Australian Left Review
Article Title
Review: Ian Turner Memorial, Overland
Abstract
Overland: Ian Turner Memorial Number (76/77), $4.
The latest double issue (No 76/77) of the Melbourne literary magazine, Overland, is devoted to commemorating the memory of Ian Turner who died while holidaying on Erith Island, Bass Strait, at the end of 1978. It also marks the 25th anniversary of Over land’s first publication. The memorial issue contains several Turner pieces: the text of two lectures (“The Barassi Memorial Lecture”, a half-serious, half send-up, discussion of the nature of Australian football, especially in Melbourne, and “The Whitlam Years”), a radio interview on November 11, and some poems and letters. Also included are speeches and tributes by Stephen Murray-Smith, David Williamson, Manning Clark, Noel Counihan, David Martin, Russel Ward, Clyde Holding and several others; poems by Vincent Buckley, MaxHarris and Dorothy Hewett; and an evaluation of Turner as an historian by Bob Gollan. Apart from Dorothy Hewett’s poem, it’s an all-male chorus — a pity because a female assessment would have been interesting and appropriate.