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About Manning Clark House

Manning Clark House Inc. is a national scholarly and cultural organization based in the former home of Professor Manning Clark, Australiaâs best-known historian, and his wife, translator and linguist Dymphna Clark.

Manning Clark House (MCH) was founded by Dymphna Clark with the aim of its being a lively centre of cultural, intellectual and social life. Without the continuing presence of Manning and Dymphna Clark, MCH celebrates their lives and achievements through a vigorous program of academic and cultural events. MCH organises public lectures, conferences, seminars and debates, hosts concerts and other cultural occasions, offers residential scholarships, and supports appropriate research.

The house and gardens in Canberra provide a congenial setting and facilities for study and writing, for residential scholars and for book launches. One of MCHâs principal activities is a dynamic publishing program, which covers all the areas of relevance to Manning Clark House.

MCH is an Incorporated Association and Registered Cultural Organization, which, in providing a focus for the sharing of ideas across a wide range of important issues, strives to be above politics. In the best sense, MCH is a place where those who disagree can meet to share their ideas and find common ground.

 

Manning Clark House Patrons

Philip Adams

Phillip Adams AO

Philip Adams is an author, broadcaster and film-producer, whose films include "The Getting of Wisdom" and "We of the Never Never". Currently he has a column in The Australian sponsored by Rupert Murdoch and interviews on Late Night Live under the eagle eyes of Alan Jones and Donald McDonald. 

Gerard Brennan

Hon Sir Gerard Brennan AC, KBE

Gerard Brennan is a lawyer and judge. He was educated in catholic schools and was President of the National Union of Australian University Students. He was a High Court Judge and member of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Janet Holmes a Court

Janet Holmes à Court AO

Janet Holmes à Court is a businesswoman and supporter of the arts. She has been chairman of the board of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Chancellor of the University of Western Australia and a Director of Heytesbury Holdings Ltd. Janet delivered the first Manning Clark annual lecture in 2000.

Barry Jones

Barry Jones AO

Barry Jones is a thinker, particularly about the future of science education. He was the first radio talk-back man, and a member of the Australian Film Development Corporation. Barry has been the federal minister for Science, Technology, Small business and Customs. Currently he is exploring Australia's future in relation to knowledge.

Justice Kirby

Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG

Justice Michael Kirby was appointed to the Court in February 1996. He has held numerous national and international positions including on the Board of CSIRO, as President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands, as UN Special Representative in Cambodia and as President of the International Commission of Jurists. In 1991 he was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
Justice Michael Kirby delivered the second Manning Clark annual lecture in 2001.

 

DavidMalouf

David Malouf AO

David Malouf is a teacher, writer and cultural commentator. He has taught English in England and at Sydney University. As a writer he has been well known with such works as Johnno, An Imaginary Life, and Remembering Babylon. His lectures are always impeccably delivered.

Jack Munday

Jack Mundey AO

Jack Mundey is a conservationist and union leader. He has spent a considerable amount of time working towards the preservation of Australiaâs heritage and countryside, often in conjunction with his work as a union leader.

 

Neilma Sidney

Neilma Sidney is a writer and philanthropist. She has worked with the Myer Foundation for many years and has created the Four Winds Festival near Bermagui.

 

Manning Clark House Director

Clare Hoey

Clare Hoey
Manning Clark House Director

Clare Hoey is originally from Barcaldine in central Queensland, has been a librarian, a high school teacher, a senior book editor and a solicitor. In 1994 she joined the Queensland Public Service, and she has worked for Arts Queensland in arts policy development and program management since 1996. Clare has Arts and Law degrees and a postgraduate Diploma of Education from the University of Queensland, and a postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies from the Queensland University of Technology. She has in-depth knowledge of publishing, the arts and cultural sector and government funding and policy processes. She is looking forward to meeting everyone associated with Manning Clark House and planning future programs.

 

Manning Clark House Management Commitee

Sebastian Clark

Sebastian Clark
Manning Clark House President

Sebastian has been President of MCH since 2000. His teacher's career took him to Geelong, Melbourne and England. He helped his mother get A Historian's Apprenticeship and Speaking Out of Turn ready for publication. His interests include the minutiae of history.  In 2006 Sebastian wrote an addendum to the new edition of Manning Clark's A Short History of Australia which brings the book right up-to-date, revealing many enduring parallels between the past and present.

David Headon

David Headon
Manning Clark House Vice-President

Dr Headon is Cultural Adviser to the National Capital Authority and Director of the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies (Canberra). He teaches at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and has authored and co-authored many books. Dr Headon is a regular commentator on cultural issues on ABC.
Anne Buttsworth

Anne Buttsworth
Manning Clark House Secretary

Anne Buttsworth was Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Service Board and First Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Management Division. In 1995, she joined Ansett Australia as international relations manager. Anne is a Board member of the National Foundation for Australian Women.
Maurice Sexton

Maurice Sexton
Manning Clark House Public Officer and Treasurer

Maurice Sexton OAM is a former senior public servant with an abiding interest in conservation and cultural heritage in the Australian high country. He has spent almost 20 years working as a volunteer for Kosciuszko Huts Association maintaining and conserving the high country huts in the Australian high country of the ACT and NSW.

Harriet Barry

Harriet Barry

Harriet Barry grew up and was educated in Canberra. She has degrees in Psychology and Adult Educstion and a working life in social science-related areas. For 30 years she worked overseas and interstate, initially as a youthworker and social worker, then teaching in the tertiary sector and as an adult educator in the fields of community and health services and education. She had a seachange experience in 2000 and returned home to Canberra, where she now works at the National Museum of Australia. In an even more seachange experience, she has discovered the joys and joys and mysteries of glassworking and now the heart of her home is her workshop and studio.

 

Andrew Clark

Andrew Clark is a former political correspondent of the National Times, and a former literary editor of The Age. Co-author of the book Kerr's King Hit, he has given guest lectures at Yale University, the Budapest University of Economics and the Menzies Centre in London.

Sandy Forbes

Sandy Forbes

Sandy Forbes has worked as a journalist and lectured in journalism in Australia, Canada, England, the South Pacific and southern Africa. She was the ABC's head of training, has worked over several years in the public affairs unit of the National Museum of Australia. Sandy Forbes is co-editor of Food for Thought at Manning Clark House.

Peter Hislop

Peter Hislop

Peter Hislop has assisted Manning Clark House with photography and graphic design for several years. A Design graduate (Hons) of the University of Canberra, Peter works in information technology in the Commonwealth public service and is studying for a Master of Information Architecture.


Anne Kelly

Anne Kelly

Anne Kelly, originally from New Zealand, has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Auckland University and an LLB from the ANU. She worked as a teacher and a family lawyer before joining the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS). She recently retired after practising law for 25 years.

 

Tony Kevin

Tony Kevin retired from the Australian foreign service in 1998 after a 30-year career in the Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister's Departments, during which he was Australia's ambassador to Poland (1991-94) and Cambodia (1994-97). He has written extensively on Australian foreign, national security, and refugee policies.


John Byron

Bruce Kent

Dr Bruce Kent, a graduate of Melbourne, Oxford and the Australian National University, is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the ANU National Europe Centre. He is a specialist on modern French and German history, who has offered courses on themes such as Revolution, Counter-Revolution, Fascism and Neo-Fascism in Western Europe from 1789 to the present. His research on the repercussions of the war of 1914-1918 gave rise to The Spoils of War: The Politics, Economics and Diplomacy of Reparations. 1918-1932 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, 1991). He has been a Visiting Fellow at Stanford, an Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics, and, more recently, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of International Studies, Princeton.

 

Paul Pickering

 

Public Officer

Maurice Sexton

Honorary Auditor

Pauline Hore

Honorary Solicitor

Bill Baker
Baker, Deane and Nutt

Office

Jenny Norris

Caretaker

Wilma Robb

Copyright © 2002-present Manning Clark House Inc. || Contact Information || Page updated: 19 February 2008