Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch
Encyclopedia
Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch (born 7 October 1945), also known as Hal G. P. Colebatch and Hal Colebatch is an Australian author, poet, lecturer, journalist, editor, and lawyer.
and Marion, Lady Colebatch, a former Australian Army nursing sister who was the daughter of long-time Fremantle
mayor and parliamentarian Sir Frank Gibson
. He is the author of Sir Hal Colebatch's biography, Steadfast Knight (foreword by Professor Geoffrey Blainey
), published by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
He received a BA Honours and MA in History/Politics and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Western Australia
as well as degrees in jurisprudence and law.
He was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal
in 2003 for writing, law, poetry and political commentary, the only award for this combination of activities. He has also received an award from the Vietnamese community in Perth for work for Vietnamese refugees and was chairman of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship in Western Australia
2003-2006. He has written a centenary history of the league "Good work and Friendship" (2010). He was a keynote speaker at the "Summersounds" colloquiums held at Blenheim, New Zealand, in June, 2008, and in Nelson, New Zealand, in 2009. He delivered a lecture "How Red are the Greens?" to the Melbourne Adam Smith Club in November 2010. He prevopus;lu served in the Australian Naval Reserve Cadets and reached the rank of Petty Officer.
Colebatch also stood in the 1977
and 1993
state elections for the seat of Perth
as the Liberal Party
candidate, and although he was not elected to the Legislative Assembly on either occasion, on the second attempt he came within 0.12% of winning the seat from the Australian Labor Party
, who had held it since 1968.
He received a commenoratove award in honour of Prince Micheal Romanov of Russia, one of 88 struck.
, in which he has created several original characters including Dimity Carmody, Nils Rykerman and Vaemar-Riit and books of political, social, legal and economic commentary. He was described in Penguin's "A New Literary History of Australia" published in 1988, as having has "a quiet but steady career" in Australian poetry at that time. He writes regularly for a number of publications including Quadrant
and his 1999 book Blair's Britain was chosen in The Spectator
(London) as a Book of the Year. He also writes for The American Spectator Online
, op-ed articles for The Australian
and occasional pieces for other publications including The Australian Financial Review
, IPA Review The Salisbury Review and The New Criterion
. He also writes regular book-reviews and other features for The West Australian
and The Record
in Perth. His Return of the Heroes is a study of heroic fantasy including The Lord of the Rings
, Star Wars
and Harry Potter
, and he has contributed several articles to the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopaedia; Scholarship and Critical Assessment. He has also edited many books including "Lucky Ross", written by John Ross, an Australian Naval Officer who was transferred out of HMAS Sydney
19 days before it was sunk with all hands in November 1941. He has written commissioned histories of the Parents' and Friends Association in Western Australia and The Victoria League in Western Australia. He has recently published two novels with publishing firm Acashic - "Counterstrike" set in and off Western Australia in the near future, and "Time Machine Troopers", a sequel to H. G. Wells's "The Time Machine", set in 802719 and featuring Wells himself, Winston Churchill, H. G. Wells and Lord Robert Baden-Powell as characters. "Counterstrike" has been described in The American Spectator Online and the Perth "Record" as a "thriller of ideas, one of the first books to grapple with the problems of false and manufactured counter-knowledge." (9 July 2011)"Time Machine Troopers" has been described as "better than Wells" and "a subversion of Wells."
When working as a reporter on The West Australian
, Colebatch had several trips to wild country in the Kimberleys to report on the construction and filling of the Ord Dam and associated animal rescues with Naturalist Harry Butler, a long-time friend. He was also involved in exploring several kilometers of extensions to Easter Cave in the South-West opf Westernm Australia. His hobbies include sailing, war-gaming and underwater photography, especially at the reefs around Rottnest Island. He spent much of 1973, 1983-84 and 1997-98 in Britain, the Middle-East and Europe. He has also worked for the Australian Institute for Public Policy, the "dry" think-tank established by John Hyde, former MHR for Moore, and engineering tycoon Harold Clough, Debrett's publications (as managing editor) and on the staff of two Federal Ministers - the Hon. Sir Victor Garland and the Hon. Senator Chris Ellison. He has also run his own Law practice, after completing articles with Stone James in Perth..
He has tutored in Creative Writing at Curtin University,Political Science at the University of Western Australia, torts and contract law at Curtin University and lectured in internstional law at Edith Cowan Univerdity and Notre Dame University. He was offered an adjunct professorship but was unable to take it up.
Many of his poems concern Perth
and its suburbs, the Swan River
and Rottnest Island
, as well as travels in Britain, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere. His poetry, which has won various prizes, is in both free-verse and highly structured forms including sonnet
s and sestinas.
He was described by Peter Alexander, Professor of English at the University of New South Wales
, in his biography of Les Murray, as being among Australia's best writers. Man-Kzin Wars XII, containing three more stories by Colebatch (two written in collaboration with M. J. Harrington) was published in February 2009.
His seventh book of poetry, The Light River, with a foreword by Les Murray
was published by Connor Court Publishing
in 2007. In the foreword Murray stated that Colebatch's work had been unjustly suppressed by the Australian literary establishment because of his refusal to join poetic cliques. This book contains, among other works, the long narrative poem "The San Demetrio," telling of the salvaging of a burning petrol-tanker at sea in World War II, and a poem "It" on the return of terrorism. The long poem "Red-Head with Phosphorus" is a romantic love story. He is also co-author of a book on traffic law in Western Australia published in 2007 with Barrister Patrick Mugliston and former police sergeant Stewart Ainsworth. The Light River was awarded the West Australian Premier's literary prize for poetry in 2008. He is at present writing the official biography of "Bert" Kelly, MHR.
His published prose books include Caverns of Magic (Cybereditions, 2006), a survey of caves in myth, legend and story, and of the development of speleology. As a reporter on The West Australian, Colebatch was involved in the discovery of several kilometers of extensions to Easter Cave in the south-west of Western Australia. The book has a foreword by naturalist and conservationist Harry Butler
. (Many scenes in Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War and subsequent volumes are set in caves and caverns, reflecting his knowledge of the subject.) He has also recently had a volume of short stories accepted for publication by Acashic. A small "Chapbook" of his verse. "The Age of Revolution" was published by Picaro Press as No. 113 in its Wagtail Poets series in 2011. He has also writtern a short film, "In 'the Old Phoenix.'"
He is not to be confused with Dr Hal K. Colebatch who was born in 1944, has taught political science at several universities, and is also the author of a number of books. Hal G. P. Colebatch originally wrote under the by-line "Hal Colebatch" but changed this to "Hal G. P. Colebatch" to minimise confusion.
Personal history
He is the son of the late Australian politician Sir Hal ColebatchHal Colebatch
Sir Harry Pateshall Colebatch CMG , better known as Sir Hal Colebatch, was a long-serving and occasionally controversial figure in Western Australian politics...
and Marion, Lady Colebatch, a former Australian Army nursing sister who was the daughter of long-time Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
mayor and parliamentarian Sir Frank Gibson
Frank Gibson (politician)
Sir Frank Ernest Gibson was an Australian politician.Born at Egerton, Victoria, to Irish-born policeman Alexander Gibson and Louisa Herring, he attended Grenville College and the School of Mines at Ballarat before moving to Western Australia as a qualified pharmacist, setting up a business in...
. He is the author of Sir Hal Colebatch's biography, Steadfast Knight (foreword by Professor Geoffrey Blainey
Geoffrey Blainey
Geoffrey Norman Blainey AC , is a prominent Australian historian.Blainey was born in Melbourne and raised in a series of Victorian country towns before attending Wesley College and the University of Melbourne. While at university he was editor of Farrago, the newspaper of the University of...
), published by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
He received a BA Honours and MA in History/Politics and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
as well as degrees in jurisprudence and law.
He was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...
in 2003 for writing, law, poetry and political commentary, the only award for this combination of activities. He has also received an award from the Vietnamese community in Perth for work for Vietnamese refugees and was chairman of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
2003-2006. He has written a centenary history of the league "Good work and Friendship" (2010). He was a keynote speaker at the "Summersounds" colloquiums held at Blenheim, New Zealand, in June, 2008, and in Nelson, New Zealand, in 2009. He delivered a lecture "How Red are the Greens?" to the Melbourne Adam Smith Club in November 2010. He prevopus;lu served in the Australian Naval Reserve Cadets and reached the rank of Petty Officer.
Colebatch also stood in the 1977
Western Australian state election, 1977
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 19 February 1977 to elect all 55 members to the Legislative Assembly and 17 members to the 32-seat Legislative Council...
and 1993
Western Australian state election, 1993
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 6 February 1993 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
state elections for the seat of Perth
Electoral district of Perth
The Electoral district of Perth is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Perth is named for the capital city of Western Australia whose central business district falls within its borders. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member...
as the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
candidate, and although he was not elected to the Legislative Assembly on either occasion, on the second attempt he came within 0.12% of winning the seat from the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, who had held it since 1968.
He received a commenoratove award in honour of Prince Micheal Romanov of Russia, one of 88 struck.
Writing
As well as Steadfast Knight, his work includes seven volumes of poetry (starting with Spectators on the Shore in 1975), a series of science-fiction stories published in the US in the series The Man-Kzin Wars, created by Larry NivenLarry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
, in which he has created several original characters including Dimity Carmody, Nils Rykerman and Vaemar-Riit and books of political, social, legal and economic commentary. He was described in Penguin's "A New Literary History of Australia" published in 1988, as having has "a quiet but steady career" in Australian poetry at that time. He writes regularly for a number of publications including Quadrant
Quadrant (magazine)
Quadrant is an Australian literary and cultural journal. The magazine takes a conservative position on political and social issues, describing itself as sceptical of 'unthinking Leftism, or political correctness, and its "smelly little orthodoxies"'. Quadrant reviews literature, as well as...
and his 1999 book Blair's Britain was chosen in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
(London) as a Book of the Year. He also writes for The American Spectator Online
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
, op-ed articles for The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
and occasional pieces for other publications including The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is a leading business and finance newspaper in Australia.Fairfax Media publishes it in a compact format six days a week, Monday to Saturday....
, IPA Review The Salisbury Review and The New Criterion
The New Criterion
The New Criterion is a New York-based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books...
. He also writes regular book-reviews and other features for The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
and The Record
The Record
The Record may refer to:Printed publications:* Record , the weekly newsmagazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific*The Philadelphia Record, a defunct daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
in Perth. His Return of the Heroes is a study of heroic fantasy including The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
, and he has contributed several articles to the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopaedia; Scholarship and Critical Assessment. He has also edited many books including "Lucky Ross", written by John Ross, an Australian Naval Officer who was transferred out of HMAS Sydney
HMAS Sydney (1934)
HMAS Sydney , named for the Australian city of Sydney, was one of three Modified Leander class light cruisers operated by the Royal Australian Navy...
19 days before it was sunk with all hands in November 1941. He has written commissioned histories of the Parents' and Friends Association in Western Australia and The Victoria League in Western Australia. He has recently published two novels with publishing firm Acashic - "Counterstrike" set in and off Western Australia in the near future, and "Time Machine Troopers", a sequel to H. G. Wells's "The Time Machine", set in 802719 and featuring Wells himself, Winston Churchill, H. G. Wells and Lord Robert Baden-Powell as characters. "Counterstrike" has been described in The American Spectator Online and the Perth "Record" as a "thriller of ideas, one of the first books to grapple with the problems of false and manufactured counter-knowledge." (9 July 2011)"Time Machine Troopers" has been described as "better than Wells" and "a subversion of Wells."
When working as a reporter on The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
, Colebatch had several trips to wild country in the Kimberleys to report on the construction and filling of the Ord Dam and associated animal rescues with Naturalist Harry Butler, a long-time friend. He was also involved in exploring several kilometers of extensions to Easter Cave in the South-West opf Westernm Australia. His hobbies include sailing, war-gaming and underwater photography, especially at the reefs around Rottnest Island. He spent much of 1973, 1983-84 and 1997-98 in Britain, the Middle-East and Europe. He has also worked for the Australian Institute for Public Policy, the "dry" think-tank established by John Hyde, former MHR for Moore, and engineering tycoon Harold Clough, Debrett's publications (as managing editor) and on the staff of two Federal Ministers - the Hon. Sir Victor Garland and the Hon. Senator Chris Ellison. He has also run his own Law practice, after completing articles with Stone James in Perth..
He has tutored in Creative Writing at Curtin University,Political Science at the University of Western Australia, torts and contract law at Curtin University and lectured in internstional law at Edith Cowan Univerdity and Notre Dame University. He was offered an adjunct professorship but was unable to take it up.
Many of his poems concern Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and its suburbs, the Swan River
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
and Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
, as well as travels in Britain, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere. His poetry, which has won various prizes, is in both free-verse and highly structured forms including sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s and sestinas.
He was described by Peter Alexander, Professor of English at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, in his biography of Les Murray, as being among Australia's best writers. Man-Kzin Wars XII, containing three more stories by Colebatch (two written in collaboration with M. J. Harrington) was published in February 2009.
His seventh book of poetry, The Light River, with a foreword by Les Murray
Les Murray (poet)
Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
was published by Connor Court Publishing
Connor Court Publishing
Connor Court Publishing is an Australian husband-and-wife publishing company based in the small town of Ballan, Victoria. The owners are Anthony and Brigid Cappello, and John Roskam of the conservative Institute of Public Affairs sits on the editorial board...
in 2007. In the foreword Murray stated that Colebatch's work had been unjustly suppressed by the Australian literary establishment because of his refusal to join poetic cliques. This book contains, among other works, the long narrative poem "The San Demetrio," telling of the salvaging of a burning petrol-tanker at sea in World War II, and a poem "It" on the return of terrorism. The long poem "Red-Head with Phosphorus" is a romantic love story. He is also co-author of a book on traffic law in Western Australia published in 2007 with Barrister Patrick Mugliston and former police sergeant Stewart Ainsworth. The Light River was awarded the West Australian Premier's literary prize for poetry in 2008. He is at present writing the official biography of "Bert" Kelly, MHR.
His published prose books include Caverns of Magic (Cybereditions, 2006), a survey of caves in myth, legend and story, and of the development of speleology. As a reporter on The West Australian, Colebatch was involved in the discovery of several kilometers of extensions to Easter Cave in the south-west of Western Australia. The book has a foreword by naturalist and conservationist Harry Butler
Harry Butler
William Henry "Harry" Butler CBE is an Australian naturalist and environmental consultant. He is a populariser of science and natural history for both child and adult audiences and, as conservation consultant to the Barrow Island oilfield and many other projects, has played a major role in...
. (Many scenes in Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War and subsequent volumes are set in caves and caverns, reflecting his knowledge of the subject.) He has also recently had a volume of short stories accepted for publication by Acashic. A small "Chapbook" of his verse. "The Age of Revolution" was published by Picaro Press as No. 113 in its Wagtail Poets series in 2011. He has also writtern a short film, "In 'the Old Phoenix.'"
He is not to be confused with Dr Hal K. Colebatch who was born in 1944, has taught political science at several universities, and is also the author of a number of books. Hal G. P. Colebatch originally wrote under the by-line "Hal Colebatch" but changed this to "Hal G. P. Colebatch" to minimise confusion.
Titles written by Colebatch (partial list)
- Claude de Bernales : the magnificent miner : a biography Carlisle, W.A. : Hesperian Press, 1996. ISBN 0-85905-200-1
- Steadfast knight : a life of Sir Hal Colebatch with a foreword by Geoffrey Blainey. Fremantle, W.A. : Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004. ISBN 1-920731-39-3 - biography of his father.
- Return of the Heroes : The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Social Conflict : Cybereditions Corporation, 2003. ISBN 978-1877275579
- The Light River Connor Court, 2007. ISBN 0-9802936-4-2
- "Man-Kzin Wars No. X: The Wunder War, Baen 2003 ISBN 07434-9894-1
- Counterstrike Acashic, 2011
- Time Machine Troopers Acashic, 2011