Arts editor HELEN MUSA reflects on the many achievements of the late Bill Wood, said to be the “best ACT arts minister ever”…

An impressive gathering at St Pauls Anglican Church in Manuka on Tuesday farewelled former ACT and Queensland Labor politician and all-round good bloke, Bill Wood.

The congregation included Chief Minister Andrew Barr and no fewer than five former chief ACT chief ministers and it was one of them, Senator Katy Gallagher, who delivered the first eulogy.

Depicted by Gallagher as a true member of  “the Labor family”, a gentleman and a rare phenomenon in politics, Wood was born in Toowoomba to a father who had been Queensland Leader of the Opposition for a time. It was inevitable that he and his identical twin brother, Peter, would enter politics in Queensland, as both did.

A trained teacher with an interest in children with special needs, Wood, whose ability with words was remarkable, was also a true believer in the arts, in part due to the fact that his wife, Beverley, was an artist and an art teacher.

Gallagher stressed his role as a leading proponent of the arts in the ACT and in a subsequent eulogy by Wood’s niece Stephanie, it was clear that his family felt a sense of pride in the many buildings in Canberra which bear not his name, but his indelible mark.

For, in a stroke of inspiration during the fledgling days of the ACT government formed in 1989, Wood had spotted the potential for hiving off what became known as the “casino premium”, where a percentage of the cost of building the casino was directed towards the refurbishment of the North Building to become the Canberra Museum + Gallery, the Tuggeranong Arts Centre and The Street Theatre.

Wood had a touch of humility that prevented him from claiming solo responsibility and in what seems like a bygone era of bipartisan politics, he shared the podium with long-time sparring partner and sometime Liberal arts minister, Gary Humphries, to open the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

Wood endeared himself to the Canberra arts community by his deep commitment to it, not just in words but in practical action.

When The Street Theatre was being fitted out, he insisted on testing the seats to make sure they were comfortable enough — he, like many of us, was tired on sitting on milk crates for avant-garde performances.

Portrayed in the press as a hero for his part in rescuing several Sidney Nolan paintings when the Nolan Gallery at Tharwa was under siege from the 2003 bushfires, Wood was quick to assert that it wasn’t just him, although he did like to boast that he had several priceless paintings in the back of his car overnight before they were  taken into safekeeping.

Members of the ACT arts community with long memories like to depict Bill Wood as “the best ACT arts minister ever”. This was undoubtedly because of his hands-on approach.

Like his counterpart Humphries, when he was arts minister, he often held open forums with the broad arts community, rambunctious affairs where everybody could and did have their say.

In his retirement he and Beverly continued to patronise the visual and performing arts.

In 2018 at Form Studio and Gallery in Queanbeyan, he launched an exhibition titled Symphony in Colour, by the late multicultural figure Domenic Mico, speaking with animation of the life and colour in the paintings, which visibly gave him great pleasure.

While in recent years as his health failed and he became increasingly frail, he was not seen much in public, but in 2019 the same excitement attended his speech at the plaque-unveiling in  Gorman Arts Centre for the late theatre director Ralph Wilson.

My personal memories of Wood are many and varied, covering decades when he was by my side at art and theatre openings.

I was there when he upstaged the Bell Shakespeare Company by bringing his identical twin brother along to the opening night of The Comedy of Errors, where the main joke is the confusion between identical twins. John Bell could hardly believe it.

In whatever portfolio he assumed, Wood was approachable, and especially ever-keen to assist struggling artists and arts organisations.

My most abiding memory of him is the occasion when I encountered a problem at Muse Magazine while I was editor,  necessitating an emergency general meeting.

Sidling up to me at a theatre launch, he said: “I hear you need numbers — how many? I’m a numbers man.”

Bill Wood AM, born Toowoomba, November 4, 1935, died Canberra, May 19, 2024.