Screen Australia: The Prime Ministers' National Treasures

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Award winning cartoonist and yarn spinner Warren Brown takes us on a surprising journey into the hearts and minds of Australia’s Prime Ministers.

After months spent foraging through the nation’s archives, Brown unearths an array of 10 extraordinary objects with countless secrets to tell—Harold Holt’s last days as revealed in the items he kept in his briefcase; hundreds of passionate love letters Joseph Lyons wrote to his wife; John Curtin’s AJA badge, worn every day whilst he was in office; Andrew Fisher’s tin lunch box which he used when he was just a poor gold miner in Gympie; William Hughes and the vote “yes” for conscription badge; the gold cigarette case Stanley Melbourne Bruce treasured till the day he died; the wind-up camera Robert Menzies used to make home movies during the London Blitz and many more.

Together, these reveal the nation’s leaders as you have never seen them before.

A Film Australia National Interest Program produced in association with Old Parliament House and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Episode 1: Edmund Barton and the Velvet Soap Advertisement

The Velvet Soap advertising campaign is a tongue-in-cheek reminder of Edmund Barton’s hand in formulating the White Australia policy. Barton also helped draft the Federal Constitution, created the High Court, and presided over the formulation of federal industrial relations and the legal system. Without him the wayward states may never have federated.

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Billboard poster, designed by Charles Nuttall, advertising Velvet soap, featuring the first three Justices of Australia’s High Court; Sir Edmund Barton, Sir Samuel Griffith and Richard O’Connor, 1903-5. Photo courtesy of the Old Parliament House Collection.

Portrait of Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia, 1901. Photo courtesy of the State Library of Queensland.

Episode 2: Andrew Fisher's Lunch Box

Andrew Fisher’s tin lunch box reminds us that humble beginnings informed his formidable political career: leaving school at 10, he was a coalminer throughout his teens, and migrated to Australia at 22. He rose quickly from union organiser to three-time Prime Minister, inventing the Australian ideal of a "fair go” along the way. Among a host of policies designed for the common good, he advocated maternity allowances and greater political equality for women.

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Presenter Warren Brown’s watercolour caricature of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher.

Portrait of Andrew Fisher who was Prime Minister of Australia 1914-15. Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

Episode 3: William Hughes and the 1916 Conscription Badge

The irascible William Hughes was a popular and dynamic politician despite a tendency to feud. He burned through 100 secretaries during his term in office, helped found the Labor Party, the Nationalist Party, and the United Australia Party and was ousted from all three. "The Little Digger" as he became known, campaigned twice for the deeply unpopular concept of national conscription in order to boost an Australian army decimated by some of the bloodiest offensives of World War One. He formed the Commonwealth Police Force after a dissenter socked him with an egg and the state police force did nothing.

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Badge, 'Yes’ World War I referendum on conscription, tin plate and celluloid, Australia, 1916. Collection: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Photographer: Ryan Hernandez.

Portrait of William Hughes. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Episode 4: Stanley Melbourne Bruce's Cigarette Case

Until the day he died, Stanley Melbourne Bruce kept two photographs in his study—one of his wife and one of Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. As young men they were enemies at Gallipoli, but during the post-war years of international reconstruction, they forged a mutual admiration as passionate advocates of secularism. After the League of Nations Montreux conference in 1936, Atatürk presented Bruce with a gold cigarette case, which he treasured for the rest of his life.

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Presenter Warren Brown holding Stanley Bruce’s gold cigarette case. On location at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. Photograph by Sam Cooper, National Archives of Australia. © National Archives of Australia.

Portrait of Stanley Melbourne Bruce. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia

Episode 5: James Scullin and the GCMG

When Labor won the 1929 election, at the height of the Depression, the new Prime Minister, James Scullin, refused to take up residence in The Lodge. Instead, he offered to rent it out to defray the costs of the Prime Ministership—an act which would be unthinkable today. Scullin was determined, and even when his mission to appoint an Australian-born Governor General met with furious opposition and public disapproval, he insisted on appointing one—Sir Isaac Isaacs. King George V was not amused, but the precedent had been set and Isaacs was anointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) and presented the insignia chain.

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Presenter Warren Brown with The Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (Sir Isaac Isaacs Governor General collar). Photograph by Marcus Filinger.

Portrait of James Scullin. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Episode 6: Joseph Lyons' Love Letters

The Depression had finally ended when Joseph Lyons came to power. Lyons and his adored wife and confidante, Enid, presented a genuine picture of domestic harmony and security to the Australian public despite the many separations they endured as he commuted from the family home in Tasmania to the Australian capital. Politics rarely produces impassioned romantics, which is just what makes the hundreds of letters Joseph Lyons wrote to Enid as fascinating as they are unexpected. He died in office and Enid went on to become the first female member of the Federal House of Representatives.

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Prime Minister Joseph Lyons’ love letters to his wife Enid. Shot on location at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Photograph by Marcus Filinger.

Portrait of Joseph Lyons, Wilmot, Tasmania, 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Episode 7: Robert Menzies' Camera

Robert Menzies served his first term as Prime Minister during World War Two. In 1941 he travelled to England and witnessed the bombing of London first hand. He was shocked. He also believed Singapore would fall if the Japanese entered the war, which strained his relationship with Churchill. Menzies took his wind-up camera everywhere he went, and his very personal record of the visit includes strikingly informal footage of a young Princess Elizabeth.

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Movie camera belonging to Sir Robert Menzies. Photograph by Dean McNicoll. Photo courtesy of the Dame Pattie Menzies collection No.1, National Museum of Australia.

Portrait of Robert Menzies. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Episode 8: John Curtin's Australian Journalists' Association Badge

John Curtin started out as a copy-boy on The Age, working his way up the ladder via the union movement. He joined the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA) in 1917 and was elected Western Australian State President in 1920, before moving into politics. Twenty years later he reached the top, becoming Australia’s fourteenth Prime Minister. His affinity with the press served him well during the arduous years of World War Two, when he kept newspaper editors onside with regular press briefings, even revealing dispatches from Churchill. He wore his AJA badge every day he was in office.

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Presenter Warren Brown’s watercolour caricature of Prime Minister John Curtin.

Portrait of John Curtin. Photo courtesy of John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library.

Episode 9: Ben Chifley's Pipe

Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, Ben Chifley was a former train driver with a voice like worn out boot leather. He was well aware that his image as the typical bloke next door—he was rarely seen without his tobacco pipe - helped to sell an ambitious raft of post war reconstruction projects to the Australian public. He was also a gifted treasurer, prone to personal and professional thrift, which allowed him to set the stage for Australia’s economic boom in the 1950s.

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Ben Chifley's pipe Photograph by Linda Coleman, courtesy Chifley Home, Bathurst © Bathurst Regional Council.

Photograph of Ben Chifley as he was typically sighted with pipe in hand. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Episode 10: Harold Holt's Briefcase

The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, during a beach holiday sparked countless conspiracy theories and ultimately overshadowed his political accomplishments. At the height of the cold war, with the Vietnam War escalating, he had already started to dismantle the White Australia policy. The items left in Holt’s briefcase are a significant time capsule of his last days as Prime Minister: a pair of socks, theatre tickets, his tax returns and a couple of combs. He is remembered today by The Harold Holt Memorial Baths in Melbourne and a plaque at Cheviot Beach where he took his last swim.

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Presenter Warren Brown (left) with Holt expert Tom Frame in front of Harold Holt’s briefcase on location at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. Photograph by Sam Cooper, National Archives of Australia. © National Archives of Australia.

Portrait of Harold Holt. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

More about The Prime Ministers' National Treasures

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Executive Producer

Penny Robins

Series Producer

Paul Rudd

Producer

Perry Stapleton

Director

Matthew Thomason

Writers