Like the pretexts concocted by governments to dissolve parliaments, the trigger that finally exposed the fractures in the Fairfax boardroom was circumstantial rather than material.

In July 1976, after the board had informally agreed to raise [general manager Bob] Falkingham’s salary, the company chairman, Sir Warwick Fairfax, circulated a memo implying that he, too, deserved a raise. “The board raised the general manager’s salary on 22 July,” records journalist and historian Gavin Souter, “and it was agreed that before the next meeting there should be a discussion among directors other than Sir Warwick about the chairman’s salary.”