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Wikipedia / Australian Club

The Australian Club is a private club founded in 1838 and located in Sydney at 165 Macquarie Street. Its membership is men-only and it is the oldest and most prestigious gentlemen's club in the southern hemisphere.

"The Club provides excellent dining facilities, en-suite bedrooms and apartments, a fully equipped gym, and on Level 7 of the building in which the Clubhouse is located, are first rate business facilities which Members and resident guests may access."

Reciprocities with other clubs

Presidents

  1. Hon Alexander Macleay MLC FLS FRS 1838–1848

  2. Hon Campbell Drummond Riddell 1848–1856

  3. Hon Sir Edward Deas-Thomson KCMG CB MLC 1857–1879

  4. Hon Sir William Macarthur MLC 1879–1882

  5. Christopher Rolleston CMG 1882–1888

  6. Edward Merewether FRGS 1888–1893

  7. Hon Philip Gidley King MLC 1894–1900

  8. Hon Sir Francis Bathurst Suttor MLC 1900–1908

  9. Hon Henry Edward Kater MLC 1909–1924

  10. John Archibald Anderson 1924–1933

  11. Major-General Hon James William Macarthur-Onslow VD MLC 1933–1936

  12. William Deuchar Gordon 1936–1939

  13. Pat Hamilton Osborne 1939–1942

  14. Hon Sir Colin Sinclair KBE MLC 1942–1945

  15. Hon Sir Norman William Kater MLC 1945–1948

  16. Edmund Irving Body 1948–1951

  17. Hon Sir Colin Sinclair KBE MLC 1951–1954

  18. John Gordon Crowther 1954–1957

  19. Edmund Irving Body CBE 1957–1959

  20. John Gordon Crowther 1959–1960

  21. Rt Hon Sir Victor Windeyer KBE, CB, DSO, ED, QC 1960–1963

  22. Donald Brian Hardy Arnott 1963–1966

  23. Major-General Sir Denzil Macarthur-Onslow CBE DSO ED 1966–1969

  24. Sir Norman Lethbridge Cowper CBE 1969–1972

  25. Sir William Morrow DSO ED 1972–1975

  26. Peter Gordon Sayers 1975–1978

  27. Graham Marriott Thorp MC 1978–1981

  28. Louis Walter Davies A0 1981–1984

  29. Hon Sir John Bryan Munro Fuller 1984–1987

  30. Alam Hamilton Loxton AM 1987–1990

  31. Brian Cameron France 1990–1993

  32. Peter John Watt 1993–1996

  33. David Hardy Playfair MBE ED 1996–1999

  34. Robert Lee Maple–Brown AO 1999–2002

  35. Peter Ross Graham QC 2002–2005

  36. Roderick Murchison Hume Kater 2005–2008

  37. Charles Frederick Moore 2008–2011

  38. Richard Hamilton Fisher AM 2011

Membership

At least 5 former Prime Ministers have been members of the club including recently, John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull.

Women are excluded from membership of the club; although they are welcome as guests in most areas and at most functions hosted by the club. For over a century the club has had a friendly albeit informal relationship with the women-only Queen's Club, where many of the members' mothers, wives and sisters are members. The committees of each club take turns to host the other to a formal dinner on an annual basis.

In June 2021, around 700 members attended a Special General Meeting of the club to vote on a proposal to allow women to join the club. Seventy-five percent of attending members needed to vote for the proposal in order for it to receive approval. The proposal was defeated when only 38 percent voted in favour of allowing women to join, falling well short of the 75 per cent required.

Website

The club website is titled 165 Macquarie Street but is only accessible to members.

See also

References