When political activist Pete Steedman edited the Melbourne based national magazine Broadside in l969 he encouraged up and coming cartoonist Michael Leunig by running a wide range of his inspired drawings , at times spread across two pages , covering many subjects, including the Vietnam war , ASIO , politics ,state and religious schools.
When police were frequently charging people with offensive behaviour and resisting arrest, especially at anti-war and anti-conscription demos, Leunig revealed how a solitary police officer playing around with his guitar composed a bestseller: OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR AND RESISTING ARREST.
The tune became so popular in police circles officers were shown singing along in chorus, dancing to it ,emerging from the grim Russell Street police headquarters with batons and even menacing a baby in a pram with the catchy words, alarmed citizenry fleeing in various directions .
Another of Leunig’s drawings illustrating an article which told how Aboriginal Marcia Langton , a 17-year-old arts/law student , now Professor Langton, obtained a miner’s right, staked out a mining claim in Queen’s Park, Brisbane , and held a vigil in support of land rights for Aborigines at Gove Peninsula, NT, where Nabalco had a lease to mine bauxite .
Another of Leunig’s drawings illustrating an article which told how Aboriginal Marcia Langton , a 17-year-old arts/law student , now Professor Langton, obtained a miner’s right, staked out a mining claim in Queen’s Park, Brisbane , and held a vigil in support of land rights for Aborigines at Gove Peninsula, NT, where Nabalco had a lease to mine bauxite .
Bulldozers had damaged a sacred site there and Mathaman Marika said he had cried when he saw what had been done. Ms Langton maintained her vigil ,was picked up by the police and carried to another spot. Leunig’s associated cartoon showed a suited miner in a hard hat , saying : “ Sacred Ground...? Of course...! I can think of nothing more sacred than a valuable bauxite deposit ...”
Leunig went on to become a renowned cartoonist, poet and writer . His brilliant drawings included The Adventures of Vasco Pyjama and Mr Curly who had a close association with ducks, one in particular .
A large proboscis was a feature of people he drew . Something else on the big size was emphasised in an election cartoon, below, from the late Pete Steedman's Leunig collection.
The Leunig Studio announcement of his death on December 19, at 79, said he had been in the company of family members , sunflowers and dear friends Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven .
It said the pen had dried and the ink no longer flowed, yet Mr Curly and his ducks would remain etched in our hearts , cherished and eternal .
The above cartoon could now be seen as relating to the climate change threat.
Leunig had a long association with the Melbourne Age newspaper , the above example inspired by Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying he would shirtfront Russian president Vladimir Putin , at the Brisbane summit meeting of the G20 , over the shooting down over Ukraine in 2015 of the airliner MH17, which killed 278 people, 38 Australians .
The above decorated caravan and associated van , highlighting a 1939 Thursday Island pearling lugger , carried messages to save the Great Barrier Reef and local birdlife, driven about Cairns and on Magnetic Island , included a Mr Curly and his famous duck panel .
Displayed inside the van was a poem about Scuppers the Seagoose , born in Toulouse , who spoke a little French , and lived aboard a sailboat named after the lugger .
Getting layabout grannies back into the workforce may have inspired the following Leunig special .
