Clare Dunne
Encyclopedia
Clare Dunne OAM
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 is an Irish-born Australian actress, author, lecturer and broadcaster. Her first name is also found as Claire.

1960s Australian celebrity

Dunne was a popular Australian television and film personality of the 1960s. She starred as 'Kay' in the seminal Australian film They're a Weird Mob (1966) and was also a regular on The Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (talk show)
Beauty and the Beast is an Australian panel television show that has appeared in numerous versions since the early days of Australian television. The first version began in 1963 on the Seven Network with host Eric Baume as the "Beast". Baume was later replaced by presenters including John Laws,...

 with Maggie Tabberer
Maggie Tabberer
Maggie Tabberer, AM, also known as Maggie T, is an Australian fashion, publishing and television personality.-Early life:She was born Margaret May Trigar on 11 December 1936 in Parkside, Adelaide, South Australia....

.

Her fame within Australia in the 60s was described by Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor...

 as such:

"Clare Dunne, she was a goddess to me. She was this exquisite bone-structured Irish woman who was beloved on the media in Australia"http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/keneally/intertext7.html

Multicultural broadcasting pioneer

Dunne went on to pioneer multicultural broadcasting in Australia as a Foundation Director of what went on to become the Special Broadcasting Service
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...

, as well as a presenter and a producer or radio and television for SBS.

In 1986, then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 delivered a "series of blows aimed at multiculturalism", including a decision to close the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairshttp://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/dunne_1.pdf and proposed legislation that would merge SBS into the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

.

Dunne was a vociferous opponent of both changes. She said at the time:

"I think there is going to be an uproar. There seems to be an undeclared Government change of policy about multiculturalism. Last week it was announced that the Institute of Multicultural Affairs would be closed. Now it is the SBS-ABC merger in spite of the fact that only six months ago the Government decided to let it be independent." http://books.google.com/books?id=qq9rGnoKRxIC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=Claire+Dunne+SBS&source=web&ots=lRMc6Eu4kL&sig=VzGVULhwGsyYKde-qNhoCA-MYLk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA178,M1

There was indeed an uproar, eventually leading the Prime Minister to call off the merger.

She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1999 for "service to multiculturalism, particularly through the promotion of Celtic culture, and to ethnic broadcasting"http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=883185&search_type=simple&showInd=true.

Author

Dunne has published three books http://www.bookfinder.com/author/clare-dunne/:
  • People under the skin: an Irish immigrant's experience of Aboriginal Australia (1988)
  • Mary MacKillop
    Mary MacKillop
    Mary Helen MacKillop , also known as Saint Mary of the Cross, was an Australian Roman Catholic nun who, together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia with an emphasis on...

    : No Plaster Saint
    (1994)
  • Carl Jung
    Carl Jung
    Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...

    : Wounded Healer of the Soul
    (2000)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK