Jim Ferguson (diplomat)

Ferguson was born in Sydney on 29 November 1940. Before and whilst completing his studies at the University of Sydney, he did a variety of jobs including jackaroo, taxi driver and publisher's editor. His grandfather was Sir John Alexander Ferguson (1881–1969), a notable Australian judge and bibliographer. Sir John's collection of Australiana was given to the National Library of Australia and forms the basis of the Library's Australian collection. Ferguson died in Canberra on 27 January 2026, at the age of 85. ==Australian public service==

Ferguson worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs between 1966 and 1986. From 1986 to 1990, he was Head of the Tourism and Sport Division, Commonwealth Department of Arts, Sport, the Environment and Tourism. From 1990 to 2001, he was executive director of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). ==Sport==

While working in the Australian government Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories, he played a role in the establishment of the new Australian Sports Commission as the government authority responsible for all sports development in Australia. In December 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for leadership of the Australian Sports Commission and Australian sport. In 2007, he published the book More than Sunshine & Vegemite : Success the Australian Way which documented the development of Australian sport for the period 1990 to 2000. After leaving the Australian Sports Commission, he was President of the ACT Rugby Union and China Australia Sports Association. He was also a board member of the Australian Tourist Commission, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, World Youth Soccer Cup, World Masters Games. and was commissioned by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to develop a plan to assist the Pacific Region through rugby union. ==References==