Geoff Warren and Neil Robbins, advertising a meeting to raise funds for the 1954 Commonwealth Games team.
A column by Len Johnson
Neil Robbins knew Ron Clarke well enough to call him ‘Fat’, Clarke’s boyhood family nickname. He was a teammate of John Landy and Marjorie Jackson; a clubmate of Les Perry, Geoff Warren and Dave Stephens, ‘the Flying Milko’. He trained with Merv Lincoln and many others under legendary coach Franz Stampfl.
Robbins, who passed away on 6 December at the age of 91, was also Australia’s pioneer in the steeplechase, finishing seventh in the country’s first home Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, the first occasion Australia had been represented in the event. A lifelong supporter of Footscray Football Club (now the Western Bulldogs), he would have appreciated performing well on the MCG where the Bulldogs had won their first Aussie Rules premiership just two years earlier.
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Mungo quit Canberra in 1988, his legend so established then that we donât need to speak his surname even now.
He declared he couldnât bear the idea of leaving the dear little old Parliament House that he had inhabited for so many years just to move to the grand new building on the hill.
Mungo in 1979. To miss one of his madcap but insightful Nation Review columns in the 1970s was to leave you out of contemporary historyâs loop.
Credit:Fairfax Media
He felt the new place was cold and pretentious and had so many miles of corridors heâd get lost searching for targets, which is to say, politicians.
Mungo MacCallum, veteran journalist and commentator, dies aged 78
WedWednesday 9
updated
ThuThursday 10
Mungo MacCallum is being remembered for his biting political commentary.
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Key points:
The 78-year-old spent decades covering politics for Australia s major media groups
Friend and fellow journalist Kerry O Brien says his death is a loss to the nation
MacCallum spent decades covering politics for mastheads including The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald and for the ABC.
He penned numerous books and essays and became known for his wit, intellect and fierce criticism of governments.
He moved to the Northern Rivers region of NSW in the 1980s and was well known locally for his column for the Byron Shire Echo.