I don't think that even John Grey Gorton, 19th Prime Minister of Australia (January 1968 to March 1971, died 2002) would regard his prime ministership as being an unqualified success. Well meaning, perhaps. Unlucky, certainly, at least with regard to timing. He inherited a tired conservative government which was well past its sell by date in an increasingly radical and alternative time. He had, for the first time in a long time, a charismatic and popular opponent. And to top it off, he was not a good media performer, in an age when television was the defining medium. He also had in his ministry at least one person who felt that the leadership should have been his after the previous Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared off a beach in Portsea (or was hoovered up by a Chinese submarine, if you believe such things). And indeed, Billy McMahon, Holt's deputy, would have been Liberal leader but for the Liberals' coalition partner (the then Country Party, now the Nationals) putting the kybosh on that by threatening to withdraw from the coalition and sink the government.

Luck was never Gorton's strong suit, though, with at least three crashes to his record as a fighter pilot in World War II. One of them apparently left him with a disfigured face. I was aware of the story, but can't say that I really noticed or would have been aware of it had I not been told. But on the other hand, I never met the man personally.

In the 1969 election the Liberal/ Country Party coalition came close to losing government and the knives were out for the leader. With the leadership of the Country Party having changed following Black Jack McEwen's retirement, a McMahon leadership was no longer out of the question and the rumblings started. Gorton went to the party room for a confidence motion, which ended up tied. He could have stayed on with that, but decided that his position as leader wasn't tenable and pulled the plug on it. McMahon won and fumbled and stumbled his way until he lost the 1972 election. (In my view had McMahon been leader from the start, it's quite possible that Whitlam's Labor party would have won in 1969 and Australia's history may have been somewhat different. McMahon was dreadful as a leader. Utterly, utterly dreadful.)

Unlike some former PM's, Gorton has very few monuments in Canberra named after him. One of the few is this building which sits between the National Gallery of Australia and Old Parliament House. The John Gorton building houses the Department of Finance and Deregulation. Hmm, a curious pairing, considering how much of the GFC was caused by insufficiently regulated financial trading room cowboys.

This shot was taken at first light, when we went down to see the hot air Balloon Spectacular show. Unfortunately our luck was as good as Gorton's and the balloon launches were cancelled because of the wind direction.

Last Year