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Ross Fitzgerald

'Why do I write?' | A survey compiled by Rosemary Sorensen

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April 1990, no. 119
'Why do I write?' | A survey compiled by Rosemary Sorensen

Would it surprise you to know that a number of our well-known writers write to please themselves? Probably not. If there’s no pleasure, or challenge, or stimulus, the outcome would probably not be worth the effort. If this effort is writing, it seems especially unlikely that someone would engage in the activity without enjoying the chance to be their own audience.

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Ross Fitzgerald reviews 'Billy Snedden: An unlikely Liberal' by Billy Mackie Snedden and M. Bernie Schedvin

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April 1990, no. 119
Ross Fitzgerald reviews 'Billy Snedden: An unlikely Liberal' by Billy Mackie Snedden and M. Bernie Schedvin

Neither a conventional biography nor an autobiography, Billy Snedden is a story told in two quite distinct and authentic voices. There is that of the late Sir Billy Snedden, Liberal Party leader from 1972 to 1975, and Dr Bernie Schedvin, lecturer in politics at La Trobe University.

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Pushed from the Wings: An entertainment by Ross Fitzgerald (illustrated by Alan Moir)

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February–March 1987, no. 88
Paul Marriott reviews 'Pushed from the Wings: An entertainment' by Ross Fitzgerald (illustrated by Alan Moir)

By the time I was 35, I’d spent fifteen years as a student and teacher in universities. I was scornful of those who sneered at ‘Sheltered Workshops’ – a fashionable putdown in the early 70s; at the same time, I mocked Zelman Cowan’s observation – when playing stag at bay and asserting that he really was au fait with academia – that ‘I have spent all my adult life in universities’. But they are real places.

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From the Dreaming to 1915: A history of Queensland by Ross Fitzgerald

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July 1982, no. 42
John Walker reviews 'From the Dreaming to 1915: A history of Queensland' by Ross Fitzgerald

The major problem with this approach to history, as Fitzgerald treads it, is that he takes the preoccupations and perspectives of the twentieth century Sunshine State and implants them in a colonial Queensland context. This achieved, Fitzgerald can point to the continuities of Queensland history. I am reminded of my dog, who buries his bones and considers himself smart when he succeeds in digging them up.

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The Sources of Hope edited by Ross Fizgerald

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June 1980, no. 21

In his introduction to this collection of essays the editor, Ross Fitzgerald, remarks: ‘Our age is not exactly brimming over with positive affirmation and joyful anticipation.’ One wonders whether or not there has ever been a period of human history which such an assertion would accurately describe, let alone whether this would be a particular occasion for celebration. After all what gives an aggressive advocate of military solutions to current political problems a certain degree of hope may well cause the pacificist the deepest despair. There is no unity and certainly no necessary common goal to what gives diverse groups and individuals their respective sources of hope and pessimism.

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