Gordon Barton

Who was Gordon Barton?

Gordon Page Barton was a quixotic Australian businessman and political activist.

He was born in Surabaya, Java, Dutch East Indies of a Dutch mother and Australian father. He showed his intelligence and originality early, at Sydney University, where he found by careful study of the handbook of course requirements he could select a particular group of subjects that would qualify him for three degrees simultaneously, in the time normally taken for one. The university awarded him the degrees but then changed the rules so that it couldn't happen again.

While still at university Barton started Interstate Parcel Express Company, which was the core of his business. In 1966 he used some of his wealth to form the Liberal Reform Group, a splinter group of Liberals disenchanted with the Liberal Party's support for the Vietnam War; this became the Australian Reform Movement and then the Australia Party, the precursor of the Democrats.

In 1967 he formed the company Tjuringa Securities which was the pioneer Australian corporate raider. Tjuringa took over Federal Hotels and the Angus and Robertson bookshops and publishing business which were asset stripped. He also set up two newspapers, the Sunday Observer and the Sunday Review. The second was merged with the purchased "Nation" publication to form the Nation Review.