Inspired. Informed.
A place for ideas.
Manning Clark House hosts public addresses, debates, forums, art exhibitions, book launches, poetry readings, choir and other gatherings in the former home of Manning and Dymphna Clark in Forrest, Canberra.
The venue can also be hired.
Scroll down directly to see Upcoming Events.
Talk - David Glynne Jones
Energy Transition - A Status Report
In the first of a series of presentations during 2024 on the Energy Transition issue, David Glynne Jones will report on the current status, key trends and outlook for the global transition to a low emission energy economy. His report will focus on energy transition at the global level and in Australia, as well as key high emitting economies including China, USA, India, Europe and Russia.
David will outline the Energy Transition series, which will include presentations on Australia’s National Electricity Market, low emission energy technologies, transport electrification, land use and environmental impacts, energy resource stewardship and the circular energy economy, and the politics of energy transition.
David is an independent advocate for the adoption of renewable energy and electrification across all sectors of the Australian economy. He is currently assessing the implications of emerging advanced battery technology for electrification of the Australian transport sector and, together with his colleague Derek Woolner, publishing articles on the implications of emerging energy technologies for defence policy, strategy and future acquisition programs.
Download flyer here
Book here
Talk - Bishop George Browning
Palestinian History and the Current Situation
“Following the Hamas attack of October 7 and the subsequent Israeli response, the ground has irrevocably shifted. There can be no going back to the previously prevailing status quo in which the Palestinians of Gaza suffer an endless blockade, the Palestinians of the West Bank face on-going rule through military occupation, and the people of East Jerusalem suffer continuing restriction and loss of identity.” George Browning in Pearls and Irritations.
George Browning will discuss the Palestinian situation followed by discussion.
George Browning was Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn 1993–2008. He was President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network 2013–2022 and is now its Patron. He is also Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia. He has visited Palestine a number of times.
George Browning founded the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Barton, Canberra and in 2005 he became convenor of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network. He also supports indigenous peoples’ land rights saying that in the case of our indigenous people it is "doubly important" for Australians to make a commitment to support the wider Aboriginal community.
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Bookings here
Talk - Dr Prame Chopra
Meeting Ice & Rising Seas - How Much? How Fast?
For millions of years Earth’s climate has been dominated by ice with the last Ice Age ending only 12,000 years ago (in very recent geological time). Currently we enjoy an “interglacial period” called the Holocene. Much is known about why ice ages and interglacial come and go on Earth. The drivers of these changes come from orbital dynamics: specifically changes in orbital eccentricity, axial tilt and axial precession. So where to from here? Scientific observations show us that the climate is warming and that the seas are rising. Measurements of harbour water levels confirm the latter and modern satellite data prove the point even more precisely. However, while much is known about the past, the way ahead is obscured - principally because of human interventions in the climate system. Humanity currently injects 37 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases per year into the narrow band that is Earth’s atmosphere.
In this talk Dr Chopra will discuss the uncertainties of the future paths of ice volume and sea level, the machinations of the imperfect IPCC process and the likely consequences for us all.
Dr Chopra is a geologist and geophysicist and before retirement was a well-known Reader in Geophysics at ANU. In 2000 he co-founded Geodynamics Ltd, the world’s first publicly listed hot rock energy company and served as a director for more than a decade. He has a longstanding interest both in Earth’s climate and Earth’s internal heat providing opportunities for green energy.
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Book here
Talk - Inga Simpson
Willowman: the nature and art of cricket - Event is postponed
Cricket is a sport played in nature, and beholden to a single species of white willow. Without the tree, there would be no game. Inga Simpson explains why she wrote a cricket novel and entered the world of traditional cricket batmaking (and the oboe). It turns out that batmaking is an art, a Test match has a surprising amount in common with the novel – and cricket is a lot like life.
Inga Simpson began her career as a professional writer for government before gaining a PhD in creative writing. In 2011, she took part in the Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program and, as a result, Hachette Australia published her first novel, Mr Wigg, in 2013. Nest, Inga's second novel, was published in 2014 and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize and shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. Inga's third novel, the acclaimed Where the Trees Were, was published in 2016. Inga was awarded the final Eric Rolls Prize for her nature writing and has obtained a second PhD, exploring the history of Australian nature writers. Inga's account of her love of Australian nature and life with trees, Understory, was published in 2017. Her first book for children, The Book of Australian Trees, illustrated by Alicia Rogerson, was published in 2021. The Last Woman in the World, her critically acclaimed environmental thriller, was published in 2021 and shortlisted for the 2022 Fiction Indie Book Award. Inga lives on the NSW south coast among trees.
Talk - Professor Chris Wallace
Political lives: do they matter?
Date and time to be confirmed in 2024 - watch this space
Dr Wallace's latest book, Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers (UNSW Press, 2023), was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize in History.
Professor Chris Wallace works in modern and contemporary political history and public policy with special reference to leadership, gender, transnational lives, and transformational change and the information strategies underlying it. Her book on Australian Labor's shock 2019 election loss, How To Win An Election, (NewSouth, 2020), contextualised it against the backdrop of the last half-century of Australian federal elections. Previous books include The Private Don (Allen & Unwin, 2004), an exploration of the intense 30 year-long relationship between cricketer Don Bradman and his confidante, journalist Rohan Rivett; a biography of maverick Australian feminist Germaine Greer, Greer, Untamed Shrew (Pan Macmillan, 1997; Faber & Faber, 1999); and a biography of the then crusading neoliberal policy exponent John Hewson during his Opposition leadership in the early 1990s, Hewson: A Portrait (Pan Macmillan, 1993). She was the National Archives of Australia Cabinet Historian in 2020 and 2021 for the release of the 2000 and 2001 Cabinet papers.
Talk - Allan Behm
AUKUS – Expensive Folly?
Allan Behm, Head of the International and Security Affairs program at the Australia Institute, will discuss AUKUS, and whether nuclear submarines and increased defence spending will deliver increased national security. He will also consider Australia’s cultural and historical experiences that have shaped our security thinking.
As well as being head of the International and Security Affairs program at The Australia Institute Allan Behm spent 30 years in the Australian Public Service, as a member of the Australian diplomatic service, the Prime Minister’s Department, the Department of Defence and the Attorney General’s Department. Allan specialised in international relations, defence strategy, counter-terrorism and law enforcement policy. He was Chief of Staff to Minister for Climate Change and Industry Greg Combet (2009-13) and senior advisor to the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong (2017-19). He is a sought-after public speaker and media commentator, has authored a number of books, and has lectured on strategy and policy at universities and the Australian Defence College.
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Talk - Rae Knopik
The circular economy and sustainable fashion
Rae's journey into sustainable fashion formally began in 2019, when she embarked on a mission to share the environmental impacts of fashion with the world. Rae’s commitment to sustainable fashion has been evident throughout her career with the goal to bring all Australian discarded textiles into the circular economy. She has gathered thousands of followers through her platform, by sharing captivating stories of fair fashion. Her approach is unique, centering feminism, personal style, and circularity. Through her community, people have discovered their personal style, felt inspired to make the most of their existing wardrobes, and learned the art of consuming less. This marked the inception of her mission to enact change within the fashion industry.
Rae Knopik is a feminist, author, and founder of several award-winning organisations. She currently holds various titles: Young Canberra Business Woman of the Year 2022, an inductee into the ACT Women's Honour Roll, Finalist for the ACT Woman of the Year 2021 award, GREN-Director of Quality Assurance and Sustainability, and Director and Founder of the Canberra Gals Network. In addition, Rae's advocacy has reached the global stage as she collaborated with Bogal Local Aboriginal Land Council at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Twenty-second Session in April 2023. There, she addressed the health impact of floods in Northern New South Wales on First Nation communities.
As a sought-after speaker and writer, Rae has been featured in local and international media, discussing circular fashion systems, fashion's effects on climate and gender inequality, and the importance of connection to land, air, seas, and people.
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Bookings can be made here
Talk - Professor Corey Bradshaw
In Large Numbers and on Purpose
A study team has established that the peopling of Sahul, the mega continent that included Papua New Guinea, mainland Australia and Tasmania, was not a random event but a well organised maritime migration. After considering many scenarios for the numbers that would have to arrive to be able to survive on the continent, the team concluded that 1,300 people arrived either in a single migration event or in smaller groups over a seven-century period. The study reveals that Australia’s first settlers had a highly sophisticated knowledge of watercraft building and navigation and were able to plan and execute complicated ocean voyages.
The study’s author, Flinders University Professor Corey Bradshaw, is Director of the Global Ecology Laboratory and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. He will explain the study’s methodology and its game changing revelations, and then join a Q+A session.
Manning Clark House gratefully acknowledges the significant financial contribution of Richard Barnard of Brisbane to the expenses of this event.
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Talk - Biff Ward
The impacts of the Vietnam War
Biff Ward will discuss her acclaimed book The Third Chopstick, Tracks through the Vietnam War. She will transport us back to the Vietnam war days in conversation with political historian Professor John Murphy from Melbourne University. Biff Ward was a protestor herself during the Vietnam War but seeks to understand the war from multiple angles, balancing the heartfelt motivations of the protest movement with candid accounts from veterans about what was happening for them during and after the war. In a review of this book Sara Dowse has written “Now and then you’ll come across a book so original that you can’t help shouting here is something special”. Biff is an accomplished author and was shortlisted for her literary memoir In My Mother’s Hands (2014) for the NSW & WA Premiers literary awards.
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Book here
Talk - David Glynne Jones
The Transformational Economics of Renewable Energy & Electrification
David Glynne Jones will explore key factors that are driving the transition to a human economy based on electrical energy generated directly from renewable energy sources, displacing heat energy from fossil fuel and other energy sources as the dominant energy medium. His presentation will address the comparative efficiencies and economics of systems based on electrical energy and heat energy, and the dynamics of technology adoption and disruption.
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Book here
Talk - Jenny Horsfield
A Bookshop in Wartime
Manning Clark House
In April 1938 a small bookshop opened for business in Canberra, at a time, when Australia’s federal capital was still a country town and Burley Griffin’s vision for its future had been defeated by years of war, depression and political indifference. The bookshop, under its owner and manager Verity Hewitt, became in time a meeting place for booklovers as well as an art gallery and a library, in an era which was a golden age for books and booksellers. Scientists, artists, diplomats, servicemen and women, public servants, writers, adventurers and immigrants all visited the shop during the war years.
Exhibition - Photography
Windows - Looking in, looking out
by Susan Henderson
Manning Clark House
Opening hours: Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays 11.00 am to 2.00pm
Canberra photographer Susan Henderson exhibits an artist’s selection of her work over the last two decades. The work follows her interest in light and the camera’s capacity to capture a composition moment in time where light reflected or refracted, or a subject through a window creates a mood or memory. The selection of work comes from a wide geography, from Canberra to New York, Melbourne to Paris and Madrid. Some places are iconic and immediately identifiable, others recall the spirit of the moment.
2023 Manning Clark Lecture Craig Foster
Australia’s Third Act: Reconciled, Independent, Truly Multicultural
Manning Clark Hall, Kambri Cultural Precinct, ANU
In the week of the coronation of King Charles III - Australia's undemocratic, unrepresentative and non-elected Head of State - Craig Foster will explore the meaning of contemporary Australian identity, social and cultural changes since the 20th century, lessons from the 1999 Referendum, advances in historical understanding leading to a powerful national movement of truth-telling and reconciliation, and why it is time for Australia to commit to true democracy and equality and walk both together, and alone, as a Republic.
Talk - Kieran Pender
Why Whistleblowing Matters: Secrecy and Transparency in Australia
Whistleblowers make Australia a better place. Many of the major scandals of the past decade in Australian public life have been revealed thanks to courageous whistleblowers speaking up about wrongdoing. But too many whistleblowers are punished, not protected. Right now two Australian whistleblowers are on trial, for telling the truth. Our whistleblower protections framework is broken; efforts at reform have been slow and piecemeal. Secrecy has pervaded our institutions - secret trials are taking place, the freedom of information regime is ineffective and secrecy offences have been expanded. This creep from transparency to secrecy must be halted. Comprehensive law reform across a range of areas is essential, together with institutional change and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority. Most fundamentally, we need cultural change - a shift in public mindset to recognise the value of fearless truth-telling. Whistleblowers are agents of democratic accountability; this talk will lay out how they can be protected and empowered.
Exhibition - Model Modern
Iconic Design at Miniature Scale
Canberra Modern and Manning Clark House present an exhibition of intricately crafted architectural models of iconic modernist buildings. A rare opportunity to visit the former home of Professor Manning Clark and his wife Dymphna and their family. See where the six volume history of Australia was written and where many eminent Australians dined and met. At the end of the tour you can stay on to view an exhibition of intricately crafted architectural models of iconic modernist buildings. Created at a 1:10 scale by California native David Webb, these models include unforgettable places like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and local icons such as Harry Seidler’s Bowden House in Deakin. This event is made possible by The Mill: Architecture & Design. A light afternoon tea will also be served.
Exhibition - Model Modern
Iconic Design at Miniature Scale
Canberra Modern and Manning Clark House present an exhibition of intricately crafted architectural models of iconic modernist buildings. A rare opportunity to visit the former home of Professor Manning Clark and his wife Dymphna and their family. See where the six volume history of Australia was written and where many eminent Australians dined and met. At the end of the tour you can stay on to view an exhibition of intricately crafted architectural models of iconic modernist buildings. Created at a 1:10 scale by California native David Webb, these models include unforgettable places like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and local icons such as Harry Seidler’s Bowden House in Deakin. This event is made possible by The Mill: Architecture & Design. A light afternoon tea will also be served.