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Herbert Cole Coombs (Nugget Coombs, 1906-97) at Lapstone Conference on the admission of Indonesia to the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). Photo sourced from

Top 10 Intriguing Facts about H. C. Coombs

Herbert Cole Coombs was an Australian economist and public servant. He is popularly known for being the first Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

He was born on October 29, 1997, in Kalamunda, Western Australia. His father was a railway stationmaster and a well-read mother.

Learn more about H.C. Coombs in these top 10 intriguing facts.

1. Coombs Pursued Economics

Coombs was a student in Perth. He was a socialist, but while he was studying at the London School of Economics. While at school, he became converted to the economic views of John Maynard Keynes.

He got a scholarship to Perth Modern School. After five years, he worked as a pupil-teacher for a year, spending two years at the Teachers College.

Coombs spent two years teaching at a country school while studying for a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree at the University of Western Australia (UWA). This was the only free university in Australia.

At UWA, Coombs was elected as the 1930 Sports Council president and subsequently the 1931 president of the Guild of Undergraduates. 

While at UWA, he transferred to a metropolitan school for the final two years enabling him to graduate with B.A. with first-class honors in economics and won a Hackett Studentship for overseas study.

He then enrolled at the London School of Economics, where he studied under Harold Laski. One of the most influential Marxists of the 20th century. Coombs was awarded a PhD for a thesis on central banking.

2. Coombs was an Advocate for Australian Aboriginal People

After his retirement, he became the most prominent advocate for indigenous Aboriginal Australian. This gave Coombs a position of influence in policymaking on Indigenous affairs.

 He demonstrated relationships with indigenous communities, respecting their priorities and listening to them. He acted as a mediator between these communities and institutions of government.

Coombs became the chairman of the Council for Aboriginal people in 1967. The Holt Government set up the council in the wake of the referendum that gave the Commonwealth Parliament power to legislate specifically for the Aboriginals.

He became a close advisor to the Labour leader Gough Whitlam. Coombs largely wrote Labor’s policy on Aboriginal affairs, particularly the commitment to Aboriginal land rights.

3. Coombs Aboriginal Affairs Legacy Was Criticized

H. C. Coombs. Photo sourced from

During the Howard government administration, the Coombs legacy in Aboriginal affairs was attacked with criticism. Piers Akerman, a journalist, argued that Coombs’s policy amounted to politically correct apartheid.

The communal land ownership implicated in Aboriginal land rights kept Aboriginal people poor and dependent on welfare by preventing land ownership.

4. He Was the First Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

The Reserve Bank of Australia was established to take over the Commonwealth Bank’s central banking function in 1960. Coombs was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank.

While at the Reserve Bank, he paid tribute to Sir Leslie Melville by advising the government and others that the best man for the job had been overlooked.

Coombs served at the Reserve Bank from 1960 to 1968. He retired as governor of the bank in 1960 and simultaneously as a public servant.

5. Coombs Had Interest in Arts

After his retirement, he continued to work. He then showed his interest in the arts by becoming the first chairman of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1954. The institution was established under his guidance.

 Coombs persuaded Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967 to create the Australian Council for the Arts as a body for the public funding of the arts. In 1968 he became its chairman.

He worked intimately with Prime Minister John Gorton to secure funding for the Australian film industry. Coombs became chancellor of the Australian National University, which he helped start in 1946.

 He administered the 1970 Buntine Oration titled Human Values, Education in the Changing Australian Society.

6. Coombs worked at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

H. C. Coombs. Photo sourced from

In 1935, Coombs became an economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It was then a state-owned bank that served as Australia’s central bank.

As a senior economist, Coombs shifted to the Department of the Treasury in 1939 in Canberra. In October 1941, John Curtin appointed him to the Commonwealth Bank board.

In 1942, the Commonwealth Bank Treasurer Ben Chifley appointed him Director of Rationing. In 1943 Coombs was made Director-General of the Department of Post-war Reconstruction, a new position held by Chifley.

Chifley appointed Coombs as governor of the Commonwealth Bank in January 1949. Governor was the most important post in the regulation of the Australian economy.

7. Coombs’s Relationship with Judith Wright

In a June 2009 article in The Monthly, journalist Fiona Capp revealed the story of the 25-year secret love affair between two of Australia’s most known and well-loved public figures, the famous poet and activist Judith Wright and the distinguished yet down-to-earth statesman Nugget Coombs.

8. Coombs Served as Royal Commission

He was chairman of the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration in 1975. Coombs was tasked with examining the purpose, organization, function and management of Australian Government bodies and the structure and management of the Australian Public Service.

The Royal Commission report was ignored by the incoming Liberal government of Malcolm Fraser.

9. He Worked as a Consultant to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam

Coombs worked as a consultant to Prime Minister Whitlam. Other ministers resented his influence.

He had disapproved of the events that led up to the Loans Affairs of 1975. The 1975 Australian Constitutional upheaval led to Whitlam’s government’s rejection by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr.

Coombs advised Whitlam not to resort to unorthodox means of financing government operations when the Senate blocked supply, but Whitlam did so. However, they regarded the dismissal as scandalous. His disaffection from Whitlam meant that he took little subsequent part in politics.

10. Throughout His Life, Coombs Received Several Awards

In 1975, Coombs was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the first awards of the Order on the Queen’s Birthday. However, he resigned from the Order in 1976 upon the launch of the grade of knighthood to the Order.

In January 2008, it was broadcasted that a new suburb in the Canberra district of Molonglo would be named Coombs. The suburb adjoins the new suburb of Wright, named after Judith Wright.