John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In this month 20 years ago Australia lost two great figures in our cultural life, two unique contributors to our nation's artistic legacy, two men who died too young, two men who will be remembered not only for their colourful art but also for their colourful lives. June 1992 saw the deaths of Brett Whiteley and Peter Allen. Brett Whiteley AO was born in 1939 and grew up in Longueville in Sydney. He attended school in Bathurst and Bellevue Hill, where his artistic talents saw him win numerous youth art prizes. His success in competitions continued in his adult life. He won a variety of scholarships, a Perth Festival art prize, the Archibald Prize twice, the Wynne Prize twice, the Sulman Prize twice and the Sir William Angliss art prize. He married Wendy Julius in 1962, and their daughter, Arkie Whiteley, was born in London in 1964. During the 1960s he studied and worked in Europe, the United States and Fiji. He was at the cutting edge of modern art, experimenting with colour, forms, styles, techniques and genres to create a unique Australian art form.

When he returned to Australia in the 1970s, he set up the Yellow House artist collective and began working on his magnum opus, the 18-panel masterpiece known as Alchemy. This sexually charged multimedia work is an exploration of extreme levels of consciousness. It hangs in the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills. It is a modern Australian masterpiece. His contribution to Sydney's public art is unrivalled. All Sydneysiders are familiar with the famous sculpture Almost Oncethe two giant matchsticks, one charred and one not, which stand in the Domain and are seen by the many thousands every day who use the Eastern Distributor driving onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

By his own admission, it was during the time Whiteley was working on Alchemy in the mid-1970s that he began to use 'more serious mind-altering chemicals'. Brett Whiteley died as a result of drug use on 15 June 1992. Like so many brilliant modern artists, part of his imagination and inspiration was drug assisted. Twenty years after his death, I think we can confidently say that the genius of Brett Whiteley—an extraordinarily influential Australian artist—will endure and that his work will be enjoyed and studied by generations of Australians to come.

Legendary Australian songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen also passed away 20 years ago this month, on 18 June 1992. Peter Allen, 'the boy from Oz', made a unique and indelible mark on the Australian and international music and entertainment scenes in the 1970s, 1980s and, until his death, the early 1990s. His most famous songs, including I Go to Rio, I Still Call Australia Home and I Honestly Love You, made famous by Olivia Newton-John, are instantly recognisable as the work of Peter Allen.

Peter's international show business career, his marriage to Liza Minnelli, the glitz and glamour of his time on Broadway and his performances for royalty could not be further removed from his upbringing in the historic country towns of Tenterfield and Armidale in the New England region of northern New South Wales. He would, of course, immortalise his home town, Tenterfield, and his grandfather, George Woolnough, in the famous song Tenterfield Saddler. The Senate will be pleased that I do not intend to sing the song this evening, but I will share some of the lyrics.