RT HON. SIR PAUL HASLUCK,K.c.,G.C.l,f .c.

, Allendale Square
G.C.\'.0., K.St.J. 77 St George's Terrace
MdJd;raS
@
Perth, Western Australia 6ooo

11 July 1983

Dear Mr "

Your letter of July 8 :.'as delivered this morning. I have

read it and the enclosures wi:h interest and arn impressed by the
fact that, unlike so many other Australian authors, you are doing
some research to establish what really happened before you start
to write a play or a book abo':t an Australian historical fisure
or incident.
I doubt whether T can telp you very much in your research.
In my opinion the best accoun: of Namatjira's life and work rvas
written by Ronald Rose and pu:lished in "Australian Territories",
VoL "2 , No . 6 , i{ovember L962 and. Vol . 3, No .4, July L953. I regard
this as the best account because it is a balanced account and
great care has been taken over the facts. rt also draws on
discussion ivith Albrecht, Strelhow and Battarbee, vrho orobably
knetv rnore about Albert than any other rvhj-te oeople. Ronald Rose
is still living so far as r knoio and ir night b-e rvorth while
having some discussion with him. Unfortunatelv I do not know his
present address.
My own association with the Administration of the Northern
Territory b,egan in t{ay, 1951. r have no knowledge of any official
rnatters before that date. For official matters ifter that date
undoubtgdly the best authorit'r will be H.C. Giese and I regard him
as a reliable and qualified wi-tness, rncidentally, in youi letter
you speak of him as my "broth:r-in-law". Inlhere did you get this
extraordinary idea? There- i s no fami i v relationship- of iny kind
berween Giese and myseli. i-ao-rl;;;-;'high opinion'of him" as a
capable and honourable public servant.
I know nothing of Holden or Le l'Iaire, whose names youmentioned,
Bill Harney I would regard as a very doubtful source of information
- irrqr .e \7'rn-spinner and a chap who spent a lot of pains on making
himself into "a character". I doubt whbther he was ever close to
Albert.
Two officials who would have been close to Albert were l{cCoy
and,Fitzer (a p9lice officer) but r am not sure whether they are
still alive. A11-in-a1l, on the official side of all matters concern-
ing Albert from 1951 onwards, you could find no more reliable and
knowledgeable souree than Giese.
 You asked me to enlarge on a rernark I rnade that the injury
done to Albert was "in many $'als , personal and oeculiar. " t^lhit
that means is that the injury bone'to him was peculiar to him as
a_ person and no,t part of any general injury suffered by the
aboriginal peoole because the.r were Aboiigines " Because he attracted
notice as an artist he had mo:e money (and more spending por,rer)
th_al any other aboriginal at :hat time and he was given ffrore
publicity and brought in touch with influences difierent from those
affecting any other aboriginal. Both the noney and the publicity
corrupte_d him in ways that weae personal and peculiar to- himself-.
Those of us who have studied social contact bbtween i,vhite and black
at various stages of Australian colonisation over the past two
centuries are familiar both r"ith the sad effects that tfte contact
has had on the whole of an aboriginal group of people and also
with the sadness of personal ;ragedy that -sornetimei overtakes an
individual. Albert was an ou:standing Derson and rvas corrupted
as a person. The chief agents in his corruotion, as I sarv it, r^rere
an oil cornpany man named l^lalkiey and the journalist-author Frank
clune, who took hin to sydney, and, in diire-qard of Lhe assurances
they h-ad given to the Director of rrtrelfare, uied hirn most unwisellr
and unkildly for the advantage of their oum publicity, and then
dropped him back in the wilds as a bervildered and bemused man who
had become fuddled both by drrnk and too much fuss.

_ - - 4s regards Albert's rrial, in Alice Springs, I think Lhat

Ronald Rose has given an exact account. r kirow noirring of the
matters you a11ude to rather darkly in the penultimate oaragraph
of your _letter. You will realise that a Minister neceslarily ie".re"
dtl-to-day adninistration to those officers who have tespon"ibility
and I came into the picture or:rly lzhen the Adrninistrator bf the
Territory drew my attention tc the arrest and trial" Frorn a faint
n-emory- and _with some hesitation, T can only pass on an impression
that the Administrator of the Territory wai hirnself rather troubled
about- the way the rnatter had ')een handied in Alice springs. r an
sure he was fully in accord with m1r intervention in rlspeit of the
custody of Albert after sentence. You will appreciate -- recent
inquiries in the Farqhar-l^/ran argument in Sydirby will rernind you
of it that once an arrest his been made, charges laid a.t-d a
trial commenced, a l{inister cannot and should not intervene in the
Proces,ses of the Court. Once Albert had been placed in charge of
the Administration by a sentence imposed by the court, it wa6 open
to me Lo make -decisions regarding the disclarge of our responsiLifity
for his custody but I could n,rt Intervene at in earlier sraEe
 To clear up the final--roi-nt, responsihility regarding
access to files in dre care of- the australian Archl-ves rests r,vith
the archival authority, rf they have any doubts r,vhelr,u1.
should be given to a iite wit: iry.r.*" oir it r assume thataccess
will refer the question to me i do not have the least ideathey
what is in rh?F fire
-and, assunilg
in the Australian Archives, it has been oi"p"iry pla-ed
r off6r no connaent on the question
or access.

Yours faithfullv.

','h-u,-e- /w

Mr A" Markidis,
50 Arthur Street,
Surry Hills.
New South hlales 2010.