Claudia Wright; Australian journalist
Hyfler/Rosner
March 8, 2005 Tuesday All-round Country Edition
Claudia Wright
Journalist and broadcaster. Born Bendigo, Victoria, June 17,
1934. Died Melbourne, January 29, aged 70.
'CLAWS", they called her. Nothing could be further from the
truth. In newspaper reports, she is frequently described as
acerbic. This seems an appalling and dated cliche. Claudia
Wright was, in fact, a woman of warmth, compassion and
remarkable generosity. She was also startlingly original.
But she defied journalistic and social convention, and in
the 1960s and '70s you just didn't do that. How she kept her
job on Melbourne's Herald (and other newspapers) is a matter
of conjecture. Perhaps it was the brilliance of her
writing -- her extraordinary style and her bravura, which
resonated with the reading and listening public and kept her
in various jobs in the print and broadcast media. She was
always a delight to meet.
The thing that distinguished her -- certainly in the early
days -- was her satirisation of Melbourne (especially
Toorak) society. She found the social mores of Toorak and
South Yarra fascinating and ghastly at the same time.
Perhaps that she was from the arid plains of northwestern
Victoria (and utterly unconnected with the landed
squattocracy, although she went to a good private school)
may well have had something to do with her wonderment
about -- as novelist Martin Boyd put it -- the most snobbish
city in the world.
Born Claudia Little, her first job was with The Bendigo
Advertiser. There she met her first husband, Geoff Wright, a
local bloke from Nyah West near Swan Hill.
Geoff Wright was a bit older than Claudia and more
experienced in the ways of the world. He was extremely
influential in her thinking and writing style, as was her
second husband, John Helmer. There were two children from
the first marriage, Lincoln and Edwina.
Geoff Wright moved to Sydney and the reasons for his
separation from Claudia are obscure. She then married
Helmer, a Russian scholar (and the nephew of former
governor-general Zelman Cowen), and they produced a son
named Tully.
Tully was only eight when Claudia, then in her mid-50s,
first developed symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. It was not
her first serious illness. In the '70s she had developed
breast cancer and undergone a successful operation. She
spoke about (in print and on radio) both illnesses, which
was almost unheard of in those days.
She also allowed herself to be used as a guinea pig for
Alzheimer's drug research in the early, experimental days.
She said: "Why should I give up? I am determined to fight
the disease and win."
Her determination later led to the Claudia Wright Appeal for
Alzheimer's Disease. This body set out to raise $1
million -- and got pretty close to achieving it. Today the
illness costs the Australian community $2billion a year.
Occasionally I would meet Claudia with television presenter
Mitta Hamilton (another Bendigo girl from a prominent
family) and I helped a bit with publicity for the cancer
cause.
The thing that distressed Claudia most was that although she
could think clearly, she could no longer translate her ideas
into words. One thinks of the parallel with English novelist
Iris Murdoch.
Claudia never ceased to be feisty and was often angry. She
said: "Some people treat me like a loony. I get so mad, I
could hit them."
She was an inspired media person. She danced with mud-men in
the New Guinea highlands. She interviewed the youthful
Saddam Hussein, then a Western ally, in Baghdad and he
presented her with a ceremonial Arab sword.
Claudia lived with Alzheimer's for a remarkable 15 years.
Contemporary newspaper reports say it was diagnosed in
Washington, DC, where she worked for 10 years. My
recollection is that it was discovered in Russia.
Perhaps Claudia's longevity was partly due to her physical
health regimen. She walked, jogged and swam on a daily
basis. She attended painting classes. A home helper from
Prahran took her shopping for years on end. She could not
read newspapers but loved talking books and enjoyed TV.
Claudia died in a Kew nursing home, with Edwina, Lincoln and
Tully at her side.
She was a woman of rare distinction. She was an iconoclast.
She was a hero. She was loved and revered by her friends.