Salmon family - papers, 1927-1986, being mainly of Malcolm and Lorraine Salmon

fonds

1927-1986

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Photographs, Drawings, Prints

117094

4 metres of textual material (19 boxes, 2 outsize boxes) includes photographs - manuscript, typescript, and printed
Clippings
2 Sound Recordings
Drawings
Albums
Prints

Born in Malvern, Victoria, Malcom Salmon (1925-1986) was the first journalist to go from Australia to cover the American bombing of North Vietnam in 1967. After leaving school, he worked with Macmillan publishers where he learned shorthand. During World War II he served in the Royal Australian Navy. At Melbourne University he failed to complete the third year of an Arts Honours course majoring in English and French. In 1948 he travelled to Europe, became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1950 and worked for the British Peace Committee. Returning to Australia in 1951, Salmon drifted into journalism when he joined the staff, initially as an office manager, of the Communist Party of Australia's Victorian newspaper, The Guardian. In 1957 he married longtime CPA member, Lorraine Barnett (1910-1970). A successful businesswoman, Lorraine had worked in public relations and advertising, written talks and features for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and was Secretary of Actors' Equity. After CPA selection for study in China, Salmon was sent to Hanoi in March 1958. Reunited with Lorraine, he and she worked for the English-language service of Radio Hanoi. For a Western journalist, he was granted a rare interview, conducted in French, with President Ho Chi Minh of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), on the occasion of the leader's 70th birthday. Ill-health forced Lorraine to return home in mid-1960, Malcolm followed in November. Inspired partly by French historian Jean Chesneaux's seminal study on Vietnam, Contribution a l'histoire de la nation vietnamienne (1954), Salmon published Focus on Indo-China (1961). He later prepared an English translation of Chesneaux's book, now out of print. Pig Follows Day (1960) is Lorraine's account of her time in North Vietnam. She resumed a business career and literary pursuits for the CPA. She became an administrator in personnel management, market research and secretarial studies, and was Managing Director of Current Book Distributors Pty Ltd. As well, she regularly reviewed New Theatre productions. In early 1966 Salmon became Editor of The Guardian. Following its merger later that year with the CPA national weekly, Tribune, he remained Victorian correspondent. However, in April-May 1967 Tribune sent him on assignment to North Vietnam and Cambodia; a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand followed. In January 1968 Malcolm and Lorraine Salmon moved to Sydney. From June to August he was on assignment in Europe. In France he reported on the elections in the wake of the students' and workers' demonstrations in May, and met up with leaders of the DRV delegation to the Paris peace talks on the Vietnam War. He also covered the last days of the Czech Communist Party's liberalisation program, dubbed the 'Prague Spring', before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia to restore orthodoxy. Back in Sydney, Salmon became active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and established the Vietnam Solidarity Committee, which aimed to support the National Liberation Front and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam. He was also Secretary of the CPA Bondi branch. In December 1971 he married a teacher, Peta Hussey; their son Ben was born next year. Salmon returned to Vietnam from early 1974 to October 1975, joined by his family for most of that time, and contributed regularly to the Far Eastern Economic Review. During the last decade of his life, he broadcast regularly on Asian-Pacific affairs for the ABC. Resigning from the CPA, Malcolm Salmon commenced writing for Pacific Islands Monthly in 1976 and was its Associate Editor at the time of his death.

Malcolm Salmon - papers, 1927-1986
Lorraine Salmon - papers, 1931, 1954-1970
Peta Salmon - papers, 1974-1986, being correspondence, chiefly letters received from Malcolm Salmon, 1974, and a copy of Orations for Malcolm Salmon, 14th July 1986, and copy of poem, To Malcolm
Pictorial material, 1941--ca. 1981, being mainly photographs featuring Malcolm and Lorraine Salmon in Australia and overseas on assignments as journalists

This collection comprises 4 record series. You may navigate to a more detailed description of each series from this collection record.

English, Vietnamese, French, Slovak, Central Khmer