Robert John Solomon (2.11.31–14.6.24)

Bob Solomon (Figure 1) was a foundation member of the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG). He taught and researched in human geography at the University of Tasmania for over a decade from the late 1950s before serving a term in the House of Representatives as the Liberal member for the Hobart seat of Denison. Thereafter he pursued a somewhat peripatetic career mainly in the private sector and pursued his interests in urban affairs and writing. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Solomon was born in Condobolin in central western New South Wales (NSW) and went to primary school in Rous near Lismore and Aberdeen in the lower Hunter Valley as the family moved following his father’s appointments as a headmaster. He was a boarder at Barker College on Sydney’s upper North Shore from 1943 and completed his Leaving Certificate in 1948. With an interest in geography kindled at school, he undertook a BA at the University of Sydney and graduated with first class honours in 1954. Led by Professor James Macdonald Holmes, regional studies were a major concern of the human geography lecturers John Andrews, Ken Robinson and Jack Devery. Solomon did his thesis on Broken Hill “as a geographical entity rather than a geological wonder” under the “sustained assistance and advice” of Macdonald Holmes and Robinson (Solomon, 1953), the latter influentially working on his own historical geography of Sydney (Robinson, 1952). Solomon had older Jewish family connections in Broken Hill but was brought up the Methodist Church (Clarke, pers comm, 2024). Solomon was a keen student and president of the student geographical society in 1953. His record-breaking athleticism also singled him out, as it had at school from the age of 15. As a middle-distance runner, he competed at the representative level and was captain of the University’s Athletics Club, honorary treasurer of the Sports Union and a sports editor of the student newspaper Honi Soit. In 1955 after completing a Diploma of Education, teaching at Sutherland Intermediate High School and joining the Council of the Geographical Society of NSW, he left for Oxford University midway through the year as the NSW Rhodes Scholar. He was reputedly only the second geographer globally after Chauncy Harris two decades earlier to have that honour (Solomon, 2014). He had been encouraged to apply by Professor of Physiology Frank Cotton whose innovative methods influenced his athletic training (Solomon, 2007). His ambition was to become a “geographer cum educationist” (Sydney Morning Herald, 1954). At Wadham College, he continued his running career with his specialty the 440 yards (quarter mile). Academically, his tutor was Martyn Webb, later Professor of Geography at the University of Western Australia (Ryan, 2021). Passing on the opportunity to work with Erwin Gutkind on his International History of City Development at the University of Pennsylvania after a short visit to the United States (Solomon, 2014), Solomon returned to Australia in 1957, got married and with an academic career in mind scanned for openings. He unsuccessfully applied for a position at the University of Adelaide but soon picked up a lectureship in geography at the University of Tasmania where the programme was led by Professor Peter Scott. He was later promoted to senior lecturer, but in retrospect, he felt that Tasmania was not a great move because it was remote from the mainland centres of action and felt Scott was more rival than mentor (Solomon, 2024). He did apply for other positions during his tenure including one at the Australian National University in 1966. Nonetheless, through a 12 year stay, he established his reputation as “one of the better-known of the surprisingly small number of historians and historical geographers attracted during the 1950s and 1960s to the study of urbanization in Australia” (Powell, 1978, p. 325). Solomon’s teaching responsibilities were expansive and his publications similarly ranged widely taking in historical, urban, economic and electoral geography. His first paper was mined from his undergraduate thesis to analyse “the historical development of Broken Hill against its geographical environment” (Solomon, 1959, p. 181). Following were studies on the national spatial distribution of economic activity (Solomon, 1962); the port of Hobart (Solomon, 1963a, 1963b); historic parliamentary voting patterns (Solomon, 1969a); and historic settlement structures, property values and townscapes (Solomon, 1966, 1967, 1969b; Solomon & Goodhand, 1965). Shorter notes (e.g., Solomon, 1963c on manufacturing in Tasmania; Solomon & Dell, 1967 on the Hobart bushfires) and book reviews (e.g., Solomon, 1969c) also appeared. A small monograph on Tasmania for secondary schools, published after he had moved on, distilled the information and insight gathered during his Hobart years (Solomon, 1972). A Carnegie Corporation Fellowship to visit various North American universities in 1963 enabled first hand reconnaissance of contemporary trends including the drive to research productivity and the so-called “quantitative revolution” in full swing (Solomon, 1965). The urban history publications were incremental markers towards Solomon’s major academic work—a doctoral dissertation on the historical geography of Hobart (Solomon, 1968). Solomon later translated the thesis into a popular-styled book, encouraged by examiner Professor Jim Rose from Macquarie University and with “constructive discussion” along the way with Ken Robinson and Martyn Webb. Its major intent was to describe and explain the evolution of Hobart to the mid-twentieth century through “the relationships of form, fabric and function, and the implications of their interplay for the future” (Solomon, 1976, p. viii). The result was a well-illustrated reworking and reordering of the PhD, although some chapters remain substantially intact and new components worked their way in, including an application of Kevin Lynch’s (1960) conceptualisation of mental maps. While a substantive resource, the focus remained physicalist rather than societal and tough going for a general readership (Powell, 1978). Solomon was invited to join the IAG as a foundation member in 1958. He appears to have given his first conference presentation at an IAG Conference in Brisbane in May 1961, being allotted 50 min for presentation and discussion, which was “rather shorter than for some other papers” for the times. There was also no escaping the obligation imposed on all speakers to personally pre-distribute 100 copies of the “cyclostyled” paper on foolscap paper to all geography departments! This paper on the “Relative Concentration on the Australian Work Force” later appeared in Economic Geography (Solomon, 1962). In 1965, he was elected to one of the two vacant seats on the IAG Council, and the following year took over from Ted Chapman (who had completed his master’s degree as Sydney University during Solomon’s time) as Honorary Secretary. His major task was to administer a series of constitutional changes in 1968 “to obviate inconsistencies in nomenclature and to improve terminology” as well as overhaul financial arrangements and indeed amend the very processes for amending the Constitution. At the end of his term in 1969, his managerial efficiency and “guiding role in the Institute’s affairs” were formally acknowledged. At the University of Tasmania Solomon maintained his involvement in sport. He won a University Blue but retired from athletics after captaining the Tasmanian team at the 1959 Australian Championships in Hobart. He kept playing rugby union as a winger and captained the university senior grade XV although his religious beliefs saw him opposed to Sunday competition. The 1962 Annual Report of the university’s rugby club described him as “still fastest man in the club and bears watching by any opposition; uses guile and speed to match his breaks.” He also became involved in administration of the club. In 1961, he captained a Hobart metropolitan rugby team to the Tasmanian state championship. In later life, he would return with a vengeance to veterans’ athletics and win both Australian (1992) and world masters titles (1994) for the M60 division at various distances. Active in University governance and elected to Council representing sub-professorial staff, Solomon ineluctably became involved in the controversial Sydney Sparkes Orr case. Orr was dismissed by the University following revelations of an affair with a young female student. This was a hugely contentious case, already well under way before he arrived. Solomon got involved on behalf of the sub-professorial staff in petitioning the state governor for a “visitation” to help resolve the drawn-out saga. His position, qualified by acknowledging Orr’s personality, reputation and misjudgements, revolved around the University’s procedures depriving Orr of natural justice (Polya & Solomon, 1996; Solomon, 1994). It was not the most comfortable time for him personally within the University and the Geography department, with Scott also a designated negotiator in the Orr case (Kirkpatrick, 2003). His retelling based on institutional and personality politics is very different from Cassandra Pybus’s better known account (1993). Solomon was also being drawn deeper into party political circles in Hobart. While his family background with its Broken Hill lineage was left of centre, he become involved in the Liberal Party probably while at Sydney University through his girlfriend and first wife Gillian Kirkland, who was a product of the elite girls school Kambala in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and a fellow geography student (Clarke, 2024). In Hobart, he became a member of the Liberal Party State Executive from 1961, a vice-president for the Liberal Party Denison Branch from 1965 and a member of the Liberal Party Federal Council from 1966. One motivation was a sense of Tasmania missing out on federal government expenditure compared to the mainland states (Solomon, 2024). Married, 37 years old and with two daughters, Solomon successfully sought preselection at the national election in October 1969. It was a closely fought three-cornered race with a Labour and unendorsed Liberal candidate running for the seat of Denison, effectively half of Hobart west of the Derwent River. It was the only Tasmanian lower house seat not held by Labour. A campaign advertisement spruiked his credentials as “a young, energetic family man with ideal qualifications to represent you in Canberra … a Tasmanian you can trust, a man with vision and real understanding of what Tasmania needs” (Mercury, 1969). One of a handful of new Liberal MPs, he spent the next 3 years commuting to Canberra and residing at the Hotel Kurrajong in Barton during which he claims to have given more parliamentary speeches than any other member of the House of Representatives. Alive to Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam’s pitch to urban voters on the hustings, Solomon started with Prime Minister John Gorton in urging the Liberal Party to take the initiative in government. He has recollected these efforts in two published papers (Solomon, 1982, 1988a). In 1972, he was pushing for “a national overview of population distribution, an economic assessment of metropolitan growth trends, an enquiry (preferably public) into the feasibility of alternative forms and locations of urban development, and an inclination to sustain established regional centres.” The target in the main should be “the national urban system” (quoted in Dawkins, 1972). He secured Gorton’s support for appointment of a Select Committee to consider the likely future pattern of urbanisation in Australia, but this lapsed when Gorton lost the Prime Ministership to William McMahon. However, as a member of the Liberal Party’s national subcommittee on urban development, he co-authored a report that recommended a new commission to investigate the feasibility of broader metropolitan and regional initiatives including expanded regional centres. This helped lead to the establishment of the National Urban and Regional Development Authority in the closing months of the Liberal Government’s 23 continuous years in office although McMahon most heavily relied for advice on Sir John Overall of the National Capital Development Commission. At the federal election on 2 December 1972, Solomon lost his seat to his Labour rival, another University of Tasmania academic who brought a new focus on environmental concerns. A survey of Denison voters in the lead up to the election had uncomfortably revealed that the incumbent Solomon was less well-known in the electorate than his rival (Wood & Hunt, 1972). Attracting well-known senior colleagues on the campaign trail (Chipp, Fraser, Gorton, Snedden and Wentworth), the result came as a shock. He felt confident of recognition of his diligent work as a “useful sitting member” and blamed the loss somewhat facetiously on “dissident capitalists and fearless youth” (Solomon, 1973, p. 133) but more realistically on just being swept aside as part of the national “It’s Time” swing to Labour. Post parliament, Solomon kept his Liberal Party contacts and had terms on both the NSW state executive alongside John Howard (a cool relationship with many policy disagreements) and Federal council. In 1978, he was mooted as a possible Senate candidate, but this never eventuated. In 1972, having resigned from the University and unemployed, he had to get a job and moved his family back to Sydney where his connection with the geographer-planner Tony Winter came good. He became a Director of Plant Location International (PLI), a leading consultancy of the time, where he remained until 1975. He retained a connection with PLI between 1978 and 1984 as Principal of R.J. Solomon Consultants (“adviser in politics and urban affairs”) overlapping between 1981 and 1984 as Managing Director of PLI. Also intertwined in these years was his time as a newly minted Barrister based in the prestigious Windeyer Chambers in Sydney’s Macquarie Street from 1983 to 1986. However, he had difficulty finding clients and candidly admitted this was not a major success due to not having full command of the legal ins and outs (Solomon, 2024). In the late 1970s and 1980s, respectively, came two senior positions that took his skills of organisation, communication and networking in new directions. From 1975 to 1977, he served as executive director of the Advertising Federation of Australia and from 1987 to 1991 as the inaugural Director of Development at the University of NSW to lead and coordinate major fundraising efforts. This second immersion in University governance convinced him that the convention of academic-managers resulted in “perhaps even more venality than is typical of the public service” (Solomon, 1996, p. 215). Solomon’s recollections of both these positions were of unrealised potential checked by unadventurous high level leadership (Solomon, 2024). Publications continued through these years. The early association with PLI produced a published report on industrial land use (Solomon, 1975). His own project Urbanisation based on his PhD appeared the following year (Solomon, 1976). A commissioned history for Broken Hill City Council, The Richest Lode, picked up where his BA thesis left off over three decades earlier. Written at the University of NSW in less than a year to meet the Council’s deadline for celebration of its centenary, it adopted a thematic rather than seamless comprehensive account (Solomon, 1988b). With a busy interplay of text, image and caption typical of Hale and Iremonger local histories of this era, the book also integrates three chapter-length contributions from specialist authors. Reviews were and of an and but that to local history the study of the is in his of the and of Broken which the of environmental difficulty and government In at age and the age where he have been to an academic Solomon did not as his various and teaching geography at School Certificate level for a time, consultancy on “the economic and political of urban private research and and writing. There were two more both in the lead up to the Sydney studies of leading he and as well as his own (Solomon, The with his was an of at the and of local with his own in the Sydney of & Solomon, There were two other for his and he was an for the public affairs on the of from a he a of from to use as but who the loss of of the and the of as the of (Solomon, p. From to he was editor of Federal the of the of of the of This position a for his on and book reviews and for both Liberal and Labour. His interests ranged widely from to to the to election There on his around the world that a keen and with some of his to the Geographical Society of which he for a number of years. The most in which he his interest in and development was in the of the Australian Institute of Urban was established in 1967 as an and research by the and as a of state It the national interest in urban affairs at the time and as and regional development Solomon’s involvement with half a century with his time being in the serving as and for a time Institute were a and as state back their and after two the the federal Solomon felt that he had not in the time to it it would have earlier. The State on for a time, but only the NSW is and that in no small way is due to Solomon’s which had him at various the late 1970s as and up until a in Bob Solomon had He was an academic geographer in who a very small club of to his into electoral geography & 1972). He was a more than who and state in senior athletics and the of “the He was an with an He was an and involved in and including the Institute of Australian Geographers and the Geographical Society of He was described by a as “rather and to who (Solomon, 1973, p. His and were and to the the of a who did not Solomon’s political was with for a better He saw as a of and over and be it in He that “the of to from their was only by the to the of but was by “the of (Solomon, p. His were not on party and he admitted to not being “a of Liberal Prime Minister John government with its on and universities (Solomon, Solomon on the of the when he in the early 1970s with his interest in urban only to just before Whitlam’s expansive initiatives took he for more of any political to urban he likely only be in the parliamentary who the of and and to of the for its political be a better political understanding of to the distribution of urban and (Solomon, p. Bob Solomon was a of the of Australia in to urban through public and policy development by the Australian Institute of Urban to the of of and to and through all of this was the of a who first and had geography at (Solomon, 2014). to Solomon, Solomon, Solomon, and in this which also on his papers in the National of Australia, is not to this as no new were in this