The programme for a corporate retreat or summit held at the Pacific Country Club, Mona Vale, between 14 and 16 February 1956, together with biographical notes on the attendees (with photographs) compiled for host F.J. Palmer
[Sydney, 1956].
Quarto, a commercial post-bound folder containing the printed programme (a bifolium, 210 × 254 mm) and 17 leaves of processed typescript (rectos only), 15 of them with a mounted gelatin silver portrait photograph (approximately 65 × 55 mm).
Green cloth slightly rubbed; programme slightly indented from the post screws; some foxing (generally faint); occasional minor silverfish damage to the edges of the leaves and photographs; overall, in very good condition - and possibly unique.
The guest list may suggest that the purpose of the retreat was to raise capital for West Australian Petroleum (WAPET), a joint venture by Ampol Petroleum Ltd and the global Caltex group. Two of the hosts were William Gaston Walkley and Leslie James Thompson (Managing Director and Chairman of Ampol respectively), and the guest list comprises executives from Caltex and WAPET, and Australian financiers and industrialists. The folder is stamped in gilt 'F.J. Palmer', who is listed as a host (presumably a scion of the F.J. Palmer Holdings family). Each of the first 15 leaves contains brief biographical details of an attendee (following the list in the printed programme), including his hobbies, all but two (Messrs Bryant and Northam) with a small portrait photograph mounted in the margin. The final two leaves give details of Palmer's co-hosts, Thompson and Walkley (founder of the Walkley Awards, first awarded later the same year), both with photographs. We presume these to have been Palmer's briefing notes, compiled in preparation for the meeting. The guests were: Sir Garfield Barwick QC (lawyer, later Attorney General and controversial Chief Justice of the High Court), G.E. Bryant (Managing Director of LeTourneau-Westinghouse), William Buckland (pastoralist, businessman and Director of Bucklands automotive suppliers), Jack Cato (photographer), James N. Kirby (industrialist and manufacturer of automotive components), Phillip Le Fevre (Chairman of West Australian Petroleum), W.M. Leonard (General Manager and Associate Director of Ampol), Frank Menzies (brother of the Prime Minister, investor, and former Crown Solicitor of Victoria), Kenneth Myer (Director of Myer Emporium), W.H. Northam (Managing Director of Johnson & Johnson), L.H. Nuland (executive with Caltex and WAPET), William Keith Olver (financier with J.B. Were, working with the oil industry), W.H. Pinckard (Chairman of the global Caltex Group), Staniforth Ricketson (senior partner of J.B. Were, Chairman of Capel Court Group of Investment Companies), and Charles Rooks (Manager of Capel Court). It was not all work and no play: 'You will be entertained on Mr. Walkley's cruiser "Sirena" ... There are also facilities available for a game of golf or a game of bowls | Dress will be informal at all times'.
Item #147939
Price (AUD):
$1,250.00