John Dedman

[gentle music] So my object is a dark gray woolen suit jacket, which seems quite unassuming and mundane, but there's more to the story.

It was named the Victory Suit by John Dedman, who was the Minister for War Organization in World War II, and he created this suit by rationing some of the features of it, and then wore it to press conferences to kind of show off the fact that he saved so much fabric.

He says the material saved would be enough to make a pair of boys' short trousers.

And Dedman wore this jacket pretty much everywhere, and it became the target of what might just be one of the messiest protests in the University of Melbourne's history.

To do this, I'm dusting off an article of clothing, a jacket worn at the university that has a snippet of Australia's long and ludicrous history of political eggings.

[gentle music] [crowd chatter] The year is 1944, August 4th, 13 months before the end of the Second World War.

John Dedman steps up to the podium to make a speech for an on-campus labor club event.

He finds a baseball bat and helmet on the table where the water jug usually sits.