Minute by the Lord Mayor
To Council:
Australia’s reading public and our arts and
cultural communities are the poorer with the death of novelist, poet, playwright
and essayist David George Joseph Malouf AO on 22 April 2026.
Born on 20 March 1934 in Brisbane to a
Lebanese Christian father and an English-born mother of Sephardi Jewish
descent, David began his literary career at an early age, reading classic
English children’s books when he was 4. He first read Shakespeare aged 8, and
by the time he was 12 was reading Wuthering Heights, Pride and
Prejudice, Vanity Fair and Moby Dick, his favourite novel. As
a child, he wrote for the neighbourhood newspaper, and after reading Kenneth
Slessor at age 16, wrote his first poetry. He widened his cultural interests,
learning to play the violin and piano and retained a lifelong interest in
music.
His first 24 years were spent in Brisbane, as
a student at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland. After
graduating with honours in Arts in 1955, he lectured at the University.
In 1959, he moved to England, teaching in
secondary schools for much of the next decade. In 1962, he published his first
work, a collection of poetry in an anthology with 3 other Australian poets.
In 1968, he returned to Australia to lecture
in English at the University of Sydney but continued writing. His collection, Neighbours
in a Thicket: Poems was published in 1974. It featured childhood memories
of his mother, his sister, travelling in Europe and war. The following year he
published his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Johnno, about a
young man growing up in Brisbane during the Second World War.
In 1978, he became a full-time writer. He
moved to an isolated Italian village, where he spent 10 months each year
writing without distraction. He would return to Sydney in the other months,
often staying in Newtown with the late Bill Hunt, who served with me as an
Alderman on Sydney City Council between 1984 and 1987, and Bill's partner, the
linguistic historian Dr Gary Simes. The time spent in Italy was highly
productive, resulting in the novels, An Imaginary Life, Fly Away Peter,
Child's Play and Harland's Half Acre and the short story collection,
Antipodes.
He returned to Australia in the 1980s,
settling in a terrace house in Chippendale, close to Sydney University. I had
the fortune of meeting him a number of times when I was doorknocking in the
area.
His prolific literary output continued, with
more novels and poetry collections, but expanding to include essays, theatre
criticism, lectures, opera libretti including Voss, based on the Patrick
White novel, and a play, Blood Relations, jointly presented by the
Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia at Sydney
Opera House in 1987.
In 1998, he delivered the Boyer lectures, A
Spirit of Play: The Making of Australian Consciousness. The following year,
he and Jackie Huggins co-wrote the draft Declaration for Reconciliation,
intended for consultation with the Australian people.
Beyond his own writing, David actively
involved himself in Australia’s literary community, and broader cultural
matters. He advocated for the freedom of writers around the world through his
long involvement in PEN Sydney. He was a member of the Australia Council’s
Literature Board and the Opera Australia board. He took a pivotal role in in
the campaign to prevent the State Library of NSW from removing researchers and
books from the Mitchell Library's Reading Room. He made regular visits to
literature classes for disadvantaged and homeless students organised by Mission
Australia and Australian Catholic University’s Clemente Program and was a
lifetime ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Many younger writers
remember him for the encouragement, support and mentoring he gave them.
His Chippendale home welcomed other writers,
opera singers, musicians, sculptors, photographers and poets. Bob Carr would
phone asking where to start with Balzac as he had finally finished Proust.
Thomas Keneally was another caller, talking to him about novel writing. In his
later years, he returned to his home state of Queensland, living in a Gold
Coast apartment with wraparound views of the Pacific. It overlooked the beach
where he often took walks, setting a cracking pace for those with him.
During his long career, David received many
awards and was shortlisted for several others. In 1987 he was made an Officer
of the Order of Australia for services to literature. These awards were matched
by the many tributes which followed his death. The cultural critic Peter Craven
said he was "arguably the most accomplished Australian writer of his
generation" adding "He was, in various ways, a modest man, but a man
of immense culture. He was more cultivated than any of us."
Sarah Holland-Batt, head of creative writing
at the University of Technology Sydney, observed: “David has been a lodestar
for so many writers, not only because of his brilliance but also because he was
profoundly humane, decent, modest, kind to a fault and always remained keenly
interested in new writing. This enormous, unparalleled generosity is a
significant piece of his legacy as he leaves behind scores of writers whose
lives he has touched through a genuine interest and engagement with their
work.”
the Rt HOn
CLOVER MOORE AO
Lord Mayor of Sydney
Moved by the Chair
(the Lord Mayor), seconded by Councillor Miller –
It is resolved that all persons attending
this meeting of Council observe one minute’s silence to commemorate the life of
David Malouf AO and his contribution to world literature and Australia’s
cultural and civic life.
Carried
unanimously.
S051491
Note – All
Councillors, staff and members of the public present stood in silence for one
minute as a mark of respect to David Malouf AO.