Bill McAuley, a newspaper photographer and veteran of many campaigns, recalls Gough Whitlam’s 1972 electoral bid as the most exciting he ever covered. He photographed the Labor leader many times, and was ‘chuffed’ when Whitlam recognised him. ‘Gough Whitlam had become one of my heroes: in my opinion, a great man’, McAuley writes in his forthcoming autobiography. ‘In 1975 after the governor-general dismissed Gough and his government, I took a photograph of him in the ABC television studios when he made his statement to the Australian public. He looked wistful and shell-shocked, but his indignation came through loud and clear as he cried foul.’
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
© Bill McAuley
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
1 November 2014
On the day before the Hon. E. G. Whitlam, AC, QC, died last month, at the great age of 98, there were seven former prime ministers of Australia still living, plus the incumbent Mr. Abbott – eight in all.
Ellen Kent examines the portrait of Vincent Lingiari and Prime Minister Gough Whitlam taken by photographer Mervyn Bishop.
