Draft:Charles Allen

• Comment: Almost entirely unreferenced. DoubleGrazing (talk) 12:08, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

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Photo of Charles Allen

Charles Allen

Charles Allen AO, MA (Cantab), MSc (London), DIC, Hon LLD (Monash), Hon LLD (Melb), FTSE is a distinguished figure in Australia’s corporate and scientific communities, renowned for his transformative leadership in the energy sector, industrial safety and scientific and medical research. He is regarded as the father of the Australian gas export industry and was awarded an AO in 1990.

Early life and education

Born David Charles Keith Allen (commonly referred to as Charles) on 3 April 1936 in London, UK, to Dorothy Pearce and George Keith Allen. He attended Oundle School (UK) and then Corpus Christi at Cambridge University.

His father was deeply involved in the mining industry in Central and West Africa, with Allen’s early exposure to geology and geophysics setting the foundation for his future pursuits. After completing two years of National Service in Malaya with the Royal Malayan Engineers, he pursued Geophysics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Imperial College London. In 1961, he commenced with Shell International in The Hague. 

Career in the energy sector

Allen’s career in oil exploration and production spanned 35 years, during which he held pivotal roles as a geologist, geophysicist, and senior manager. In 1980, he became the Chief Executive of Woodside Petroleum Ltd in Australia, a position he held for 16 years.

Under his leadership, Woodside evolved into a technically proficient and independent Australian oil company. Notably, Allen chaired the North West Shelf Liquefied Natural Gas Project for 15 years, steering it to successful completion. This project stands as Australia’s inaugural LNG development and remains one of the nation’s most significant private-sector income generators.

Also of note, during the period of construction of the first onshore gas trains, Charles led a significant push to improve construction workplace safety. At the time, the benchmark for construction safety – the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) – in Australia was over 60 per million man-hours, which meant that a large construction project, such as Woodside’s, could expect several deaths over the course of construction. Under Charles’ leadership, the LTIFR was reduced to under six per million man-hours, setting a new construction safety benchmark for Australia. Even 40 years later, standard LTIFR rates are not much better at three to five per million man-hours.

Allen was recently honoured by Woodside with the naming of one of its LNG tankers after him, *The Woodside Charles Allen*.

Other career highlights

Allen was:

• Director of AGL Energy Ltd (1996–2008)
• Director (1998–2008) and Chairman (2006–2008) of Air Liquide Australia Ltd
• Director of Amcor Ltd (1996–2005)
• Director (1992–2004) and Chairman (2001–2004) of NAB Ltd
• Chairman of CSIRO (1996–2001)
• Director of Earthwatch Institute Australia (1995–2005)
• President of the Australian Mines and Metal Association (1989–1991)

Homeside affair

Allen was Chairman of NAB during the “HomeSide affair”, which refers to a significant financial loss incurred by National Australia Bank (NAB) due to its acquisition and subsequent write-down of the US mortgage company, HomeSide. This event is also associated with other issues at NAB, including rogue trading practices on its foreign exchange desk.

In the late 1990s, NAB acquired HomeSide with the goal of expanding into the US mortgage market. NAB was forced to write down billions of dollars due to losses associated with HomeSide. These losses stemmed from overpaying for the company, misjudging the US mortgage market, and errors in their valuation models.

Around the same time, NAB also experienced a scandal involving rogue traders on its foreign exchange desk who were attempting to inflate their bonuses through unauthorized trades.

The HomeSide affair and rogue trading scandal led to significant financial losses for NAB, reputational damage, and the departure of both NAB's chief executive, Frank Cicutto, and Allen as Chairman.

Contributions to medical research

From 2007–2012, Allen was Chairman of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes after having been a board member of the Brain Research Institute. This entity was an amalgamation of several research institutes, including The Howard Florey Institute, the Brain Research Institute, and the National Stroke Research Institute. His corporate acumen was instrumental in uniting these organizations into a cohesive and robust institute. By August 2012, the Mental Health Research Institute joined the amalgamation, culminating in the formation of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Today, it stands as the largest neuroscience institute in the southern hemisphere and ranks among the top ten globally.

In 2013, Allen was awarded a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by the University of Melbourne in acknowledgement of his leadership in the formation of the institute.

Honours and recognitions

Allen was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1990 and received the Centenary Medal in 2003. His accolades also include:

• Lewis G Weeks Gold Medal (2002)
• Reg Spriggs Gold Medal from the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (1996)
• Australian Institute of Energy Medal (1992)

In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Philanthropy and legacy

In 1996, Allen established the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, providing scholarships that enable Australians to pursue PhDs and MPhils at Cambridge University. He personally established and continues to support three annual scholarships – the Cambridge Australia Allen, Bragg and McCrum Scholarships.

The Bragg scholarship is named for William Lawrence Bragg, an Australian-born British physicist and discoverer of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, who was joint winner with his father of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. The McCrum scholarship is named for the late Michael William McCrum CBE, Head Master of Eton College, Master of Corpus Christi College and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Over 60 Australian scholars have now attended Cambridge University as part of this scholarship scheme. Allen’s philanthropic contribution was acknowledged by Corpus Christi Cambridge College with the planting of an oak tree.

Family

Allen married Angela Mary Evatt (1939–2001) in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1962 while on secondment with Shell and only three weeks after meeting her. The couple moved to Turkey with the company and subsequently moved 13 times in 13 years to countries including Egypt and Nigeria. Allen was Operations Manager and then Divisional Manager Western Division of Shell-BP Nigeria (1975–1979). The family were based in Warri until the breakout of the Biafra War, at which time they were evacuated to safety in the UK.

The couple had four children: Malcolm (1965), Rosamund (1972), and James (1974). Malcolm married Katie Allen, who became the Federal Member for Higgins (2019–2022). In 1995, at the age of 20, James became the youngest Westerner to climb the north face of Everest.

After Angela died of cancer, Charles remarried Jocelyn Claire Searby in 2002.

Memberships

He is a member of:

• Marylebone Cricket Club (UK)
• The Melbourne Club
• The Australian Club (Melbourne)