The Prime Ministers' National Treasures Press Kit

premieres weekly from tuesday 31 july 2007 at 6:50pm on abc tv
Award winning cartoonist and yarn spinner Warren Brown reveals the emotional lives
of Australian Prime Ministers through 10 objects they used every day or even adored.
(10 x 5mins)
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

premieres weekly from tuesday 31 july 2007 at 6:50pm on abc tv
Series synopses
One page
Award winning cartoonist and yarn spinner Warren Brown
takes us on a surprising journey into the hearts and minds
of Australia’s Prime Ministers. After months spent foraging
through the nation’s archives, Brown unearths an array of 10
extraordinary objects with countless secrets to tell - Harold
Holt’s last days as revealed in the items he kept in his
briefcase; hundreds of passionate love letters Joseph Lyons
wrote to his wife; John Curtin’s AJA badge, worn every day
whilst he was in offi ce; Andrew Fisher’s tin lunchbox which he
Presenter Warren Brown with his cartoon caricatures of Prime Minister James
used when he was just a poor gold miner in Gympie; William Scullin (left), Sir Isaac Isaacs (centre) and King George the Fifth (right).
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS FILINGER. © FILM AUSTRALIA.
Hughes and the vote “yes” for conscription badge; the gold
cigarette case Stanley Melbourne Bruce treasured till the day he died; the wind-up camera Robert Menzies
used to make home movies during the London blitz and many more. These reveal the nation’s leaders as
you have never seen them before.
Versions of the series, specifi cally designed for public exhibition, are showing at The Australian Prime Ministers
Centre at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Series Key Credits
The Prime Ministers’ National Treasures is a Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced in association
with Old Parliament House and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © 2007 Film Australia.
www.filmaust.com.au
Series Producer - Paul Rudd
Producer – Perry Stapleton
Director - Matthew Thomason
Writers - Paul Rudd, Matthew Thomason
Presenter - Warren Brown
Film Australia Executive Producer - Penny Robins
ABC Commissioning Editor – Stuart Menzies
Duration – 10 x 5 minutes
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

EPISODE 1 – EDMUND BARTON AND THE VELVET SOAP AD
Tuesday 31 July at 6:50pm
The Velvet Soap advertising campaign is a tongue-in-cheek reminder of
Edmund Barton’s hand in formulating the White Australia policy. Barton
also helped draft the Federal Constitution, created the High Court, and
presided over the formulation of federal industrial relations and the legal
system. Without him the wayward states may never have federated.
Edmund Barton was Prime Minister of Australia from January 1901 to September
1903. The Velvet Soap ad is held at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
EPISODE 2 – ANDREW FISHER’S LUNCHBOX
Tuesday 7 August at 6:50pm
Billboard poster, designed by Charles Nuttall,
advertising Velvet soap, featuring the fi rst three Justices
of Australia’s High Court; Sir Edmund Barton, Sir
Samuel Griffi th and Richard O’Connor, 1903-5.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OLD PARLIAMENT
HOUSE COLLECTION.
Andrew Fisher’s tin lunchbox reminds us that humble beginnings informed his formidable political career:
leaving school at 10, he was a coalminer throughout his teens, and migrated to Australia at 23. He rose
quickly from union organiser to three-time Prime Minister, inventing the Australian ideal of “a fair go” along
the way. Among a host of policies designed for the common good, he advocated maternity allowances and
greater political equality for women.
Andrew Fisher was Prime Minister of Australia three times; from November 1908 to June 1909, April 1910 to June 1913,
September 1914 to October 1915. Andrew Fisher’s lunchbox is held at the Gympie Gold Mining Museum in Queensland.
EPISODE 3 – WILLIAM HUGHES AND THE 1916 CONSCRIPTION BADGE
Tuesday 14 August at 6:50pm
The irascible William Hughes was a popular and dynamic politician despite a tendency to feud. He burned
through 100 secretaries during his term in offi ce, helped found the Labor party, the Nationalist Party,
and the United Australia Party and was ousted from all three. “The Little Digger” as he became known,
campaigned twice for the deeply unpopular concept of national conscription in order to boost an Australian
army decimated by some of the bloodiest offensives of World War One. He formed the Commonwealth
Police Force after a dissenter socked him with an egg and the state police force did nothing.
William Hughes was Prime Minister of Australia from October 1915 to February 1923. The 1916 Conscription
Badge is held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
EPISODE 4 – STANLEY MELBOURNE BRUCE’S CIGARETTE CASE Tuesday 21 August at 6:50pm
Until the day he died, Stanley Melbourne Bruce kept two photographs on his desk – one of his wife and one
of Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. As young men they
were enemies at Gallipoli, but during the post-war years of international reconstruction, they forged a mutual
admiration as passionate advocates of secular democracy. After the League of Nations Montreux conference
in 1936, Atatürk presented Bruce with a gold cigarette case, which he treasured for the rest of his life.
Stanley Melbourne Bruce was Prime Minister of Australia from February 1923 to October 1929. Stanley Melbourne
Bruce’s Cigarette Case is held at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

EPISODE 5 – JAMES SCULLIN AND THE GCMG Tuesday 28 August at 6:50pm
When Labor won the 1929 election, at the height of the Depression, the new Prime Minister, James Scullin,
refused to take up residence in The Lodge. Instead, he offered to rent it out to defray the costs of the Prime
Ministership – an act which would be unthinkable today. Scullin was determined, and even when his mission
to appoint an Australian-born Governor General met with furious opposition and public disapproval, he
insisted on appointing one - Sir Isaac Isaacs. King George V was not amused, but the precedent had been
set and Isaacs was anointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) and
presented the insignia chain.
James Scullin was Prime Minister of Australia from October 1929 to January 1932. The GCMG is held at the
National Library of Australia in Canberra.
EPISODE 6 – JOSEPH LYONS’ LOVE LETTERS
Tuesday 4 September at 6:50pm
The Depression had fi nally ended when Joseph Lyons came to
power. Lyons and his adored wife and confi dante, Enid, presented
a genuine picture of domestic harmony and security to the
Australian public despite the many separations they endured as
he commuted from the family home in Tasmania to the Australian
capital. Politics rarely produces impassioned romantics, which is
just what makes the hundreds of letters Joseph Lyons wrote to
Enid as fascinating as they are unexpected. He died in offi ce and
Enid went on to become the fi rst female member of the Federal
House of Representatives.
Presenter Warren Brown’s watercolour caricature of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
Joseph Lyons was Prime Minister of Australia from January 1932 to
April 1939. Joseph Lyons’ Love Letters are held at the National Library
of Australia in Canberra.
Presenter Warren Brown’s watercolour caricature of Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
Prime Minister Joseph Lyons’ love letters to his wife Enid.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS FILINGER. © FILM AUSTRALIA
EPISODE 7 – ROBERT MENZIES’ CAMERA
Tuesday 11 September at 6:50pm
Robert Menzies served his first term as Prime Minister
during World War Two. In 1941 he travelled to England to see
the bombing of London first hand. He was shocked. He also
believed Singapore would fall if the Japanese entered the war,
which strained his relationship with Churchill. Menzies took
his wind-up camera everywhere he went, and his very personal
record of the visit includes strikingly informal footage of a young
Princess Elizabeth.
Robert Menzies was Prime Minister of Australia twice; from April 1939 to August 1941 and December 1949 to
January 1966. Robert Menzies’ Camera is held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

EPISODE 8 – JOHN CURTIN’S AUSTRALIAN JOURNALISTS’ ASSOCIATION BADGE
Tuesday 18 September at 6:50pm
John Curtin started out as a copy-boy on The Age, working his way up the ladder via the union movement.
He joined the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA) in 1917 and was elected State President in 1920,
before moving into politics. Twenty years later he reached the top, becoming Australia’s fourteenth Prime
Minister. His affi nity with the press served him well during the arduous years of World War Two, when he
kept newspaper editors onside with regular press briefi ngs, even revealing dispatches from Churchill. He
wore his AJA badge every day he was in offi ce.
John Curtin was Prime Minister of Australia from October 1941 to July 1945. John Curtin’s Australian Journalists’
Association Badge is held at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library in Perth.
EPISODE 9 – BEN CHIFLEY’S PIPE
Tuesday 25 September at 6:50pm
Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, Ben Chifley
was a former train driver with a voice like worn out
boot leather. He was well aware that his image as the
typical bloke next door – he was rarely seen without his
tobacco pipe - helped to sell an ambitious raft of post
war reconstruction projects to the Australian public.
He was also a gifted treasurer, prone to personal and
professional thrift, which allowed him to set the stage
for Australia’s economic boom in the 1950s.
Ben Chifley was Prime Minister of Australia from July 1945 to
December 1949. Ben Chifley’s Pipe is held at the Ben Chifley
Home in Bathurst NSW.
Photograph of Prime Minister, Ben Chifl ey and young boy with pipes in mouths.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LITHGOW MERCURY.
EPISODE 10 – HAROLD HOLT’S BRIEFCASE
Tuesday 2 October at 6:50pm
Presenter Warren Brown (left) with Holt expert Tom Frame in front of Harold
Holt’s briefcase on location at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SAM COOPER, NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA.
© NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA.
The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister,
Harold Holt, during a beach holiday sparked countless
conspiracy theories and ultimately overshadowed his political
accomplishments. At the height of the cold war, with the
Vietnam War escalating, he had already started to dismantle
the White Australia policy. The items left in Holt’s briefcase
are a signifi cant time capsule of his last days as Prime
Minister: a pair of socks, theatre tickets, his tax returns and
a couple of combs. He is remembered today by The Harold
Holt Memorial Baths in Melbourne and a plaque at Cheviot
Beach where he took his last swim.
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

About the making of the series
The team behind the second series of National Treasures
has had plenty of practice taking unwieldy wedges of
history and fashioning them into palatable spoonfuls of
snappy television. The fi rst series included everything
from Bradman’s Bat to Phar Lap’s hide, and even a 160-
year-old convict shirt. Three years later the series is still
running on the ABC.
With the second series, the stakes are higher, and
the terrain a little more challenging. After all, how do
Treasures presenter Warren Brown, DOP Paul Gordon and Director Matthew Thomason (left)
filming a scene on location at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.
you create irresistible mini-documentaries out of the PHOTOGRAPH BY SAM COOPER © NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA.
personal treasures of ten Australian Prime Ministers?
How many people in the twentieth century can relate to these rather severe historical entities, with their
stiff faces and improbable facial hair? As for their achievements – just hearing the word “Federation” has
induced stomach cramps and myopia in generations of Australian school children.
All this is about to change. These founding father’s have been exhumed, brushed down, and lit up like heroes,
for the latest collection of National Treasures. The series producer Paul Rudd, says viewers will be impressed by
the new series, whether they love history or not. This is definitely not sepia television for the over-the-hill set.
Each five minute grab has been “honed until it’s flab free and crystal clear,” says Rudd. “And the truth is, these
men created the Australia we know today. They were remarkably clever, intriguing, people.”
“It’s certainly not academic history,” agrees Matthew Thomason, the series writer/director. “It’s personal.
It goes straight to the heart. It’s about love letters, and home movies, and a gold cigarette case. And each
object tells a bloody good story. There is something irresistible about all of them.”
Every treasure trove needs its sleuth, and Warren Brown, well-known cartoonist, and author, returns as an
enthusiastic presenter with a knack for pumping adrenalin into Australian history.
“Following the trail of our illustrious leaders has made me see what a great country Australia really is!” he says.
“That you could have these homespun characters become Prime Ministers says it all. Chifley was a train
driver. Curtin was a copy boy. Fisher left school at ten to work the mines. Australia was like a science lab
of political experiments and these guys came in at ground zero. They started from scratch. I’m amazed by
how progressive they were!”
As for the objects themselves, some are very personal items, says Brown, and others are totally surprising.
“When I started to read Joseph Lyons’ love letters to his wife, I found them very moving. But my favourite
is the gold cigarette case. It symbolizes such an unexpected friendship. This series has totally changed the
way I think about Australia’s Prime Ministers.”
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

About the presenter – Warren Brown
As a fulltime cartoonist for the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Warren Brown
spends most of his time immersed in the argy-bargy of the metropolitan
newspaper world. To escape he plays the banjo, tinkers with his vintage
fi re engine and armoured car and writes the odd book. Consequently
Warren is a regular on various television current affairs programs –
most recently as the cartoonist on Difference of Opinion (ABC TV). In
2003 he was one of the subjects of Hired Assassins – Political Cartooning
in Australia, a searing documentary about Australian cartoonists
(distributed by Film Australia). In 2006 Brown conceived and narrated
the Logie nominated ABC TV series Peking to Paris – a 16,000km drive
across China, Mongolia and Russia in fi ve 100 year-old cars identical
to the originals in the race of 1907. Brown also co-authored the bestselling
coffee table book Peking to Paris (based on the television series
and published by Harper Collins). A keen history buff, Warren was the
offi cial overnight MC at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine War cemeteries at
Gallipoli on Anzac Day (2006, 2007, 2008). In 2007 he was nominated
for a Best New Talent Award for his ABC radio program Weekender. In
response to overwhelming popular demand, he has returned for the
second series of National Treasures.
Presenter Warren Brown.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAD RIMMER. © FILM AUSTRALIA.
About the writer/director – Matthew Thomason
Matthew Thomason has a BA majoring in Theatre and Media, and has worked in television as a segment
producer, writer/director and series producer since 1985. He started in television as a copywriter at Capital
Seven, Canberra. From 1988 to 1990, he worked for Beyond Productions. From 1991 to 1995, he was a
segment producer for the Nine Network on 35 Years of Television and Getaway. He was writer/director on
the nature documentary series Deadly Australians and Salute – Australians at War. He spent the next three
years writing and producing science shows and sporting programs before returning to Getaway as series
producer in 1998-99. In 2000, he began working at Grundy Television, writing, producing and directing
entertainment pilots and entertainment retrospectives. In 2003 he was Senior Producer on Network Ten’s
Australian Idol, the highest rating show in the network’s history.
About the series producer/writer – Paul Rudd
Paul Rudd cut his teeth as an editor in regional television before joining the Nine Network in 1988 as
Features Editor on top shows including Live at Five, A Current Affair, Today, Eye on Australia and Burke’s
Backyard. In 1992 he worked as Series Director/Producer on Getaway, Sex and Deadly Australians. In 1994
he was Executive Producer of 50 Fantastic Years and Salute–Australians at War. Over the next six years Paul
executive produced reality TV, entertainment specials and Nine’s 30-hour Millennium Live coverage. Paul
left the Nine Network in September 1999 and has since produced Andrew Denton’s Olympics Exposed
for Channel 4 in the UK and Nature’s Born Killers, a documentary series with Michael Willesee, as well as
series producing and writer/directing the landmark three-hour series Colour of War–The Anzacs for Film
Australia’s National Interest Program.
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au

Links
Film Australia
www.fi lmaust.com.au
Investigating National Treasures
http://www.nationaltreasures.com.au/
The Australian Prime Ministers Centre
http://www.apmc.oph.gov.au/
Australia’s Prime Ministers
http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/
Prime Ministers of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au/
Past Prime Ministers
http://www.pm.gov.au/past_pm/index.cfm
National Library of Australia
http://www.nla.gov.au/
National Archives of Australia
http://www.naa.gov.au/
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
http://john.curtin.edu.au/
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/
Gympie Gold Mining & Historical Museum
http://www.gympiemuseum.com/
National Museum of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au
For further information and interviews:
Andy Brown Avisso PR for Film Australia 02 8356 9711 0434 375 994
andyb@avviso.com.au