GREEN, William Bridson (1940-2011)William Bridson Green, a larger than life character, author, screen and theatre writer died in an ambulance near Talbot, Victoria on 15 August 2011.
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'Bill' Green (Football, 1957)
Writing occasionally as ‘Jack’ Green he published a variety of fiction including Cleaning Up (1972); Born before the Wind (1983); Freud and the Nazis Go Surfing (1986); Pink Water Dawn (1997); Dying for Paradise (1995); The Devil’s Trap (2006); Compulsively Murdering Mao (1989); and Red Snapper Night. He most recently ran a bookshop and art gallery in Talbot after closing his Williamstown bookshop, the perversely “Slightly Bent Books”.
‘Bill’ Green was a boarder at the College from 1952 to 1958 and had been at Swan Hill State School. His father ‘Tom’ B Green was a solicitor in Swan Hill. At College, 'Bill’ was an active athlete and a member of Calvert House. In both 1957 and 1958, he was a member of the 1st Cricket XI, and the 1st Football XVIII. In 1958, he was House Monitor, Drum Major of the Cadet Band and a co-secretary of the College Debating Society. He was also the author of a story in
Pegasus of December, 1958 about the Tasmanian Music Tour. ‘Bill’s two sons, Andrew and Benjamin both attended College.
After leaving school, he tried his hand at several occupations including as a law clerk, but eventually became a cadet journalist for the
Herald newspaper from which he pursued a journalistic career in print and television. He reported for both Channel 9 and ABCTV. After fellow Geelong Collegian and historian Michael Cannon, founded
The Sunday Review newspaper, ‘Bill’ Green became his co-editor when the
Sunday Review morphed into the controversial newspaper
Nation Review. With
Nation Review’s vehement stand against the Vietnam War, ‘Bill’ became a leading radical anti-war protagonist engineering the visit of Wilfred Burchett to Australia and subsequently becoming Press Secretary to Jim Cairns after the 1972 election. After retiring from political life, he acquired a Camperdown property where, with his wife Helen, he bred racehorses and wrote.
One of Bill’s most enduring legacies was his involvement in developing the Advanced Diploma in Professional screenwriting at RMIT in July, 1996. ‘Bill had been teaching Professional writing, editing and screenwriting when his students commented about a lack of a dedicated screenwriting course. He and the then program Co-ordinator Judy Duffy promptly pursued the idea to establish the course.
Sources: Obituary by John Timlin- The Age (Melb) 29 Aug 2011 p29; Screenhub; Pegasus December 1958 p26. OGC 1953.