For more than 60 years, Bevan dedicated himself to the pursuit of an independent, peaceful and sustainable Australia, free from US domination and its war machine.

Right to the end of his life, he remained as active and committed as ever. Just days before his passing, he spoke at IPAN’s National Conference, “Time to Break Free from the US”, in Adelaide. With his great humour, he negotiated for more time on the stage.

Bevan was an integral member of Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, a mainstay of the organisation from when he joined in 2015, and the editor of our monthly publication, Voice.

He was a husband, father, grandfather, mentor and friend to so many.

Others knew Bevan through the movement for Australian independence, through his writing, radio broadcasts, workshops, or by having the fine print of the Force Posture Agreement patiently explained someone who had read every clause.

Bevan was optimistic in his last week. Friends say he believed this conference represented the culmination of decades of work and struggle for peace. It brought together ideas, campaigns and people he had spent a lifetime helping to build.

Bevan was born in Thornbury, Melbourne, in 1939. At 26, in 1965, he travelled to Zambia as an Australian Volunteer Abroad. The two years he spent there, witnessing first-hand the enduring legacies of colonialism, racism and struggles for national independence, profoundly shaped his political outlook and set the direction of the rest of his life.

Returning to an Australia at war, Bevan threw himself into the growing movement against the Vietnam War and conscription. As a Sunday school teacher and active member of the Doncaster Methodist Church, he and his friend Max Anderson sought to encourage discussion of Australia’s role in Vietnam within their church community. When those efforts were repeatedly resisted by church leaders, Bevan eventually left organised religion.

Yet throughout his life he continued to work alongside people of every faith and background in pursuit of peace, justice and human dignity.

Bevan became one of the leading organisers of the Diamond Valley........

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