The burgundy doors at the Savage Club’s entrance.Credit: Penny Stephens
Behind the dull red doors of a heritage-listed building in Melbourne’s CBD, one of the nation’s oldest private clubs is quietly grappling with an existential crisis.
For 130 years, the Melbourne Savage Club has proclaimed itself a haven for bohemian gentlemen, basing membership on “good-fellowship, as well as related interests in the spheres of literature, music, drama, art or science”.
Prime ministers, painters, actors, legal eagles and corporate heavyweights have rubbed shoulders, recited poetry and quaffed fine wines in the club’s dining room renowned for its mechanical punkah – a series of curtain-like fans adopted from colonial India that sway back-and-forth from the ceiling.
Sir Robert Menzies, pictured with Queen Elizabeth in 1954, was the Savage Club’s longest-serving president.Credit: Fairfax photographic
Sir Robert Menzies was the club’s longest-serving president, from 1947 to 1962, when he made regular trips from the Lodge to wine committee meetings and long lunches.
Comedian Barry Humphries was another prominent patron of the secretive club named after 18th-century English poet Richard Savage, along with renowned painters Sir Arthur Streeton, Sir John Longstaff, Tom Roberts, Fred McCubbin and William Dargie.
Liberal party powerbrokers Michael Kroger, John Elliott and Ted Baillieu were regular attendees of the club’s Bank Place base, which is adorned with Indigenous art and other artefacts of dubious provenance, including a 2000-year-old Egyptian human skull.
In 2005, Elliott forced the club’s hierarchy to defy its motto of Harmonia et Sodalitas – which translates to “Harmony and Brotherhood” – when his membership was abruptly cancelled following bankruptcy and his dramatic fall from grace.
Former senator George Brandis, KC, was mocked in parliament over his membership and asked to “sing the club song and demonstrate the club initiation ceremony to the chamber”.
But the notion of “good fellowship” has never been extended to more than 50 per cent of the population by the club’s exclusively male patronage, who refer to each other as “Brother Savages”.
The Savage Club facade on Bank Place.Credit: Penny Stephens
While women are permitted to enter as guests at certain times and can attend private functions, the Savages have stridently opposed any push to admit women on an equal basis.
Membership has slumped to less than 500, down from 580 in 2017, with almost 70 per cent of the men now aged over 60.
The club’s finances are a black hole, rather than opaque, aside from a rare leak in 2017 that revealed a loss of $114,900, but $1.6 million in the bank and almost $800,000 in reserve.
But while cultural and social institutions around the globe have embraced inclusiveness by actively targeting a younger and more diverse crowd, the Melbourne Savage Club has steadfastly resisted change.
Even London’s famed Garrick Club – founded in 1831 with a similar ethos to the Savage Club – voted for the first time in May to accept women. UK actress Dame Judi Dench was fast-tracked membership in July.
The Age requested an interview with Savage Club president David McCubbin, who did not respond.
The club and its members have observed a long-held convention not to discuss its affairs with the media, despite having several current and former journalists and media executives among its ranks.
The Age has seen a recent “members’ satisfaction survey”, previously reported by The Guardian, which underscores the club’s staunch commitment to the status quo.
The findings of the survey – conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 – were circulated among members by McCubbin last May and revealed only 183 card-carrying savages responded from the club’s 458 members.
Just four respondents supported women being admitted as members.
While many favoured welcoming more women as guests, the majority of respondents were opposed to granting women access to the bar, while most also opposed a relaxation of the club’s strict dress code.
In the correspondence sent to members, McCubbin stated he was “determined to ask members their satisfaction with the club and what changes, if any, they would wish to see”.
“We should consider setting aside the room next to the [Third World Bar] for mixed dining when not in use for private functions. This would enliven the use of the club more often,” one respondent said. “Encourage younger members to dine with their lady guests.”
A “relatively little used basement known to all as the Yorick Tavern” could also be opened to women guests, according to another member.
Some suggested tweaks to the club’s lunch menu of traditional English fare, including “having an international dish available”.
“A Chinese or Indian would be popular,” one wrote.
Comedian, writer and artist Bryan Dawe has been a member of the Savage Club for decades. The 76-year-old concedes the menu could use an overhaul, but argues there’s still a place for private clubs – for men, or women.
Bryan Dawe is a member of the club.Credit: Arsineh Houspian
“Men need to talk to each other, and it’s always been a place where you could do that. You’re forbidden from discussing business, and you’re not permitted to use phones ... it’s an earlier version of the men’s shed,” Dawe said.
“I really only have good things to say and good memories of the place.”
He cites a recent meeting with a prominent surgeon in the club’s dining room, where the pair discussed a heart attack Dawe suffered while living in Morocco, requiring triple bypass surgery.
“You probably wouldn’t have a conversation like that in any other forum,” he said.
He recalls taking former ACTU president Sharan Burrow as a guest and admits a few members had conniptions.
“She really enjoyed it. It showed her a side of Melbourne – and a cohort – that she’d never seen before. I never felt there was any elitism.
John Elliot leaving the Savage Club in 2003.Credit: James Davies
“You might get a sense of that at the Melbourne Club, but never at the Savage. I wouldn’t have hung around if there was,” he said.
In 2017, he helped organise a wake at the club for his satirical collaborator John Clarke. Fellow satirist Max Gillies recited poems by Irish playwright Seamus Heaney during a wine-fuelled tribute attended by several women.
Dawe said he was invited to join the club by barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside, who famously and very publicly tendered his resignation in 2019 while running as a Greens candidate in the federal seat of Kooyong.
Julian Burnside.Credit: Jason South
Burnside, who had been an active member for 40 years, said establishments such as the Savage Club had become a “relic of the past”.
His resignation letter referenced how he had originally believed he could effect change from inside the club, modernising it and making it more inclusive – principally to women.
Another former member, who asked not to be identified to maintain friendships with current members, said the recent survey reflected the contrarian nature of many patrons.
Melbourne Savage Club
- Address: 12 Bank Place, Melbourne
- Founded: 1894
- What’s inside: A social room with fireplaces, paintings and ‘irreplaceable’ Polynesian and Melanesian art, basement tavern, Third World Bar, billiards room, members’ dining room, along with smaller meeting and dining rooms
- Rules: Men-only, no phones, electronic devices or photography, strict dress code
- Open to: Men who embrace the club’s bohemian ethos and enjoy good fellowship
- How to join: Membership is by invitation and must be supported by a proposer, a seconder and four referees. All backers must be club members
“A lot of them rail against political correctness and wokeism, and consider any change as a personal affront.
“They think a jaunty hat and fondness for Keats makes them bohemian, but they’re actually a deeply conservative bunch and there’s always been this contradiction,” he said.
He said some of the youngest members were the least progressive.
“You’d expect the next generation to breathe some life into the place, but a lot of them are young fogeys who seem determined to hang onto the past,” the former member said.
“Without revival and rejuvenation, these types of places become irrelevant.”
It is unknown if the Brother Savages still sing the club’s anthem when new members are inducted. But it may not be enough to entice the next generation of savages, particularly women, through the dull red doors.
Now boys fill up your flowing bowl,
And fill it flowing over,
Here’s to the good old Savages,
And may they live in clover!
For tonight we’ll merry, merry be,
For tonight we’ll merry, merry be,
For tonight we’ll merry, merry be,
Tomorrow we’ll be sober!
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.