Background
Calder was born in Melbourne, Victoria and educated at Melbourne Grammar before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1932.
Calder was born in Melbourne, Victoria and educated at Melbourne Grammar before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1932.
Following the end of hostilities in 1945, Calder returned to Australia and worked as the chief pilot for Northern Territory-based airline Connellan Airways. Not content with this, Calder also took on the challenge of managing cattle stations the size of some European countries. Calder married English actress Daphne Campbell after they met while she was filming the 1946 Anglo-Australian film The Overlanders in the Northern Territory.
Calder"s high profile in the Northern Territory led federal Country Party leader John McEwen to ask him to stand as a Country Party candidate at the 1966 federal election.
The Division of Northern Territory had long been in Labor Party hands, and the Country Party had last run a candidate there in 1954. Calder played an active role in parliament, pushing for development in the Northern Territory, and could claim some of the cr for the construction of the Adelaide-Alice Springs train line and several new roads, and the Northern Territory being granted self-government, Senate representation, and the right to vote in national referendums.
Following the granting of self-government in 1978, Calder founded the Country Liberal Party, which held government in the Northern Territory for over a quarter of a century. Calder also had many ambitious plans which failed to see the light of day, including Northern Territory statehood and a nuclear power station in the Territory.
He retired in 1980. Even in retirement, Calder continued to fight the furthering of Aboriginal rights, arguing that they made Aboriginals lazy.
Calder died in Darwin late in the evening of 30 September 2008, aged 92.