Ross Fitzgerald
Ross Fitzgerald AM is Emeritus Professor of History & Politics at Griffith University. His most recent books are a memoir, Fifty Years Sober: An Alcoholics Journey, and the latest Grafton Everest political satire, co-authored with Ian McFadyen, Pandemonium, both published by Hybrid in Melbourne, and available online from Amazon and Booktopia.
Recent articles by Ross Fitzgerald

22 April 2025
If alcoholics don’t pick up the first drink, they can’t get drunk
Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a national convention in Sydney this month. Ross Fitzgerald, who has been sober for 55 years, looks at the organisation’s history.

6 April 2025
For an alcoholic, abstinence is the surest path to long-term recovery
It may be an inconvenient truth, but the fact is that, in terms of its harm, alcohol is by far Australia’s most dangerous drug.

21 March 2025
Queensland's autocratic ALP premier and Australia's only Communist Party MP: The St Patrick’s Day bash
History and politics buffs should either be made aware, or be given cause to remember, that in Brisbane, on St Patrick's Day 1948, Australia's only Communist Party MP, Fred Paterson, was almost murdered by a Queensland policeman, almost certainly at the instigation of someone higher up.

24 January 2025
Australia’s experiment with drug summits
Australia’s first official meeting referred to as a ‘drug summit’ was convened on 2 April 1985 in Canberra by Bob Hawke, the then ALP Prime Minister.

1 November 2024
The lessons of the Queensland election
In last Saturday’s state election, the Liberal National Party of Queensland has decisively ended the ALP’s nine year run in office.

24 October 2024
The treatment of detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra's City News.

19 October 2024
Jack Iverson was, my father often told me, the finest bowler to whom he ever kept
Playing against England, in the home Ashes series of 1950–51, Iverson led the Australian bowling averages with 21 wickets at 15.24 runs per wicket. Bamboozling the Poms, in one Test he got 6 for 27. A little known fact is that Jack Iverson's highest score in all five Tests was 1 not out.

14 October 2024
The forthcoming Queensland state election
In the forthcoming October 26 state elections, my prediction is that Labor in Queensland will get hammered.

8 October 2024
John Olsen's gift to the nation
My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize.

1 October 2024
David McBride and the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra
The parlous physical and mental health of David McBride and disturbing revelations about conditions at the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra are a national disgrace.

16 March 2024
When the peoples champion got walloped
As we approach St Patricks Day, politically aware readers should know that in Brisbane on March 17 1948, Australias only Communist Party MP Fred Paterson was savagely smashed from behind by a Queensland policeman.

13 March 2024
Politicians at every level need to lose their booze
Last week on Brisbane radio I briefly canvassed a proposal that all our state & federal parliamentary buildings should be alcohol-free zones.