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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-23 Daily Xml
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BONYTHON, MR H.R. (KYM)

Debate resumed.

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): I rise to second the motion. It is both an honour and a privilege and a pleasure in some ways to do so. Kym Bonython was an extraordinary man in every sense of the word. In some ways, he could almost have been famous without doing anything, as the son of a former mayor of Adelaide and editor of The Advertiser and the grandson of the great benefactor of this parliament, Sir Langdon Bonython, whose portrait hangs in the hall of the Legislative Council because of his gift of £100,000 that enabled this building to be completed in 1939.

Sir Langdon himself was, of course, also a member of parliament and the owner of The Advertiser. Indeed, it was because of one of the conditions attached to the gift that the reporters from The Advertiser look down on proceedings of this parliament each day from their separate box, away from the rest of the media.

Kym was never going to be one to rest on his laurels or the benefits that the circumstances of his family inevitably bestowed on him. Instead, at the age of 20, in 1940, he joined the RAAF and became a pilot—a singularly dangerous occupation in World War II. He flew in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, and I seem to recall that he had some connection, or at least, good knowledge of Lancaster bombers at the time of the attack on Darwin by the Japanese. He certainly at that time flew in Mosquito aircraft and was involved in several dogfights with the Japanese. He was almost killed when he crashed his Mosquito aircraft on an Indonesian island and was stranded in the jungle for several days. He was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1944 and the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1946, just after the war ended.

That wartime service to his country alone would be enough to make Kym Bonython's passing worthy of note, but it is probably the part of his life for which he is least well known. It was largely his love of the arts—both visual and music—and fast cars and racing for which he became famous and known throughout Adelaide.

In the visual arts, he not only ran galleries both here and in Sydney but he also presented the very first exhibitions of artists such as Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. These are but two of the names who went on to achieve recognition as great Australian artists, but Kym Bonython recognised and nurtured their talent before they became famous. In the art world that can be the risk equivalent of flying a Mosquito aircraft in World War II. It is no wonder he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for his role in the arts.

As I said, he was not confined to just one art form. A lover of jazz, he broadcast ABC radio's jazz program for nearly 39 years until 1975, as well as running a jazz music shop and helping to bring to Australia such jazz greats as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, the original and best.

Kym was not restricted to jazz, of course, and I also understand he was instrumental (if you will pardon the pun) in bringing The Beatles to Adelaide—an event many still remember. It was jazz that he truly loved, and I remember well the sense of desolation on the day after the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 when news was broadcast that not only had the Bonythons' beautiful home, Eurilla, on Mount Lofty been destroyed but what was probably the best collection of jazz records in Australia had also been destroyed as a result.

It signifies the extraordinary strength of the man and his family that they were able to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and move on, not just getting on, but continuing to contribute significantly to the cultural life of this great state. Remembering that Ash Wednesday had taken so much that was dear to him in 1983, I think it remarkable that Kym was then fundamental in bringing the Grand Prix to Adelaide in 1985, just two short years later. His love of motorsport was as legendary as his love of the arts, and I understand that not only did he help to establish Rowley Park and run it for some 20 years but he raced there for more than a decade.

As was pointed out in a beautifully written tribute by Christie Peucker in the Sunday Mail, it was entirely fitting that Kym passed away just as an FA18 jet was soaring into the sky above the Clipsal 500 track. This was a man who, in every sense of the word, was deserving of the award of the Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civil honour, which was bestowed in 1987.

I did not know Kym all that well personally, although we met on a few occasions. In fact, we spoke on the phone a couple of times before we ever met, due to the curious circumstance that our phone numbers were almost identical. With his gracious home up on Mount Lofty—that some might describe as a castle—and my modest cottage in Stirling both being on the Stirling exchange, the last four digits of my phone number were 3769 and his number was exactly the same except that the last four digits were something like 3976, so we fairly regularly received each other's intended calls.

I still remember seeing the devastation of their beautiful home, Eurilla, on the day after Ash Wednesday as I travelled to Yarrabee Road to help clean up the houses that had survived. One of the most recent times that I saw Kym and spoke with him was on the 25th anniversary of Ash Wednesday. He was, of course, so much more frail by then but it seemed somehow important that he be there as part of the commemoration.

He was certainly an extraordinary man and a great South Australian. He lived his long life with passion and enthusiasm. He will be sorely missed by his wife, Julie, his children, Chris, Robyn, Tim, Michael and Nicole, and their 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. I offer condolences, on behalf of myself and the entire parliamentary Liberal team, to the family.

How lucky he was to have been born into such privilege but to never let that define his life, instead using its benefits to benefit so many others; to have been gifted and to have used all of his many talents to their utmost; to have brought joy to the lives of others through his passion for art, music, car racing and so much more; to have survived events that might easily have taken him earlier; and to die at the grand age of 90, with his loving family by his side, after eating a chocolate Clinker and passing peacefully from this world.

We, in this state, have been blessed that this extraordinary individual and proud South Australian lived his life with us. I have pleasure in commending the motion to the house.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:14): I am very pleased to join the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition and other members to speak in honour of Kym Bonython and note his passing. In the wake of the arts and motor racing frenzy that was the Adelaide Fringe and Festival and the Clipsal 500, it is fitting that we pay tribute to the life of Kym Bonython.

Kym was driven by what some would see as an incompatible passion for both art and speed. Carving a remarkable career in a range of seemingly incongruous fields, including art gallery owner, concert promoter, accountant, farmer and stock car racer, Kym Bonython packed much into his life. He had an appetite for life and a desire to share the magic of his passions with others. I want to talk today particularly about his contribution to the arts.

I met Kym a number of times over the years, usually at an arts event. He was still an active participant in the arts culture of Adelaide. He was instrumental in whetting South Australia's appetite for both jazz and contemporary art, as has been mentioned.

As a child, Kym Bonython gained a passion for jazz, and this influenced a number of his later pursuits. At the age of 17, as I think has been mentioned, in 1937, he entered into the media with an ABC radio jazz show, and that continued right through until 1975. His involvement in the jazz scene also extended to making and selling music. In 1952 he became a member of a jazz band as drummer, a talent he learned as a child, and he opened his first record store in Bowman's Arcade on King William Street in 1954.

His passion for music also led him to create his own concert promotion company in the 1950s (Aztec Services) and, as a promoter, he brought to Adelaide some of the greats of jazz, as has been mentioned, including Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Later, at the urging of his children, he expanded his range to rock-and-roll, bringing in Chuck Berry and also The Beatles as part of that tour arrangement in 1964. So he had an extraordinary career in that field.

After his service as a pilot in the Second World War, Kym also developed an interest in modern Australian painting, purchasing art works which were the basis of a collection of national significance. In fact, I understand he began his collection in 1945. In 1966 he moved to Sydney to open the Hungry Horse Gallery in Paddington. In 1967 he opened the Bonython Art Gallery in North Adelaide, which later became the Bonython Meadmore Gallery. His time with the Sydney gallery ended in 1976 and he returned to Adelaide to buy back his original gallery, operating that until 1983. From 1988 Bonython managed the Sydney gallery once more, managing the BMG Fine Art for a short time.

In his autobiography, Ladies' Legs and Lemonade, Kym comments that, as a novice art collector, his taste was predictably conservative. Clearly, his tastes evolved over time. With his eye for contemporary art, Kym Bonython fostered the careers of many emerging Australian artists (as, I think, the leader mentioned) who developed into major identities in the Australian and international arts world. These included a number of South Australian artists such as Jeffrey Smart, Jacqueline Hick, Louis James and Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski. His Adelaide and Sydney galleries promoted artists including Sidney Nolan, Pro Hart, William Dobell and Arthur Boyd, and he is widely acknowledged to have discovered and fostered the work of Brett Whiteley. In his autobiography he says:

...my judgment was not unerring, but most of the artists who appealed to me were to make their names in contemporary art and only a few sank into obscurity.

The Bonython gallery was a beacon of art and culture in the 1960s in Adelaide. On an exhibition of Sidney Nolan's work at the Bonython gallery during the 1964 Adelaide Festival of Arts, the author George Farwell said:

...if a bomb had fallen on the Bonython gallery during the Nolan opening, Australia would have lost most of its major painters, writers, composers.

Among more conservative members of the community his exhibitions could provoke a stir. Along with the art galleries and his personal collection, much of which was destroyed by the Ash Wednesday fires which have been referred to, Kym also wrote a lot about art. He published Modern Painting and Sculpture, one of Australia's first comprehensive volumes on contemporary art, now a collector's item, as well as two books on modern Australian painting.

His impressive contribution to arts and culture in South Australia has been recognised in a number of honours and awards, as has also been mentioned, including the Premier's Award for Lifetime Achievement, one of the Ruby awards, in 2008. In fact, I had the honour of presenting that award to his son at that ceremony because Kym was ill at the time and he was not expected to survive more than a few days. Of course, he went on to live another couple of years.

I was also there when he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Adelaide Critics Circle in 2007. Although once again ill, he was at the ceremony, and I was told that he was not expected to live beyond the month and, of course, he kept surviving. The Kym Bonython Fellowship, first awarded by the Adelaide Festival Centre in 2010, provides support to upcoming visual artists, ensuring that his name lives on.

I think that in the arts we have lost a real friend in Kym Bonython. His rich and remarkable arts and cultural legacy, however, does continue. He has ensured that the name Bonython is inextricably linked with the arts not only here in South Australia but also internationally, and I join with others in passing on my condolences to his wife and his family.

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I rise to support this motion. Kym Bonython is one of those men whose name from time to time came up in South Australia because of all the things he has done. I first came across him in the celebration of the sesquicentenary when I was chairman of the Beachport council. He visited Beachport at that time, in 1986. That was the first time that I met Kym Bonython.

The most recent time I bumped into him was quite recently at Eurilla, his former home, which was destroyed in Ash Wednesday but which has been rebuilt. That occasion was quite recently at the launch of a book on a journey of George Milne into the South-East in the mid-1800s. George Milne first built Eurilla; consequently the launching of the book was held at that home.

The reason I wanted to put on the record one memory of mine of Kym Bonython was that, probably 18 months, two years ago, I happened to be in the museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. Walking through the museum I saw a gold-plated Jawa speedway motorcycle, and it took my interest.

There was quite a blurb associated with the bike, and it told why it had become gold plated. It was because the New Zealand rider had won three world championships in a row. An American millionaire made a bet that he would gold plate the bike if the rider won a third, which would be a historic win. It also went on to say that every part of the bike was gold plated, including the internal parts.

The reason that I relate this story is because the rider, when he was starting his career, came to Adelaide to ride at Rowley Park in the early 1960s. He had quite an unsuccessful year, but he was invited to come back so long as he had a new bike, a new engine and a mechanic. This lad did not have the means to do that, but the story is told that Kym Bonython sponsored him.

As well as being associated with the arts, music and sponsorship, and obviously with motorsport, his generosity, I think, was probably as fine as you would see in any South Australian. I certainly echo the words of the leader who said that not only was he born into privilege but also he took advantage of that. You would not have known it, but he used his position to help a great many other people. I also pass on my sincerest condolences to his family. Vale, Kym Bonython.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:23): The first time I ever spoke to Kym Bonython was in 1985. I had my veterinary practice at Happy Valley, and I had been asked to go to Clarendon to look at a very old dog that had collapsed. It was Kym Bonython's dog. Kym was overseas at the time. I had a phone call from New York and we had a chat about what was going to happen. I know that was a very sad day for Kym, and I had to euthanise his dog.

Kym was always a gentleman on the occasions I met him over many years. Certainly, in more recent years at the Glenelg Jazz Festival he was there in full force, making his thoughts known and helping drive that festival. It was certainly not in any way attributable to him that it did not continue in the way that he wanted it to because Kym was doing everything he could.

The last time I saw him was 12 months ago at the opening of the Glenelg Fine Art Gallery. He was there encouraging me to buy artworks for my office, for home and things like that. He never gave up promoting the arts. I used to work for his business partner Trudy-Anne Meadmore. She had horses, and she would tell me how the gallery was going. She would also try to get me down to buy artworks, but I was only a poor vet then.

The fact is that Kym was always a great bloke. He was never pompous, he was never a silver-spooner. He would always talk to you, on a daily basis, about various things. I should say I have very fond memories as a teenager of going to Rowley Park, the smell of the ethanol fuels, the midget racing cars and ducking the clods of dirt as they went past you. It was always great fun.

We knew it was owned by this bloke, Kym Bonython, but it was later in life that I got to meet him both as a client but more latterly as one of South Australia's gentlemen. I pass on my condolences to his family.

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.


[Sitting suspended from 14:27 to 14:36]


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