By Julie Power
The late author and Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis may have portrayed himself as the "Nostradamus Kid", but the true believer was like the Australian Labor Party's "pet cat", said Mike Rann, former Labor premier of South Australia.
Addressing Mr Ellis' funeral in Sydney's Frenchs Forest on Saturday, Mr Rann said his former speechwriter would turn up at every ALP conference with papers under one arm and a pillow under the other, ready to curl up for a sleep under a chair.
"He was always there, turning up at every election, setting up in at someone's office, invited or not," he said.
"He was Australia's greatest diarist, a mix of Boswell with a touch of Samuel Johnson and Hunter S. Thompson thrown in," said Rann, who promised Ellis years ago that he would talk at his funeral with a "minimum of dignity".
Jack Ellis, son of Bob Ellis, with Bill Shorten and Paul Howes.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
On Saturday, about 400 of the old guard of the Labor Party, theatre, film and publishing world farewelled Ellis. Mourners included feminist author Germaine Greer, former Labor premier Barrie Unsworth, Gough Whitlam's speechwriter Graham Freudenberg, former NSW deputy premier Andrew Refshauge, former MP and unionist Craig Thomson, former NSW police minister Paul Whelan, former union leader Paul Howes, former NSW Labor premier Nathan Rees and comedians Rhys Muldoon and John Doyle.
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said news of Ellis' death had set off a massive calling tree in the Labor Party.
"Today I am standing before you as the leader of the Labor Party, the party that Bob loved, and the Labor Party to which he returned the phrase 'true believers'," Mr Shorten said, referring in part to the mini-series that Ellis wrote about the Labor Party from the Second World War to its split in the mid-1950s.
"Prose was Bob's greatest gift, words are his enduring legacy, " said Mr Shorten.
Pallbearers at Bob Ellis' funeral at Frenchs Forest Bushland Cemetery. Credit: Dallas Kilponen
Before coming to the funeral, Mr Shorten said, he had re-read the hundreds of personal emails that Mr Ellis had sent, which often arrived within seconds of a speech with advice, including suggestions on how to attack the opposition. Sometimes Ellis would be scandalous, his lines too defamatory to be used.
"If had a dollar for every letter he sent, I'd almost be able to afford the legal costs of using them," said Mr Shorten.
Labor stalwart Bob Ellis last year. Credit: James Alcock
Mr Rann said: "Ellis could rage like King Lear at injustice. He was no saint, but he could write like an angel."
In addition to books and journalism, Ellis wrote nearly 30 plays and screenplays ranging from King O'Malley; the autobiographical Nostradamus Kid about his youth and fear that the world was about to end; the mini-series True Believers; the screenplay Newsfront (which he later said was his best work, although he asked to have his name removed from the credits at the time); Man of Flowers; and Goodbye Paradise.
Some of his supporters thought he deserved a state funeral. But Ellis was farewelled the way he wanted: with an outpouring of beautifully crafted words, many written by him over the years.
More than 10 years ago he had described his ideal send-off. "No memorial indulgence, no golden chariot pulled by black horses with tossing manes through thinly falling snow will ever be as good as those clear words said: 'I love you. I'll miss you. It was good for the world that you were here'."
"We are not here very long," he had written before knowing he had the cancer that killed him. "And that which we love goes from us faster than we expect. And we are always caught on the hop by the death of one we had long meant to visit, and now, quite often, it is too late.
"It's important, I think, to get it said, and say it soon. To make peace, to kiss it better."
Ellis' daughter Jenny used his words, saying she loved him, missed him and promised to finally watch Titanic.
Ellis died on April 3, aged 73, of liver failure and prostate cancer caused by a neuroendocrine tumour. He is survived by wife, Anne Brooksbank, and children Jack, Jenny and Tom.