↓ SECTION 05— CURATOR
in SS Waratah in 1908, and these were installed in the Chapel of All Saints at Corio during its construction in 1914-15 as a memorial to Niel. At the time John’s surviving sons – brothers of Grace (Cl’16) – were boys at the School: Ian Steuart Black (M’15) and Donald Curdie Black (M’16), who was to die on active service as a Flight Commander with the Royal Flying Corps in 1918. In 1933 Ian – donor of the Altar in our Chapel – married Sibella Hope Austin of Greenvale, Willaura, a daughter of Albert Sidney Austin MBE (OS1876), and, when he died at only 41 in 1939 at The Cottage, Mount Noorat, he left two young children, Georgina and Niel. Born on 27 August 1935, Niel entered Barrabool House in 1945, going on in 1949 to Manifold, where he was a House Prefect in 1953, a Sergeant in the Cadet Corps, and Captain of Shooting. He went on to Trinity College in Melbourne, Dookie Agricultural College, and Michigan University, where he became convinced that artificial breeding was the key to rapid herd improvement. In the words of his cousin Maggie Black in an obituary in The Age (2 January 2013), he developed “a radical political conscience” and “became a passionate believer in the co-operative model for the industry he was destined to join”. He was a founding director of the Noorat Artificial Breeders’ Co-operative, and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the DemoDAIRY research farm near Terang in 1991. For eleven years he was president of the Noorat show. His cousin described him as “the quintessential committee man, quietly spoken, reasonable and persuasive …. but he also demonstrated solid qualities of leadership and an individuality all his own”. While carrying on a long family tradition of farming and dairying, he met innovatively the challenges of new times. At 77 he was “still very much a working farmer, managing a four-shareholder operation milking 1300 cows on part of the original [Glenormiston] run”. In 1982 Niel married Josephine Hunt née Ciavola, mother of three sons including Carl Hunt (Cu’86) who survive him together with his second wife, Eve (whom he married after Josie’s death), and his sister, Gina, who is the last Black to farm at Noorat on the original estate. Susan Patricia Marriott (He’61) was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours of 2012 “for service to conservation and the environment through the Secretariat for International Landcare, particularly the development of programmes dealing with climate change and rural land management”.
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Simon Bonython (FB’62) is the photographer and writer of Discovering Isaan: The Beauty of Thailand’s Northeast (Amber House Books, Bangkok, 2007), which has three chapters on Countryside and others on Khao Yai, Silk, Phimai, Muang Tam, Phanom Rung, Boat Racing, Candle Festival, Elephant Roundup, and Temples and National Parks. Anthony Oxley (Cu’62) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day Honours of 2013 “for service to the visual arts and to the community”. (His wife, Roslyn Mary Oxley, was also awarded the Medal, with the same citation.) The Honourable Alexander Downer (Bn’64) was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the Australia Day Honours of 2013 “for eminent service to the Parliament of Australia through the advancement of international relations and foreign policy, particularly in the areas of security, trade, and humanitarian aid, and to the community of South Australia”. Tony Hawker (M’64), who died on 26 May 2012, was the son – with a sister, Pamela (Cl’65) – of Derek Seymour Hawker (M’38), a grazier, and Elaine née Denniston (He’43). From Camberwell Grammar School he entered GGS in 1959 and, after a year in Connewarre House, was a member of Manifold for five years punctuated by 1961 at Timbertop. He was a popular boy and served on the committee of the Capentry and Mechanics Club. After leaving school he spent two years with the family company Hawker Richardson & Co in Melbourne and Adelaide, and then jackarooed, for a year at Bungaree in South Australia with his kinsman Sir Richard Hawker (M’22), followed by a year at South Boorook Hereford Stud in Victoria. For nearly three years he was overseer for Richard Jamieson (M’50) at Bolac Plains, Woorndoo; and in 1971 he married Clementina Davies (Cl’64), sister of the late Charles Davies (P’62). In 1972 they bought their first farm, Montlea, near Oatlands in Tasmania, where they soon started a Hereford stud. Georgina (Cl’90) was born to them in 1973; twins, Joanna (Cl’92) and Caroline (Cl’92) in 1975; and Fiona (Cl’02) in 1985 – by which time they had moved twice, to Auburn at Ross and then Evercreech at Fingal. In 1987 they moved to Bryngola, near Hamilton, where his parents had farmed, and some 14 years later to Mount Melville at Cavendish.
"We are bits of gypsies,” said Tony, but he made sure of having improved each farm before moving on. He also gave his all to a succession of committees: among other posts he was president of the Tasmanian Hereford Society, a member of the Federal Hereford Council and of the P and A Society in Hamilton, chairman of the Beef Expo Committee, and President of the Hamilton Club. He had a passion for cars, latterly for Alfa Romeos (he served on the committee of the Alfa Club), and, after years of driving, being driven by Clem was a solace in his final illness. He had a wonderfully happy marriage and a host of friends, and he adored and was very proud of his daughters, rejoicing in due course in three sons-in-law and eight grandchildren. They all, with his mother, survive him. A fine sense of humour and a wide range of interests and conversation made for a remarkably complete person who had the quality of accepting whatever came his way – including his illness – with grace and courage. Robert Clyne PSM (FB’70) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day Honours of 2013 “for service to the community, particularly through the Freemasonry movement”. Professor Geoffrey McFadden (P’75) holds a chair in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne. He identified the relict chloroplast in malaria parasites, is developing herbicides as antimalarial drugs, and has published 170 papers including many in high-profile journals such as Nature, Science, EMBO Journal, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has been awarded the Goldacre Medal, the Australian Academy of Science’s Frederick White Prize, two Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar’s awards, the David Syme Research Prize, the Woodward Medal for Excellence in Science and Technology, the Julian Wells Medal, the Miescher-Ishida Prize, The Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal, and the Ramaciotti Medal. He made two trips to Antarctica to study sea-ice algae while completing his PhD thesis in 1984 before taking up a three-year post-doctoral position in algal-cell biology at Muenster in Germany. Returning to Australia as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow in 1987, he joined Professor Adrienne Clarke’s Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, where he worked on the molecular biology of barley and tobacco. Subsequently receiving an ARC Senior Research Fellowship, he went on to a Professorial Research Fellowship, investigating the origin of chloroplast by LIGHT BLUE - GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL