A fascinating account of how a PR company facilitated the rise of big oil in Australia has been documented by DeSmog. This deserves wider exposure across Australia’s mainstream stream media – perhaps they still hold shares in Ampol!
“How a New York PR Agency Helped the U.S. Oil Industry Conquer Australia“ by Royce Kurmelovs and Rebecca John, in DeSmog, explores how the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton facilitated the expansion of the U.S. oil industry into Australia during the 1950s.
Central to this narrative is William Gaston Walkley, a New Zealand-born accountant who led Ampol’s efforts to discover oil in Australia. In November 1953, Ampol achieved a significant milestone with the discovery of oil at Rough Range-1 in Western Australia. Hill & Knowlton played a pivotal role in shaping public perception of this discovery. Their strategies included organizing press trips to the drilling site and proposing high-profile presentations of oil samples to the West Australian cabinet and even to Queen Elizabeth II during her 1954 visit to Australia. These efforts aimed to generate favorable publicity and goodwill for Ampol and the burgeoning Australian oil industry.
Hill & Knowlton’s tactics extended to influencing financial reporting. For instance, Walkley encouraged finance reporters to purchase Ampol shares, thereby aligning their personal financial interests with the company’s success. While this approach garnered positive media coverage, it also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest and the risk of unrealistic expectations affecting the company’s stock price.
This historical account underscores the long-standing relationship between public relations firms and the fossil fuel industry. The legacy of such collaborations continues to influence public discourse on climate change and environmental policy. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has criticized advertising and PR companies for their role in enabling climate denial and greenwashing, referring to them as “enablers to planetary destruction”. See DeSmog for more details.