This has been an exclusive men-only club for 146 years. But tensions are emerging
The Australian Club’s grand facade.Credit: Jason South
“What are you going to write about us now?” the receptionist of the Australian Club asked with something akin to a contemptuous snort when The Age calls.
We were requesting an interview with the club president, which days later is politely but firmly declined, “in line with our club’s media policies”.
The Australian Club, separate to and 40 years younger than its Sydney counterpart, was founded in 1878 and resides in a grand bluestone base heritage listed clubhouse on William Street that it likes to call a “timeless sanctuary providing respite from the bustling modern world”.
The Australian Club’s balustraded parapet, where members enjoy drinks overlooking William Street.Credit: James Davies
Inside, the thickly carpeted entrance is dominated by a large chandelier and sweeping five-metre-wide marble staircase with wrought-iron lamp standards. Members (who must be male) and guests (who can be of either gender) often immediately head right to the vast dining room, where they sit at heavy wooden tables beneath an ornate glass dome and baroque fireplaces. Upstairs, the billiards room is judged the finest in the city.
“Membership of the Australian Club contrasted to membership of the Melbourne Club, the bankers and squatters who had formed the first elite in Melbourne society,” a history by Heritage Victoria states. “The Australian Club gathered the new elites for its members: merchants, bankers, lawyers and squatters who made money from the rise of ‘marvellous Melbourne’.”
If it’s sunny, some diners like to repair upstairs for a post-prandial drink on the small first-floor balustraded parapet overlooking William Street. But don’t think of taking your own drink upstairs (more on this later).
“My observation is that the Athenaeum is doing a better job at staying relevant,” said one current member, who requested anonymity so they could speak freely.
“They put together a horse racing syndicate last week, which I think was 100 times $2500 a share, and it filled up immediately. There’s now a wait list.”
Tensions between tradition and modernity have been running on and off for several years at the club, where members have included former National Australia Bank chief executive Don Argus, former Liberal Party president Michael Kroger and many prominent lawyers.
Then prime minister John Howard speaking at the Australian Club in 2004.Credit: Michael Clayton-Jones
It has been some years since a rebel alliance of like-minded members had agitated to allow in women and benefit the membership profile.
Barristers Philip Crutchfield, KC, and Peter Jopling, QC, and lawyers including Arnold Bloch Leibler partner Leon Zwier felt the male-only policy was incompatible with modern legal practice and the values of professional law and accountancy firms.
A number of members resigned, including Crutchfield, who kept his membership of the men-only Melbourne Club, which has an older membership profile.
As part of his lobbying campaign, Crutchfield wrote to the club expressing sentiments that the calibre of the guests had waned, warning the Australian Club was in danger of losing relevance with younger professional lawyers and accountants, whose memberships allowed it to thrive decades ago.
“The membership base is skewing away from those who thirty years ago were the Club’s DNA. It has ‘hollowed out’,” he wrote in the letter, seen by The Age.
Philip Crutchfield, QC, who is also the chair of Bell Shakespeare.Credit: Louise Kennerley
“We can all name many people influential in our community who would have become members, or would not have resigned their membership, if the Club were more welcoming of women.”
The rebel alliance failed. A survey of the club’s 1500 members failed to produce a majority desire for change, the club told members in January 2022, according to The Australian Financial Review.
“There are some of them who are still there who should go, but the issue is not nearly as big, and there’s been no call to arms,” a different member told The Age this week.
“There were too many conservatives who didn’t want women in the club. That’s the way it is.”
The annual turkey cut function, where about 500 members attend an annual Christmas dinner, with a roast turkey on every table, was regarded as a success, one of many showcase events the club prides itself on.
Peter Hay.Credit: Wayne Taylor
While some feel the club is sailing smoothly, it recently featured in newspaper headlines far more than it would like.
Politics became an issue earlier in 2024 during the highly unusual circumstance of an election for club president.
Outgoing president Peter Hay, the former chairman of Melbourne Airport owner APAC, had nominated ex-lawyer Justin Lethlean as his successor. But members panicked when Lethlean was linked to the female-friendly putsch.
The Australian Club
- Address: 110 William St, Melbourne
- Founded: 1878
- What’s inside: 19 bedrooms ranging from standard rooms to premium suites, a business centre, two dining rooms, two bars, private function rooms
- Rules: Men-only, strict dress code, no carrying your own drinks between rooms
Lethlean withdrew, but did an about-face, citing an “ungentlemanly whispering” campaign and stood against the anointed successor Charles Henry, a former Tupperware managing director, who won the contested ballot.
Henry soon wrote to members, chiding them on mobile phone use, lack of proper attire (jackets and ties) and for carrying their own drinks.
“Should you need to move to another space,” Henry wrote to members in October, according to the Australian Financial Review, “please alert a staff member who will take your drink for you.”
“I just like it because it’s discreet, it’s sort of conservative,” a member said. “You can speak your mind without fear of offending people.”
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