Boyer Lectures

Updated on Nov 21, 2023

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The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission, now the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Lectures. They were renamed in 1961 after Richard Boyer (later Sir Richard), the ABC board chairman who had first suggested the lectures. The series is broadcast every year in September/October/November/December on ABC Radio National.

The lectures have been delivered by prominent Australians, selected by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Board. They have stimulated thought, discussion and debate in Australia on a wide range of subjects. The lectures showcase great minds examining key issues and values. Some topics covered include Society in the Space Age, delivered in the first year of the lectures; Living With Technology, in 1982; and A Truly Civil Society, 1995.

Lecturers

2016 – Professor Sir Michael Marmot – "Fair Australia: Social Justice and the Health Gap"

2015 – Dr Michael Fullilove – "A larger Australia"

2014 – Professor Suzanne Cory – "The promise of science: a vision of hope"

2013 – Governor-General Quentin Bryce – "Back to Grassroots"

2012 – Professor Marcia Langton – "The Quiet Revolution: Indigenous People and the Resources Boom"

2011 – Geraldine Brooks – "The Idea of Home"

2010 – Professor Glyn Davis – "The Republic of Learning: higher education transforms Australia"

2009 – General Peter Cosgrove – "A Very Australian Conversation"

2008 – Rupert Murdoch – "A Golden Age of Freedom"

2007 – Graeme Clark – "Restoring The Senses"

2006 – Ian Macfarlane – "The Search For Stability"

2005 – Archbishop Peter Jensen – "The Future of Jesus"

2004 – Peter Conrad "Tales of Two Hemispheres"

2003 – Owen Harries "Benign or Imperial? Reflections on American Hegemony"

2002 – Ian Castles (Not delivered due to bereavement)

2001 – Prof Geoffrey Blainey "This Land is all Horizons: Australian Fears and Visions"

2000 – Chief Justice Murray Gleeson "The Rule of Law and the Constitution"

1999 – Dr Inga Clendinnen "True Stories"

1998 – David Malouf "A Spirit of Play: The Making of Australian Consciousness"

1997 – Martin Krygier "Between Fear and Hope: Hybrid Thoughts on Public Views"

1996 – Prof Pierre Ryckmans "Aspects of Culture"

1995 – Eva Cox "A Truly Civil Society"

1994 – Kerry Stokes "Advance Australia Where?"

1993 – Presented by six Indigenous Australians in the International Year of the World's Indigenous People (IYWIP): Getano Lui, Dr Ian Anderson, Jeannie Bell, Mandawuy Yunupingu, Dot West and Noel Pearson "Voices of the Land"

1992 – Geoffrey Bolton "A View From the Edge: An Australian Stocktaking (history)"

1991 – Fay Gale and Ian Lowe "Changing Australia (changes through technology)"

1990 – Tom Fitzgerald "Between Life and Economics"

1989 – Max Charlesworth "Life, Death, Genes and Ethics: Biotechnology and Bioethics"

1988 – "Postscripts: eight previous Boyer lecturers revisit their lectures"

1987 – Davis McCaughey "Piecing Together a Shared Vision" (multicultural Australia)

1986 – Eric Wilmot "Australia The Last Experiment"

1985 – Helen Hughes "Australia in a Developing World"

1984 – Shirley Hazzard "Coming of Age in Australia"

1983 – Justice Michael Kirby "The Judges"

1982 – Sir Bruce Williams "Living With Technology"

1981 – Prof John Passmore "The Limits of Government"

1980 – Bernard Smith "The Spectre of Truganini"

1979 – Bob Hawke "The Resolution of Conflict"

1978 – Sir Gustav Nossal "Nature's Defence"

1977 – Douglas Stewart "Writers of The Bulletin"

1976 – Manning Clark "A Discovery of Australia"

1975 – Dame Roma Mitchell "The Web of Criminal Law"

1974 – Hugh Stretton "Housing & Government"

1973 – Prof Sir Keith Hancock "Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow"

1972 – Prof Dexter Dunphy "The Challenge of Change"

1971 – Prof Basil Hetzel "Life and Health in Australia"

1970 – Dr H. C. Coombs "Role of Institutions in Our Lives"

1969 – Sir Zelman Cowen "The Private Man"

1968 – Prof WEH Stanner "After the Dreaming"

1967 – Robin Boyd "Artificial Australia"

1966 – Sir Macfarlane Burnet "Biology and the Appreciation of Life"

1965 – Prof Sir John Eccles "The Brain and the Person"

1964 – George Ivan Smith "Along the Edge of Peace"

1963 – Prof J. D. B. Miller "Australian and Foreign Policy"

1962 – Prof W. G. K. Duncan "In Defence of the Common Man"

1961 – Prof W. D. Borrie "The Crowding World"

1960 – Prof Julius Stone "Law and Policy in the Quest For Survival"

1959 – Dr David Forbes Martyn "Society in the Space Age"

References

Boyer Lectures Wikipedia

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