People Australia

Don Dunstan, by Greg Barrett, 1993

National Library of Australia, 11653637

Donald Allan (Don) Dunstan (1926-1999) barrister and parliamentarian

Birth: 21 September 1926, at Suva, Fiji, son of Francis Vivian (Viv) Dunstan, MBE, branch manager for general merchants, and Ivy May, néee Hill. Marriages: (1) 4 June 1949 at St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, Norwood, South Australia to Lisy Gretel (Gretel) Ellis [originally Ellsasser] (1930-2007), born in Germany. The marriage ended in divorce in 1974. They had one daughter and two sons. (2) 22 December 1976 to his research assistant Adele Patricia, née Koh, late Reece (1948-1978), a Chinese Malaysian journalist. Death: 6 February 1999 at Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia. Religion: Anglican later Rationalist. 

• Educated st Suva Grammar Schol, Fiji, Murray Bridge State School, South Australia, St Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide (LLB, 1949). Admitted to SA Bar in 1948; appointed QC in 1965.
• President of Adelaide University Socialist Club. President of the SA branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1960. Secretary, SA branch of Actor’s Equity in 1951-1958; president SA Fabian Society in 1947-1948, and 1952-1954.
• Labor member of the State House of Assembly for Norwood from 1953 to 1979. Attorney general and minister for Aboriginal Affairs in 1965-1967. Minister for Social Welfare 1965-1967. Premier, treasurer and attorney-general in 1967-1968. Minister for Housing 1967-1968.
• Premier and treasurer, Minister for Mines and Mineral Development from 1970 to 1979. Minister for Worker Participation 1975-1979.
• He led a pace-setting government in respect of Aboriginal land-rights, multi-culturalism, civic and cultural affairs and was the chief figure in the ‘Camelot’ period of SA history, remembered for his pink shorts and flamboyant personal style, encouraging unwarranted scuttlebutt.
• After his parliamentary career, he worked as a television personality and journalist.
• Author of Don Dunstan Cookbook (Adelaide, 1976); Don Dunstan’s Australia (Adelaide, 1978) and Felicia (Melbourne, 1981).
• Suffered from cancer from 1991. 

Sources
Howard Coxen, John Playford & Robert Reid, Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament 1857-1957 (Adelaide, 1985).