In Nevil Shute's 1957 novel On the Beach there's a scene set in the "Pastoral Club" in Melbourne – a fictional combination of the real-life Australian Club and Melbourne Club, relics of the country's "more British than Britain" men's social clubs. John Osborne, a scientist, is visiting with Peter Holmes, a lieutenant in the Australian navy, and they encounter John's great-uncle, Sir Douglas Froude, a commander of the country's army during the last war. The old man tells the two younger men that "three years ago my doctor told me that if I didn't stop drinking the club port he...