Memorial invitation, final speech and photograph relating to Ben Chifley

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Type: Documents
Materials: Paper
Collection: Ben Chifley collection no. 3
Accession number: 2007.0097.0023

Description

An invitation, transcript of final speech and a photograph of Ben Chifley. The invitation is a printed folded card with an image of Ben Chifley on the front and is for a 10th anniversary memorial dinner for him. It is signed by attendees. The transcript is a 15 page small printed booklet with a photograph of Mr Chifley on the front above the text 'FINAL SPEECH / by the late / Rt. Hon. J.B. CHIFLEY M.P> / SUNDAY, JUNE 10 1951'. The black and white photograph shows Mr Chifley and another man in suits standing near a car, with a building and street in the background.

About the collection

The objects in the Ben Chifley Collection refer to the lives of Ben and Elizabeth Chifley, primarily from the Chifleys' days as Prime Minister and Prime Minister's wife, but stretching beyond Ben's death in 1951 until Elizabeth's death in 1962. Significant objects include a letter of condolence to Elizabeth Chifley from Elsie Curtin (former PM John Curtin's wife) on the death of Ben Chifley (above), photos of Chifley as a young boy and a bible on which Chifley was sworn in as minister in the short-lived Scullin government of 1931. Joseph Benedict Chifley was Australia's sixteenth Prime Minister, leading the Australian government between 1945 and 1949. This period was one of particular importance in Australian history, being the time during which many of the contours of post-War Australian social and economic development were established. Chifley also articulated the values of the reforming Labor Party in his "Light on the Hill" speech of 1949. However, the election of December that year saw the beginning of a drastic re-alignment of political allegiances in voting behaviour, leading to over twenty years of conservative dominance in Australian politics. An understanding of Ben Chifley, in both his private and public guises, illustrates much about this crucial era in post-War Australian history.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:16:05 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-09-30. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.