Oral History interview with Mr Ian Macfarlane AC, who served 28 years at the Reserve Bank of Australia including his final ten years as Governor.

Mr Macfarlane briefly worked at the Reserve Bank from 1970 to 1971, before working overseas at the University of Oxford in the UK and the OECD in Paris. Mr Macfarlane returned to the Reserve Bank in 1979, and worked various roles in the Economic Group and the Financial Markets Group before he then served as Deputy Governor from 1992 to 1996, and as Governor from 1996 to 2006.

Mr Macfarlane holds a Bachelor of Economics with Honours and a Master of Economics from Monash University, and has been awarded five Honorary Doctorates from Australian universities. In 2004 Mr Macfarlane was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for services to central banking, the stabilisation of the Australian financial system, and operating monetary and economic policy.

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Reserve Bank of Australia

The transcript for this interview is available here: D2025/217827

Whilst efforts were made to check the factual accuracy of the interview, as an oral history is a recollection from personal memory the interview may contain factual errors. Views expressed in the interview are those of the interviewee and interviewer and not the Reserve Bank of Australia.