Shortlisted, 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize, The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate

ON A JULY evening in Sydney in 1955, the nation’s arts establishment gathered to celebrate the beginning of a new era in Australian culture. It was the gala opening of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust’s Elizabethan Theatre in Newtown and they were all there: a former High Court judge, scions of media and grazing dynasties from all the states, the hierarchy of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and of course the senior public servant who drove the changes in cultural policy for decades, H.C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs.