8. Oversaw the Colombo Plan 1950, Australia-New Zealand-United States (ANZUS) treaty 1951, and South East Asia Treaty Organization 1954. Commitment of troops to Korea 1950, Malayan Emergency 1950 and Vietnam 1964-65. Rapid development of Canberra as the national capital. Population grew from 28 000 in 1954 to 93 000 in 1966. Established the Australian Universities Commission in 1959, increased funding to universities and created new universities. Oversaw a period of economic boom 1950-66, marked by increasing trade, full employment, expansion of social services, hospitals and schools, and immigration.
11. in 1941 became the first Australian Prime Minister to fly overseas, when he left Australia for England in a QANTAS Empire flying boat. started the ‘Prime Minister’s 11’ cricket matches one of three former Prime Ministers awarded Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, First Class (the others were Edmund Barton and John McEwen). The only Australian appointed to the Order of the Thistle, an honour in the gift of the reigning monarch Pattie Menzies was one of only three Australians to be awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire (the first was Florence Reid in 1917, the second was Mary Hughes in 1922)