CityNews columnist Robert Macklin… his byline enhanced some 32 books, stage and screenplays as well as hundreds of articles totalling more than five million words.

Robert Macklin, accomplished author and CityNews columnist for almost 20 years, has died. Here his son BEN MACKLIN and friend MAX BOURKE AM pay a fond tribute to this remarkable writer and journalist.

One of Australia’s most prolific and respected authors and journalists, Robert Macklin, has died at 84 after a long battle with COPD. 

Canberra-based and seemingly born to write, his byline enhanced some 32 books, stage and screenplays as well as hundreds of articles totalling more than five million words.

His most notable works range from the critically acclaimed Castaway, a biography of the cabin boy Narcisse Pelletier adopted by a North Queensland Aboriginal clan for 17 years, to the international bestseller, SAS Sniper.

The Macklin oeuvre started in 1956 with an essay as a 14-year-old Brisbane Grammar schoolboy on boots, which began: “I am a pair of boots and I feel as though I am on my last legs”. It ended with his final yet-to-be-published novel, The Passions of Milford Haven, set in Canberra and the NSW south coast, completed on Boxing Day 2025.

His most recent book, The Man Who Planted Canberra – Charles Weston and his 3 Million Trees was published by the National Library in late September 2025 and is now in its second printing.

Of his published works, some 26 were non-fiction works of genuine Australian history, as opposed to the British version of colonial settlement.

Born in Brisbane in 1941, he was educated at Ironside State School and Brisbane Grammar School. He worked as a jackaroo in Outback Queensland before joining The Courier-Mail as a cadet journalist and part-time arts student at the University of Queensland.

He progressed to the Melbourne Age, which sent him to their Canberra bureau in 1964. There he met and married Wendy Webster, a Canberra teacher and music specialist. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on December 18, 2025.

Robert’s jackarooing experience and his Age connections scored him an appointment as press secretary to Country Party leader (Sir) John McEwen in late 1967.

McEwen was widely expected to retire after a final year in government. However, three weeks later Harold Holt took his fateful swim and his successor, John Gorton, persuaded “Black Jack” McEwen to stay until the next election.

When McEwen eventually left office in January 1971, Robert and Wendy, with their two young sons moved to the Philippines where he produced and directed documentary films for the Asian Development Bank in 33 countries of Asia and the South Pacific.

He also wrote his first novel, The Queenslander, which is now undergoing pre-production for a TV series by a Queensland production house.

Other novels took him to Hollywood where his Juryman (with Frank Galbally) was adapted to the MGM movie, Storyville starring James Spader, Jason Robards and Joanne Whalley.

Robert joined The Canberra Times in 1990 as a seasoned writer and subsequently became a founding arts editor, restaurant critic, and feature writer. His unique Page 3 column, A Capital Life, created an enviable relationship with his readers.

Indeed, in 2000 he initiated Canberra’s version of the Walk for Reconciliation across Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to The Lodge. 

He travelled to Serbia during the war over Yugoslavia’s collapse, and to East Timor on a European “ferry” during that country’s quest for independence. By then he had added leader writing to his duties, having been appointed associate editor in May 1999.

In 2003, he and then editor Crispin Hull were the first of a series of staffers to be “retrenched” in a cost-saving exercise by a new owner of the paper. 

In 2007 he wrote the authorised biography of fellow Queenslander, Kevin Rudd which became a bestseller in Beijing; and later he did a lecture tour of Chinese universities in Shanghai and Si’an on “Courage in Australian Literature”. 

Robert’s epic novel, Fire in the Blood – Frank Gardiner and his Bushrangers followed, together with a series of Australia’s war history, culminating in the wide-ranging Warrior Elite before turning to the cause of Aboriginal reconciliation.

The Big Fella, a history of BHP Billiton with co-author Peter Thompson, won the prestigious $30,000 Blake Dawson prize for business literature in 2009.

His other works garnered four Canberra Critics Circle awards, most notably for books supporting Aboriginal reconciliation – Dark Paradise, Hamilton Hume, Castaway, and the Donald Thomson biography, Fighting for Justice.

Robert’s weekly CityNews column expanded to the Braidwood Bugle and the Moruya Mail. In this role, among other scoops he broke the story of the secretly imprisoned intelligence officer whom he dubbed “Witness J”. 

Based on his extensive detailed writing in the field of military hardware and its strategic use, he was also invited to write for John Menadue’s prestigious Pearls and Irritations public policy journal.

His life-long friend and collaborator Peter Thompson, says: “His brilliance as a writer-reporter-novelist never ceased to amaze me – he could write about anything with style, insight and humour. Quite simply, he was one of Australia’s most versatile authors, and one of its most readable historians and columnists.” 

From his great friend of 62 years, Australian writer, Rob Drewe: “I can’t think of anyone in our game, in the worlds of literature and journalism, so admired and respected.”

He is survived by his wife, Wendy Macklin, two sons, Rob and Ben and four grandchildren Nick, Samara, Aria and Allegra. 

Editor’s note: The staff of CityNews offer their deepest condolences to Wendy and family, and salute the wonderful contribution Robert has made to our magazine over so many years. I shall miss his challenging Gadfly columns and his warm, friendship.

Ian Meikle, editor