Time Of Hope: Australia 1966-72: Donald Horne

When Sir Robert Menzies retired in 1966, the future of Australia looked certain - it would continue to be an Anglo-Saxon, primarily Protestant, male-dominated, politically apathetic country committed to progress through economic development. By 1972 and the beginning of the Whitlam Labour government, Australia had seen an Aboriginal embassy at Parliament House; the emergence of a multicultural vision for Australia; the Pope holding Mass at Randwick; Germaine Greer; 'sit-ins' and 'freedom rides'; gay liberation; student power; school power; flower power and the rise of political and social rallies.