“One Australian tradition is to cut down the elite and the successful. It had its roots in the era of convicts who naturally opposed those in authority. This levelling or egalitarian tradition continued to flourish on the goldfields in the 1850s when the unusual mining laws gave everyone an opportunity to find gold, and the tradition was accentuated around 1900 by the rising trade unions. The attitude was one of the spurs to Australian democracy.”

Australian historian, academic, best-selling author and commentator

Geoffrey Blainey is an Australian historian, academic, best-selling author, and commentator. He is known for his work on Australian history and for bringing historical ideas to a wide public audience. Blainey has written extensively on Australia and on the ways history shapes public life. Alongside his academic work, he has built a large readership as an author and public commentator, and his writing is often associated with broad historical interpretation rather than narrow specialist study.