Garran

I'm a long-time fan of Sir Robert Garran, the first Permanent Head of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. I just now weakened and bought a copy of his autobiography, Prosper the Commonwealth. I used to work in the Department myself, and passed the bronze bust of him at the front door every working morning. What an extraordinary life he had--on 1 January 1901 he wrote out the draft of the proclamation of the Commonwealth in his own hand, and then sent himself down to the Government Printer (in Melbourne, which was the capital at the time) with it--because as the Department's only employee he was the messenger-boy as well. He was the head of the Attorney-General's Department for 32 years, a record never likely to be equalled.

I'd like to see someone else chime in about Garran, although I'm not hopeful. There's 7 copies of Prosper the Commonwealth on LT, and at least 1 of them is in a legacy library (Sir Robert Menzies' library--no surprise there).

He has a Canberra suburb named after him, interestingly it's streets are named after Australian Writers, how LT

Yes and yes. My copy of Prosper the Commonwealth has now arrived. Oddly it’s a discard from the Manchester public library system.

Garran was a nerd’s nerd. He writes of how exciting it was to be setting up a new statute book, not bound to what had been done before. One of my former colleagues at Attorney-General’s said that Australians ought to appreciate how lucky they were to have had Garran. He set up a tradition of quality in legislative drafting that remains.

I was aware of the name Garran but didn't have a context. I have a few biographies of post second world war senior Australian Public Servants from the time when the country was undergoing rapid expansion and change... and also how limited the talent pool of people of their ability was at the time.

The thing that struck me was these individuals were really striving to build a better country in the development and implementation of public policy. I question sometimes if that's the case in today's public service environment.

>4 Bushwhacked: As I said, I'm a former Commonwealth public servant. I spent, all up, something like 27 years working for the Commonwealth. There were plenty of time-servers, certainly, but equally there were certainly plenty more who did seek to make the country and the world better. I left the CPS in 2006 so I'm not really up to date on what's going on there, but since then I've worked in the UK civil service, the Irish civil service and what amounts to the civil service of Qatar. Even in the last one, most of the expat staff around me seem to be wanting to do more than just taking the money and running. Seriously, the great motivator for a lot of people isn't the money. It's professional pride and the respect of people you respect.

I'm still proud of having been an officer of the Attorney-General's Department. It was one of the original 7 departments created at Federation, and is one of only 3 of those that still has its original name. I would bet a small sum that no other of the 3 has a bronze bust of its first Permanent Head outside its offices. In fact, very few people could name either of the first Permanent Heads of the other two (I had to look them up). All of which is to say that Garran set a standard of public service that takes some living up to.

It's a very hot night down here in Melbourne and I can't get to sleep. Further to your message above, I thought this photo may be of interest to you if you had not previously seen it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Public_Service#/media/File:Inaugural_De...

> No I hadn’t, and thank you for showing me.

>I picked up a book from Robert Garran’s personal collection at a NSW south coast tip shop earlier in 2023.
An Outline of Australian Literature by H.M. Green. Sydney : Whitcombe & Tombs, 1930.
Has “R.R. Garran Canberra” in ink on the endpapers.
Wonder how it found its way there!