Vale- 2026, June
- andrea
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
McKINNON |
...........This document is in progress and will be added to as information becomes available
MCKINNON, Emeritus Professor Ken McKinnon AO, 01 January 1931 - 26 April 2026, aged 95 years
The Papua New Guinea Association of Australia is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of one of its energetically supportive and valued members - Ken McKinnon.
Emeritus Professor Kenneth R McKinnon AO AUA (Adel) BA BEd (Qld) EdD (Harvard) DLitt (Hon Woll) DLitt (Hon Deakin) DLitt (Hon UNSW), DUniv (Hon James Cook) became one of Australia’s most outstanding educators and educational administrators.
Ken was a pioneering director of education in PNG from 1966 -73; known as the man who reformed and redirected the education system, gave it a national orientation and put it on an ‘independence footing’.[1]
Ken and his wife, Suzanne Walker, in her time a notable public servant in Australia, have been great friends of Papua New Guinea.
Ken McKinnon was a PNGAA member from July 2008 until his passing. He regularly attended events in Sydney, the last being the 2025 AGM, just last year, after travelling by train from Wollongong.
He and Suzanne have actively supported the PNGAA for nearly 20 years, and generously supported PNGAA Education Program since 2022, contributing to educational opportunities for PNG students.
In 2016 Ken (see photo above) supported a PNGAA working group to develop and prioritise ideas to form the basis of a proposal to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Trust (SHFT) for PNGAA to use the 10 Terminal buildings and spaces on Middle Head, formerly the site of ASOPA, to:
a. further relationships between the peoples of Australia and PNG and Melanesia generally; and
b. to commemorate the contributions of Australians towards PNG’s independence, including ASOPA.
An open-day was held at Middle Head in March 2016 and PNGAA rallied local and interstate PNGAA members to attend, together with 12 affiliated Pacific Island organisations and the PNG Consul-General, Sumasy Singin.
This was quickly followed by a further public consultation on 16 June 2016 when the SHFT Board invited the public to attend a Board meeting. The PNGAA rallied members, ‘…with special thanks to Ken McKinnon, Sara Turner and Alan Pierce who spoke convincingly, on our behalf, about the need for this project.’
The Middle Head Master Plan has had several iterations, complete with ongoing challenges, which the PNGAA has put enormous time into responding to. 10 years later the site remains as it was.
Ken opened doors – and was an impressive, considerable and greatly appreciated support.
Ken had been amongst the first batch of young Australian teachers trained at ASOPA in 1954 and bound for Papua New Guinea.
Later that year he moved to Papua New Guinea to be a headmaster. It was an early highlight of Ken’s career and after eight years he had risen to the position of superintendent of schools.
‘I enjoyed my time in Papua New Guinea and when I was offered an opportunity to undertake a Harkness Fellowship at Harvard University, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave,’ Ken said.[2]
In the end, the prestigious Harkness Fellowship won Ken over and he spent two years in Boston completing his studies.
‘While I was in the United States I had the opportunity to travel the country, broaden my mind and lean into new experiences. My time at Harvard was transformative,’ Ken recalled.
‘The support and encouragement I received to expand my horizons and explore, deeply shaped my view of how universities can provide learning experiences beyond the lecture hall.’
Ken returned to PNG in 1966 as the Director of Education and worked closely with PNG’s future prime minister Michael Somare, earning praise for his efforts in decolonisation as he prepared local leaders to take over.
Ed Brumby once wrote:
‘[Ken] actively fostered the development of a cohort of Papua New Guinean educational leaders and administrators, long before it was fashionable, so that the Education Department was, by far, the best prepared to hand over the reins in 1975. It was, indeed, a privilege to work for him.’
Ken’s successes in PNG did not go unnoticed back on Australian soil, with the Whitlam government reaching out to ask Professor McKinnon to return to Australia to take up the role of chair of the Australian Schools Commission.
After leaving PNG he became chairman of the newly-established Australian Schools Commission (1973-81) and vice-chancellors of Wollongong University (1981-95), James Cook University (1997) and Charles Darwin University (2002-03). He was also chairman of the Australian Press Council from 2000-2011.
His other appointments also provide a clear indication of his energy and ability - board member of the College of Law, president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee and chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO as well as a consultant to the World Bank and 18 universities in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
Eight years after leaving PNG, Ken received an unexpected call from Wollongong, asking him to consider leading the university.
‘I said I’d come but only if they were willing to let me do what I considered essential in any university, and that was to treat the students as people and not just numbers,’ he said.
‘It’s important that universities develop people and prioritise educating students.’[3]
Ken served the University of Wollongong as its second Vice-Chancellor from 1981-1994.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 1995 Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘service to education, to the community and to the arts’.
Ken was a remarkable and generous supporter of various projects in PNG. In 2012, together with Suzanne Walker, a considerable sum of money was donated to the Crocodile Prize that allowed the printing of up to 10,000 books of original Papua New Guinean writing to be circulated throughout the length and breadth of the country. It was believed that this print run of The Crocodile Prize Anthology 2012 was the largest of any book published in PNG.
The Crocodile Prize was established in 2010 by Keith Jackson AM and Phil Fitzpatrick to encourage creative and critical writing in Papua New Guinean and to provide Papua New Guineans with access to home-grown literature.[4]
Another highlight of Ken McKinnon’s varied career was as co-lead, together with Douglas Swan, of the NSW Department of Education’s 1984 document Future Directions of Secondary Education, which proposed sweeping overhauls to the structure of schools in New South Wales, reshaping the educational landscape. The changes were designed to better accommodate the massive influx of students staying on for senior high school.
Ultimately, the Swan-McKinnon report laid vital foundational work for subsequent decades of secondary schooling reviews, syllabus designs, and vocational education pathways in the state.
In August 1973, on the occasion of his farewell from the post of Director of Education for Papua New Guinea (1966-73), albums in the University of Wollongong Archival Collection were presented to Professor Ken McKinnon. The photographs are all annotated and show the cultural richness of the curriculum within Papua New Guinea schools during the period. Emeritus Professor McKinnon AO, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Wollongong donated the albums to the University of Wollongong Archives on the occasion of the 2016 Library exhibition, 24 Boxes: Unpacking the Cochrane Papua New Guinea collection. Collection Name: Ken McKinnon
Professor Emeritus Ken McKinnon AO was an outstanding visionary and an effective leader. His conversation, energy, strength, warmth, infectious smile and sense of humour inspired all who had the good fortune to have met him.
[1] Keith Jackson AM
[2] https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2025/professor-ken-mckinnon-the-visionary-who-shaped-uows-future.php
[3] https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2025/professor-ken-mckinnon-the-visionary-who-shaped-uows-future.php
[4] The PNGAA supported the publishing of the Crocodile Prize in 2014 and 2015 with donations of $5000 each year. This ensured that free Crocodile Prize Anthologies could be distributed to PNG schools and libraries.
Comments