Ian Turner Obituary
Professor Ian Turner MELBOURNE: Professor Ian Turner, a prominent Australian academic known for his varied interests and outspoken ness, died of a heart attack on
Erith Island, in Bass Strait, on Wednesday. He was 56.
He had been an Associate Professor of History at Monash University since 1969.
After taking an arts degree with honours in history and politics at Melbourne University in 1948, he
became secretary of the peace movement during the Vietnam War, a cleaner for the Victorian
Railways and later, chairman of the Federal council of shop stewards. He went to the Australian
National University in 1959 to complete a Phd in labour history. He was regarded as an authority
on the history of the labour movement in Australia. He held an academic post at the
University of Adelaide for twoyears before joining Monash University, Melbourne in 1964.
In 1953, Professor Turner, then Mr Turner, was at the centre of a controversy involving the Aus
tralian Railways Union and the Department of Transport. He had been working as a rail car cleaner,
and was a prominent member of the union and of the Communist Party of Australia.
The controversy arose after his dismissal by the Victorian Rail ways and allegations of political victimisation.
In 1958 he was expelled from the Communist Party for organising
demonstrations in support of the Hungarian revolutionaries of 1956,
and for his "revisionism".
He published several books on Australia's "social and political his
tory.In 1967, 'Sydney's Burning'—his profile of the Industrial
Workers of the World, a radical group active in Australia during
World War I—was published.
Another of his books, 'Cinderella Dressed in Yella', published in 1969, was a collcction of
light-hearted and irreverent children's rhymes.
A colleague at Monash, Dr Geoffrey Searle, said last night that Professor Turner had been an
important historian and a major figure in the Victorian Labor Party.
He was involved in another controversy in 1968 when the United
States refused to grant him a visa for a study tour.
Over the past 10 years he became well known in Melbourne as an enthusiastic and articulate sup
porter of Australian Football. In 1967 he instituted the Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture — a satirical
piece of showmanship in which he discussed the academic implica tions of football. He gave the lecture each year until 1974. Public demand prompted him to give the ninth memorial lecture in May this year.
Professor Turner is survived by his third wife, Leonie Sandercock, and by three children from his first
marriage.
Professor Ian Turner MELBOURNE: Professor Ian Turner, a prominent Australian academic known for his varied interests and outspoken ness, died of a heart attack on
Erith Island, in Bass Strait, on Wednesday. He was 56.
He had been an Associate Professor of History at Monash University since 1969.
After taking an arts degree with honours in history and politics at Melbourne University in 1948, he
became secretary of the peace movement during the Vietnam War, a cleaner for the Victorian
Railways and later, chairman of the Federal council of shop stewards. He went to the Australian
National University in 1959 to complete a Phd in labour history. He was regarded as an authority
on the history of the labour movement in Australia. He held an academic post at the
University of Adelaide for twoyears before joining Monash University, Melbourne in 1964.
In 1953, Professor Turner, then Mr Turner, was at the centre of a controversy involving the Aus
tralian Railways Union and the Department of Transport. He had been working as a rail car cleaner,
and was a prominent member of the union and of the Communist Party of Australia.
The controversy arose after his dismissal by the Victorian Rail ways and allegations of political victimisation.
In 1958 he was expelled from the Communist Party for organising
demonstrations in support of the Hungarian revolutionaries of 1956,
and for his "revisionism".
He published several books on Australia's "social and political his
tory.In 1967, 'Sydney's Burning'—his profile of the Industrial
Workers of the World, a radical group active in Australia during
World War I—was published.
Another of his books, 'Cinderella Dressed in Yella', published in 1969, was a collcction of
light-hearted and irreverent children's rhymes.
A colleague at Monash, Dr Geoffrey Searle, said last night that Professor Turner had been an
important historian and a major figure in the Victorian Labor Party.
He was involved in another controversy in 1968 when the United
States refused to grant him a visa for a study tour.
Over the past 10 years he became well known in Melbourne as an enthusiastic and articulate sup
porter of Australian Football. In 1967 he instituted the Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture — a satirical
piece of showmanship in which he discussed the academic implica tions of football. He gave the lecture each year until 1974. Public demand prompted him to give the ninth memorial lecture in May this year.
Professor Turner is survived by his third wife, Leonie Sandercock, and by three children from his first
marriage.
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