Adam Carr

Intellectuals and Politics in 1930s Melbourne 
Events leading to the formation of the 
Australian Council for Civil Liberties, 
1914-37

1. Introduction

In this thesis I will examine the formation of the Australian 
Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL) in Melbourne in 1935-36 the 
light of some aspects of Australia's political and intellectual 
history. [1] I begin with the steady erosion of civil liberties 
which began during World War I and continued through the 1920s and 
early '30s, and the political and intellectual response to civil 
liberties issues in Australia. I compare the situation in Australia 
with that in Britain and the United States. I next try to place the 
formation of the ACCL in the context of Australian political and 
intellectual life in the later 1930s, and in the light of the 
widespread alarm in the major western democracies, echoed in 
Australia, about the threat of fascism and war. I also look at the 
differences in political and intellectual culture between Sydney 
and Melbourne at this time, and ask why the formation of the ACCL 
was a specifically Melbourne event.

I also examine the events of 1936 and 1937, as the ACCL was formed 
and took shape, and at the issues in which it did or did not choose 
to become involved. I describe some of the people central to the 
ACCL's formation and the roles they played in its early days. I 
conclude by attempting to the place the formation of the ACCL in 
the context of Australia's political and intellectual development, 
as Australia emerged from its childhood as an isolated and 
dependent outpost of British civilisation and attempted to deal 
with the crises of the 1930s as an independent national community.

Footnotes

[1] The organisation was officially called the Australian Council 
for Civil Liberties, but was usually known as the CCL. It was always 
centred in Melbourne, and its organisation in the other states was 
intermittent. It was wound up after Brian Fitzpatrick's death in 
1965 and the current six state councils established. There is now a 
new federal body called the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, 
but this is not a direct descendant of the 1930s ACCL