A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic says that communal memory lies at the heart of a feature-length documentary film about former Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley and his wife Elizabeth. Dr Robin McLachlan, an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in History and Cultural Heritage Studies in the University’s School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies on Bathurst Campus, was co-producer and historian for The Chifleys of Busby Street – A Community Remembers. He says the film, which will be launched in Bathurst on Wednesday 25 June, is an exercise in ‘people’s history’. “It’s an attempt to find and share the communal memory of the Chifleys which lives on in their hometown of Bathurst, NSW, where Chifley’s extraordinary compassion and idealism are still treasured 50 years after his death. He was a politician who lived by principles of compassion and concern for his fellow Australians and he had a profound effect on the path of Australian history following World War Two,” Dr McLachlan said.