Geoffrey Norman Blainey
(1930-)
When Geoffrey Blainey spoke to final-year school students in the Friends
of the Baillieu Library HSC Lectures in the 1970s, the Public Lecture
Theatre was packed to capacity and his audience carried copies of his
books to be signed, a tribute to what Geoffrey Bolton characterised
as his "skills in interpreting technological change in admirably
lucid narratives that appealed to both specialist and non-specialist
audiences".
Blainey studied History at Melbourne under R M Crawford and worked as
a freelance historian, pioneering the field of business history with
The Peaks of Lyell; Gold and Paper: a History of the National Bank of
Australasia; and Mines in the Spinifex. He published A Centenary History
of the University of Melbourne before accepting a position at the University
in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce in 1962. In 1977 he moved to
the Ernest Scott Chair of History, a position he occupied until 1988.
Blainey's most popular works belong to this period. The Tyranny of Distance,
interpreting the motives behind the British settlement of Australia,
brought a new phrase to Australian discourse. His interests range from
sports and local histories to the broader sweep of The Causes of War,
covering over two centuries of human conflict, and The Great See-Saw,
on optimism and pessimism in Western society since 1750.
His belief, articulated in public lectures and the 1984 All for Australia,
that increasing immigration from Asia endangered Australian social harmony,
aroused continuing controversy.
He was Chair of the Australia China Council from 1979 to 1984 and of
the Australia Council from 1977 to 1981. As Dean of Arts Blainey was
a notable supporter of the University Library. His commitment of Faculty
funds to the acquisition of books paved the way for a million-dollar
increase in funding. He was appointed foundation Chancellor of the University
of Ballarat in 1993.
Geoffrey Blainey has continued to write and broadcast in retirement,
publishing A Shorter History of Australia in 1994 and delivering the
Boyer Lectures, This Land Is All Horizons Australian Fears and Visions,
in 2001.
