115-657: Rum Jungle or Unrungkoolpum is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 105 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Branch of the Finniss River and it shares a boundary with Litchfield National Park . It is 10 kilometres west of Batchelor . The joint traditional owners of this area and the Kungarakan and Warai peoples and their rights to this land are recognised in
230-615: A Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 1918. He did, however, fail Latin in his first year. One of his prize-winning essays, The Rule of Law During the War , was published as a brochure with an introduction by Harrison Moore , the law school dean. In 1916, Menzies was elected president of the Student Representatives' Council and editor of the Melbourne University Magazine . He wrote both prose and poetry for
345-609: A hero's welcome. However, his support in Parliament was less certain. Not only did some Coalition MPs doubt his popularity in the electorate, but they also believed that a national unity government was the only long-term solution. Menzies's reputation was badly damaged by the failure of the Allied expedition to Greece, in which Australian troops played a prominent role. The Australian Worker newspaper in an editorial on 11 June 1941 attacked Menzies for having "too readily acquiesced in
460-565: A national unity government, but Labor turned the offer down. With his position now untenable, Menzies resigned the prime ministership on 27 August 1941. A joint UAP-Country Party conference chose Country Party leader Arthur Fadden as Coalition leader—and hence Prime Minister—even though the Country Party was the junior partner in the Coalition. Menzies was bitter about this treatment from his colleagues, and nearly left politics, but
575-754: A number of Italian capital ships at anchor at the Italian base at Taranto. In December 1940, Menzies sent Churchill a letter expressing concern that the Imperial Japanese Navy might likewise use air power to cripple the Singapore base. In the same letter, Menzies asked Churchill to activate the Singapore strategy by stationing at least three or four capital ships at Singapore. In response, Churchill wrote back to Menzies that to say he would not have capital ships "sitting idle" at Singapore and that to transfer capital ships to Singapore would mean "ruining
690-409: A peace agreement had failed, and that war was now an inevitability. In his Declaration of War broadcast on 3 September 1939, Menzies explained the dramatic turn of events over the past twelve months necessitating this change of course: In those past 12 months, what has happened? in cold-blooded breach of the solemn obligations implied in both the statements I have quoted, Hitler has annexed the whole of
805-650: A professional soldier, he would never have sent the Australians to Greece. Matters came to a head in August, when the cabinet voted to have Menzies return to London to speak for Australia's interests in the War Cabinet. However, since Labor and the Coalition were level (both sides had 36 MPs), Menzies needed the support of the Labor Party in order to travel to Britain. Amid rumours that Menzies's real intention
920-571: A project life of at least 15 years. As indicated in the 2001 Referral, Compass considered that the Browns Polymetallic Project was a 'nuclear action' under the EPBC Act, on the basis that the project could be considered to include rehabilitating a facility or area in which mining or milling of uranium ore has previously been undertaken. Compass suspended its work on the polymetallic proposal in 2002 when low metal prices caused
1035-521: A reward of £25,000. This reward was offered due to an increased need for uranium during World War II and it was the United States and Britain that had identified Australia as a potential source. In 1949, John Michael "Jack" White discovered torbernite in old nearby copper shafts. White was a buffalo shooter, crocodile hunter and prospector who held a small farm in the area with his Aboriginal partner (their name has not been shared). He recognised
1150-576: A subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group . Batchelor , a nearby town, accommodated most of the mining personnel and grew significantly at this time. By 1959 the economically viable ore had all been extracted but operations continued, on a small scale until 1963, and work continued there until April 1971 as stockpiled ore from Rum Jungle and other sites around Australia (including from Eva Creek and Adelaide River ) continued to be processed. A total of 863,000 tonnes of Uranium ore were processed and much
1265-470: A sufficiently patriotic contribution to the war effort, and that the family's interests would be served best by Robert continuing his academic career. Another reason for keeping one of the elder sons home was the health of their father, James, who was physically unwell and emotionally unstable at the time. It has been noted that, as a student, Menzies supported the introduction of compulsory overseas conscription , which if implemented would have made him one of
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#17327809492931380-644: A threat from Japan. A war with Germany would require the majority of the Royal Navy's ships to stay within European waters, and an inability to execute the Singapore strategy as planned was widely feared in Canberra to be a strong encouragement for Japan to strike south against Australia. However, Menzies had a strong faith in the ability of Neville Chamberlain to handle the Danzig crisis. Menzies believed that
1495-700: A war coalition, and opposed using the Australian army for a European war, preferring to keep it at home to defend Australia. Labor agreed to participate in the Advisory War Council . Menzies sent the bulk of the army to help the British in the Middle East and Singapore, and told Winston Churchill the Royal Navy needed to strengthen its Far Eastern forces. On 11 August 1940, Churchill sent a long letter to Menzies promising that if Japan entered
1610-435: Is also at war." A couple of days after the declaration, Menzies recalled parliament and asked for general support as the government faced the enormous responsibility of leading the nation in war time. Page and Curtin, as party leaders, pledged their support for all that needed to be done for the defence of the country. Thus, Menzies at the age of 44 found himself a wartime leader of a small nation of 7 million people. He
1725-729: Is remembered for its development of Australia's capital city of Canberra , its expanded post-war immigration scheme , emphasis on higher education, and national security policies, which saw Australia contribute troops to the Korean War , the Malayan Emergency , the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation , and the Vietnam War . Robert Gordon Menzies was born on 20 December 1894 at his parents' home in Jeparit, Victoria . He
1840-465: Is targeting copper cobalt and nickel—not uranium. Nonetheless, Compass acknowledges that at some future point it would be interested in mining uranium at the nearby Rum Jungle site (over which it holds a lease). Any proposal to mine uranium would require a totally new application and environmental assessment as a separate project. The major uranium prospects of Brown's, Intermediate, White's, White's extension and Dyson's occur northwest of, but parallel to,
1955-431: Is the creation of large volumes of radioactive mine waste (tailings) which are left behind on the site. The major radioactive component of these tailings is uranium-238, which makes up over 99% of what is naturally occurring uranium, and is not very radioactive. While figures concerning the half-life of an isotope are often presented as meaning the element is more dangerous, in the case of Uranium-238 being 4.47 billion years,
2070-682: The Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) . The new party directed its preferences to the Liberals, with the Menzies government re-elected with an increased majority at the 1955 election . Menzies was re-elected almost as easily at the 1958 election , again with the help of preferences from what had become the Democratic Labor Party . The Menzies era saw immense regional changes, with post-war reconstruction and
2185-625: The Coomalie Community Government Council released a community survey regarding planned further rehabilitation works on the lake. In December 2001, Compass Resources lodged a Referral under the EPBC Act with Environment Australia (which is now DEH). That document referred to the proposed development of a large-scale mining project, the Browns Polymetallic Project, that would produce lead , cobalt , copper , nickel and silver over
2300-531: The Czechoslovak state . Has, without flickering an eyelid, made a pact with Russia, a country the denouncing and reviling of which has been his chief stock-in-trade ever since he became chancellor. And has now, under circumstances which I will describe to you, invaded with armed force and in defiance of civilised opinion, the independent nation of Poland . Your own comments on this dreadful history will need no reinforcement by me. All I need say is, that whatever
2415-568: The Empire of Japan , for that country's war against China . In 1939, he resigned from the Cabinet in protest at postponement of the national insurance scheme and insufficient expenditure on defence. With Lyons's sudden death on 7 April 1939, Page became caretaker prime minister until the UAP could elect a new leader. On 18 April 1939, Menzies was elected party leader over three other candidates. He
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#17327809492932530-659: The Melbourne University Rifles (a part-time militia unit) from 1915 to 1919. This unit was not efficient and Menzies noted in his diary that training in even basic skills such as rifle shooting was sub-standard. He was commissioned a second lieutenant on 6 January 1915. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not volunteer for overseas service, something that would later be used against him by political opponents; in 1939 he described it as "a stream of mud through which I have waded at every campaign in which I have participated". Menzies never publicly addressed
2645-613: The Phoenix Foundry . Seeking a new start, he moved the family to Jeparit to take over the general store, which "survived rather than prospered". During Menzies's childhood, three of his close relatives were elected to parliament. His uncle Hugh was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1902, followed by his father in 1911, while another uncle, Sydney Sampson , was elected to the federal Australian House of Representatives in 1906. Each of
2760-916: The University of Melbourne and became one of Melbourne 's leading lawyers. He was Deputy Premier of Victoria from 1932 to 1934, and then transferred to Federal Parliament , subsequently becoming Attorney-General of Australia and Minister for Industry in the government of Joseph Lyons . In April 1939, following Lyons's death, Menzies was elected leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) and sworn in as prime minister. He authorised Australia's entry into World War II in September 1939, and spent four months in England to participate in meetings of Churchill's war cabinet . On his return to Australia in August 1941, Menzies found that he had lost
2875-545: The War Cabinet for the duration, which was strongly backed by Sir Maurice Hankey , former WWI Colonel and member of both the WWI and WWII War Cabinets. Writer Gerard Henderson has rejected this theory, but history professors Judith Brett and Joan Beaumont support Day, as does Menzies's daughter, Heather Henderson, who claimed Lady Astor "even offered all her sapphires if he would stay on in England". Menzies came home to
2990-478: The "really spiritual quality in the willingness of Germans to devote themselves to the service and well-being of the state". Menzies supported British foreign policy, including appeasement, and was initially reticent about the prospect of going to war with Germany. However, by September 1939 the unfolding crisis in Europe changed his public stance that the diplomatic efforts by Chamberlain and other leaders to broker
3105-476: The 1949 election with 74 House seats and 51.0 percent of the two-party vote but remained in minority in the Senate. Whatever else Menzies's victory represented, his anti-communism and advocacy for free enterprise had captured a new and formidable support base in postwar Australian society. After his election victory, Menzies returned to the office of prime minister on 19 December 1949. The spectre of communism and
3220-600: The Australian Government funded the setting up of a mine and treatment plant to provide uranium oxide concentrate to the UK-US Combined Development Agency under a contract which ran from 1953 to 1962. The mine was officially opened on 17 September 1954 and the event was attended by the then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies who promised that "[t]he world will forget about atomic bombs and concentrate on using uranium for
3335-697: The Canberra conference, the fourteen parties, with the UAP as the nucleus, decided to merge as one new non-Labor party—the Liberal Party of Australia . The organisational structure and constitutional framework of the new party was formulated at the Albury Conference. Officially launched at the Sydney Town Hall on 31 August 1945, the Menzies-led Liberal Party of Australia inherited the UAP's role as senior partner in
3450-458: The Coalition. Curtin died in office in 1945 and was succeeded by Ben Chifley . The reconfigured Coalition faced its first national test in the 1946 election . It won 26 of 74 seats on 45.9 percent of the two-party vote and remained in minority in the Senate. Despite winning a seven-seat swing, the Coalition failed to make a serious dent in Labor's large majority. Over the next few years, however,
3565-626: The Country Party back into his government in a full-fledged Coalition, with Page's successor, Archie Cameron, as number-two-man in the government. During the Danzig crisis , Menzies, who had long felt that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh towards Germany, supported having the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk ) rejoin Germany. Though Hitler had only asked for extraterritorial highways across
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3680-479: The Country Party minister for the interior, Thomas Paterson. Menzies had extended discussions with British experts on Germany in 1935, but could not make up his mind whether Adolf Hitler was a "real German patriot" or a "mad swash-buckler". He condemned Nazi antisemitism, in 1933 writing to the organisers of an anti-Nazi protest at the Melbourne Town Hall that "I hope that I may be associated with
3795-400: The Danzig dispute. He dismissed the "jitters", as he called it, on the stock market in the summer of 1939 while he spoke of "an outpouring of the sentiments of peace in the minds of the people". Throughout the summer of 1939, Menzies stressed in his speeches that war was "not inevitable" as he urged Australians to enjoy their summer vacations. In the cabinet, Menzies was opposed to expanding
3910-832: The Dardanelles-and he was highly suspicious of another of Churchill's plans for victory in the Mediterranean. On 25 February 1941, Menzies reluctantly gave his approval to send the 6th Division to Greece. Professor David Day , an Australian historian, has posited that Menzies might have replaced Churchill as British prime minister, and that he had some support in the UK for this. Support came from Viscount Astor , Lord Beaverbrook and former WWI Prime Minister David Lloyd George , who were trenchant critics of Churchill's purportedly autocratic style, and favoured replacing him with Menzies, who had some public support for staying on in
4025-649: The East Branch of the Finniss River. The 1500 mm annual rainfall, along with the pyritic mineralisation in the area, created ideal conditions for such oxidation. An initial attempt to clean up Rum Jungle was made in 1977 following the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry (1976 - 1977), which led to the setting up of a working group to examine more comprehensive rehabilitation. A$ 16.2 million Commonwealth-funded program got under way in 1983 to remove heavy metals and neutralise
4140-610: The Finnis River Land Claim which was granted in May 1981. The European name for this area derives its name from an incident in March 1873 when the teamsters of John Lewiss who were carting stores between Southport and Pine Creek , tapped a cask of rum and shared it with local miners from the nearby John Bull goldmine. After they drank together they woke up to find that one of the teamsters had stolen 750 ounces of gold from
4255-523: The House into silence momentarily before both sides of Parliament laughed at Evatt's naivety. This Cold War scare was claimed by some to enable the Menzies government to win the election. The Menzies government won 64 of 121 seats and 49.3 percent of the two-party vote. Evatt accused Menzies of arranging Petrov's defection. The aftermath of the 1954 election caused a split in the Labor Party, with several anti-Communist members from Victoria defecting to form
4370-712: The Mediterranean situation. This I am sure you would not want to do unless or until the Japanese danger became far more menacing than at present". In March 1941 and again in August 1941, Menzies appealed to Churchill in letters to activate the Singapore strategy as he wrote that he was highly concerned about Japanese ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region. From 24 January 1941, Menzies spent four months in Britain discussing war strategy with Churchill and other Empire leaders, while his position at home deteriorated. En route to
4485-587: The Menzies government signed the ANZUS treaty in San Francisco on 1 September 1951. Menzies later told parliament that this security pact between Australia, New Zealand and the United States was 'based on the utmost good will, the utmost good faith and unqualified friendship' saying 'each of us will stand by it'. At the same time as strengthening the alliance with the United States, Menzies and Spender were committed to Australia being on 'good neighbour terms' with
4600-727: The Northern Territory Government has advised that she has concluded that the Browns Oxide Project as proposed in the Public Environmental Report and subsequent documents "can be managed without unacceptable environmental impacts" Kon Vatskalis MLA, Minister for Mines and Energy, announced this approval as "good news" during question time in the Northern Territory Parliament on 4 May 2006. To ensure
4715-622: The Polish Corridor to link East Prussia with the rest of the Reich , Menzies also supported having the Polish Corridor returned to Germany. Despite his support for the Germans' claims to Danzig, Menzies was opposed to the prospect of German domination of Europe. Menzies in a speech on 28 March 1939 declared: "I do not accept this doctrine of an unimpeded march by Germany to a territorial conquest of middle and southeastern Europe". Ultimately,
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4830-536: The Senate rejected his banking bill, he called a double dissolution election . At that election, the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, winning 69 of 121 seats and 50.7 percent of the two-party vote. However, it won six seats in the Senate, giving it control of both chambers. Later in 1951 Menzies decided to hold a referendum on the question of changing the Constitution to permit the parliament to make laws in respect of Communists and Communism where he said this
4945-520: The September 1940 election, on 13 August 1940, three members of Menzies's cabinet had been killed in an air crash—the Canberra air disaster —along with General Brudenell White , Chief of the General Staff ; two other passengers and four crew. This event weakened Menzies's government. On the night of 11 November 1940, aircraft from the carriers of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet disabled
5060-539: The UAP. His supporters began promoting him as Lyons's natural successor; his critics accused Menzies of wanting to push Lyons out, a charge he denied. In 1938, as part of the Dalfram dispute , he was ridiculed as Pig Iron Bob , the result of an industrial conflict with the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia whose members had refused to load Australian pig iron being sold to an arms manufacturer in
5175-605: The UK he took the opportunity to stop over to visit Australian troops serving in the North African Campaign . On 20 February 1941, Churchill asked Menzies to give his approval to send the Australian forces in North Africa to Greece. Like many other Australians of his generation, Menzies was haunted by the memory of the Battle of Gallipoli -which came about because of Churchill's plans to send an Allied fleet up
5290-561: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 936077287 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:02:29 GMT Robert Menzies Prime Minister of Australia First term of government (1939–1941) Second term of government (1949–1966) Ministries Elections Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (20 December 1894 – 15 May 1978)
5405-544: The anti-communist atmosphere of the early Cold War began to erode Labor's support. In 1947, Chifley announced that he intended to nationalise Australia's private banks, arousing intense middle-class opposition which Menzies successfully exploited. In addition to campaigning against Chifley's bank nationalization proposal, Menzies successfully led the 'No' case for a referendum by the Chifley government in 1948 to extend commonwealth wartime powers to control rents and prices. In
5520-519: The area, especially after the discovery of gold in the 1870s; prospectors also occasionally mined copper and other minerals on a small scale. These new arrivals exposed the local Aboriginal people (the Kungarakan and Warai) to a variety of illnesses and disease including smallpox , leprosy and tuberculosis . Aboriginal people were also subjected to trauma including the sexual exploitation of women, forced migration and massacres. One such massacre
5635-450: The area. It is best known as the site of a uranium deposit, found in 1949, which has been mined. The first European person to travel to the Rum Jungle area was George Goyder in 1869; on this trip he noted an unidentified copper-like green ore in 1869 at "Giants Reef", which was later "rediscovered" and identified to be torbernite . This discovery received minimal attention at the time and other Europeans and Chinese people began occupying
5750-446: The benefit of humankind" while also talking about its importance in terms of the defence of Australia. On 13 September, days before the mine officially opened, four staff of the mine were killed when two trucks collided. The mine was the responsibility of Commonwealth Government, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission , was responsible for it, although management of it was on a contract basis by Territory Enterprises Pty Limited,
5865-422: The blueprint of his liberal philosophy, The Forgotten People encompassed a wide range of topics including Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, the control of the war, the role of women in war and peace, the future of capitalism, the nature of democracy and especially the role of the middle class, 'the forgotten people' of the title and their importance to Australia's future as a democracy. The addresses frequently emphasised
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#17327809492935980-435: The countries of South and South East Asia. To help forge closer ties in the region, the Menzies government initiated the Colombo Plan that would see almost 40 000 students from the region come to study in Australia over the four subsequent decades. Recognising the economic potential of a burgeoning postwar Japan, Menzies, together with Trade Minister Jack McEwan and his new minister for External Affairs, Richard Casey, negotiated
6095-459: The country, but the bitter memories of the disillusionment which followed World War I made his task difficult; this was compounded by his lack of a service record. Furthermore, as attorney-general and deputy prime minister, he had made an official visit to Germany in 1938, when the official policy of the Australian government, supported by the Opposition, was strong support for Neville Chamberlain 's policy of Appeasement . Menzies, then also holding
6210-530: The crisis should and would be resolved by a Munich-type deal under which the Free City of Danzig would be peacefully allowed to "go home to the Reich " while at the same time Germany should and would be deterred from going to war against Poland. Though Menzies felt that Poland was in the wrong in opposing the return of the Free City to Germany, he did not want to see the crisis end with Poland being subjected to Germany. Several times, Menzies declared that there were "two sides" both equally worthy of consideration to
6325-550: The early 1950s and Labor was confident of winning the 1954 election . Menzies engaged in red-baiting of political opponents. Shortly before the election, Menzies announced that a Soviet diplomat in Australia Vladimir Petrov , had defected, and that there was evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Australia, including members of Evatt's staff. Evatt felt compelled to state on the floor of Parliament that he'd personally written to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov , who assured him there were no Soviet spy rings in Australia, bringing
6440-445: The economy grew and middle-class values prevailed; the Australian Labor Party 's support had also been eroded by Cold War scares. After 1955, his government also received support from the Democratic Labor Party , a breakaway group from the Labor Party. Menzies won seven consecutive elections during his second period, eventually retiring as prime minister in January 1966. Despite the failures of his first administration, his government
6555-411: The election campaign of 1949, Menzies and his party were resolved to stamp out the communist movement and to fight in the interests of free enterprise against what they termed as Labor's 'socialistic measures'. If Menzies won office, he pledged to counter inflation, extend child endowment and end petrol rationing. With the lower house enlarged from 74 to 121 seats, the Menzies Liberal/Country Coalition won
6670-416: The environment is managed properly, this approval and its recommendations is subject to final review by the Commonwealth Government under a bilateral agreement between the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth of Australia. Pending final Commonwealth approval, the project is set to be in production by early 2007. While the project is located near the old Rum Jungle mine, the Browns Oxide Project
6785-406: The fear of Japan proved decisive for Menzies, who believed that for Australia to not support Britain in the Danzig crisis would lead to Britain eventually abandoning Australia to face Japan alone. The prospect of war in Europe threatened to undermine the Singapore strategy that called for the main British battle fleet to be sent out to Singapore (the major British naval base in Asia) in the event of
6900-463: The federal Division of Kooyong in the upcoming general election for the United Australia Party (UAP), which was the result of a merger during his tenure as a state parliamentarian of the Nationalists, Labor dissidents and the Australian Party . The previous member, John Latham , had given up the seat in order to prepare for appointment as Chief Justice of Australia . Kooyong was a safely conservative seat based on Kew , and Menzies won easily. He
7015-412: The first to be conscripted. Promoted to lieutenant, he resigned his commission with effect from 16 February 1921. After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1916 with first-class honours in Law, Menzies was admitted to the Victorian Bar and to the High Court of Australia in 1918. Establishing his own practice in Melbourne, Menzies specialised chiefly in constitutional law which he had read with
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#17327809492937130-475: The homes of people who are nameless and unadvertised, and who, whatever their individual religious conviction or dogma, see in their children their greatest contribution to the immortality of their race. The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety; it is the indispensable condition of continuity; its health determines the health of society as a whole. Menzies himself described The Forgotten People collection as 'a summarised political philosophy'. Representing
7245-487: The ill-starred Greek campaign, of which the Cretan misadventure was the inevitable sequel ... As a military adventure, it was madness. As a political gesture, it was stupid because it was doomed to failure." Menzies sought to blame General Sir Thomas Blamey for the Greek expedition as he maintained that he had only given permission to send the Australians to Greece after Blamey did not oppose it. Menzies maintained that if Blamey had given his disapproval in his opinion as
7360-415: The inflamed ambitions of the German Führer may be, he will undoubtedly learn, as other great enemies of freedom have learned before, that no empire, no dominion, can be soundly established upon a basis of broken promises or dishonoured agreements. Menzies went on to say that if Hitler's expansionist "policy were allowed to go unchecked there could be no security in Europe and there could be no just peace for
7475-405: The late 1980s it was decided that something had to be done. Radiation protection standards were being revised, so that the levels of pollution would now be officially recognised as unsafe for human health. As a result, a supplementary $ 1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990.[ citation needed ] One of the main environmental impacts of uranium mining
7590-429: The leading Victorian jurist and future High Court judge, Sir Owen Dixon . In 1920, Menzies was an advocate for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers which eventually took its appeal to the High Court of Australia . The case became a landmark authority for the positive reinterpretation of Commonwealth powers over those of the States. The High Court's verdict raised Menzies's profile as a skilled advocate, and eventually he
7705-434: The magazine, and also contributed a song about "little Billy Hughes " to an end-of-year revue . Menzies was also president of the Students' Christian Union, a founding member of the Historical Society, and a prominent member of the Law Students' Society. He had "a reputation as an "unusually bright and articulate member of the undergraduate community", and was known as a skilful debater. However, he had also begun to develop
7820-419: The mine site . The mining company Conzinc (now part of the Rio Tinto Group, which owns Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) , operators of the Ranger Uranium Mine in Kakadu National Park ) have consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation. This led to the mine becoming known as one of Australia's most polluted environments due to the oxidation of sulphides and the release of acid and metals into
7935-401: The miners, along with their horses, and had disappeared. Searches for the thief lasted for a number of months until the teamster and the gold were found. The name was first used when reporting the death of Patrick Flynn in November 1873. One notable early resident who arrived in the area in 1909 was Nellie Flynn and her family; Flynn lived there until the 1970s and was a well-known identity in
8050-436: The mines closure, it quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve including activities such as swimming , canoeing and scuba diving . In November 2010 swimming was closed to the public after a series of recordings showed low levels of radiation; after testing by the Environmental Research Institute it was decided that the site was safe and it was reopened in October 2012. As of June 2024
8165-456: The normal enjoyments and camaraderies of a small country town". He began his formal education in 1899 at the Jeparit State School, a single-teacher one-room school . When he was about eleven, he and his sister were sent to Ballarat to live with his paternal grandmother; his two older brothers were already living there. In 1906, Menzies began attending the Humffray Street State School in Bakery Hill . The following year, aged 13, he ranked first in
8280-764: The northeast trending Giant's Reef Fault . Ore deposits occur in Precambrian carbonaceous slate and graphitic schist of the Lower Proterozoic Brooks Creek Group. Structurally, the deposits are within a sheared anticline on the southern flank of a granite dome . Primary minerals include chalcopyrite , bornite , bournonite , pyrite , and uraninite . Oxidized ores include azurite , malachite , pseudomalachite , iron oxides, torbernite, saleeite , and phosphuranylite . Cave dive sites: Northern Territory of Australia Too Many Requests If you report this error to
8395-515: The opposite is in fact true: half-life is the time in which half of a collection of an element will decay, and produce a radioactive particle, ergo, the longer the half-life, the less radioactive the element. In 2003, a government survey of the tailings piles at Rum Jungle found that capping which was supposed to help contain this radioactive waste for at least 100 years, had failed in less than 20 years. The Territory and Federal Governments continue to argue over responsibility for funding rehabilitation on
8510-532: The polluted East Finniss River. Contamination of local groundwater has yet to be addressed. One of the principal problems associated with rehabilitating the Rum Jungle Creek South (RJCS) open cut mine was that the area was converted to a lake after mining ceased; this is known as Rum Jungle Lake. It is considered to be the only water body in the Darwin region not infested with crocodiles and, after
8625-709: The previous Labor government lost the support of the cross-bench Country Progressives. The following year he shifted to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for the Electoral district of Nunawading . In 1929, he founded the Young Nationalists as his party's youth wing and was its first president. Holding the portfolios of Attorney-General and Minister for the Railways, Menzies was Deputy Premier of Victoria from May 1932 until July 1934. In August 1934, Menzies resigned from state parliament to contest
8740-406: The protest of the meeting tonight against the barbaric and medieval persecution to which their fellow Jews in Europe are apparently being subjected". In July 1939, Menzies, by then prime minister, declared in a speech that "history will label Hitler as one of the great men of the century". In August 1938, while Attorney-General, Menzies spent several weeks on an official visit to Nazi Germany . He
8855-402: The reasons for his decision not to enlist, stating only that they were "compelling" and related to his "intimate personal and family affairs". His two older brothers did serve overseas. In a 1972 interview, his brother Frank Menzies recalled that a "family conference" had determined that Robert should not enlist. They believed that having two of the family's three adult sons serving overseas was
8970-548: The responsibility for the Department of Munitions created a couple of months earlier, led the Coalition into the 1940 election and suffered an eight-seat swing, losing the slender majority he had inherited from Lyons. The result was a hung parliament , with the Coalition two seats short of a majority. Menzies managed to form a minority government with the support of two independent MPs, Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson . Labor, led by John Curtin , refused Menzies's offer to form
9085-695: The shock of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact caused the Japanese Prime Minister Baron Hiranuma Kiichirō to submit his resignation to the Emperor, which was accepted. The possibility that at least for the moment that Japan would stay neutral if the Danzig crisis led to war in Europe encouraged the cabinet in Canberra to stand by Britain. On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany due to its invasion of Poland on 1 September, leading to
9200-416: The start of World War II. Menzies responded immediately by also declaring Australia to be at war in support of Britain, and delivered a radio broadcast to the nation on that same day, which began "Fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia
9315-543: The state-wide scholarship examinations. This feat financed the entirety of his secondary education, which had to be undertaken at private schools, as Victoria did not yet have a system of public secondary schools. In 1908 and 1909, Menzies attended Grenville College , a small private school in Ballarat Central . He and his family moved to Melbourne in 1910, where he enrolled in Wesley College . Menzies
9430-435: The superiority of free enterprise except for certain public utilities such as the railways. His candidacy was nearly defeated when a group of ex-servicemen attacked him in the press for not having enlisted, but he survived this crisis. Within weeks of his entry to parliament, he was made a minister without portfolio in a new minority Nationalist State government led by Premier William McPherson. The new government had formed when
9545-462: The support of his party and consequently resigned as prime minister. He subsequently helped to create the new Liberal Party, and was elected its inaugural leader in August 1945. At the 1949 federal election , Menzies led the Liberal–Country coalition to victory and returned as prime minister. His appeal to the home and family, promoted via reassuring radio talks, matched the national zeitgeist as
9660-660: The tailings. Of the damage to the Rum Jungle area the Commissioner of the Inquiry, Justice Russell Fox stated: [Rum Jungle] represents to many people, not least of all the Aboriginal people, an awful example of what should not be allowed to happen. After mining, the area suffered elevated gamma radiation, alpha-radioactive dust, and significant radon daughter concentrations in air. These levels were so high that in
9775-522: The threat it was deemed to pose to national security became the dominant preoccupation of the new government in its first phase. Menzies introduced legislation in 1950 to ban the Communist Party, hoping that the Senate would reject it and give him a trigger for a double dissolution election, but Labor let the bill pass. It was subsequently ruled unconstitutional by the High Court . But when
9890-553: The three represented rural constituencies, and were defeated after a few terms. Menzies's maternal grandfather John Sampson was active in the trade union movement. He was the inaugural president of the Creswick Miners' Association, which he co-founded with future Australian Labor Party MP William Spence , and was later prominent in the Amalgamated Miners' Association. Growing up, Menzies and his siblings "had
10005-522: The tiny Australian Army beyond its current size of 1, 571 soldiers on economic grounds. The news of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact of 22 August 1939 was greeted with both relief and concern in Menzies's cabinet. It was understood that the German-Soviet nonaggression pact ended the prospect of a "peace front" of Britain, France and the Soviet Union to deter Germany from invading Poland, and that war
10120-454: The traits of pomposity and arrogance that would cause difficulties later in his career. His fellow law student and future parliamentary colleague Percy Joske noted Menzies as a student "did not suffer fools gladly [...] the trouble was that his opponents frequently were not fools and that he tended to say things that were not only cutting and unkind but that were unjustified". During World War I, Menzies served his compulsory militia service in
10235-562: The uranium ore from a color pamphlet that had been produced as part of the announcement for the award and he delivered his samples to the Mines Branch in Darwin on 13 August 1949 and was later able to collect the full reward. News of this discovery was published throughout Australia. Work on developing the mine site began during the war as a project undertaken by the Allied Works Council but, to speed up progress, in 1952
10350-440: The values which Menzies regarded as critical to shaping Australia's wartime and postwar policies. These were essentially the principles of liberalism: individual freedom, personal and community responsibility, the rule of law, parliamentary government, economic prosperity and progress based on private enterprise and reward for effort. After losing the UAP leadership, Menzies moved to the backbench. Besides his overall sense of duty,
10465-398: The war would have made it nearly impossible for him to return to his legal practice in any event. Labor won a crushing victory at the 1943 election , taking 49 of 74 seats and 58.2 percent of the two-party-preferred vote as well as a Senate majority. The Coalition, which had sunk into near-paralysis in opposition, was knocked down to only 19 seats. Hughes resigned as UAP leader, and Menzies
10580-524: The war, Britain would activate the Singapore strategy by sending a strong Royal Navy force to Singapore. Menzies continued to be worried about the fact that the Singapore base-despite being billed as the "Gibraltar of the East" was a base, not the fortress that it was presented as; about the shoddy state of the fortifications at Singapore; and about the lack of details in Churchill's promises. Just before
10695-552: The withdrawal of Compass's financial partner (Doe Run). In 2005, Compass lodged an application for a much smaller project focusing on cobalt, nickel and copper mining. Because this project, the Brown's Oxide Project is much smaller than the polymetallic project proposed previously, Compass is in a position to progress it on its own. The Northern Territory Government has completed assessing this project and Marion Scrymgour MLA, Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage in
10810-617: The withdrawal of European Powers and the British Empire from the Far East (including independence for India and Indonesia). In response to these geopolitical developments, the Menzies government maintained strong ties with Australia's traditional allies such as Britain and the United States while also reorienting Australia's foreign policy focus towards the Asia Pacific. With his first Minister for External Affairs, Percy Spender,
10925-440: The world". However, in a letter written by Menzies on 11 September 1939, he privately urged for peace negotiations and the continuation of appeasement with Hitler. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, animosity developed between Sir Earle Page and Menzies which was aggravated when Page became Acting Prime Minister during Lyons's illness after October 1938. Menzies and Page attacked each other publicly. He later became deputy leader of
11040-488: Was "not very interested in and certainly incompetent at sport", but excelled academically. In his third and final year at Wesley he won a £40 exhibition for university study, one of 25 awarded by the state government. In 1913, Menzies entered the Melbourne Law School . He won a variety of prizes, exhibitions, and scholarships during his time as a student, graduating as a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1916 and
11155-550: Was 79 years old at the time. During his time in the political wilderness Menzies built up a large popular base of support by his frequent appeals, often by radio, to ordinary non-elite working citizens whom he called 'the Forgotten People'—especially those who were not suburban and rich or members of organised labour. From November 1941, he began a series of weekly radio broadcasts reaching audiences across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. A selection of these talks
11270-477: Was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th prime minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966. He held office as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in his first term, and subsequently as the inaugural leader of the Liberal Party of Australia , which he was responsible for establishing and defining in policy and political outreach. He is the longest-serving prime minister in Australian history. Menzies studied law at
11385-551: Was appointed a King's Counsel in 1929. In 1928, Menzies entered state parliament as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from East Yarra Province , representing the Nationalist Party of Australia . He stood for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, the sanctity of contracts and the jealous preservation of existing institutions. Suspicious of the Labor Party, Menzies stressed
11500-567: Was born in Renfrewshire , Scotland, and arrived in Melbourne in 1854. The following year he married Elizabeth Band, the daughter of a cobbler from Fife . Menzies was proud of his Scottish heritage, and preferred his surname to be pronounced in the traditional Scottish manner ( / ˈ m ɪ ŋ ɪ s / MING -iss ) rather than as it is spelled ( / ˈ m ɛ n z i z / MEN -zeez ). This gave rise to his nickname "Ming", which
11615-405: Was edited into a book bearing the title of his most famous address, The Forgotten People , delivered on 22 May 1942. In this landmark address, Menzies appealed to his support base: I do not believe that the real life of this nation is to be found either in great luxury hotels and the petty gossip of so-called fashionable suburbs, or in the officialdom of the organised masses. It is to be found in
11730-567: Was elected as his successor on the second ballot, defeating three other candidates. The UAP also voted to end the joint opposition arrangement with the Country Party, allowing Menzies to replace Fadden as opposition leader. Soon after his return, Menzies concluded that the UAP was at the end of its useful life. Menzies called a conference of anti-Labor parties with meetings in Canberra on 13 October 1944 and again in Albury (NSW) in December 1944. At
11845-478: Was especially worried about the military threat from Japan. Australia had very small forces, and depended on Britain for defence against the looming threat of the Japanese Empire, with its 100 million people, a very powerful Army and Navy and an aggressive foreign policy. He hoped that a policy of appeasement would head off a war with Japan, and repeatedly pressured London. Menzies did his best to rally
11960-529: Was immediately appointed Attorney-General of Australia and Minister for Industry in the Lyons government . In 1937 he was appointed a Privy Counsellor . In late 1934 and early 1935 Menzies, then attorney-general, unsuccessfully prosecuted the government's highly controversial case for the attempted exclusion from Australia of Egon Kisch , a Czech Jewish communist. The initial prohibition on Kisch's entry to Australia, however, had not been imposed by Menzies but by
12075-526: Was later expanded to " Ming the Merciless " after the comic strip character. His middle name was given in honour of Charles George Gordon . The Menzies family had moved to Jeparit, a small Wimmera township, in the year before Robert's birth. At the 1891 census, the settlement had a population of just 55 people. His elder siblings had been born in Ballarat, where his father was a locomotive painter at
12190-472: Was more likely than not in Europe. Conversely, the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact had (temporarily as it proved) alienated Japan from Germany, and within the Australian cabinet, it was felt that Japan would be less likely to enter a war against the British empire because of the German-Soviet agreement, which had come as a most unwanted surprise in Tokyo. In Tokyo, the failure to achieve an alliance with Germany alongside
12305-497: Was necessary for the security of the Commonwealth. If passed, this would have given a government the power to introduce a bill proposing to ban the Communist Party. Chifley died a few months after the 1951 election. The new Labor leader, H. V. Evatt , campaigned against the referendum on civil liberties grounds, and it was narrowly defeated. Menzies sent Australian troops to the Korean War . Economic conditions deteriorated in
12420-531: Was persuaded to become Minister for Defence Co-ordination in Fadden's cabinet. The Fadden government lasted only 40 days before being defeated on a confidence motion. On 9 October 1941, Menzies resigned as leader of the UAP after failing to convince his colleagues that he should become Leader of the Opposition in preference to Fadden. He was replaced as UAP leader by former prime minister Billy Hughes , who
12535-634: Was sold on the open market; some of this was also stockpiled and held in storage at Lucas Heights Reactor in Sydney. The Rum Jungle mine closed in April 1971 and the 200-hectare (490-acre) site was abandoned. The Federal Government (which controlled the mine through its agency the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) , now known as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) decided not to rehabilitate
12650-598: Was strongly committed to democracy for the British peoples, but he initially thought that the Germans should take care of their own affairs. He strongly supported the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government in London, and sincerely believed that war could and should be avoided at all costs. after the visit to Germany in 1938, Menzies wrote that the "abandonment by the Germans of individual liberty ... has something rather magnificent about it". Menzies also praised
12765-604: Was supposedly mistaken for baking powder and added to the flour in preparing damper. Those who ate the poisoned damper became violently ill before their death. This was one of at least three poisoning incidents suffered by the Kungarakan people. In April 1948 a notice was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette that the Government was offering rewards for the discovery of uranium ore in Australia and offered
12880-401: Was sworn in as prime minister eight days later. A crisis arose almost immediately, however, when Page refused to serve under him. In an extraordinary personal attack in the House, Page accused Menzies of cowardice for not having enlisted in the War, and of treachery to Lyons. Menzies then formed a minority government. When Page was deposed as Country Party leader a few months later, Menzies took
12995-550: Was the Stapleton Siding Massacre in July 1895 when 80 Aboriginal people were killed following the distribution of poisoned damper. Joe 'Pumeri' McGuinness was told the story by his mother Alngindabu , who survived the massacre, and said of it: The majority of the tribe (Kungarakany)... about one hundred people, became victims of poisoned damper... at a railway siding known as Stapleton... weed-killing powder...
13110-733: Was the fourth of five children born to Kate ( née Sampson) and James Menzies ; he had two elder brothers, an elder sister Isabel , and a younger brother. Menzies was the first Australian prime minister to have two Australian-born parents: his father was born in Ballarat and his mother in Creswick . His grandparents on both sides had been drawn to Australia by the Victorian gold rush . His maternal grandparents were born in Penzance , Cornwall . His paternal grandfather, also named Robert Menzies,
13225-545: Was to launch a political career in Britain, Labor insisted that the crisis was too dire for Menzies to leave the country. With Labor unwilling to support him travelling to London and his position within his own party room weakening, Menzies called an emergency cabinet meeting. He announced his intention to resign and advise the Governor-General , Lord Gowrie to commission Curtin as prime minister. The Cabinet instead urged Menzies to make another overture to Labor for
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