THE MIEGUNYAH PRESS
An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited
Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton VIC 3053
www.mup.com.au
First published 2017
Text Lady Anna Cowen, 2017
Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2017
Images Government House, Canberra, and Cowen family collection
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 publishers.
Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.
Edited by Joanne Holliman
Cover design by Philip Campbell Design
Typeset by Cannon Typesetting
Printed in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Cowen, Anna, 1925 author.
Lady Cowens diaries/Lady Anna Cowen
9780522871272 (hardback)
9780522871289 (ebook)
Includes index.
Cowen, Anna, 1925Diaries.
Governors generals spousesAustraliaDiaries.
AustraliaPolitics and government20th century.
AustraliaSocial life and customs20th century.
Introduction
My life took an unexpected turn in April 1977. Zelman, my husband of some thirty years and then the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Queensland, took a phone call in his office. It was Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser inviting him to dinner in Canberra. Of course we wondered why he should be summonedsome job or other, perhaps an inquiry. Our son Nick said, I bet he wants you for governor-general, Dad. Dont be ridiculous, I responded.
Zelman travelled alone to Canberra and returned the next morning. He called me from his office and asked me to join him there. When I arrived, I could see he was delighted. It is the governor-generalship, he said. I told him Id have to consult you. So lets phone him now and say yes. Some consultation!
Well, it was a foregone conclusion. Zelman was a born communicator and he loved public life. My thoughts, though, were about our four children, our family. How would this affect us? For myself, I could do without it. I enjoy my private life and I do not seek such public exposure, but there was no way I could deny him this post without occasioning bitter disappointment.
Zelman had been a biographer of Sir Isaac Isaacs, the first Australian-born governor-general and, like him, Jewish.* He was therefore well acquainted with the role, and he was also a constitutional lawyer. The crisis of 1975, in which the Whitlam government was dismissed by Sir John Kerr, had deeply divided the Australian community. Sir John had remained in office after the event, but his term had become uncomfortable and problematic. Zelman was not fazed by any of this. So we said yes and set in motion wheels within wheels, which would grind on through months of confidentiality and secrecy until an announcement could be made.
Civil servants came to see us in Brisbane, employing classic espionage strategies: flying in from Canberra and using COMCAR vehicles (federal government cars) to take them to a city hotel, and then, because COMCAR drivers are such good information sharers, catching ordinary taxis to see us at the University in St Lucia, killing the scent! Over the next few months, the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, David Smith, and others came to discuss all manner of arrangements. Finally the announcement date was named: 12 July. Bennys birthday, I exclaimedbut in the end the announcement was postponed two days.
Meanwhile the media were aware that things were stirring in Canberra. There was speculation as to who a successor to Sir John Kerr might be. Several names were mentioned, but to my relief (and indignation), not Zelmans. A visiting American professor had been brought to Zelmans office and, aware of the current chatter, wondered what superannuated fool would want that job.
Pandemonium broke out at St Lucia when the announcement was made. The media pounded on our front door, and two Federal Police protection officers arrived. It had been arranged that the media might be permitted photographs that night but no interviews. A press conference would be held at our residence the next day. One enterprising reporter, though, secured an interview with eleven-year-old Benny, whose view of events was, Wow! He did wonder if his friends would still be able to call him Ben, and opined that if Australia became a republic, his Dad would be out of a job.
The press conference saw the house packed with the media and their equipment. The reporters were chiefly interested in Zelmans opinion of Sir John Kerrs dismissal of the Whitlam government. He responded that as a constitutional lawyer, he had no intention of ever expressing a view on the matter. And he never did. He said he would simply get on with the job, and hoped, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, to bring a touch of healing.
The date of taking office was set at 8 December 1977. This left a period of some five months for us to make arrangements. A senior deputy took over the vice-chancellorship, and the government assigned a very competent personal assistant to Zelman in Brisbane to help deal with formal arrangements and answer a huge amount of mail. We also needed to travel to London to meet the Queen and establish a relationship with her principal private secretary, who would be Zelmans conduit to the monarch. Additionally, there were invitations to visit China, at the request of the Peoples Republic, and Japan as guests of the Japan Foundation. There was also the need to acquire formal outfits for Zelman, and suitable clothes for me.
Arrangements for the children had to be made. Our eldest son, Simon, then twenty-six, was already in Canberra, studying at the Australian National University for a PhD. Our second son, Nick, at twenty-two, was studying arts/law in Brisbane, and we had to arrange for him to now share a flat with a friend. Kate was in Israel, on a kibbutz, and only learned of her fathers appointment when a friend relayed the news after Australian friends had told him. Ben would come with us and attend school in Canberra. We also needed to pack up our home, where we had lived since the early 1970s.
How was it that Zelman came to be Malcolm Frasers choice for this office? We can do no more than guess and have no certainty. We never askedit did not feel seemly to do so. Some assume Zelmans familiarity with constitutional law was a factor. My hunch is that other factors were at play. Zelman had wide public recognition, in part at least through television. He gave commentaries and had appeared on a popular panel program,
