Ron Walker: greatest achievement was miracle drug campaign

IT wasn’t the millions he made or the sporting stars he brought to Melbourne — Ron Walker said his greatest achievement was campaigning for a miracle melanoma drug.

Ron Walker: “I’d like to think that was my greatest achievement in 50-odd years of public life.”

HE made millions. He brought the Grand Prix and the Commonwealth Games to Melbourne. He changed the skyline and he wielded power and influence in the city for nearly half a century.

But Ron Walker, who has died aged 78, was proudest of his championship of the miracle melanoma drug Keytruda.

“Of all the things I was able to achieve over the years, I wake up in the morning knowing that somebody’s life has been saved using this drug. I’d like to think that was my greatest achievement in 50-odd years of public life,” he told an interviewer two years ago.

FORMER GRAND PRIX CHIEF RON WALKER DIES

RON WALKER’S DEATH A LOSS FOR VICTORIA, WRITES TERRY MCCRANN

Close to death from terminal cancer in 2012, Walker flew overseas to take part in the clinical trial of the drug that has provided hope to melanoma cancer patients.

After returning to health he later campaigned for it to be included on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

While he always looked the Establishment man, immaculately turned-out in suits tailored for his massive frame, Walker was a self-made man.

The son of a senior supervisor at Hoyts cinemas, Ronald Joseph Walker was born in 1939 and educated at Caulfield Grammar.

As a schoolboy he made money washing cars in his spare time for among others, the mother of businessman Solomon Lew — who paid him ten shillings and a piece fruitcake. He also sold newspapers at a local train station.

By 17 he had saved enough to buy his first real estate — two blocks of land on Phillip Island — which he later sold for a loss.

His initial success came from a chemical company, sold for $11 million in 1976, with the proceeds used to create property company Hudson Conway with Lloyd Williams and Sir Roderick Carnegie.

By then Walker had already served two terms as Melbourne’s Lord Mayor after first being elected to the city council in 1969 at 30.

In 1976 he was awarded an OBE and later made an officer, ending up a Companion to the Order of Australia.

Hudson Conway was the making of Walker’s fortune — last year estimated at $1.03 billion — along the way building Coles-Myer headquarters before hitting the jackpot in 1990s with Crown Casino.

However in 1998, amid an inquiry into whether Williams was a fit and proper person to operate a casino, Walker severed their relationship.

His time as Lord Mayor was Walker’s only foray into public office, although from 1987 until 2002 he was federal treasurer of the Liberal Party.

He also raised so much money for the British Conservatives that in 1998 it was reported he had been put forward for a knighthood.

In 1993 under Jeff Kennett, Walker negotiated a deal with Bernie Ecclestone to bring the Formula One Grand Prix to Melbourne after earlier being appointed by Joan Kirner to head the Melbourne Major Events Company.

Under Kirner he was deeply involved in the city’s failed bid to win the 1996 Olympic Games and despite later ­winning the Commonwealth Games, Walker never forgave elements in the Australian Olympic movement he believed had undermined the bid.

He is survived by wife Barbara and their three children Joanna, Campbell and Candice.