges in the Old Bailey and he stirring up the British media coverage of the Northern Ireland " troubles ", mentioned in this blog in the past .
Apart from being dubbed the Black Knight of the ALP , he was likened to James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause , Marlon Brando in The Wild One .
Elected to the House of Representatives in the seat of Casey for the ALP in l983 , he was voted Politician of the Year by the Canberra Times .
In an interview ,Pete was quoted as saying he was driven by a desire to change the world . Under the heading If Politicians are'lower than a whore ,' why does Peter Steedman want the job ? , an article by Shane Burke in the Age , March l984 presented an interesting insight .
He was fighting for people being kicked around, their rights abused , it stated . Australia was a very uncaring, greedy and avaricious society built on everyone wanting a big home and a big this and big that .
Renowned for making colourful, provocative and powerful statements , Steedman was reported as saying this was aided and abetted by advertising that promised we would all have big breasts, nice bums, no pimples, smoke Marlboro and ride big horses .
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This raised aspirations no one could aspire to. A restructured society , on more equitable lines, could bring about changes. Socialism had been regarded as a dirty word , but it was basically a fair and just redistribution of our resources so that everybody could live in reasonable comfort.
Steedman lobbed on the island bearing copies of the Labor Star , the Victorian ALP paper he edited from the late 1970s through to the early l980s, and copies of DISSENT the Student Press in 1960s Australia, by historian Dr Sally Percival Wood, his late second wife .
In the foreword to the book, Emeritus Professor at Monash University, Graeme Davison , wrote that one figure, above all, personified the spirit of the l960s student press : The ' swashbuckling' Pete Steedman , the most prodigiously talented newspaper editor of his generation.
Months ago, when discussing with this blog his intention to revisit Magnetic Island , Steedman suggested he would be willing to speak to James Cook University students in Townsville and then leave the city in uproar .
NEXT : Canberra's curvaceous Fabula and her secrets , artistic architect Peter Burleigh , mysterious Basil Sweetlips and how Pete arranged for the nation to echo to the sound of music .
