More reports on Whitlam here

AS tributes poured in from around the world for Gough Whitlam, Hunter Labor identities Peter Morris and Bob Brown remembered their time with a man Mr Brown described as ‘‘a physical and intellectual giant’’.

Mr Morris was elected to the seat of Shortland at the December 2, 1972,  ‘‘It’s Time’’ election that made Mr Whitlam prime minister.

He said he soon learned the conservatives never accepted the legitimacy of the Whitlam government.

‘‘I was toughened, hardened and disabused of the notion that politics would be conducted by adhering to convention,’’ Mr Morris said on Tuesday. The last months of the Whitlam government were a blur of ‘‘anger, tension and tiredness, because you couldn’t sleep for worrying’’.

Mr Morris recalled how the sacked government marched out of the caucus room, ‘‘with linked arms, singing Solidarity Forever’’.

Shortly afterwards, he was one of the throng on the steps of old Parliament House, a metre or so behind Mr Whitlam as he made his historic ‘‘nothing will save the governor-general’’ speech. At 160centimetres he was ‘‘not as tall’’ as many of his colleagues and was lifted off his feet in the ‘‘surge of the crowd’’.

 Mr Morris said Mr Whitlam remained a political giant in his post-parliamentary years because of the huge achievements of his government in health, education, international affairs and indigenous rights.

He said the Hawke and Keating governments learned from the Whitlam era, noting ‘‘the way to do things, and the way not to do things’’.

Mr Brown, who entered state parliament in 1978 before switching to the federal seat of Charlton in 1980, recalled staying with Mr Whitlam and his wife Margaret at their home in Cabramatta in the early 1960s.

Mr Brown said he had stood for Paterson in 1961 and was standing with Mr Whitlam’s backing for Robertson on the Central Coast in 1963.

 Another 17 years passed before Mr Brown made it to Canberra.

‘‘As I told Gough once, it was my greatest disappointment not to serve in parliament with him,’’ Mr Brown said.

‘‘Physically, and intellectually, he was a giant of a man.

‘‘And 40 years after his government changed Australia forever, he remains one of the great figures of politics because he mapped out an entire program of reform and initiated it.’’

Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon, whose father served through the Whitlam years, said Mr Whitlam was a ‘‘visionary, reformer, performer, humanitarian, lawyer and war veteran’’.

‘‘He possessed a wit like no one else I’ve met,’’ Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Shortland MP Jill Hall said she joined the ALP because of Mr Whitlam, who ‘‘changed the face of Australia forever’’. 

GIVEN Labor’s dominance of Hunter politics over the decades, Gough Whitlam was generally assured of a friendly reception whenever he visited.

On Mach 22, 1960, Mr Whitlam, as deputy opposition leader, was featured on the front page of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, photographed at a civic reception with the man he would eventually depose as Labor leader, Arthur Calwell, and Newcastle lord mayor Frank Purdue.

At Kurri Kurri, Mr Whitlam promised a Labor government would set up new industries on the coalfields, using federal grants.

He and Mr Calwell were in the region to campaign for Labor’s Bert James, who was recently named as a KGB informant, according to Russian archives made public in England.

Decades later, he was also at Mr James’ funeral at Rhyope in October 2006.

As prime minister, Mr Whitlam was on the front page of the Herald again on October 21, 1974, having visited a Heart of the Hunter festival at Maitland the day before with his wife, Margaret.

A reported 30,000people lined High Street, Maitland, for the festival procession and Mr Whitlam was photographed with the festival princess, ‘‘Miss Jane Cowley, a student at Tocal Agricultural College’’.

In his final week as prime minister, Mr Whitlam was back in Maitland, and addressed Labor supporters at Harold Gregson Reserve.In July, 1980, Mr Whitlam dropped into the Don Beppino Italian restaurant in Merewether, which featured a painting of the Great Man done in 1977 in response to The Dismissal in 1975.

Mr Whitlam had travelled from Sydney to launch the ALP’s council campaigns for Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens.

In the Bicentennial year, 1988, Mr Whitlam was among 2000 friends at the University of Newcastle, for an August talk on constitutional reform.

The Herald reported the gathering had ‘‘the air of expectancy of a second coming’’, and Mr Whitlam said he was not surprised at the size of the crowd that had gathered to see and hear him.

In September 1991 he spoke at the Phoenix Club, Mayfield, supporting the state member for Port Stephens, Bob Martin, and talking about railways.

In February 1993, Mr Whitlam attended a fund-raiser for the William the Fourth – last spied on dry land at Carrington but apparently close to going back into the water –  and spoke optimistically about the coal industry, then, as now, in the midst of a downturn.

He was back three months later for the 1993 May Day dinner, telling 800 diners it would be easier to make Australia a republic than to abolish the senate.

In November 1997, Mr Whitlam opened the Anglican diocese’s Whitlam House at Carrington, before moving to Wests leagues club where he presented a National Reconciliation Award to the Novocastrian Tales book project. 

Read The Newcastle Herald archives about Gough Whitlam here and other reports reacting to his death here

Find out more about Gough Whitlam's legacy at The Whitlam Institute