The artist
Harold Freedman OAM (1915 – 1999) was always an artist for people. He is best remembered for his public murals in mosaic and paint.
His History of Racing at Flemington (1982 – 89) was his final master work in a tradition that began with his Aviation mural at the Australian War memorial, Canberra. Two of Freedman's epics are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register – his Cavalcade of Transport at Southern Cross Railway Station, Melbourne, and his mosaic of football heroes at the former showpiece Australia Rules stadium, Waverley Park.
In his long career, Freedman was painter, war artist, art teacher at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and printmaker. He was involved in book design, reflected in The History of Australian Thoroughbred Racing. Notable publications included The Book of Melbourne and Canberra (1966), featuring his hand-printed lithographs and text by Robin Boyd, and Riders of Time which he illustrated for Dame Mabel Brooks. From 1972 to 1983 he was official State Artist for Victoria and in 1989 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
The historian
Dr. Andrew Lemon is an independent Melbourne historian, author of numerous books on local history, shipwrecks, biography, schools and sport, and winner of national literary awards.
He edited the Victorian Historical Journal throughout the 1990s and served on the Library Board of Victoria and the Heritage Council. He is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Australian Sport, the Australian Dictionary of Biography and The Encyclopedia of Melbourne. His latest book A Great Australian School (2004) was short-listed for the New South Wales History Awards 2005, and in recognition of his published work as a public historian he was in 2005 awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Melbourne.
In the 1980s he worked closely with artist the late Harold Freedman to research the history of racing mural in seven huge panels on the ceiling of the public grandstand at Flemington. Two substantial books, volumes one and two of The History of Australian Thoroughbred Racing, appeared at that time. He consulted with and appeared on the ABC Television series, The Track. In 2005 the Victoria Racing Club in conjunction with Racing Victoria commissioned Andrew to return to this work and complete a third and final volume to cover the history of the sport across Australia from 1939 to the present day. The book and new editions of the earlier volumes were published in 2008.