Geoffrey Blainey AC

Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia’s most significant historians. His impeccably researched presentations delivered with humour, reveal breathtaking insight. His vast knowledge and historical understanding reinforce his growing reputation as a futurist in both the economic and business milieu and on social and political trends.

A social and economic historian, his book The Tyranny of Distance (a history of the effect of isolation on Australia) gave the term international currency. He is equally well-known as a social commentator whose penetrating and often provocative statements have made headlines and stirred national debate.

His 40 published books include A Short History of the World (2000), The Rush That Never Ended (a history of Australian mining), Triumph of the Nomads, The Causes of War, and A Shorter History of Australia. In a lighter vein, Geoffrey has also written A Game of Our Own about the origins and development of the AFL.

Geoffrey Blainey was Professor of Economic History at the University of Melbourne, Ernest Scott Professor of History, and is now Professor Emeritus. He was also inaugural Chancellor of the University at Ballarat. In the early 1980s he was visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University.

Geoffrey was also chairman of the Australia Council for four years and chairman of the Australia-China Council for five years. From 1994 to 1998 he was the Foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat. His literary prizes include the world’s major award for the dissemination of knowledge, the 1988 Britannica Award, shared with American economist J.K. Galbraith and others.

On Australia Day 2000, Professor Blainey became the most honoured Australian historian and commentator when he was appointed as a Companion in the Order of Australia for service to academia, research, scholarship and public debate. The following year he was awarded a Centenary Medal. In 2001 Geoffrey Blainey presented the Boyer lectures on the theme, This Land is all Horizons: Australian Fears and Visions.

Professor Geoffrey Blainey talks about:

• Australia in the Next 15 Years – Is the Lucky Country Dead or Alive?
• The World in the Age of Terror
• Australia: Its Achievements and Failures