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  • Gary Lewis (1943–2019)
  • Garry Cronan and Greg Patmore

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Figure 1.

Gary Lewis

Photography courtesy of Lida Lewis

For over 30 years, Dr Gary Lewis researched and wrote about the Australian co-operative movement. Co-operatives were his passion and a very significant part of his professional life. Gary began writing and speaking about co-operation and co-operatives in 1983 when he gave a paper on the NSW co-operation legislation at the ANU’s Centre for Continuing Education’s Working Together Conference.

Gary grew up in Marrickville, New South Wales (NSW), where he and other local boys spent time exploring the Cooks River. One of his early [End Page 209] friends from this time was Graham Bond of “Aunty Jack” fame. Like Graham Bond, Gary had a love of the creative arts, including music.

Gary was educated at the University of Sydney and completed a PhD at the Australian National University. He spent most of his life in Canberra and nearby Wamboin in NSW, before moving to Byron Bay in his final years.

Largely financially self-sufficient, and with the help and support of his wife, Lida, his daughters, Emily and Catheryn, and his son, Joe, Gary undertook his “mission” with intelligence, determination, humility and a large dose of good humour. Almost single-handedly, he set about writing the movement’s history. He came to enjoy an international reputation for this work.

His initial starting point was not however co-operatives, but labour history. His early research led him to a consideration of the role of consumer co-operatives in assisting and supporting the labour movement. He then extended the focus of his PhD research, which he completed in 1989, under the supervision of Dr Barbara Penny and Professor Mick Williams, to the wider role Rochdale consumer co-operation had played in Australia. His thesis was published as a book, A Middle Way, by the Sydney-based Australian Association of Co-operatives, which was one of several attempts to create a national peak organisation for the Australian co-operative movement. Histories of agricultural and credit co-operatives followed over the years. He also added, towards the end of his career, an historical novel on the World War I, drawing upon his father’s experiences, to his output. His research is crucial for both public policy and historical research such as the Visual Historical Atlas of Australian Co-operatives. His notes were recently deposited in the Chamber’s Historical Collection at the University of Sydney Business School.

What shines through all of Gary’s work is a great respect for, and understanding of, how co-operation, properly understood and supported, could help ordinary people. He believed in the possibilities of co-operation to humanise and bring out the best in people. His histories are populated with people who turned to the co-operative model to help solve their needs, when both government and the market had let them down.

Gary did, however, have some periods of doubt, particularly towards the end of this career, in the possibilities of co-operation ever reaching its full potential in Australia. The history of the co-operative and mutual model has not been one of continuous uninterrupted success. Gary’s work points to the many failures experienced by the movement in this country. Nevertheless, shining through all of this are outstanding success stories, which his work records and which deserve to be better known. Despite his concerns, Gary was a public advocate of the benefits of co-operatives, making a submission and giving evidence before the Senate Economics Reference Committee hearings on co-operative, mutual and member owned firms in Sydney in [End Page 210] October 2015. He reminded the Committee of the historical contribution of co-operatives to Australia but argued that their full potential was yet to be realised.

There are many lessons in his work for present day co-operators, lessons for better understanding the key role of effective governance and democracy within co-operatives; and for appreciating the critical role government policy and legislation plays in creating a supportive environment for the development and sustainability of co-operative businesses. Importantly, Gary also...

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