Margaret Sutherland OBE AO 1897-1984

Sutherland continued to teach and perform. During the Second World War she formed a group called Women of the University to give concerts for young people and lunch-time chamber music recitals to raise funds for the Red Cross.

Sutherland’s inspiring, philanthropic spirit led her to champion a variety of worthy causes, most notably the creation of an Arts Centre for Melbourne. In 1943 the old Wirths’ Circus site in St Kilda Road seemed destined to be sold for industrial redevelopment. Sir Daryl Lindsay and Sir Keith Murdoch had suggested that, instead, it should be used for a new home for the National Gallery – which, with the museum, was squeezed into the Public Library in Swanston Street. Sutherland, who was a member of the National Gallery council, had a grander vision. She wrote to The Age suggesting the site be reserved for a building containing a gallery, 1000-seat theatre, 200-seat lecture hall, small recital studios, an arts library and a restaurant. She soon gathered support and established a lobby group called the Combined Arts Centre Movement (CAMA). A meeting at the Assembly Hall in November 1943 attracted representatives from the ABC, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Musicians’ Union and many other interested organisations and individuals. Even Bernard Heinze, with whom Sutherland had fallen out many years before, was cautiously supportive. Twelve months later CAMA was able to present the state government with a petition containing 40,000 signatures. Eventually it agreed.

Towards the end of 1951 Sutherland made a second trip to Britain, where she promoted Australian music and studied performing arts centres. She also sought a publisher for her music. Boosey and Hawkes expressed interest in her Concerto for Strings, but rejected it when it was pointed out the composer, ‘M. Sutherland’, was a woman. Later, with fellow composer Don Banks, she founded the Australian Music Association, dedicated to assisting Australian musicians studying abroad, arranging concerts of Australian music, and setting up a library of Australian music at Australia House in London.

If Sutherland thought that the end of the war would lead to a start on the Arts Centre she was wrong. This battle was far from over. During a period of intense political instability, the government quietly gave one of its most influential members, business tycoon Arthur Warner, permission to build a factory on the site. Backed by Murdoch’s Sun News-Pictorial, Sutherland and her team went into action. By this time she had won recognition as an important contemporary composer; she was also a mentor for a new generation of young musicians, many of whom lent their enthusiastic support to the cause. And she won. Soon after Henry Bolte came to office, in June 1956, he set up the National Gallery and Cultural Centre Building Committee which steered the immense project to completion – though it took another 26 years.

Sutherland was also prominent in the Council for the Encouragement of Music (the forerunner of the Arts Council), the Australian Music Advisory Committee for UNESCO, and the Camerata Society, which she founded to present contemporary chamber music concerts, particularly new Australian work. She also established the music publishing imprint Kurrajong Press.