Writing history

Fischer in town to promote Monash book

The Honourable Tim Fischer AC is the former deputy prime minister of Australia and was the Australian ambassador to the Holy See for three years until January 2012. A former Australian Army officer, NSW state parliamentarian, leader of the National Party and minister for trade, Tim Fischer is also a consultant, company director, author, broadcaster, and multiple patron. He is speaking at the Macquarie Regional Library Dubbo branch next week for an author talk on his book “Maestro John Monash”. WORDS Yvette Aubusson-foley

IT’S a book that’s been described as ‘a fair and passionate judgement of the greatest Australian to wear our uniform’ (Spectator Australia) and its author as having brought ‘his army and political experience to the General Monash story with a flowing and digestible style.’

It’s also fair to say our brief exchange by phone this week was conducted with military precision but as a veteran of Vietnam and with inside knowledge of the workings of the military his matter of fact manner is possibly not that far removed from Monash’s tasked as that legendary Lt General was with facing incredible odds in World War 1.

“He made such a difference on the Western Front. He showed the British generals how to do it with his battle of Amiens most notably in 1918 when finally given overall command to get on with it, and he sure did. He protected his men on a holistic basis,” Fischer told Dubbo Weekender.

It’s a subject he has poured his time and energy into and will be sharing his passion on the subject at an author talk at the Macquarie Regional Library on Wednesday, July 20.

It’s not every day a former deputy prime minister drops into the town library with such non-political purpose but Fischer is a prolific author in his own right.

Since 2002 when he published two titles, “Seven Days in East Timor: Ballot and Bullets” and “Tim Fischer’s Outback Heroes: and Communities that Count (2002) he has also written “Transcontinental Train Odyssey: The Ghan, the Khyber, the Globe” (2004), “Asia & Australia: Tango in Trade, Tourism and Transport” (2005), “Trains Unlimited in the 21st Century” (2011) and “Holy See, Unholy Me! 1000 Days in Rome” (2013).

“Maestro John Monash” was launched in 2014 and acknowledged by the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott who wrote of Monash, “He brought organisation and technology to the battlefield to break the stalemate of trench warfare and the futility of men charging against barbed wire and machine guns.”

Of Fischer Abbott said: “As a veteran, a former Ambassador and Deputy Prime Minister, Tim is uniquely placed to bring Monash to the contemporary reader.”

An understanding of out of the ordinary life experiences is something Fischer appears to have captured in his book.

“It’s an uplifting book because it dives into history in a different way looking at the life and work of John Monash as an engineer and as a democratic citizen who ultimately declined to lead a coup d’etat in the Great Depression,” he said.

He was arguably the most innovative general of World War One and Fischer feels for all the recognition Monash received in his lifetime and after, he has not been given his proper due.

“Maestro John Monash” asks why Monash, Australian Army Corps Commander, was never promoted to Field Marshal postwar, as international precedent suggested was most appropriate, pointing the finger primarily at the Australian prime minister of the time, Billy Hughes, within a wider context of establishment suspicion towards this son of a German Jewish migrant.*

History however is on Monash’s side. On Sunday, August 11, 1918, at Chateau Bertangles, used by Lt General Monash as leader of the AIF Army Corps, it’s recorded he met with Winston Churchill, then Minister for War Munitions who was keen to discuss the performance of the new British built tanks (Mark V) and receive a briefing from Monash on the very successful battle of Amiens (August 8) which punched 16kms through German lines and was later described by the German General E Ludendorff as “the black day of the German Army”.

His name cemented in World War 1 history.

“He wrote famously that conducting a battle is a bit like conducting an orchestra where everything must enter with precision and it was more that reason which caused me to go down the path of “Maestro John Monash” because he was a maestro in so many ways,” said Fischer.

Monash’s full quote reads: “A perfected modern battle plan is like nothing so much as a score for an orchestral composition, where the various arms and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases. Every individual unit must make its entry precisely at the proper moment and play its phrase in the general harmony.”

Another of Fischer’s favourite Monash quote appealing to his own career as statesman, says ‘the only hope for Australia is the ballot box and a good education’ but Monash first caught Fischer’s eye in an old political stomping ground.

“He met Ned Kelly in Jerilderie in my old electorate. Ned was having a bit of trouble with the ATM of the era and took direct action and withdrew out some money from the “ATM”, and so that’s what lead me to him,” Fischer said. * Monash University Publishing

… Macquarie Conservatorium’s Youth Chorus are learning music from the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They will perform on stage for one night in a fullscale production of the opera in Dubbo this August, alongside the professional adult singers of Opera’s Australia’s touring company.

Talk by Tim Fischer

Author of “Maestro John Monash Australia’s Greatest Citizen General” Wednesday, July 20 10.30am Macquarie Regional Library