After four years abroad, John Highfield found himself in the midst of another significant historical journalistic career event when he covered the Dismissal on November 11 1975, for ABC Radio.
John was in Canberra earlier this week to commemorate the 50 year anniversary at Old Parliament House with others who covered the historic day.
John even brought his old Electrovoice microphone. That was the mic that most reporters carried in those days, it was nicknamed ‘the hammer’ because you could supposedly hammer a nail with it and it wouldn’t break, just the thing for on-the-road journos carrying heavy Nagra tape recorders and other ‘portable’ equipment.
We asked John to share his memories of the day with radioinfo readers.
On Monday 10 November 1975 I returned to Australia from a 4 year posting for Radio Current Affairs (AM, PM) in the ABC London Office to be Senior Reporter for Radio Current Affairs, alongside Andrew Potter in the Press Gallery in Parliament House .
After 4 years covering the so-called ‘troubles in Northern Ireland, the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorism and much else in Europe and the Middle East, the withholding of Supply by the Liberal Opposition led by Malcolm Fraser was a new journalistic experience for me, but I was immersed in a short learning curve.
By day 2 of my new job, I was on-air with Andrew Potter and Huw Evans delivering a hour-long PM Special on ABC national networks for the politics of the Supply Bills crisis. Nearing the conclusion of the broadcast, at about 1.50pm, I left the ABC studio in the basement of Old Parliament House for a last minute check of the Gallery Press Release boxes. As I emerged there was chaos in the basement corridor.
Parliamentary attendants were moving trolly loads of documents and filing cabinets from one side of the building to the other. Amidst this chaos, I spotted Tony Eggleton – a key figure in the Liberal Party and former Press Secretary to the Late Prime Minister Harold Holt, who now, was a senior strategist in the Opposition Leaders Office. He was directing the attendants – calling out “the Prime Minister wants those files to Room xxx. etc. Confused, I said to him, Tony, you don’t work for the Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, why are you directing this ? In a short, sharp response, Tony replied “ Things have changed – you’ll find out soon”
I went straight back into the ABC studio in the closing minutes of the live PM Special and gave witness to the detail of the chaos in the Parliamentary corridor and my encounter with Tony Eggleton, telling Huw and listeners “ something really big has occurred – we’ll probably have more detail very soon”. Within minutes of the program ending, news of The Dissmissal surged through the Press Gallery.
Just after 2pm Malcolm Fraser rose to his feet in the House of Representatives to announce the Governor General had commissioned him as Prime Minister and the Opposition he led had become Caretaker Government. ‘PM’ was soon back on the air for continuous coverage of the extraordinary afternoon, including the memorable events on the front steps of Old Parliament House – now known as the Museum of Australian Democracy. Gough Whitlam and the huge supporting crowd providing a perfect soundscape for live coverage radio.
An interesting footnote from contemporary broadcasting days. In the pre-digital era, in 1975 , because transmissions for Radio and TV from Canberra relied on physical cables – termed landlines, circuits and bearers – the sudden, unplanned demands caused problems.
All radio and TV networks were jamming the available capacity to get material out to wider networks across Australia.
For the ABC – with PM Current Affairs live continuous broadcast and Garry McDonald’s Norman Gunstan character feeding his extraordinary satirical comedy performance with the chanting, outraged crowd and Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament into Sydney for later editing into the Norman Gunston Show, ABC News had a problem for transmission of its urgent material.
High level political intervention direct to ABC Managing Director Talbot Duckmanton was invoked to arrange for News to get their TV material out, holding off the Gunston video feed to give News priority on the TV bearers and arranging additional Radio circuits from the then national communications service – Telecom Australia.
Related articles:
It was all about radio: Leigh Hatcher on how radio was first with The Dismissal 50 years ago
40th anniversary of AM program; Listen to audio of first one
Photos: John Highfield, Facebook & Joseph-luc Highfield.