Montsalvat is relaunching its popular Red Chair conversation series with events from July to December, 2024, where we can listen to experts in their field, engage in stimulating conversations and enjoy some hospitality. In honouring this tradition, we have developed a new series, modelled on the past but looking to the future and dealing with the big issues facing us today.

The Hon Barry Jones

Image artwork by © Louise Hearman.

‘Human capacity, tackling complexity and saving the planet’.

Barry was a founding member of the Montsalvat Board from 2006 to 2012 and a Montsalvat Patron since then.

Barry is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, he was Minister for Science in the Hawke Government 1983-90 and listed by the National Trust as an Australian Living National Treasure. Uniquely, he is a Fellow of four of Australia’s five learned academies, Science, Humanities, Technology and Engineering, and Social Sciences. He represented Australia at UNESCO in Paris 1991-95.

His 14 books include the ground breaking Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work (1982) and Dictionary of World Biography, now in its tenth edition.