Sir Richard James Fildes (Dick) Boyer, (24 August 1891 – 5 June 1961) was an Australian grazier and

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

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. From 1945 until his death he served as chairman of the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is a ...

and the annual

Boyer Lectures The Boyer Lectures are a series of talks by prominent Australians, presenting ideas on major social, scientific or cultural issues, and broadcast on ABC Radio National. The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commi ...

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

are named in his honour.

Early life, student career and military service

Boyer was born at

Taree, New South Wales Taree () is a city on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. It and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then it has grown to a population of 26,381, and commands a significant agricultural district. Situ ...

, the third and youngest son of a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

minister. He attended Wolaroi College,

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, and

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

(1901–1909). At the

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he graduated BA in 1913 and MA Hons in 1915. Boyer joined the Methodist ministry and in 1914 and 1915 was a probationer in the

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circuit. Boyer enlisted in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

Australian Imperial Force on 2 September 1915 having previously served in the Sydney University Regiment. He was a member of the 24th reinforcements for the 1st Battalion serving on the Gallipoli Peninsula from 16 September 1915. He was commissioned holding the rank of Lieutenant, and gassed on 17 September 1917. Boyer passed through a number of hospitals and convalescent units before returning to Australia on 31 August 1918.

Grazing career

Instead of returning to the ministry, Boyer became a jackeroo and in 1920 acquired a 38,652 acre (15,642 ha) property named Durella, near

Morven, Queensland Morven is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Murweh, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Morven had a population of 184 people. Geography The town is located on the Warrego Highway of South West Queensland, east of Cha ...

and married his former war nurse Eleanor Muriel Underwood. The Boyers succeeded as sheep farmers and he became president of the Warrego Graziers' Association in 1934 and, following a visit to Europe in 1935, increased his involvement in the affairs of the wool industry. As President of the United Graziers' Association of Queensland (1941–44) and of the Graziers' Federal Council of Australia (1942), he gained tax concessions for pastoral improvements and sat on the Australian Meat Industry Commission. Durella was put under management and the Boyers moved to Brisbane in 1937 and to Sydney in 1940. He sought opportunities in public service and avoided domestic politics. He was appointed honorary director of the American division of the Department of Information and in 1942 and 1945 he went abroad for conferences of the Institute of Pacific Relations. As President of the Commonwealth Council of the

Australian Institute of International Affairs The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) is an Australian research institute and think tank which focuses on International relations. It publishes the '' Australian Journal of International Affairs''. It is one of the oldest act ...

, he launched the journal, Australian Outlook. In the 1940s and 1950s Boyer devoted his formidable energies to the Australian national committee of the

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Appeal for Children, to Sydney

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's international service committee and to the

Good Neighbour Council The Good Neighbour Council was an Australian Commonwealth Government program launched in 1950 to win public acceptance of mass immigration to Australia of post-Second World War refugees and settlers by promoting rapid assimilation. State Good Nei ...

Broadcasting career

In 1940 Boyer was appointed a member of the

and five years later became chairman. With the introduction of television in 1954 the ABC was given responsibility for the national service. In 1956 Boyer was appointed a

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and declined the post of high commissioner to Canada. The following year he initiated the annual lectures that were later to bear his name. He died at

Wahroonga Wahroonga is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Ku-ring-gai Council and Hornsby Shire. ...

and was survived by his wife, daughter and son.

Legacy

Boyer stood at the center of Australia's media world, and took the lead in the subtle cultural war underway. He fought the pull of American popular culture, with its widespread popularity and the risk, he felt, of degrading the public taste. He favoured the supposedly superior traditional culture of the mother country, which appealed to upscale audiences that were representative of the nation's elite. As chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Boyer fought against commercialism because he feared it would lead to American dominance. He held up the BBC model of a publicly owned and operated broadcasting commission as being able to maintain Australia's British heritage.Simon J. Potter, "‘INVASION BY THE MONSTER’ Transnational influences on the establishment of ABC Television, 1945–1956." ''Media History'' (2011) 17#3 pp: 253–271.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyer, Richard Chairpersons of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1891 births 1961 deaths People from Taree People educated at Newington College Wesleyan Methodists Australian Methodist ministers Australian military personnel of World War I Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Australian Methodist ministers Australian military officers