Athol Yardley Meyer (28 November 1940 – 31 July 1998) was an Australian journalist and, later, politician. He was born in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, New Zealand, but moved to Sydney to work at the ABC. He was later posted to Hobart,

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. Following work and private travel in the UK and mainland Europe in the mid 1960s, Meyer was posted as an ABC foreign correspondent to Port Moresby (1968-1970) and Kuala Lumpur (1970–72). During his posting in KL, Meyer undertook several assignments in Vietnam, working closely with ABC cameraman Willie Phua (https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/capturing-asia). Meyer and Phua covered preparations for a new Tet offensive (the 'Easter' offensive) and came under fire in the central highlands. Meyer also covered the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_war_of_1971). In 1986 he was elected to the

Tasmanian Legislative Council The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two Chambers of parliament, chambers of the Parliament, the other being the Tasmanian House of Assembly, House of Assembly. Both ho ...

as the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

member for Huon. He served as Chair of Committees from 1993 to 1996. He resigned from the Legislative Council in 1996 having been diagnosed with cancer, to which he succumbed in 1998 at

Little Swanport Little Swanport is a rural locality and an estuary in the local government area of Glamorgan–Spring Bay in the South-east region of Tasmania. It is especially significant for the Little Swanport language. The locality is about south of the ...

References

1940 births 1998 deaths Independent members of the Parliament of Tasmania Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council 20th-century Australian politicians New Zealand emigrants to Australia Politicians from Dunedin {{Australia-Independent-politician-stub