by Bill Jolley
1975 was an historic year of change and progress. The Whitlam government was in its third year of social and economic reform; it was the United Nations International Year of Women; and blind leaders inspired by the adoption of A Charter for the Blind of the World by the newly formed International Federation of the Blind yearned for a new world order of service delivery and citizenship.
For some prominent members of the blind community in Melbourne there was both dissatisfaction with the Australian Federation of Blind Citizens (AFBC) and alarm over the recent formation of the Australian Council for the Advancement of Blind People in Sydney (ACABP). The AFBC was becoming seen as ineffectual due in part to perceived state-based parochialism, and the ACABP was seen as too radical.
The AFBC had enjoyed a proud history of advocacy for blind people. It was an organisation of organisations – the blind workers unions based in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, the Association of Blind Citizens based in Sydney and the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind based in Melbourne. But it was becoming tired with dissatisfaction growing as there was no scope for all blind people to join a national organisation as individuals by right. So, people like David Blyth, Hugh Jeffrey, and Phyllis Gration (all prominent in the Guild) were looking for reform – outside the AFBC if necessary. After Serge Bankowski returned from an ACABP meeting in Sydney, he shared the news with his workmate John Machin (prominent in the Blind Workers Union in Victoria) and they decided to have a chat with David Blyth. So, the two threads were interwoven and the realisation that the time was ripe for action towards a new organisation was spawned.
In November 1974, a public meeting was convened in Melbourne which formed the genesis of Blind Citizens Australia. It approved in principle that Australia should have a national organisation of blind people that all individuals could join by right. It appointed a working party to develop proposals for consideration at another public meeting set for 10 March 1975 at Kooyong. Members of the working party were David Blyth, Hugh Jeffrey, Phyllis Gration, John Machin, and me.
The March meeting agreed to form an organisation to be known as National Federation of Blind Citizens that any blind person could join by right; and decided that the organisation’s first national convention should be held in June to adopt a constitution, elect a governing committee, and approve policy resolutions. The national aspiration based on individual membership without regard for state boarders was critically important in shaping the structure of any new organisation.
That first convention held in June 1975 was attended by 40 participants, about 90% of whom were from Melbourne; and, following adoption of the constitution, the NFBC was off and running as an individual member-based self-help organisation with an annual membership fee of $3. The constitution provided for branch voting at conventions, but the organisation’s first pragmatic decision was that individual voting at conventions would be retained until there were 25 active branches. That first convention passed more than 30 resolutions, many being routine for the time for such an organisation to have on its books – one dealt with the blind pension, and another dealt with audible signals for railway crossings and traffic lights.
BCA’s first president was David Blyth and the other members of the first Committee (all from Melbourne) were Hugh Jeffrey, Vice President, Bill Jolley, Secretary, Phyllis Gration, Treasurer, and Allan Bates, John Machin and Peter Sumner as Committee members. A further 89 people have since served on our governing body.
In 1976, Cecil McIlwraith and Max Mcinnerney (both from Sydney) resigned from the ACABP (which by that time was floundering) and were appointed to the Committee, and shortly after Joan Ledermann, Wal Bolin and Graeme Innes joined the Committee, further strengthening our presence in Sydney.
BCA’s growth was steady, but our acceptance and sustainability were by no means assured. We had quickly expanded into Sydney, but interstate parochialism otherwise remained. I still hear the words of Dolly Lee from Adelaide ringing in my ears: “You’ll be welcomed in South Australia but wait until you’re asked.” Sustainability was a challenge, for there were no government grants, there was more resentment than partnership from the blindness service delivery organisations, and income was insufficient to support a national member-based organisation whose communication costs were magnified by the need for braille, cassette, and large print. An early grant of $500 from the Villa Maria Society was encouraging, but the hand-to-mouth existence remained taxing. It took twenty years to achieve reliable income streams.
Two icons of the organisation in its formative years were Hugh Jeffrey and David Blyth.
Hugh was a stalwart of self-help by people with disabilities – a music teacher by profession and a gentleman by nature. He was an exemplary role model for young blind people. He was our first internationalist, taking a leading role in drafting A Charter for the Blind of the World, adopted by the International Federation of the Blind at Colombo in 1969. It has the stamp of Hugh’s philosophy and has heavily influenced BCA’s core beliefs.
Hugh Jeffrey’s lasting contribution to BCA is The Jeffrey Blyth Foundation which he founded with David Blyth and fostered through a generous bequest of more than $300,000. He walked the walk of commitment and self-help through which BCA’s effectiveness, longevity and independence will be assured.
David Blyth had an entirely different style. A product of the rural working-class in Northern Australia, he is a big-picture pragmatist, and was President of many organisations, but BCA has remained his life-long passion. David was elected President of the World Blind Union for a four-year term from 1992, the first Australian to occupy this prestigious position.
The strong partnership and deep friendship between David Blyth and Hugh Jeffrey were a great example for me, with their contrasting cut-around or cut-through approaches which had one thing in common – what’s good for blind people is paramount, and what BCA believes, says and does must always be directed to that end.
David was our first President for seven years from 1975, serving another three-year term from 2007 when a governance crisis called for an experienced hand to steady the ship.
So, looking back at where we’ve come from, how we’ve got there, and where we are now: I believe that one can be very glad that BCA got started, grateful to the many people who have carried the burden of leadership and proud of the organisation’s many achievements.