Cartoon titled 'The What Century'.

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Cartoons
Date: 20 September 2001
Place: Old Parliament House, Parkes, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Materials: Paper
Collection: Political Humour Competition 2001 collection
Accession number: 2001.0036.0081

Description

A black and white line drawing cartoon with grey wash highlights on card entitled 'The What Century'. The cartoon shows a man with a bead and turban standing in front of a group of men in beads and turbans sitting on ground. The standing man has his arms out stretched and holds a piece of paper in one hand. Text linked to him reads 'WE'VE GOT TO HAND OVER BIN LADEN / QUICKLY OR WE'LL FIND OURSELVES / IN THE FIRST WAR OF THE / 21ST CENTURY.' A speech bubble from a seated man with a long white beard reads 'THE WHAT / CENTURY?!?!?'. The artist's signature is in pencil at the bottom right of the cartoon .

About the collection

This collection consists of 150 political cartoons collected under the auspices of the National Museum's 2001 National political Humour Competition. There are 41 different artists represented in the collection including Alan Moir, Peter Nicholson, Geoff Pryor, Cathy Wilcox, Sean Leahy, Bruce Petty, Dean Alston and Ward O'Neil. The cartoons provide a satirical record of the major events and personalities in Australian politics in 2001. Major topics addressed within the collection include the 2001 election, asylum seekers (including the Tampa controversy) and the war in Afghanistan. There are examples from all major metropolitan newspapers as well as material from regional publications. There are traditional black and white editorial and pocket cartoons as well as colour illustrations and caricatures. Taken together the collection provides an archive of Australian political events in 2001 and demonstrate the quality of Australian cartooning and illustration.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:05:13 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.