From comic ockers to a doctorate, a top essay, and more

A passion for the “comic ocker” Barry McKenzie films first seen when he was 14 propelled Tony Moore into both a love affair with Australian cultural history and a career himself in filmmaking at the ABC. There he made a documentary about Australian bohemians, before researching a PhD thesis about the same topic.

Now his doctoral research has also produced a book, The Barry McKenzie Movies, as well as an essay selected for Best Essays 2005.

The Barrry McKenzie Movies was inspired by his research in the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry for his PhD in history, Australia’s Bohemian Tradition, which he will submit in early 2006. 

“I showed ‘Barry McKenzie Holds His Own’ at school when I was 14”, Mr Moore said.  “I loved the carnivalesque of these films. They are part of a tradition of Australia’s larrikin humour stretching back to the 1890s, that was modernised in the 1960s and 70s by Barry Humphries and Bruce Beresford in the creation of Barry McKenzie, and also by other artists such as playwright David Williamson and filmmaker Tim Burstall. 

“Inner urban bohemians adopted the ocker mask to comment on social changes such as increasing ethnic diversity, suburbanisation and the relationship between the sexes. The Barry McKenzie films satirise ordinary suburbanites but also offer a larrikin foil to the elites of the Left and the Right in politics and a transgressive delight in the grotesque. Now there is 'Kath & Kim' and 'Little Britain', both over the top and Dadaesque”, he said.

The value of completing a PhD, according to Mr Moore, was not just that he learnt to be a very careful researcher, but in the history discipline he learnt literary skills as well.

“Your PhD is only read by your three markers”, Mr Moore said. “But history can be written in a literary manner and you can recycle your research to talk to a wider audience, to people beyond the academy.

“Others have done the same, taken the stories we have gleaned from the archives to a wider audience, such as Bob Ellis and Robert Hughes”, Mr Moore said. 

Dr Cassi Plate, for example, reworked her University of Sydney PhD thesis, a mediation of the life of her grandfather, the artist and seafarer A.G. Plate, to produce a book, Restless Spirits, which was published by Picador this year.

Mr Moore also used his research to write an essay “Urban Iconoclast” which will be published in Best Essays 2005. His essay deals with the 19th century Australian author Marcus Clarke. Best Essays 2005 is edited by Robert Dessaix and will be published in November by Black Inc.

Mr Moore’s 1997 documentary film for ABC TV, "Bohemian Rhapsody – Rebels of Australian Culture”, began the trajectory which led to his PhD, book and essay.

As Commissioning Editor of Pluto Press Australia, Mr Moore has published several books by University of Sydney scholars, including A Perilous and Fighting Life, the political writings of Professor John Anderson; Playing the man: New Approaches to Masculinity and most recently On Holidays by Richard White and a group of history students.

Mr Moore is also involved with the Fabian Society and the Labor movement. He writes opinion pieces for the broadsheet press, and plans to make another documentary about Marcus Clarke after completing his thesis.

For further information please contact +61 2 9356 5404 or +61 2 9351 2261 at the Media Office, University of Sydney.