Keith Waller

Keith Waller was born in Melbourne in 1914.[2][3] He was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne.[2]

Waller joined the Commonwealth Public Service in 1936, in the Department of External Affairs.[2] In 1937 he was appointed Private Secretary to Billy Hughes, then Minister for External Affairs.[4]

His career proved to be long and successful, establishing himself as a successful diplomat across a number of postings, including to Moscow, Washington and Bangkok.[2] In 1943 whilst senior officer to the Australian Legation at Chungking, Waller married Alison Dent in Bombay, India.[5][6]

Waller was Australian Consul-General in Manila from 1948 to 1950. During this time he dealt with the fall-out of the Lorenzo Gamboa case, which saw a Filipino man separated from his wife and children due to the White Australia policy. He received death threats, but later downplayed its significance and dismissed it as a "trivial case".[7]

He was appointed Secretary of the Department of External Affairs (later Department of Foreign Affairs in 1970), retiring from the public service in 1974 on his 60th birthday.[8]

Waller in Siberia, 1960s

Soon after his retirement, Waller prepared a brief assessing the Australian Government security and intelligence apparatus as it existed in the mid-1970s.[9]

Waller died in Canberra on 14 November 1992 aged 78.[10][11]

In June 1961, Waller was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire whilst Ambassador to the USSR.[12] He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1968 during his time as Ambassador to the United States of America.[13]

A street in the Canberra suburb of Casey was named Keith Waller Rise in 2011, in Waller's honour.[3]