Personalities > Brian Leonard Cooper

Brian Leonard Cooper

Brian Leonard Cooper, born in Melbourne in 1936, was a Cooperatives Officer in Papua New Guinea until 1960. He encouraged Papua New Guineans to take the initiative in their own economic and political development, four years ahead of Australian policy.

On the advice of Prime Minister Menzies and Attorney-General Garfield Barwick he was arrested in Pyrmont and convicted of sedition in Port Moresby. His conviction in what seemed like a show trial rested on dubious procedures. It was the last Australian sedition case for fifty years. Brian Cooper committed suicide in Melbourne in 1965.

Further Reading

• W.R. Stent, ‘An Individual vs the State’, Overland, vol 79, 1980