Mungo Wentworth MacCallum: December 21, 1941 – December 9, 2020
This is a personal tribute
by David Lovejoy. For detailed accounts of Mungo’s life, see the obituaries in the mainstream press.
With immaculate timing and a great work ethic until the end, Mungo has passed away a few days after announcing he would write no more. Here at
The Echo we still cannot quite believe that he has gone.
From shortly after the newspaper’s founding until just a week ago, Mungo produced for us a political column that was well-informed, often surprisingly clairvoyant and always written with elegance and wit.
Mungo, speechless
Above all, his columns were unambiguously on the side of the angels; he spent the first half of his life learning everything there is to know about the Australian political system and the men and women who operate within it, and he loathed politicians of whatever party who pervert and corrupt it.