Neville Wran (1926-2014) was a great Australian success story. His early childhood was spent in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, long before it was gentrified. He won a scholarship to study at the selective Fort Street Boys’ High School and then completed a law degree at Sydney University. Wran subsequently enjoyed a lucrative career as a Sydney lawyer, ultimately becoming a Queen’s Counsel (1968).

Increasingly active within the Australian Labor Party (ALP), Wran entered the New South Wales Parliament in 1970 and by 1976 had led the ALP to electoral victory after many years of Liberal rule. Presumably conscious of the recently deposed Gough Whitlam’s reputation for doing ‘too much, too soon’, Wran’s ten-year premiership was comparatively cautious and incremental, yet the Wran era boasted many achievements: generous support for national parks; increased funding for heritage and arts institutions such as regional galleries; social reforms such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality; and improvements in essential services such as health and transport.