English-born Australian businessman and historian
David Hill
|
---|
Born
| (
1946-06-20
)
20 June 1946
(age 77)
|
---|
Nationality
| Australian
|
---|
Occupation(s)
| Businessman and author
|
---|
Political party
| Australian Labor Party
|
---|
David Hill
(born 20 June 1946) is an English-born Australian business leader and author.
Background and early career
[
edit
]
Born
out of wedlock
in
Eastbourne
in 1946, into an impoverished family of four boys, Hill and his twin brother spent time in
Barnardo's
children's home in
Barkingside
.
[1]
I can only remember it as traumatic. The idea of nurturing and care and affection and love just didn't enter the equation back in those days. I can remember Mum gave us some coloured writing paper so we could write to her. I remember the other kids stealing our paper, humiliating us, tearing it up and running away. It was only much later I realised a lot of this cruelty was that most of them didn't have anybody to write to.
?
David Hill, interviewed in 2008.
Hill's early years of schooling were at Bourne Junior Primary School. He migrated to Australia together with his elder brother and twin brother in April 1959, aboard the
SS Strathaird
. His mother arrived in Australia a few years later.
[1]
[2]
Prior to departing England, Hill and his brothers had enrolled to attend Fairbridge Farm School in
Molong
in the
Central West
region of
New South Wales
.
Hill has since written a book about the experiences of the child migrants.
[2]
The documentary
The Long Journey Home
was aired on
ABC TV
on 17 November 2009, detailing some of the history associated with Fairbridge Farm School and other
orphanages
of that time. He also became a passionate and effective advocate for British and Australian government recognition that child migrants had been poorly treated.
[3]
Prior to his rise to prominence in business circles, Hill was variously a hardware shop assistant, a sandwich cutter, a labourer on building sites, a refuse collector and gardener; he sold tennis coaching courses, worked as a barman, waiter, pub
bouncer
, delivery agent, tutor at the
University of Sydney
, journalist,
investment bank
worker, an accountant, and was in charge of the
NSW Government
Ministerial Advisory Unit.
[1]
Career
[
edit
]
Having in 1978 been appointed an Associate Commissioner of the
Public Transport Commission
in 1982, at 36 years of age, Hill was appointed as the chief executive of the
State Rail Authority
, serving until 1987.
[2]
[4]
He remained as a director of the State Rail Authority until 1997.
[5]
Hill served as chairman and managing director of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
from 1987 to 1995,
[6]
head of
Soccer Australia
, chairman of
Sydney Water
,
[5]
director of the
Australian National Airlines Commission
and Chairman of CREATE, a national organisation responsible for representing the interests of young people and children in institutional care. A former North Sydney rugby league junior, Hill was president of the
North Sydney Bears
Rugby League Football Club between 1989 and 1992. He was instrumental in the eventual ban on cigarette sponsorship of the game.
Hill is strongly in favour of the return of the
Elgin Marbles
to Greece. As well as being a member of the British
Marbles Reunited
campaign, he is the founder and current chairman of the
International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures
.
He was an unsuccessful political candidate representing
Labor
for the
Division of Hughes
at the
1998 federal election
.
[7]
Hill has written a number of non-fiction books on Australian history, including histories of the
First Fleet
, early colonial New South Wales, and the Australian gold rushes.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Hill married Stergitsa Zamagias in 1998,
[2]
and together they have a son.
[8]
They live in Sydney.
Selected published works
[
edit
]
- Hill, David (2007).
The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and Its Betrayal of Britain's Child Migrants to Australia
. Australia: Random House.
ISBN
978-1-74166-614-4
.
- Hill, David (2008).
1788: The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet
. Australia: Random House.
ISBN
978-1-74166-797-4
.
- Hill, David (2010).
Gold - The fever that forever changed Australia
. Australia: Random House.
ISBN
978-1-74166-925-1
.
- Hill, David (2013).
The Great Race: The Race Between the English and the French to Complete the Map of Australia
. Australia: Random House.
ISBN
9781742751108
.
- Hill, David (2014).
The Making of Australia
. Australia: William Heinemann.
ISBN
9781742757667
.
- Hill, David (2015).
First Fleet Surgeon : The Voyage of Arthur Bowes Smyth
. Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia.
ISBN
9780642278623
.
- Hill, David (2015).
Australia and The Monarchy
. Australia: William Heinemann.
ISBN
9780857987549
.
- Hill, David (2017).
The Fair and the Foul : Inside Our Sporting Nation
. North Sydney: Penguin Random House Australia.
ISBN
9780857987570
.
- Hill, David (2019).
Convict Colony: The Remarkable Story of the Fledgling Settlement That Survived Against the Odds
. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
ISBN
9781760528669
.
- Hill, David (2022).
Reckoning : The forgotten children and their quest for justice
. Australia: William Heinemann Australia.
ISBN
978-1-76104-552-3
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Fernandes, Andrea (14 November 2008).
"David Hill"
.
Belongings: Post WWII migration memories and journeys
. Migration Heritage Centre of New South Wales
. Retrieved
15 March
2014
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Hill, David (9 February 2009).
"David Hill"
.
Talking Heads
(Interview transcript). Interviewed by
Peter Thompson
.
ABC TV
. Retrieved
15 March
2014
.
- ^
Cannane, Steve. "
British Government knew Fairbridge farms were unfit for children, documents show
".
ABC News
, 27 February 2017.
- ^
Appointment of Associate Commissioner
Railway Digest
January 1979 page 7
- ^
a
b
Francis, Geoff; Hicks, Peter (16 September 1998).
"David Hill: from Giardia to Labor MP?"
.
Green Left Weekly
. Retrieved
16 March
2014
.
- ^
Fidler, Richard
Director David Hill
at
ABC
, 14 May 2007
- ^
Carr, Adam (3 October 1998).
"Hughes: New South Wales"
.
Australian House of Representatives: Voting by constituency at the 1998 Australian Legislative election
. Psephos
. Retrieved
16 March
2014
.
- ^
Marr, David
(29 September 2008).
"Yet another chapter, but still no adjectives good enough for Hill"
.
The Sydney Morning Herald
. Retrieved
15 March
2014
.
|
---|
Current members
| |
---|
Former members
| |
---|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|