Ambrose Pratt

Ambrose Goddard Hesketh Pratt (31 August 1874 – 13 April 1944) was an Australian writer born into a cultivated family in Forbes, New South Wales.

Early life
Pratt was the third of seven children of Eustace Pratt, a well-connected physician fluent in Mandarin Chinese who had spent some time in India and China, and was a friend of Henry Parkes and Edmund Barton. His grandfather Henry Pratt, also a medical man, had in his later years become obsessed with Eastern religions and philosophies of India and Tibet. Ambrose himself was brought up by an amah and educated at St Ignatius' College, Riverview and Sydney Grammar School. He had private tutors for French, German, and the manly arts boxing, riding, fencing and shooting. After abandoning studies in Medicine, he took up Law.

Writing career
Around the time of his university studies Pratt began writing pro-labour (and anti-Asian immigration) articles for The Australian Worker. Once qualified as a solicitor, he rose to admission to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1897. But this life must not have suited him, as he left to follow a more adventurous existence, including work on a Pacific trading steamer and as a Queensland drover.

He travelled to England where he commenced writing novels and stories for magazines such as The Bulletin and The Lone Hand, and began what was to become a career in journalism with the Daily Mail which brought him back to Australia in 1905.

He joined The Age as a journalist in 1905, gaining considerable influence (David Syme was a mentor), and was a member of the party with Prime Minister Andrew Fisher visiting the newly founded Union of South Africa for the opening of its parliament. In 1918, as a prominent protectionist in the tariff debate then raging, became founding editor and part-owner of the Australian Industrial and Mining Standard to 1927. He was involved in companies mining for tin in Malaya and Siam.

Pratt's novels frequently focussed on criminal outsiders such as "The Push" (a Sydney larrikin element analogous to the "bodgies" of the 1950s, "rockers" of the 1960s and "bikies" of today), and bushrangers such as Captain Thunderbolt and Ben Hall.

Other activities
With retirement from journalism, he became involved with keeping Australian fauna in the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, being president 1921–36 of the Zoological and Acclimatization Society of Victoria, and later vice-chairman of the Zoological Society of Victoria. With his friend William Colin Mackenzie he founded the research station at Healesville. He was a proponent (from around 1925) of The Ghan railway to Alice Springs and rode in the VIP carriage during the inaugural journey. In 1933 he founded the League of Youth with the aim of encouraging citizenship and love of nature. His politics, initially pro-labour, had turned decidedly conservative from the time of the Australian Labor Party split of 1916. His mining and newspaper investments may have been a contributing factor. By 1931, as a member of "The Group", he was helping ease the departure of Joseph Lyons from the Labor Party, including the writing of his resignation speech.

Legacy
Pratt ended his life an opponent of the White Australia Policy and attempted to ameliorate the kind of xenophobia prevalent at the time (and finding support in the pages to The Bulletin) with his writings, exemplified by his 1941 play A Point in Time. His book The Real South Africa similarly had what would now be regarded as a remarkably enlightened view of the position of Black South Africans.

In 1941, Pratt was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the White Elephant by the government of Thailand, for his service as consul-general in Australia. He was the first Australian inducted into the order.

His portrait by Charles Wheeler won the 1933 Archibald prize.

The Ambrose Pratt section of the Royal Zoological Gardens in Melbourne is named for him.