If you are a web-designer, or probably just under 40, so much about this website may offend your sensibilities, so apologies are offered. At the time of publication (a day before the centenary of Griffith’s death) I am a self-taught web page designer with about 3 hours total experience.
The hopeful reasons I have published this amateur-hour effort may excuse the formatting. I went to Griffith University, not because I had any knowledge of Sir Samuel Griffith, nor really the university, or any others, to be frank. But I am glad I did. Along the way I have been interested in the remarkable fact of our federation, and, in particular, Griffith’s contribution.
I can’t help but wonder that part of Australia’s future can be enriched by better understanding our past, in particular about how we came to be the Commonwealth of Australia. Do we take so much for granted because that immaculate moment on 1 January 1901 is, itself, neither cherished or celebrated?
Not many countries have been granted a continent. We deride our federal structure with blather about duplication, but I’m of the view that our states (and territories) are the sub-structure that holds the whole joint together. Without the states, would we have maintained the territorial integrity that underpins the unique proposition of the Australian nation? (If this burst of blog-making goes beyond this weekend, I will write more on this point.)
Just as understanding, and reconciling, our indigenous past with our modern nation is a fundamental part of realising our future, so too must understanding the essence of our nation-making. Why, not just how, we federated into being surely holds some of the clues.
Of course to focus on Griffith is not to deny the roles of others. However, in the last few years excellent biographies on Henry Parkes (by Stephen Dando-Collins) and Alfred Deakin (by Judith Brett) have told the story of two of the Fathers of Federation. The last, and only, published monograph on Griffith is from 1984 (by RB Joyce). It has been described as magisterial, but it’s not a page turner (and I was an eager reader!).
There is a great story to be told here, and perhaps someone of skill and capability will tell it…
That so little has been written about the man perplexes me. And this stab into the cyber-ether is my attempt to live by a credo of civic action.
I’m hopeful I have made some claim or published some error that fires a proper accounting of Griffith’s life by someone determined to correct the record.
If that’s you, or you’d like to offer a thought, reveal the location of the unknown statute of Sir Sam, provide a referral or otherwise, you can drop me a line at:
andrew@andewfraser.net.au
PO Box 2043 MILTON BC QLD 4064
@andrewfraserqld.
A final note of disclamation, I’ve been trying to contribute back to Griffith (the University) in recent years. In 2015 I was appointed as an independent member of the Finance Committee of the University, before joining the governing body, the Council of Griffith University in 2017. These are honorary roles, and I’m honoured to do them but I’m not speaking for the University on these pages.
Samuel Griffith with 2020 Hindsight 