Life on the West Island - A national treasure

I have always planned to die at the microphone, said West Island national treasure, Phillip Adams, known as a leading journalist, film producer, author, broadcaster and advertising executive Phillip Adams, when it was announced that he would be retiring this month after 33 years as host of the iconic ABC Radio National talk show Late Night Live. Phillip Adams is a phenomenon, the like of whom we may never see again. In typical style, he added but that would be a bit unfair to the cleaners. I have decided instead to leave with what’s left of my own steam with decades of happy memories.

In announcing his retirement, the ABC said:

Adams joined the ABC in 1991 when he took up the Late Night Live microphone for Radio National. His trademark wit and incisive commentary quickly cemented it as the benchmark for sharp analysis of current events and the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and the arts. Over the past 33 years he has interviewed thousands of the world’s most influential politicians, historians, archaeologists, novelists, theologians, economists, philosophers and compelling conversationalists.

After the announcement, Adams was inundated with hundreds of tributes from listeners wishing him well. His droll response was: Clearly resigning increases your popularity. Must do it more often. Thanks for the kind words.

Beyond the bland words of the ABC announcement, some of Phillip Adams’ closest colleagues were more effusive.

ABC head of Radio National Cath Dwyer paid tribute to his contribution and legacy. Phillip is an exceptional broadcaster and public intellectual, who intrinsically understands the unique intimacy of radio as a medium. Over the past 30 years he’s interviewed thousands of the world’s most influential thinkers and kept us all entertained with his wit and intellect. There’s no one quite like him and no other show quite like Late Night Live. He is much loved by RN audiences and we celebrate his extraordinary contribution to the Australian conversation.

Colleague Richard Fidler added: Phillip has served the nation as a columnist, film producer, ad man and farmer, but his greatest talent has always been as a broadcaster. With LNL, he brought informality, humanity and humour to great and weighty subjects, and a melodious voice that sat beautifully in the night air of the Australian bush, city and suburbs.

Regular Late Night Live guest and ABC staff elected director Laura Tingle said:

For more than 15 years (neither of us can quite remember how long) Phillip Adams and I have had a chat on a Monday night about the weird and wonderful world of Australian politics. It’s been such a privilege to be part of the Little Wireless Program, and to talk to a bloke with the brain the size of a planet, for all this time; even when he is being ‘Oh Phillip!’ infuriating or luring me into saying things I probably shouldn’t. I know from all the people who stop me in the street how big a presence LNL is in so many people’s lives. And how beloved PA is by the audience. What a kaleidoscope of issues and stories he has guided us through over more than three decades on this program. How on earth will we get by without him?

Of course, Phillip Adams’ contributions to West Island life extend way beyond his radio efforts. He left school in his mid-teens and then embarked on 70 years of educating himself to an extraordinary extent. He now holds has honorary doctorates from Australian Film, Television and Radio School as well as from Sydney, Griffith, Macquarie, South Australia and Edith Cowan Universities. He has authored more than 20 books, and his writing has appeared in some of the most influential publications in Australia, London and New York. He continues to write a weekly column for The Weekend Australian.

One of his greatest achievements was in the 1970s, when, with support from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Premier Don Dunstan, he was the prime mover in reviving a flourishing West Island film industry as a producer, promoter, screen writer and entrepreneur. He produced a string of popular and profitable movies, including The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Don’s Party, The Getting of Wisdom and We of the Never Never.

His towering success in films resulted in a many high-profile appointments. He was a foundation member of the Australia Council and chairman of the Film, Radio and Television Board. He has chaired the Australian Film Institute, the Australian Film Commission, Film Australia and the National Australia Day Council. He is a former president of the Victorian Council for the Arts and was foundation chairman of the Commission for the Future. Currently he chairs the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Mind at Sydney University and the Australian National University.

Phillip says he has been an atheist since the age of five and has been a prominent member of the West Island progressive movement all his adult life. After a youth in the Australian Communist movement, he was for many years a member of the Labor Party and had close relationships with every party leader from Gough Whitlam to Kevin Rudd. He has not been a member of any political party since 2015.

Adams has been awarded two Orders of Australia, was named Australian Humanist of the Year 1987, Republican of the Year 2005, and received the Longford Award, the film industry’s highest accolade, in 1981, the same year that he was appointed Senior Anzac Fellow. He is a recipient of the Henry Lawson Arts Award (1987) an inductee in the Media Hall of Fame.

Phillip Adams (now aged 84), and his wife Patrice Newell have lived on a diversified 10,000 acre farming property at Gundy in the Hunter Valley for 40 years, where they raise organically fed cattle and grow many food crops, including garlic and olives. In 1998, the National Trust elected him one of the West Island’s 100 Living National Treasures.