 After the war , Oliphant returned to Australia as the first Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the new Australian National University , where he initiated the design and construction of the world 's largest ( 500 megajoule ) homopolar generator . He retired in 1976 , but was appointed Governor of South Australia on the advice of Premier , Don Dunstan . He assisted in the founding of the Australian Democrats political party , and he was the chairman of the meeting in Melbourne in 1977 at which the party was launched . Late in life he watched his wife , Rosa , suffer before her death in 1987 , and he became an advocate for voluntary euthanasia . He died in Canberra in 2000 . 
