Peter Dowding: Secret Agent, Unsung Hero

Hon Peter Dowding SC is a leading Australian lawyer and former Labor politician. After graduating from the University of Western Australia, Peter was admitted to the West Australian Bar in 1966 and quickly became prominent representing conscientious objectors to conscription during the Vietnam War, and as an advocate of Aboriginal land and civil rights. First elected to the Western Australia’s Parliament in 1980, he became a Minister when Labor won the 1983 election. He has held numerous government portfolios, serving as the State’s 24th Premier until his return to the Law in 1990. Awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003, Peter lives in Fremantle, Australia.

His book Secret Agent, Unsung Hero, The Valour of Bruce Dowding, co-authored with Ken Spillman tells the enthralling true tale and tragic story of a young Australian man’s journey from his days as a student to being a senior operative in an underground network against the Germans in France, leading to his final moments facing the guillotine in June 1943.

Clare Birgin’s career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other agencies has spanned more than thirty years, focusing on eastern Europe, intelligence and security matters, multilateral trade negotiations and the Middle East. Her first posting was to Warsaw. She also served in Moscow, Geneva, and as Liaison Officer for the Office of National Assessments in Washington. She was Australia’s Ambassador in Hungary, then in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania. She co-authored Revealing Secrets, an Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber with Professor John Blaxland.