Yesterday evening, Keith Windschuttle died after a prolonged battle with ill health.
The legacy of a creative is best expressed through his life’s creations. Keith was a prolific author and publisher of quality literature. His founding and stewardship of Macleay Press produced several gems, including titles by James Franklin and Sir David Smith. For so many of us, it is his magnum opus, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, a tract so invasive in its examination of the past it spans several volumes, that distinguished him as a man ever questing for truth. The importance of Fabrication cannot be overstated. Its revelations are monolithic and its chapters should be required reading for all students of Australian history. At the time of his death, Keith was slaving to complete the work’s projected second and fourth volumes. We can only hope that his research, somehow, can make its way posthumously into publication.
All of us at Quadrant have been devastated to learn of Keith’s passing. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal from 2008 to 2015 and then again from 2017 to 2024. Chairman Tony Abbott describes him as one of Australia’s ‘bravest and best historians’ who was ‘a stickler for authenticated facts’. Literary editor Barry Spurr, whom Keith so generously threw a lifeline to during a moment’s darkness, remembers him as ‘articulate and courageous’. The first of Quadrant’s tributes to Keith can be read here.
To me, Keith – ‘Dear Mr Windschuttle’, as read the salutation of my first-ever email to him – was a beacon of encouragement. I first met him in 2023 at a Balmain café. (You might, quite reasonably, think Balmain an odd location to find Keith Windschuttle, but he was very particular about his haunts, and Berlin Bakr in Darling Street had served him well for many decades.) In the previous year, Quadrant had published an anti-republic piece of mine, so the ice was already broken. ‘I’ve got an idea,’ I said, leaning in, ‘for some music pages in your magazine.’ Keith, in reply, offered one of the warmest smiles I’ve yet known.
Since that fated day, Quadrant Music has forged its place within Australia’s arts and culture discourse – all because Keith Windschuttle gave some pimpled 24-year-old the time to speak and the opportunity to imagine. I am forever indebted to him, for his trust and for his grace, for the experiences and relationships that his blessing enabled. It is a rare thing to find in a man as successful as he the quality of selflessness, but it was there, shining and abundant, the compass by which he lived and worked. For, surely, none of us should want to defend, as he did, against assaults by governments, institutions and hordes alike. His resolve was firm and, thus, the burden which he bore was immense. And yet bear it he did. By vocation, he enriched his country; through authenticity, he inspired more than he knew.
Vale, Keith Windschuttle, 1942–2025. An indomitable crusader, empiricist, mentor and friend, a forceful mind but a gentle heart.
Alexander Voltz is the founding Music Editor of Quadrant.
