Bob Wilesmith on the Whitlam Dismissal: Setting the scene

Camera operator Bob Wilesmith was working for Channel 7 in the Parliament House bureau in Canberra on 11 November 1975, the day Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his government from office. 

In 1975 the Whitlam Government was accused of inept fiscal management, under fire for rising unemployment levels and embroiled in scandals such as the Loans Affair involving foreign commodity broker Tirath Khemlani. When Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Fraser failed to support the government’s budget legislation, Whitlam refused to call a general election. The ensuing impasse had serious financial implications.

Wilesmith remembers the feeling of expectation within the Canberra press gallery as the political impasse built pressure on the Whitlam Government. For the news crews at Parliament House, Remembrance Day 1975 started like any other – door-stops with politicians and covering the wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial.

Geoff Gardner interviewed Bob Wilesmith for the NFSA's Oral History program in 2014.

Read more in The 1975 Whitlam Dismissal: News Footage