Just recently two Australian men that I have known somewhat over the years have passed away. Both of them, in their own ways, have contributed much to this country, and both need to be duly recognised. One is quite well-known, while the other maybe not so much. But both deserve to be noted and thanked for their hard work. And I will here allow two other people that I know to say some words about each one.
Let me begin with the person who may have been less-well known of the pair. The very dedicated Melbourne-based pro-life activist Richard Grant died on April 1. All of us in pro-life and pro-family circles knew him well, and we were always impressed with his dedication and commitment to the cause of the unborn.
Another long-standing champion of the unborn and friend of mine, Denise Cameron of Pro-Life Victoria, said this about his passing:
Richard Grant’s devotion to his unborn brothers and sisters was extraordinary. He first joined the pro-life movement in the mid 1970’s, from 1978 serving for some years on the executive of Right to Life Australia. He was a highly intelligent writer and political lobbyist advocating for the right-to-life of his unborn brothers and sisters. I never knew Richard to refuse an appeal for help, assistance or presence in any of the wider movement’s endeavours.
As his years of devotion to the pro-life cause advanced, Richard became best known for his “witnessing” outside East Melbourne’s Wellington Street abortuary. Recollecting his early days there, fellow “witnesser” Dave Forster recalls: “We started activity outside the fertility control clinic in January 1993. Richard joined us full time in 1995. Before then he had been cycling each day from work during his lunch hour.” So Richard was involved for over 32 years, rising 0600 hrs. every morning, five days a week, to be outside the “clinic” before the first desperate women arrived to have their babies killed. And it wasn’t just “witnessing”… Richard was responsible with The Helpersof God’s Precious Infants for raising thousands of dollars to help those women and babies they were able to rescue from the jaws of death! They never seemed to knock back any plea for financial assistance from any one of them.
In all this, Richard was supported and helped by his saintly wife Beverley and their nine children. It should be left to The Helpers to record more of Richard Grant’s noble and courageous history. For now, let us all rejoice in all that he brought to the Australian pro-life movement and express our empathy with Beverley and their extended family, for the sadness and great loss they are now enduring. May Richard Grant now rest in peace!
Over many years of living here, I have gotten to know all the key pro-life workers. Richard certainly is one of the great ones, and we can all learn from his persistence and passion to work even harder to protect the innocents from being led to their slaughter. Well done Richard Grant.
The second individual to leave us is the historian Keith Windschuttle, who died on April 8 at age 83. As with a number of key public figures, he began as a man of the left but moved to the right over the years, and edited the conservative journal Quadrant for some 15 years all up.
Among his more well-known books are The Killing of History (1994), and the multi-volume The Fabrication of Aboriginal History (the first volume having been published in 2002). The later work certainly became controversial – especially from those on the left – but was highly praised by respected historians such as Geoffrey Blainey and Claudio Veliz.
My own personal connection with Windshuttle goes back some years, when he called me, asking if I would contribute articles to Quadrant online. Knowing that this was a more or less secular publication, I told him I would try to not send in overtly Christian pieces. But he assured me that he wanted to highlight the importance of Christianity in the West.
So for perhaps a year or more I regularly sent in some of my articles. Someone else had been editing the online version of the magazine while Keith continued to edit the hardcopy form of Quadrant. Another connection I had with the publication was when I worked for it for a few years back in the 1990s when Robert Manne was the editor.
One writer, Alexander Voltz, said this in part about the man and his work:
I first met him in 2023 at a Balmain café. (You might, quite reasonably, think Balmain an odd location to find Keith Windschuttle, but he was very particular about his haunts, and Berlin Bakr in Darling Street had served him well for many decades.) In the previous year, Quadrant had published an anti-republic piece of mine, so the ice was already broken. ‘I’ve got an idea,’ I said, leaning in, ‘for some music pages in your magazine.’ Keith, in reply, offered one of the warmest smiles I’ve yet known.
Since that fated day, Quadrant Music has forged its place within Australia’s arts and culture discourse – all because Keith Windschuttle gave some pimpled 24-year-old the time to speak and the opportunity to imagine. I am forever indebted to him, for his trust and for his grace, for the experiences and relationships that his blessing enabled. It is a rare thing to find in a man as successful as he the quality of selflessness, but it was there, shining and abundant, the compass by which he lived and worked. For, surely, none of us should want to defend, as he did, against assaults by governments, institutions and hordes alike. His resolve was firm and, thus, the burden which he bore was immense. And yet bear it he did. By vocation, he enriched his country; through authenticity, he inspired more than he knew.
Vale, Keith Windschuttle, 1942–2025. An indomitable crusader, empiricist, mentor and friend, a forceful mind but a gentle heart.
But it is my online friend Stephen Chavura that I wish to quote even more from. He begins:
I first met Keith in around 2001 or 2002 standing at the photocopiers in the Fisher Library at Sydney Uni. I was either researching for my Honours thesis or in the very early stages of my PhD. He walked up and started using the photocopier in front of mine, and I asked, “Are you Keith Windschuttle?” I recognised him because he’d been on television lately defending his controversial thesis that the numbers of Aborigines killed by whites had almost certainly been grossly exaggerated by historians over the past (then) thirty years. He said “Yes”, cautiously.
He was right to be cautious. He had become infamous among academics and the Australian left in general. For all he knew I may have been about to unleash a tirade of abuse, or worse. I briefly thanked him for his work and courage. He was photocopying some documents to respond to “one of my bloody critics.” He had a lot of them. But he had significant supporters too. Geoffrey Blainey and Geoffrey Bolton – two giants of Australian historiography – were impressed with Keith’s work and said this publicly. There were many others who were similarly impressed, but they cared about their careers and reputations too much to make that public.
He discusses the incomplete set of Fabrication books, and then says this:
I tactfully – I hope – asked him about the remaining volumes of his Fabrications of Aboriginal History. He only ever published volumes 1 and 3 – the first volume was a best seller and one of the most important books of Australian history ever written. He assured me he was working on the remaining volumes and the whole work would be five volumes all up. I was stunned and excited by all of this. He also talked about reissuing them all as a five-volume box-set, “Because people love box sets.” He was also keen to begin publishing again through his own press – Macleay Publishing. Thus, I discovered, it was all happening, and he was, as I really hoped, prioritising the completion of his magnum opus on Australian black-white relations.
As I said as well as wanting to meet Keith – I had a sense that he must have been getting on – I had arranged to buy a copy of his Fabrication vol.3 for myself, and copies vols.1 and 3 for the Campion College library. He handed me all three volumes in a wine bottle bag. I offered him the exact money in cash then and there but he refused it and told me he’d much rather I paid into an account he would email me later that day.
We spoke a lot and I could see that while he was still sharp, his memory was noticeably deteriorating. He was constantly forgetting details and having mental blanks. I began to feel less excited about his big plans to finish his magnum opus.
I left the lunch honoured that I had personally paid my respects to a great Australian scholar and culture warrior; but I also left more wishful than hopeful that he would finish his great work. I waited for him to send me the account details for me to pay him for the volumes he gave me. He never did.
A shining light in Australia’s intellectual life has just gone out. Thank you, Keith, for your scholarly integrity, bravery, and kindness.
The other day I briefly mentioned the passing of these two champions in a social media post. One gal sent in this brief comment: “Windschuttle is a significant loss!” Yes, she is certainly correct. But I can also say that ‘Grant is a significant loss.’
His life will not be found in a Wikipedia entry, nor will many media outlets even mention his passing, let alone be aware of it. But in his important work for unborn babies, he also left a huge impact and legacy in Australian society. It is likely that the numbers at his funeral will be much less than those at Windshuttle’s.
But both men made vital contributions to the state of the nation and beyond. You two men will be missed. May we have many more like them to take their place.
