Afternoon Light

Robert Menzies served 18 years as PM, but were they all as good as each other? On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Andrew Kemp, who has recently ranked Australian Prime Ministers by the best and worst terms of government we have experienced. A fun and enlightening exercise that highlights how good governance can be judged not merely on the policy programs for which governments are elected, but ultimately on rising to the unique & unforeseeable challenges of the day. Andrew Kemp is a Melbourne-based writer and a former economist at the Commonwealth Treasury and the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria. He has written for the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, contributed a chapter to Unity in Autonomy: A Federal History of the Founding of the Liberal Party, and recently launched an Australian history themed Substack titled ‘Australia Past and Present’. EFUPQI5G2QXDV26F

How did the shopping centre become a ubiquitous part of Australian life & is its retail and cultural hegemony greater here than anywhere else on the planet? On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with retail historian Matthew Bailey to reveal the fascinating stories associated with the rise of the Australian Shopping Centre. An outgrowth of Menzies-era prosperity, automobility and suburban growth that we not only made our own, but which, through the likes of Westfield, we then began exporting to the world. Dr Matthew Bailey is an Associate Professor at Macquarie University and one of Australia’s leading retail historians. His book, Managing the Marketplace: Reinventing Shopping Centres in Post-War Australia (Routledge, 2020) is the first book on the subject, and one of the few to comprehensively examine Australian retail history. Dr Bailey has published widely on retail and retail property history, including in leading international and Australian journals such as Urban History, Enterprise & Society, Australian Economic History Review, Journal of Australian Studies, History Australia, and the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. 8FVZGY9NLPRNML79

Was an Aussie more essential to the development of the Atom bomb than J. Robert Oppenheimer, & if so why don't we remember him? On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Roland Perry to reveal the remarkable story of Mark Oliphant. A man who arguably won the Second World War twice: first by developing radar to stave off the Nazis, and then by developing the bomb that knocked out Japan. Perhaps the most amazing part of the story is that he is not a household name - reflecting Australia's own discomfort with the destructive power that Oliphant helped to unleash upon the world. Roland Perry OAM is one of Australia’s best-known authors whose books have sold more than two million copies. He has published 40 books, many of them bestsellers, including Bill the Bastard, Horrie the War Dog, The Australian Light Horse, The Changi Brownlow, Monash & Chauvel, and Anzac Sniper. His latest book is Oliphant: The Australian genius who developed radar and showed Oppenheimer how to build the bomb. JRKBJVMY3HIC5ZF9

What did it mean when Australians used to boast that we were 'more British than the British'? On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Stuart Ward to discuss the complexities of British identity, as it once held sway across Australia and the broader British Empire. A defining yet evasive term that meant many different things to many different people, and perhaps because of this, has proven very difficult to replace. Stuart Ward is the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University for the 2025-26 academic year. He was previously Professor and Head of the Saxo Institute for History, Ethnology, Archaeology and Classics at the University of Copenhagen, specialising in imperial history, particularly the political and social consequences of decolonisation. He is the author inter alia of Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal, Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire (with James Curran), and Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain (recently re-released as a paperback). 27VRIQZQOA6HRHBP

How did a PM who only ever won one election become as iconic as Ben Chifley? On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with David Day to discuss Australia's 16th PM. The pipe smoking Bathurst train driver who suffered a trade unionist's martyrdom, before rising to become the architect of Australia's post war settlement. An endearing pragmatist respected even by his opponents, who ironically came unstuck in attempting to push beyond the welfare state towards fully fledged state socialism. David Day is an Australian historian and author. Day has written widely on Australian history and the history of the Second World War. Among his many books are Menzies and Churchill at War and a two volume study of Anglo-Australian relations during the Second World War. His prize-winning history of Australia, Claiming a Continent, won the prestigious non-fiction prize in the 1998 South Australian Festival Awards for Literature. An earlier book, Smugglers and Sailors, was shortlisted by the Fellowship of Australian Writers for its Book of the Year Award. John Curtin: A Life was shortlisted for the 2000 NSW Premier's Literary Awards' Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. He is the author of Andrew Fisher: Prime Minister of Australia and Chifley: A Life. STMN2HVPPB0GILNX