The Don Dunstan Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the State Government of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and Flinders University

Testimonials

We believe that one of the most valuable assets we have, is the goodwill of long time supporters of the Foundation. We believe that by promoting this goodwill, we can inspire others to do likewise.

We are in the process of compiling a library of testimonials to be used for various purposes including on the Foundation's web site and in our promotional brochures. Below are some of the testimonials we have received. If you have a story to tell, please contact Rosslyn Cox on rosslyn.cox@adelaide.edu.au. We'd be delighted to hear from you.

GREG MACKIE OAM
Executive Director, Arts SA and Don Dunstan Foundation Board Member

"I am proud to offer my support to the DDF. Don Dunstan shone a light into my life as a teenager during his years as Premier: His vision, values and commitment to the arts and social justice have profoundly influenced the formation of my own values and civic ethic."

VINCE CURRO
Don Dunstan Foundation Friend and volunteer

"Don's influence on my life began at a young age in the late 50's when he addressed the people of my street in Payneham during an election campaign. From that time though to a well remembered long lunch at his Norwood restaurant in the 90's that influence has been inspirational. It was his determination and clear vision for a fair society, which was instrumental in shaping my attitudes towards life. It was he more than anyone else who led me to develop a strong sense of justice and equity for all. It is this along with a series of anecdotal memories which inspired me to support the Foundation from its inception to the present in the hope that it will be able to shape our society's future."

JIM JARVIS AM
Director, Jarvis Marketing and Don Dunstan Foundation Board Member

"My life would be poorer if not for Don Dunstan�s vision - no kerb-side coffee at Chianti, no pleasure from art in outdoor places and no hope of raising our many children and grandchildren to appreciate the importance of balancing their own futures with the need of others to survive and flourish in the community of South Australia."

PHILLIP ADAMS AO
Patron, Don Dunstan Foundation

"In the early seventies, I wrote a report for Prime Minister Gorton that began with these words: 'We hold this truth to be self evident. It is time for Australians to see their own landscapes, hear their own voices and dream their own dreams.' Recommending a small production fund, a film school and a film bank it led, after a rapid succession of prime ministers, to the historic revival of our film industry.

In the early days of his premiership, Don Dunstan agreed that it was time for Australians to dream their own dreams and invited me to Adelaide. I regarded him as the Pierre Trudeau of South Australia, an imaginative, stylish and 'new wave' politician and found, within moments of meeting him, that we could talk political and cultural shorthand. We'd soon hammered out the basis of the South Australian Film Corporation that could connect to the national initiatives. More than that, it inspired every other premier to follow suit - no sooner had Don announced the SAFC than similar organisations started popping up in New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland.

The exercise was typical of Dunstan - he moved fast, was strategically deft and highly imaginative. The same willingness to take bold initiatives could be seen across the entire spectrum of issues. He was, by any measure, an extraordinary man and a great politician."

ALAN HUTCHINGS
Retired Commissioner of the ERD Court, former senior state govt. planner, town planning director of Monarto new city , planning consultant, 1971 Anzac Fellow, occasional author, now Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Uni of SA; and, in the distant past, a cartographer and survey cadet.

In the early 1970`s, I was a planner in Stuart Hart's State Planning Office. I had been seconded to the team formed by the Australian National Travel Association (later subsumed by the Australian Tourism Commission) to undertake the Barossa- Riverland Tourist Survey. It was a job- albeit interesting and challenging- and when it was finished, I just got on with the next.

One day, Stuart came to my cubicle and said that he had just had a call from Premier Dunstan`s office. As also Minister for Tourism, he was setting up Tourist Development Advisory Council of SA and wanted me as a member! This came out of the blue. I was flabbergasted but honoured. It seems he wanted a �keen� young type who had some clues about the physical development side of tourism. I joined some wise �old� men, viz Reg. Rechner a recently retired TAA boss, Ray Waters then the GM of the RAA and Joe O`Sullivan of the Adelaide Convention Bureau. No nonsense people, they taught me a lot.

Soon after, I became the Director of Town Planning for Monarto. This was Don's baby. He had appointed some interesting characters to the board of the Monarto Development Commission and a whole raft of international planning and design � egos� as consultants. In many ways, these latter made life difficult for me as many of their ideas were anything but suitable for SA and ignored our planning traditions.

Nevertheless, with my colleague the architecture director- Hank Den Ouden- I was able to bring them down to earth and get them to assist us in preparing concepts and plans which were both imaginative and realistic. Despite the fact that the �egos� were Don's appointees, he backed up Hank and myself and, behind the scenes, pulled them into line (of course, the then Minister responsible day to day for new development projects � Don Hopgood-and our GM-Tony Richardson- would have had something to do with it).

I remember Don coming to our offices on Greenhill Road one day to examine our plans, models, displays etc. We explained things, pointed out features and watched him nervously. He looked and listened carefully, thanked us and left. What did he think? His minder lingered (in those days, even a Premier seemed to get by with only one). We asked him�stutter, stutter��what�? He gave the thumbs up and said the Premier liked what he saw, if he had not you would have known about it in no uncertain terms in front of everyone (I then recalled Don's scorn at some fanciful tower a tourist developer had proposed for central Adelaide at a presentation by the developers ` consultants which I attended as a TDAC member).

About a decade later in 1986 Raymond Bunker and I co-edited �With Conscious Purpose: a History of Town Planning in South Australia � for Wakefield Press and the RAPI for the State's 150th. We were tickled when Don accepted an invitation to launch it at the then Fable's Bookshop in Gawler Place . He flew from Melbourne and, resplendent in a white tux, said nice things about the book and we had a good discussion about SA`s planning history and, more generally, the State's singular characteristics of dissent, radicalism and inquiry.

During his address, he compared Melbourne unfavourably with Adelaide . This was picked up next day by the press nationally, particularly because as at that time he headed Victoria 's tourism commission! (He didn't keep the position for much longer).

In penning these notes, I have tried not to become nostalgic for the good old days of the Dunstan era. Nevertheless, his ability to draw policy threads together, to connect talents and to get under the skin of day-to-day issues and find the essence of things was something to be seen.