Table Of Contentk eeper of the faith
keeper of the fai th
A BIOGRAPHY OF JIM CAIRNS
PAUL STRANGIO
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
PO Box 278, Carlton South, Victoria 3053, Australia
[email protected]
www.mup.com.au
First published 2002
Text © Paul Strangio 2002
Design and typography © Melbourne University Press 2002
This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and
subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Designed by Pages in Action
Typeset by Melbourne University Press in 10 point Giovanni Book
Printed in Australia by Ligare Pty Ltd
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Strangio, Paul.
Keeper of the faith: a biography of Jim Cairns.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 522 85002 2.
1. Cairns, Jim, 1914-.2. Australian Labor Party—History—
20th century. 3. Politicians—Australia—Biography. I. Title.
324.29407092
Publication was assisted by a grant from the Australian
Historical Association on behalf of the National Council for
the Centenary of Federation.
To my parents, Vincent and Mary
C O N TEN TS
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 ‘The victim of a great wrong’, 1914–1931
2 ‘An intellectual seeker’, 1932–1947
3 Political Apprentice, 1948–1955
4 The Member for Yarra, 1956–1964
5 Vietnam: The Great Moral Crusade, 1962–1967
6 ‘A symbol of participatory democracy’, 1968–1970
7 ‘feelings of profound disillusionment’, 1970–1972
8 A ‘New Jim Cairns’? 1972–1974
9 Ruin and Liberation, 1974-1975
10 ‘Some wacko theory’, 1976-1990
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
ILLU STR ATIO N S
Unless specified, photographs are courtesy of the Cairns family.
following 48
Starting school on horseback, Melton, 1921
Letty and Jim, aged fourteen
Jim as a school-leaver, early 1930s
Constable Cairns, Easter 1935
The aspirant Olympian leading the field, 1938
A whirlwind romance: Jim and Gwen, 1939
Barry and Philip Cairns, aged four and five, 1939
Cairns graduating as Bachelor of Commerce, University of Melbourne,
1948
Gwen Cairns at Kenilworth House, South Yarra, late 1940s
Jim Cairns, Gwen Cairns, Louise Miller and Barry, mid-1950s
Jim Cairns, the newly elected Member for Yarra
Barry Cairns, Jim Cairns, Elizabeth Ford nursing Michael, and Letty
Cairns, late 1950s
Gwen and Jim, late 1950s
following 80
Addressing anti-Vietnam War meeting, Richmond Town Hall, May 1965
Communist Party of Australia Collection, University of Melbourne
Archives
With Gwen in Fiji, 1966
With Indonesian President Sukarno and Clyde Holding, mid-1966
In talks with Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia, 1966
Meeting Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, 1966
Gwen Cairns announces Cairns’ intention to contest the Labor leadership,
April 1968
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
The Labor leadership team: Whitlam and Lance Barnard, 1969
National Archives of Australia
Battered and bruised: after the bashing at Wattle Road, August 1969
The mobile electoral office: campaigning for Lalor, 1969
following 240
With a young fan, first Moratorium march, 8 May 1970
In familiar pose addressing a Moratorium meeting, 9 May 1970
Addressing the multitudes in Bourke Street, first Moratorium march, 8
May 1970
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
Flashpoint: second Moratorium march, 18 September 1970
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
As Vice-Chairman of the International Commission of Inquiry into
American War Crimes in Indochina, Oslo, 1971
With Tom Uren and Charles Jones, swearing in of the full Whitlam
ministry, Government House, December 1972.
National Archives of Australia
following 272
Being sworn in at the opening of the twenty-eighth Commonwealth
Parliament, 27 February 1973
Courtesy of the Cairns family and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives
Gwen Cairns at Wattle Road, 1973
Leading trade mission to the People’s Republic of China, May 1973
With Gwen at official banquet, China, May 1973
The Australian trade mission sightseeing in Peking, China, May 1973
Signing trade agreement with the Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade, Pai
Hsiang-kuo, Canberra, July 1973
In talks, China, May 1973
The Whitlam Government ministry with Queen Elizabeth II, February
1974
Campaigning for Labor’s re-election, Moorabbin Town Hall, May 1974
John Ellis Collection, University of Melbourne Archives
With Whitlam and Sir Christopher Soames, Parliament House, September
1974
National Archives of Australia
facing 336
Junie Morosi
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
Jim Cairns, Acting Prime Minister, 1975
The reshuffled Whitlam ministry, Government House, 6 June 1975
National Archives of Australia
337
Answering media questions after his sacking from the Whitlam ministry
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
Promoting Morosi’s Sex, Prejudice and Politics, November 1975
John Ellis Collection, University of Melbourne Archives
Counter-culture philosopher: Down to Earth Confest, Berri, April 1979
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
368
At the new family home, Narre Warren East, 1982
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
A familiar Melbourne sight: Cairns’ bookstall, Prahran Market, 1988
Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection
369
Twentieth anniversary of the first Vietnam Moratorium Campaign,
Melbourne Town Hall, 11 May 1990
John Ellis Collection, University of Melbourne Archives
Jim and Gwen celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary, February
1999
Jim, Gwen and great-grandchildren, February 1999
Awarded life membership of the Victorian Labor Party, June 2000
