Professor Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia’s best-known historians and the author of twenty-six books, including The Tyranny of Distance, now in its twentieth edition. The title has given Australia one of its most widely-quoted phrases. His latest book is A Shorter History of Australia. His 10-part televised history of Australia, The Blainey View, was shown on the ABC.

For twenty years he held chairs in economic history, and later in history at the University of Melbourne. He is currently Chancellor of the University of Ballarat. He has been chairman of many organisations, including the Australia Council, and is now one of the federal representatives on the new Centenary of Federation Council.

In 1988, he was awarded a gold medal for ‘excellence in the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of mankind’ at the United Nations in New York.