Professor James (Jamie) Austin Copland Mackie

Professor James (Jamie) Austin Copland Mackie.

Photo: Australian National University

Professor Jamie Mackie was an academic and served in the Australian Navy in World War II.

In 1956 he made his first trip to Indonesia under the Volunteer Graduate Scheme (now known as Australian Volunteers International) where he worked at the State Planning Bureau for two years.

Professor Mackie’s academic life was devoted to the study of Indonesia and Asia more generally, and he became one of Australia’s most persistent advocates for the development of deeper bilateral relations with Indonesia.

Professor Mackie founded the Department of Indonesian and Malaysian Studies at the University of Melbourne in 1958 and wrote a book commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Conference.  (The Conference aimed to promote Asian-African economic and cultural cooperation, and was an important step towards the formation of Non-Aligned Movement.)