David Hill (businessman)
David Hill | |
---|---|
Born | Eastbourne, East Sussex, England | 20 June 1946
Nationality | Australian |
Occupation(s) | Businessman and author |
Political party | Australian Labor Party |
David Hill (born 20 June 1946) is an English-born Australian business leader and author.
Background and early career
Born
I can only remember it as traumatic. The idea of nurturing and care and affection and love just didn't enter the equation back in those days. I can remember Mum gave us some coloured writing paper so we could write to her. I remember the other kids stealing our paper, humiliating us, tearing it up and running away. It was only much later I realised a lot of this cruelty was that most of them didn't have anybody to write to.
— David Hill, interviewed in 2008.
Hill's early years of schooling were at Bourne Junior Primary School. He migrated to Australia together with his elder brother and twin brother in April 1959, aboard the SS Strathaird. His mother arrived in Australia a few years later.[1][2] Prior to departing England, Hill and his brothers had enrolled to attend Fairbridge Farm School in Molong in the Central West region of New South Wales.
Hill has since written a book about the experiences of the child migrants.
Prior to his rise to prominence in business circles, Hill was variously a hardware shop assistant, a sandwich cutter, a labourer on building sites, a refuse collector and gardener; he sold tennis coaching courses, worked as a barman, waiter, pub
Career
Having in 1978 been appointed an Associate Commissioner of the
Hill is strongly in favour of the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece. As well as being a member of the British Marbles Reunited campaign, he is the founder and current chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
He was an unsuccessful political candidate representing Labor for the Division of Hughes at the 1998 federal election.[7]
Hill has written a number of non-fiction books on Australian history, including histories of the First Fleet, early colonial New South Wales, and the Australian gold rushes.
Personal life
Hill married Stergitsa Zamagias in 1998,[2] and together they have a son.[8] They live in Sydney.
Selected published works
- Hill, David (2007). The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and Its Betrayal of Britain's Child Migrants to Australia. Australia: Random House. ISBN 978-1-74166-614-4.
- Hill, David (2008). 1788: The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet. Australia: Random House. ISBN 978-1-74166-797-4.
- Hill, David (2010). Gold - The fever that forever changed Australia. Australia: Random House. ISBN 978-1-74166-925-1.
- Hill, David (2013). The Great Race: The Race Between the English and the French to Complete the Map of Australia. Australia: Random House. ISBN 9781742751108.
- Hill, David (2014). The Making of Australia. Australia: William Heinemann. ISBN 9781742757667.
- Hill, David (2015). First Fleet Surgeon : The Voyage of Arthur Bowes Smyth. Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia. ISBN 9780642278623.
- Hill, David (2015). Australia and The Monarchy. Australia: William Heinemann. ISBN 9780857987549.
- Hill, David (2017). The Fair and the Foul : Inside Our Sporting Nation. North Sydney: Penguin Random House Australia. ISBN 9780857987570.
- Hill, David (2019). Convict Colony: The Remarkable Story of the Fledgling Settlement That Survived Against the Odds. Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760528669.
- Hill, David (2022). Reckoning : The forgotten children and their quest for justice. Australia: William Heinemann Australia. ISBN 978-1-76104-552-3.
References
- ^ a b c Fernandes, Andrea (14 November 2008). "David Hill". Belongings: Post WWII migration memories and journeys. Migration Heritage Centre of New South Wales. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ a b c d Hill, David (9 February 2009). "David Hill". Talking Heads (Interview transcript). Interviewed by Peter Thompson. ABC TV. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ Cannane, Steve. "British Government knew Fairbridge farms were unfit for children, documents show". ABC News, 27 February 2017.
- ^ Appointment of Associate Commissioner Railway Digest January 1979 page 7
- ^ Green Left Weekly. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
- ^ Fidler, Richard Director David Hill at ABC, 14 May 2007
- ^ Carr, Adam (3 October 1998). "Hughes: New South Wales". Australian House of Representatives: Voting by constituency at the 1998 Australian Legislative election. Psephos. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
- ^ Marr, David (29 September 2008). "Yet another chapter, but still no adjectives good enough for Hill". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 March 2014.