The Graduate Union Newsletter January/February 2017

The Graduate Union Newsletter — January / February 2017 —

Contents Monthly Luncheon

Concluding sections

3 February with Rev Keith Whitford

28 Feedback and Prize Winners

Coming Events

29 Discovering Melbourne

5 Investment for your Future Seminars

30 Welcome BBQ

7 2017 GU Collegiate Year at a glance

Reviews 12 Chair’s Cocktail Party 2016 14 Members’ Christmas Party 2016 27 Women’s Forum

Features 9 Professor Priyan Dias

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12

16 Jessica Webb 18 Dr Jennifer Strauss AM

Member News 20 Muan Lim Graduate Focus 22 Stella Wang Tips for Learning a New language

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23 Jennifer Batrouney QC President of the Victorian Bar

Academic and Professional Development Meetings 24 November and December 2016

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Monthly Luncheon

1st February

Rev Keith Whitford “From Hell to High Water”

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ABN 55610664963 | IAR No. A0023234B

orn in Griffith NSW, Keith is seventh in a family of twelve.

In 1942 his father, sister and two brothers went to war. The family disintegrated at the end of the war and descended into poverty. Keith, his younger brother Allen and two younger sisters were largely left to fend for themselves in an abandoned old house in the small wheat town of Barellan. Keith will reflect on those days of starvation, cold and the town’s rejection of them and their drunken mother.

When Wednesday 1st February 12.00 noon for 12.30 PM RSVP by Monday 30th January Where Graduate House Bookings (03) 9347 3428 Email: admingh@graduatehouse.com.au Website: graduatehouse.com.au Cost $10 Resident Members $30 non-resident Members $40 general public $35 concession

He turned fifteen and left for Griffith to accept an offer from his elder sister to find work for him. No work experience meant a series of jobs until an Uncle took him on in his orchard. For the first time in his life he experienced the wonder of a wage. A book changed his life in a profound way. It still does.

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Monthly Luncheon First Wednesday of the Month Wednesday 1st March Professor John Roberts Professor of Marketing, The University of New South Wales; Fellow of the London Business School and Fudan University.

Wednesday 5th April Mrs Diana Butler OAM Founder and CEO of the Care for Africa Foundation.

Wednesday 3rd May Professor Prakash J. Singh Head of the Department of Management and Marketing, The University of Melbourne.

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INVESTMENT FOR YOUR FUTURE

FREE for MEMBERS $15 per seminar for non-members

FOUR SEMINARS 27th April 29th June 31st August 26th October book online call +61 3 9347 3428 email admingh@graduatehouse.com.au

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cott Fisher is a Senior Relationship Manager with Lanyon Partners Private Wealth. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning, is a Certified Financial Planner and a member of the Financial Planning Association. He also holds a Bachelor of Biological Science from La Trobe University.

Scott joined Lanyon Partners in 2006. With experience in superannuation, Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSFs), Centrelink, tax structures, insurance, direct shares and managed investments, Scott’s breadth of advice is extensive.

As a financial advisor, Scott helps to plan, build, manage and protect everything his clients need for a confident financial future.

Mr Fisher is past Chair and now member of Lanyon Partners Investment Committee which oversees the construction of model portfolios and is involved with the research and valuation of direct shares.

Scott grew up on a small hobby farm in Arthurs Creek (north of Melbourne) with all the usual pets – horses, emus, geese, dogs, snakes, lizards and birds.

Scott Fisher Trading the sprawling acres of Arthurs Creek for the innercity life Scott now resides in Hawthorn East with his wife and two children, Olivia (2 years old) and Jackson (4 months). When time permits, Scott enjoys keeping fit, gardening, playing golf and watching his favourite football team, Carlton.

We are grateful to Scott for his many years of managing and growing the William Berry Post-Graduate College Trust and know that our Members and others attending these seminars will be in capable and professional hands.

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Coming Events Mon 30th

JAN

The GU Scholarship Application Opens Graduate House Scholarship and Bursaries are open to all Resident Members enrolled in post-graduate studies.

Applications close Monday 10th April, 2017.

For application forms go to:

www.graduatehouse.com.au/learn-here/awards-and-opportunities/scholarships-and-bursaries

Wed 1st

FEB

1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd

FEB

Monthly Luncheon

12.00 noon for 12.30pm The Reverend Keith Whitford on “From Hell to High Waters” Resident Members $10, Non-Resident Members $30, general public $40 and concession $35.

Bridge Night

7.20pm for 7.30pm

Join in a game or learn to play the card game Bridge.

Enjoy a shared platter for supper, as well as tea and coffee.

Members $2, non-members $5.

Tue 14th

FEB

Special Morning Breakfast

7.30am to 8.30am

Non-resident Members are welcome to join Resident Members for a hearty breakfast.

Free for Resident Members, non-members $20.

Tue 14th

FEB

Italian Conversation Dinner

6.00pm

Come along to dine while learning to speak Italian with an experienced teacher.

Members $15, non-members $20.

Wed 15th

FEB

Women’s Forum

10.00am for 10.30am

The topic for February is “The Importance of ‘Why’”.

Join in the discussion and stay for lunch if desired.

Forum is free. Lunch is at Member and non-member prices.

Tue 28th

FEB

Residents’ Meet and Greet

from 6.00pm

Join us in welcoming new and returning Resident Members to Graduate House over drinks and dinner.

Free for Resident Members, non-members $20.

BOOK NOW

via our Website, by phone 03 9347 3428, by email admingh@graduatehouse.com.au or at reception, 220 Leicester Street, Carlton

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14th

1st, 8th

15th, 22nd

-

11th, 18th,

25th

Residents’ Special Morning Breakfast

-

-

-

Women's Forum

Investment for your Future Seminar

College Table Discussion

13th

7th

6th, 20th

June

15th

-

20th

8th

20th, 27th

20th

26th

25th

31st

18th, 25th

-

-

15th

10th

22nd, 29th

Members’ Christmas Party...................................................................December 15th

18th

31st

16th

29th

23rd, 30th

1st, 8th, 15th,

14th

1st

Graduate Union Roaring 20s Ball....................................................September 2nd

-

-

12th

-

19th, 26th

4th, 11th,

10th

4th

14th

-

-

-

-

13th

12th

No Luncheon

5th, 21st

November December

Chairman’s Cocktail Party....................................................................December 1st

-

29th

14th

-

21st, 28th

6th, 13th,

12th

6th

10th, 24th

October

Donor Thank You Day............................................................................August 20th

19th

-

17th

12th

24th, 31st

8th

2nd

5th, 12th, 2nd, 9th, 16th,

11th

No Luncheon

5th

September

Residents’ End of Year Celebration.................................................November 17th

21st

27th

19th

-

19th, 26th

August

4th, 18th 1st, 15th, 29th

July

GU Annual General Meeting and Dinner. ...................................May 25th

17th

-

15th

9th

3rd

2nd, 16th

May

5th, 12th, 3rd, 10th, 17th, 7th, 14th,

11th

5th

4th, 18th

April

Remembrance Day Sing Along..........................................................November 10th

-

-

15th

10th

22nd, 29th

1st, 8th, 15th,

14th

1st

14th, 28th

March

GU Influenza and Vaccination Day.................................................April 6th

Single Date Events:

-

Residents' MaG (Meet and Greet)

28th

1st

No Luncheon

Monthly Luncheon

Bridge Night

14th

11th, 18th, 25th

Italian Conversation Dinner

February

January

Function

We thank you for your support in attending and promoting these functions.

2017 GU Collegiate Year at a glance

NEWS

NEW RECEPTION at Graduate House

Diana and Sujata at the new reception desk in the lobby of 220 Leicester Street.

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e start the New Year with a new reception desk in the lobby of the entrance at 220 Leicester Street. The sleek new design includes innovative storage features, elegant marble-looking bench tops and stylish timber walls.

Upon entrance from the main door or the car park walk through our southern wing, this reception is more visible and accessible than the nowclosed reception at 222. There is now no need to climb steps or to spend a time trying to find our welcome team!

Chinese New Year Xīnnián kuàilè 2017 nián

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aturday, 28th January marks the first day of the Lunar New Year in the Chinese calendar, and the beginning of the Year of the Rooster, the tenth animal sign in the Chinese zodiac. More specifically, 2017 is the Year of the Fire Rooster (which comes only once every 60 years).

Melbourne comes alive with up to three weeks of celebrations that include street festivals, concerts, operas, markets, vibrant displays of Chinese lanterns, fireworks and dances and prizes.

In addition to free events at the Melbourne Showgrounds, Queen Victoria Market and many other locations there is a major concert on the 3rd February at the Exhibition Centre as well as a performance of 'The Red Detachment of Women' by the National Ballet of China at the Arts Centre from the 15th to the 18th February.

We wish all happiness, prosperity and longevity in 2017!

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FEATURE PROFESSOR PROFILE

Professor Priyan Dias,

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka you think about it, the more you see the ways in which a profession like civil engineering has the ability to increase life expectancy and quality.

Professor Priyan Dias, past Resident Member

“…That great, far sighted engineer, who probably did more good, saved more lives, than any single Victorian public official …

Of the great sewer that runs beneath, Londoners know, as a rule, nothing, though the Registrar General could tell them that its existence has added 20 years to their chance of life.”

Such was written in a London Times obituary, 1891, of Joseph Bazelgette, the Victorian municipal engineer who spearheaded the construction of London’s sewers.

Bazelgette, as a civil engineer, offered a tangible and valuable contribution to society. The more

Such are the thoughts of Professor Priyan Dias, a senior Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka. For Dias, it was a combination of an innate understanding of civic responsibility, his aptitude for mathematics and what he sees to be a subliminal influence from his agronomist father, that spurred him to opt for a civil engineering degree.

Education in Sri Lanka is free of charge, providing great social mobility for those from even very grassroots backgrounds.

Universities were, and still are, he explains, spheres of political action where keenly felt social disparities are protested. This freedom of education, and the state-given right to explore spheres of knowledge within a serious educational context, spurred Dias further to pursue a PhD in concrete structures and technology from Imperial College, London, equipping him to teach reinforced concrete design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It has also resulted in a book of design examples, widely used by practicing engineers in Sri Lanka. A career as an engineering academic was always

his preferred choice because of his interest in both teaching and research. “I thought I could interact with industry and make my practical contributions through my consulting practice. I have been fortunate in being able to pursue all these interests through my career at the University of Moratuwa,” he said.

During his tertiary education Dias discovered that analysis, which is a natural extension of mathematics (central to engineering),was a handmaiden to design which involved choice, and where solutions could be better or worse, rather than right or wrong. But the design process, he explains, includes a multitude of uncertainties that must be tamed: “Structural engineering is the art of moulding materials we don’t wholly understand, into shapes we can’t fully analyse, so as to withstand forces we can’t really assess...”

This logic is being put into practice. Dias is now part of a Moratuwa University team that performs independent checks on the design and construction of a 350-metre-tall broadcasting tower (Colombo Lotus Tower), a design and build project undertaken by a Chinese contractor. This is considered a landmark project because it will become the tallest tower in South Asia on ‘topping out’. Dias was invited to head the structural engineering team and made sure that many of his university colleagues with varying expertise – materials, geotechnical, modelling and seismological – were involved. He finds that it has been an interesting learning experience for all concerned, e.g. the relatively new technologies involved, such as foundation excavations over 10 metres deep up to bedrock for a 43 metre diameter foundation with the 

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FEATURE PROFESSOR PROFILE associated earth retention; and 30 hour continuous concreting operations using five suppliers simultaneously for the foundation.

While the design process is about taming uncertainties as Dias explained earlier, it also requires time-consuming negotiations.

“We have learnt that getting the contractor to change their designs depends not only on technical arguments but also on negotiating skill, which in turn is based on a feeling for deviations or changes that will have the greatest impact – in other words, an awareness of the sensitivity of the outcome to changes in the inputs; this is a key ‘systems’ idea,” he says.

“I was involved in two week-long visits to Beijing to discuss concerns with the Chinese designers. I used to joke that the first visit was just to achieve an increase in concrete slab thickness of 5 mm and the second a similar increase in steel mast thickness.

There were of course other things we achieved too, but the above changes were fought ‘tooth and nail’ by our counterparts, and demanded all our negotiating skills.”

Checking, in any case, is not an easy task, because like design, it is done with incomplete information.

Since the tower mast is particularly tall with respect to the tower itself, members of the team felt that the designers should have performed a separate wind tunnel test only on the mast, in addition to the one performed on the entire structure. The designers demurred,

and the compromise made was to commission a much cheaper desk study by the world expert Professor John Holmes, previously of James Cook University and CSIRO. They were fortunate to have on their team Professor Priyan Mendis, an alumnus of Moratuwa University now at The University of Melbourne, to perform a liaising role. This gave Dias et al much greater confidence in the design.

Apart from this, he has undertaken “troubleshooting” type consulting for the construction industry, utilising his expertise to bring solutions to problems in ways that satisfy all parties concerned – the client, the contractor and the project consultant. But his ‘troubleshooting’ skills have also been used in a more literal context.

“They once landed me on a site under threat of ‘real’ shooting,” Dias recalls. “This was when I led a three-member team to ascertain whether the fabric of the Jaffna Public Library, in the northern provincial capital of Sri Lanka, could be restored.” The Sri Lankan state was fighting an insurrection in the north at the time, but trying to win the hearts and minds of the population there by rebuilding this iconic symbol, previously damaged by both fire and shelling.

The person in charge of the entire project was the then (later assassinated) foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar (a one-time president of the Oxford Union), whose charisma and infectious enthusiasm made it difficult for Dias and the others to decline the invitation to inspect the building.

So the three found themselves flying to Jaffna with nondestructive testing equipment in a troop carrier (some of which were known to fall out of the sky due

to missile fire or even mechanical malfunction); inspecting the premises while being guarded by sharpshooters on the roof; treated to military hospitality by the Jaffna army commander; and jostling for seats on the return journey among soldiers who had been waiting to get back on home leave after six months of combat!

“I am happy to say that we were able to recommend that the structure could be rebuilt; which it was, and stands once again in iconic splendour, although alas some books lost due to the fire, allegedly instigated by a previous regime even before the conflict, were irreplaceable,” he said.

Any new structure erected today requires consideration of its environmental impact.

Environmental sustainability has been another strand of Dias’s research career, and he does indeed note that cement production is environmentally damaging, not only because of relatively large energy costs but also because both the energy consumption and chemical conversion processes release carbon to the atmosphere.

Disaster reduction can also be seen as a subset of environmental sustainability he noted, and is another area that he started working on after the tsunami of 2004 devastated many Indian Ocean rim countries – specifically on the vulnerability of structures to tsunami loading.

“Environmental sustainability is high on the list of research and practice priorities for many institutions and funding agencies; and rightly so,” says Dias. “And some gains have been achieved worldwide, I think. The share of renewable energy is moving up, and buildings are indeed getting ‘greener’ in both construction and operation,” he suggests.

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On the operational side, he says that financial benefits have been driving the ‘change to green’.

However on the construction side, making a building ‘greener’ or more disaster resilient will require investments that may not have tangible personal benefits.

It’s about the tragedy of the commons. The construction industry may not want to incur the additional costs, especially in cash strapped economies, because using renewable or recycled materials may actually cost more while being slightly inferior; and the benefits would accrue to the earth or humankind, as opposed to individuals. “It is difficult to incentivize against the tragedy of the commons,” he says.

to help maintain the status of the university by helping graduates to target the best universities in the world for their graduate studies – over the past decade or so Moratuwa’s Civil Engineering Department has been averaging one PhD scholarship per year from Cambridge University for its best graduates.

Looking at environmental sustainability from a communitylevel, he questions whether lifestyle changes are perhaps the more important ones. If the average dwelling area per person is increasing, should we perhaps be taking small measures such as utilising public transport, walking more often or using less power throughout the day. Professor Dias reduces his carbon footprint by using public transport, albeit with some difficulty in Sri Lanka where the transport facilities are poor and car travel is seen as a status symbol. “It helps to be a professor though in pursuing a slightly counter-cultural lifestyle,” he says.

As an educationalist, Professor Dias says that he would tell students and young graduates to embrace hardship and do the ‘hard yards’ before thinking of fame and fortune. The latter set often depend on the former, and the former is of value in its own right.

One such obstacle is that schools in Sri Lanka teach in Sinhala and Tamil, and therefore when students reach university, their English is not up to standard. But Professor

At present, while most of his research is in the ‘systems thinking’ area, now that he is a senior academic it is time for him to play some elderstatesman roles, one of which is the promotion of research, both through strategic research funding and the recognition of research performance. He is Director of Research at Moratuwa University, sits on Sri Lanka’s National Research Council, and also tries

“Encouraging younger academics and helping them to build their research careers is something else I do,” he says. He headhunts not only the brightest and best but also those who see the value of doing excellent work out of resource-poor conditions. He is happy to report that he has had some success in recruiting them as Moratuwa academics.

Dias insists that those who tackle head on the hardships involved in following engineering courses delivered in English, far away from the comforts of home, often outshine their peers from more comfortable backgrounds, going on to secure doctorates from the best universities in the world.

“Engineering students and graduates also need to find ways to account for the ‘big picture’ and be aware of systemic interactions,” he says. “They need to be prepared to think philosophically and strategically about whatever they do. They are after all, the intellectual heirs of people like Joseph Bazelgette and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (the bridge engineer who was second only to Winston Churchill as the greatest Briton of all time in Britain’s millennial poll), who solved some of the biggest problems faced by humans.” From the bridges we drive over and irrigation systems that revitalise our agriculture, to transport systems and other infrastructure that is an intrinsic part of our lives and wellbeing, the work of civil engineers is indispensable. 

Professor Priyan Dias (centre) at the top of the Colombo Lotus Tower overlooking Colombo’s central business district and Colombo Harbour.

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REVIEW

CHAIR’S COCKTAIL PARTY 2nd December, 2016

I

invite you to imagine, just for a while, what we can all make possible together,” said Cr Rhys Watson, Chair of Council in his welcome to Members at the annual Cocktail Party. Pointing to the vision of Members 60 years ago, Cr Watson noted evidence of their success today as a thriving membership association and an established graduate-only college and thanked all for continuing their contributions to a strong future.

Off-site acquisitions and planning for an 11-storey redevelopment behind the terraces were given as examples of recent events that will ensure continued growth and success.

Commerce Alumni Council member Mr Matthew Schofield then presented the 2016 M. V. Anderson awards to Resident Members Mr Yicheng Zhou and Ms Rofan Teo (in absentia).

Mr Matthew Schofield of ShineWing Australia presenting the M.V. Anderson Awards.

Cr Rhys Watson

This was followed by President of The Graduate Union, Dr Ken V Loughnan AO presenting the prestigious Outstanding Service Award to past Council member and past Chair of Council, Mr David Sparks who expressed his pleasant surprise and gratitude to Council, the CEO/Head of College and the wonderful Graduate House team.

Honorary College Fellow Awards were then announced for Professor Anne Steinemann and Professor Stephen Peterson for their contributions to academia, research and collegiality.

The following non-resident Members who had contributed throughout 2016 to the activity of the college and Association through working parties, subcommittees, event organisation and collegiality were also acknowledged and thanked:

Outstanding Service Awardee Mr David Sparks (left) with President, Dr Ken Loughnan AO.

Ms Agnes Banyasz, Ms Francesca Folk-Scolaro, Ms Nanette Gibson, Miss Natalie Gray, Mr Ben Green, Mr Robert Heaton, Ms Beverley Jenkin, Ms Beverley Holland, Ms Shelley Jones, Mrs Elfrida and Dr Zoltan Kiss, Mrs Heather Kudeviita, Ms Rosemary Jane Maddick, Mrs Anne Mulholland, Mr Graham Skewes, Dr Max Stephens and Dr David Wilson.

Resident Members were also gratefully acknowledged for continuing to advance the inhouse college experience: Mr Mohamed Muzaffar Ahmed, Mr David Allinson, Miss Kimberley Auyong, Mr Prakhar Bhargava, Mr Ron Danziger, Ms Rhea Kanwar, Mr Callum McNair, Ms Julia Melanson, Mr Thanh Pham, Ms Parisa Shiran, Mr Riyan Stephan, Mr Timothy Stephens, Ms Christina Tan and Ms Jingyao Yu. This vibrant and successful evening saw around 200 guests from academia and the professions, in the Philip Law Members’ Lounge chatting and enjoying a range of cocktails and other beverages, the magnificently presented seafood platters, a large selection of delicious canapés and many desserts prepared by our inhouse culinary team.

Thank you to all who attended. We look forward to welcoming you to next year's Cocktail Party, and, more so, to your contributions to our plans and our exciting future!

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Mrs Iguchi and daughter Hinako

Life Member Margaret Mayers and friend

Residents Timothy Stephens, Fatema Yasmin, Kimberley Auyong, Avi Ghandi and Riyan Stephan

Father Bob Maguire and Katie Southwick.

Croquembouche

Graduate House hospitality staff on the night (from left to right): Connor Hadley, Raami Tantawy, Marwa Tantawy, Rosie Ellul, Matteo Castiello, Punam Kunwar, Bill Mihelakis, Olivia Petitto, Shusmita Manandhar, Hisham Nahas and Damien Nguyen.

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REVIEW

Members’

Christmas Party

A visit from Santa

The Christmas Belles performed on the night

Dr Ken V Loughnan AO, President

Searching for the elusive green dot

A very big thank you to our Christmas Party Raffle Sponsors

Elite Fruit

Cr Kingsley Davis OAM Vice-Chair of Council

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Christopher and Michelle Worsnop won the hamper and a bottle of wine!

Life Member Anne Campbell

Life Member Dr Max Stephens

Francesco Caso won a bottle of De Bortoli wine

Resident Member, Damon Luo won a hamper

Cr Vincent Mirabelli

Mrs Nancye Whitford

Cr Mary Kelleher

Resident Member Ayako Honzawa

Congratulations to the 50 people who won prizes on the night! www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 15

Jessica Webb

2016 Barbara Hale Fellowship Winner biology, with the plan to research life threatening pathogens.

This would allow her to better understand the genetics behind the ability of pathogens to infect their host and cause disease.

After working on the virus Human parechovirus (HPeVs) during her placement at Flinders Hospital, she realised that she wanted to have a career with a clinical focus. Webb then made the move to Darwin to begin her work on tropical infectious diseases.

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Jessica Webb

orking with tropical infectious diseases may not be everyone’s dream job, but for South Australian researcher, Jessica Webb, she is dedicated to pursuing her interest in this field.

From a young age, Webb’s father was very unwell due to stress at work, and eventually ended up in hospital where he acquired the bacteria known as Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). To this day he continues to take antibiotics on a daily basis, and failure to do so may mean that the bacteria will cause serious infections, building its resistance to antibiotics.

Webb’s father being in and out of hospital for most of her childhood left an impression on Webb and ignited her to enrol in a science degree at Flinders University majoring in micro and molecular

Webb’s focus is on Burkholderia pseudomallei the causative agent of the fatal disease Melioidosis, which is endemic in Darwin. The estimated global mortality rate of melioidosis sits at around 90,000 deaths per year, and is comparable to that of measles.

Melioidosis remains as a great threat to the health of many Territorians. Cases of Melioidosis in the Northern Territory, particularly the Top End have some of the highest rates of incidences documented globally. Also known as the ‘Darwin Disease’, Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) is the causal bacterium for melioidosis, and is largely underdiagnosed, living in soils and muddy waters, coming to the surface often after drenching rains.

Humans can contract the bacteria through cuts and sores in the skin, or by inhaling contaminated water, dusts or droplets. Bp is inherently resistant to multiple antibiotics, meaning that effective treatment of these multi-resistant organisms is of great importance due to the already limited treatment options. In northern Australia and Southeast Asia, where melioidosis is endemic, infections caused by Bp are a major cause of bacterial pneumonia and blood poisoning.

Depending on where the infection develops, common and early symptoms can include fever, a cough and breathing difficulties.

Generally, risk factors for melioidosis include; diabetes, alcohol related problems and renal disease. However there is a higher number of melioidosis cases reported in Indigenous Australians due to the increased chance of being exposed to the bacteria and due to the risk factors including diabetes renal disease being more prevalent in the Indigenous population.

“Even with antibiotic therapy, mortality remains stubbornly high, ranging from ~10% in Australia to ~40% in Thailand, with the majority of cases being associated with the wet season,” said Webb.

“Bp is also an extremely pathogenic organism and is equipped with machinery encoded in its DNA to cause different disease severities.”

Treatment remains difficult. Due to concerns about rapid disease progression and difficulties with complete eradication due to bacterial latency, melioidosis treatment relies on prolonged

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administration of antibiotics that can last up to six months in duration.

Webb’s PhD project studies the mechanisms by which Bp becomes highly resistant to antibiotic treatment. Using whole genome sequencing technology, Webb can look at isolates from melioidosis patients where antibiotic resistance has developed.

Her hypothesis is that antibiotic resistance in these patients is mediated by specific genetic changes in Bp that affect efflux, a process in which compounds including antibiotics can be exported out of the cell. She has found mutations in a certain gene that consequently lead to higher levels of antibiotic resistance.

Webb has also found a never before identified mutational mechanism in Bp which also renders the bacteria resistant – the antibiotic does not ‘bind’ to the cellular target.

“The findings from my project will give patients the best chance of survival from this devastating infectious disease,” she said. “If we identify the presence of these genes in a rapid manner, patients can be treated more aggressively to eradicate these pathogenic strains before they develop into severe infections.”  Congratulations are extended to Jessica Webb for her 2016 Australian Federation of Graduate Women (AFGW) Barbara Hale

Fellowship award, made possible by a bequest from the estate of Barbara Mary Hale (1924-2013), a university librarian, the first female elected to the University of Western Australian Senate and Past President of University AFGW Barbara Hale Fellowship For more information on melioidosis, visit: https://nt.gov.au/wellbeing/healthconditions-treatments/bacterial/ melioidosis http://www.who. int/en/ https://www.cdc. gov/

“My results show that Bp can mutate in previously unknown ways to evade antibiotic pressure within the course of an infection, leading to treatment failure and, often, death,” she said.

“Armed with this knowledge, my project provides the potential for medical professionals to use a new class of drugs known as efflux inhibitors to alter the phenotype of the bacteria so that they are no longer resistant to these drugs,” explained Webb.

Her work can help doctors to more rapidly identify resistant isolates from infected patients and to personalise more effective treatment for each individual patient.

Jessica Webb working in her laboratory at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin.

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Graduate Women Victoria

Jennifer Strauss

The road to academia, poetry and feminism medieval topic meant she was persuaded to switch her attention to late nineteenth, early twentieth century drama, noting in retrospect that perhaps her academic interests have always been too wide.

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Dr Jennifer Strauss, past President of GWV

hen Jennifer Wallace graduated with a first in English Language and Literature, in 1954, she felt she had no proper plans for the future, going so far as to interview at an advertising agency for a copywriting position. But the fateful pull of an academic path proved its strength when she was offered a lectureship at the then newly-created University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.

While she loved teaching, she nevertheless realised that she would need a research degree to have a serious career in academia.

So she returned to Melbourne as a Senior Tutor, enrolled in an MA in Medieval Literature and set about searching for an overseas scholarship. Three years later in 1957 she had commenced a Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) in a Glasgow still recuperating from World War Two. The departure of the planned supervisor of her

In 1968, love trumped academia and she abandoned her scholarship to marry Werner Strauss, a fellow Australian doing his PhD in the control of industrial air pollution at the University of Sheffield. For a brief time, she became a teacher at Abbeydale Girls Grammar School in Sheffield, but at the beginning of 1959 the couple returned to Australia where she resumed her role as a Senior Tutor at The University of Melbourne until the birth of her first child in November 1959. A period of part-time and temporary employment followed until in 1963 she was offered a full time continuing lectureship at Monash – then Victoria’s newest university – despite being pregnant with her second child.

“The fact that I became actively involved in university and staff association politics certainly added an extra ball to the juggling act,” says Strauss. “I was extremely fortunate to have the support of my husband, a reliable daily household help who stayed with us for over twenty years, and a sympathetic professor, who admired my capacity to have my children at the end of the academic year, the third son being born in December 1967.”

Strauss’s successful career in academia was something she had not planned for, having grown up

in a not very well-off family where no one had gone to university, in a country town where ambitions for girls (other than marriage) were unlikely to be higher than teacher’s college or nursing. “In 1942 I went as a boarder to a small country school [Alexandra College, Hamilton] where that was also the case among my fellow students.

At that stage my idea of the future was to be a kindergarten teacher because I like small children,” says Strauss.

In 1948, however, when she was in Year 11, she met the older sister of one of her day-girl friends who was at Melbourne University, and she seemed to have an interesting life. “When we were set one of those evergreen essay topics about ‘What would you do if you were given a thousand pounds?’ I wrote that I would spend it on going to the university, whereupon my English teacher said ‘Well, if that’s what you want, we had better do something about it.’ I then received generous individual coaching from him, my History teacher and the Head Mistress, who taught me the esoteric subject of Latin (when the Matriculation examination arrived I was the sole candidate in Hamilton!).”

Her results won her one of the forty State Scholarships worth £40 each that were awarded annually to Matriculation candidates. These had originally been calculated to cover the full cost of tuition at Melbourne University, but by 1949 they covered barely more than one subject. She would have to wait for a year until the much more generous Commonwealth Scholarship scheme came into effect for 1951. In the interim, she tried to earn money in various part time jobs such as baby-sitting, knitting fair-isle jumpers, and serving in one of the local pharmacies. It was simply

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exciting for her to be in one of the first cohorts of Commonwealth Scholarship winners, as was the prospect of moving to a big city for the first time and living the student life at Janet Clarke Hall. At this stage she had very little idea of the future beyond the fact that she had essentially been given a licence to read interesting books for several years.

Her unbridled enthusiasm for literature eventually insinuated itself into the cracks of time after the birth of her three children, when in 1975 she published her first poetry collection Children and Other Strangers, followed

by Winter Driving in 1981 and Labour Ward in 1988. Yet although another masters degree withered on the vine, she did gradually start publishing in academic journals, mostly in the field of Middle English literature, but with a growing commitment to teaching and researching Australian literature, especially the work of women poets. The turning point came during a period of study leave at the Humanities Research Centre of The Australian National University. Strauss was working on a “not-very exciting” project of an annotated bibliography of Chaucer criticism when she was invited to contribute a critical study on the poet Gwen Harwood to a series on Australian writers to be published by University of Queensland Press. In 1992, after considerable hard work, Boundary Conditions: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood was published and at that moment it dawned on her that she was entitled to submit the text for a staff PhD without the normal processes of supervision, although subject, of course, to external examination. The history of abandoned research projects was over, and a modest research career developed, although she certainly

didn’t envisage that its final effort would entail spending a large part of her last ten years in academia editing the Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore.

The poetry of Strauss features strong female characters, perhaps when thinking about her life: motherhood, the anti-Vietnam War movement and feminism.

These three intertwined stimuli influenced her poetic output. She continues to identify herself as a feminist, although she admits that she’s slightly amused that she is sometimes kindly dismissed as an already outmoded “second wave” feminist, more interested in activism than in theory. “Certainly I was very attracted by the idea of re-writing the classic stories of male heroes from the viewpoint of the minor female characters and giving them agency and control of the narrative. I suppose you could say, making them “strong”, but I don’t think I thought of myself as strong, rather as reaching for strength by imagining it as a possibility for these women otherwise relegated to minor roles or victimhood,” she says.

Being a feminist poet, stepping outside the boundaries of the personal and the domestic, suggests Strauss, could provoke antagonistic dismissal as a whinging or opinionated female.

But she found that being a feminist critic was quite exhilarating,

if with difficulties. “You were disturbing the comfortably masculinist literary hierarchies that applied to both poetry and poets and determined who had a chance to survive and be memorialised in anthologies. When I was invited in 1978 to produce an annotated bibliography of Australian women poets for World Literature Written in English it was sobering to find how difficult it was, first to find these poets and then to find their poems.”

Through her poetry, she expressed the many unique voices of women worldwide, and to this day she continues to support women where she can, having recently stepped down as President of Graduate Women Victoria. It was in this role where she persevered after university retirement, GWV noting “without her energetic leadership, Graduate Women Victoria may have gone out of business years ago.” In 2008 Strauss was made a Member of the Order of Australia, “for service to education as an academic and scholar in the field of Australian literature and poetry, and to a range of organisations involved in women’s issues and industrial relations.”

Graduate House is proud to share the story of a remarkable woman and looks forward to working more closely with Graduate Women Victoria (GWV). 

Jennifer and grandson Archer

www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 19

MEMBER NEWS

Muan Lim Graduate Focus

M

uan Lim has had the career that most aspire to have. A Malaysianborn Australian, Mr Lim graduated from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1st class honours) in 1977. From there, he joined KPMG as a chartered accountant. His skills would eventually lead to positions in varied locations around the world and to an audit in Hewlett Packard (HP), the computer company. Mr Lim’s career has its roots in Australia, with postings in Melbourne, Sydney and Wellington, before branching into the Asian market, with jobs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.

Mr. Lim described his favourite posting as Shanghai, due to the challenges that he faced there, and the huge opportunities that China provided. Because of globalisation, China's borders were opening and David Packard, in his role as U. S. Deputy Secretary of Defence during the Nixon administration, had been able to develop a successful business and working relationship with the Chinese government.

This connection eventually led to China granting HP the first “foreign joint-venture computer company” trade licence, a “blessing to supply and sell computer parts to China.”

However, this licence did not allow HP to manufacture

computer parts and sell domestically. Mr Lim, thus engaged, was successful in obtaining HP’s first “foreign jointventure leasing licence” in China through HP China Leasing. This meant that HP then possessed the power to manufacture parts and sell them domestically on the mainland, instead of sourcing goods from Hong Kong, where it would then be distributed back on the mainland. This success led to a promotion, with Mr Lim thence given the honour of starting the PC and server manufacturing business in China.

This deal also came with a promise that Mr Lim would deliver $400 million in revenue in exchange for the licence to HP. This promise was proved in the factories, jobs, work and business that HP would provide for the country, particularly in the city of Shanghai.

Mr Lim credits his success to his adoption of the “hybrid model” where he “leveraged the expertise” found in many different areas. He quoted the example of his co-worker, a Beijing native whose job was financial control and relationships management systems. “You work with local people for local issues and for local connections,” said Mr Lim. This was then coupled with assistance from HP headquarters, with PC technical support from Grenoble, France and technical and manufacturing support from Singapore.

“The advantage of being a global company is that you can pull resources from many, many areas to help you,” he says.

An important area in global business - as explained by Mr Lim when talking to graduates at Graduate House - is the value of soft skills.

"The ability to communicate and the ability to convince people that they should help you, the ability to have all the soft skills, to persuade and convince either people in the home division or local government to help you is much more important than the technical expertise -- the academic degree,” he says.

“The academic degree allows you to have a qualification and teaches you the analytical skills, but what is more important is to have the people skills, to move around and bring a solution to the table.”

Mr Lim also encourages graduates to get involved in more clubs and societies, to take up leadership roles and, in reference to his own heritage, to communicate clearly in English and understand its nuances.

He particularly recommends debate clubs as they challenge ability to think on one's feet.

Mr Lim highlighted the critical need to train in reacting quickly and efficiently to problems. He stressed the need for students “to create an environment to practice safely and repeatedly” the ability to react and communicate well to all problems, in debate rooms or book clubs.

When queried about how to advance one’s own career and learn the people skills necessary to do so, Mr Lim answered that everyone needed two sets of people: role models and mentors.

For Mr Lim, role models were very successful people who seemingly had no enemies. They were inspirations to copy and to emulate their strengths, and encouraged you to be almost as good, if not better. A good mentor was described as “somebody who is willing to help you”. This person may not necessarily be the most senior person around,

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but they have a willingness to help and have the ability to reach all quarters of the business. "So somebody who is well connected, willing to help and willing to tell you, in a nice way, where you erred, because we all make mistakes.”

For Mr Lim, one of the early lessons he learned in his career was “try not to make enemies on your way up, because they’ll get you on the way down.” His philosophies in life are therefore to make your team mates successful and to want to get your boss promoted. This philosophy ensures that goodwill is shared around the workplace and that once those you support get promoted, they remember the help given to them.

Despite his professional success, Mr Lim emphasised the team efforts that got him to the role

of Vice-President and General Manager for HP Business PC Operations in Asia Pacific.

For him, for everyone and everything to come together to accomplish what they did, any credit that came to him, went to the team. He highlighted the importance of hiring people who would one day be better than him.

“You know that when you hire them, one day they’ll be better than you, and your job is to make sure that they will be better than you … as a manager, your job is to train up the next group of managers who are more capable than you. Then and only then the company can grow and go ahead,” said Mr Lim. When reminiscing about his leadership style, Mr Lim claimed that “the classic HP manager can go anywhere in the world, and they will find old staff floating

around, more than happy to see them. HP Alumni is very similar to Graduate House alumni … it’s family!”

Mr Lim then summarised his teachings with a simple message: “being technically competent is a given, so if you are a first class honours, a PhD or a Masters in Commerce that is, to me, the minimum requirement to be successful. The softer side, the ability to engender a presence, the ability to create the feeling that you are a trustworthy person, the ability to communicate, convince, to bring people along, to develop people, all those things are much more important than your degree.”  We welcome Muan as one of the newest Members of The Graduate Union and thank him for his already significant graduate mentoring and role modelling.

Council Members Abroad During Cr Rhys Watson’s recent trip to Shanghai he was invited to the School of Law at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics by the Vice Dean Henry Ling Hu, a graduate of Peking University (LLB, LLM) and University of Hong Kong (PhD), to address law students on commercial insights in business, law and lean management.

The law students were very interested also to learn about our Graduate House and post graduate education opportunities at The University of Melbourne.

President of The Graduate Union, Dr Ken V Loughnan AO, travelled around South East Asia to celebrate the launch of new tents for Variety The Children's Charity. You can read his travel entries on the Graduate Union Blog at https://www. graduatehouse.com.au/dr-ken-v-loughnan-aoa-week-in-the-life-of-graduate-union-presidentpresident-of-variety-the-childrens-charity/

Vice Dean Henry Ling Hu and Cr Rhys Watson

www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 21

MEMBER NEWS

Extracurricular TIPS FOR LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE – with Stella Wang

From the onset, she had a clear goal, “to learn Japanese for use in daily life”, a mindset which has helped her better pick up Japanese.

For Ms. Wang, rote learning is difficult. She thus chose a more unorthodox approach to learning the language: TV shows, Asian dramas and the pressure of passing the Japanese language test to ensure her place at a Japanese university for 5 years.

Such a learning style meant that she was able to converse in Japanese within half of a year.

Stella Wang

L

earning a new language can be an insurmountable task.

Aside from the usual need to master grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, hidden within every language are subtle nuances, forms, cultural differences and similarities to your own native tongue.

For Japanese, Chinese and English polyglot Stella Wang of Graduate House, she found the transition from Chinese (her native language) to Japanese easier than that to English.

Japanese and Chinese share many similar characters, hence for Ms. Wang it became more of an issue of learning the culture behind Japanese and the slight differences in pronunciation.

This methodology proved useful to her English learning, where she used popular shows like the Big Bang Theory, and the Good Wife to understand cultural idioms, phrasing and to build up vocabulary. She would switch over to 2 Broke Girls to learn slang and pop culture!!

She credits dramas and TV for making language learning easier and filling in where the “books” cannot. In particular, she draws attention to the “dated” nature of books, that cultural norms are not always represented in rote learning due to the ever changing nature of it all.

An example she used was the word “sorry” in Japanese. Within the context of “politeness”, use of the word differs according to the audience. Hence the usage of “sorry” for an employer would have a different delivery than to a friend.

Cultural background is a fundamental aspect and a key tool in understanding the nuances and subtleties of the language.

“Language is generated from the culture” notes Ms. Wang.

An amusing reference was from China, in which a cuter, selfdeprecating term to describe single people was “single dog”, a phrase that sounds more insulting in English than it does in Chinese.

For those who questioned whether the “inner monologue” is ever conducted in a different language to that being spoken, Ms. Wang said that at the beginning of learning a new language you are constantly translating. It is not until one is comfortable conversing that the brain actively “speaks” in the new language.

To converse is one of the most effective ways to learn a language, hence joining a language club or making native friends is a fast way to pick up the new conversational styles as well as jokes, slang and swear words.

To learn an “easy” language is to pick one with characters similar to your own. According to Ms. Wang, with concentrated effort, conversation is possible within half a year, but for a hard language, where characters are different as is structure, a time-frame of a year is to be expected.

Whilst she prefers her pop culture based learning style, Ms. Wang also said that the only place to learn to read and write is through rote learning. Writing is considered the hardest part of language and mastery of reading and writing skills will elevate expression of ideas and vocabulary. 

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Jennifer Batrouney QC Congratulations to Life Member and past member of Council, Jennifer Batrouney QC, who is the elected Victorian Bar President for 2017.

As reported in the 17th November, 2016 media release from the Victorian Bar, Jennifer expressed intent to continue fostering excellence among members of the Bar and to work with the Bar Council, as well as with CEO Sarah Fregon and her team, on implementing the new strategic plan with focus on raising awareness of barristers' distinctive services and expertise.

Jennifer graduated with an honours degree in law and a commerce degree majoring in accounting from The University of Melbourne in 1987. She completed her articles with Blake & Riggall (now Ashurst) in 1988 and remained with that firm as a solicitor until moving to the Bar in 1991. She was appointed a QC in 2000.

With extensive experience in appearing before the Courts at all levels, Jennifer specialises in taxation, equity, administrative, commercial and

Jennifer Batrouney QC 2017 Victorian Bar Council President

superannuation law, as well as in providing advice in relation to GST, fringe benefits tax (FBT), payroll tax, land tax and many other tax matters.

The Graduate Union is indebted to President Batrouney for leading the probono legal team, which included Dr Gerry Bean and Daniel Kornberg from DLA Piper, to successful resolution of a case with the State Revenue Office and continued exemptions from payroll and land tax.

We extend our very best wishes to Jennifer in this new and distinguished role.

Goutam Basak’s new book is available on-line or in paperback.

Migrants and locals are two sides of a coin - a journey of collaborative adaptation necessary from both ends. Think like a migrant - use your practice of adaption to strive for success. Act like a local collaborate, socialise and adapt to the ways of your new homeland.

This publication is suitable for those who want to move or who have just moved into a new environment, to understand both their psychological journey and things to look out for in learning and development systems in corporates, induction programs and the different stages and experiences in the journey from one to another working and living home. www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 23

Academic and Professional Development Meetings The following groups from The University of Melbourne have convened meetings, workshops and seminars at Graduate House in November and December 2016 Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network 7th November, 7th December 24 attendees

Campus Services, Staff Environment Advocates Meeting 8th December 20 attendees

Centre for Health Policy 14th, 30th November, 1st, 2nd, 13th December 86 attendees

Chancellery Research, The University of Melbourne 8th, 9th December 60 attendees

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 3rd November 50 attendees

Department of Finance 4th, 18th November 10 attendees

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences 28th November 65 attendees

Faculty of the VCA and MCM, External Relations 22nd November 9 attendees

Friends of the Baillieu Library Annual Dinner 10th November 27 attendees

Melbourne School of Population and Global Health 22nd November 20 attendees

Research, Innovation and Commercialisation 16th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th November, 10th, 11th, 16th December 158 attendees

School of Chemistry 15th, 16th December 45 attendees

School of Engineering 3rd November 12 attendees

School of Historical and Philosophical Studies 30th November 20 attendees

The patronage of organisation Members in charitable, not-for-profit, government and professional development sectors is acknowledged, as is that of our many Members who organise functions.

Thank you for your patronage.

Dinner Function

Australian Centre for Career Education (ACCE) 1st December 49 attendees

Australian Martial Arts Academy (AMA) Christmas Dinner 6th December 25 attendees

Anne Campbell Dinner 15th November 8 attendees

Asialink Business 14th December 30 attendees

Association of French Teachers in Victoria (AFTV) 11th November 50 attendees

Australia Teachers of Media (ATOM) - Headstart Unit 1 10th, 15th November 55 attendees

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) 3rd November 18 attendees

Australian Asian Association (AAA) 14th November, 12th December 12 attendees

Australian Centre for Heart Health 23rd, 24th, 25th November 55 attendees

Australian Fairy Tale Society

Australian Fairy Tale Society (AFTS) 10th November 10 attendees

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Academic and Professional Development Meetings Australian Food Hygiene Services 10th November 11 attendees

Australian Italian Lawyers Association

Australian Psychological Society 23rd November 35 attendees

Retired Senior Officers Lunch 5th December 13 attendees

Lunch Forum

Ex PAV Group

Dinner Event

Australian Italian Lawyers Association 9th December 10 attendees Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM) 14th, 21st, 22nd, 28th November, 2nd, 7th December 95 attendees

Dinner Event

Betty Keay’s Function 19th December 11 attendees

Carlton Gardens Primary School 15th December 48 attendees

Carlton-Parkville Probus Club Inc 8th November, 13th December 165 attendees

Carlton Rotary - Lunch, Dinner, Board Meeting and Heritage Cluster Meeting 8th, 9th, 15th, 22nd, 29th November, 6th, 7th, 12th December 213 attendees

Career Education Association of Victoria (CEAV) Training - Career Education Ideas 14th November 12 attendees

Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Spatial Information 16th December 8 attendees

Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) 7th, 10th November 19 attendees

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Victorian Section 8th December 65 attendees

Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) - Committee AGM 16th November 59 attendees

International Student Advisers Network of Australia Inc. (ISANA) 17th November 100 attendees

John Cain Foundation Luncheon 2nd, 16th November 161 attendees

Melba Group 25th November 18 attendees

Melbourne Brain Centre 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th November 220 attendees

Michael Quin - Ex PAV Group 7th December 12 attendees

Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria (MLTAV) 4th, 17th November, 6th December 118 attendees

Murray Geddes 7th November 10 attendees

National Council of Women, Victoria (NCWV) 1st December 80 attendees

Native Title Services Victoria NTSV and FVTOC Strategy Meeting 6th, 16th December 118 attendees

Order of St. John 7th November, 5th December 28 attendees

Organisational Development Australia 30th November 16 attendees www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 25

Academic and Professional Development Meetings

Slavery Links

Dinner Event

Parentshop Pty Ltd 16th, 18th November 29 attendees

Phoenix Australia 7th December 9 attendees

Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) 1st December 7 attendees

Procurement Services - Procurement Operations Farewell 14th December 22 attendees

Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) 5th December 17 attendees

Sienna Cancer Diagnostics Ltd 10th, 11th November 27 attendees

Slavery Links 2nd, 16th November 6 attendees

Social Education Victoria (SEV) 9th, 30th November 52 attendees

Social Work Department Writing Group 29th November 8 attendees

Stephen Cherry - Form 5A 1948 @ Melbourne Grammar School 11th November 15 attendees

Supply Chain Logistics Association Australia (SCLAA) 10th November 8 attendees

Swinburne University of Technology Department Planning Day 13th December 11 attendees

Terry Pope - Melbourne School of Philosophy Dinner 5th December 10 attendees

The Carlton Connect Initiative TRaM Seminar 21st November 10 attendees

The Graduate Union Collegiate Events and Governance Meetings 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 30th November, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 20th December 788 attendees

Turkish Teachers Association of Victoria (TTAV) 17th November, 4nd, 7th, 9th December 68 attendees

University College Review and Planning Day 14th December 22 attendees

VicHealth - The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation 30th November, 1st, 9th, 30th December 52 attendees

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) 18th November, 9th December 65 attendees

Vincent Mirabelli’s Event

Vocational Pathways Ripponnlea Institute 6th December 18 attendees Whitehorse Primary School Graduation18th November 22 attendees

VJM Consulting - Vincent Mirabelli 3rd, 16th November 20 attendees Western Clinical School - 2016 Graduation 3rd December 200 attendees

Private Event

Zita Unger 2nd November 3 attendees

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Women’s Forum Review Wednesday, 16th November, 2016

“The Significance of the 5 senses” Some salient points discussed at this forum include: 1 • The 5 senses originally discussed and defined by Aristotle.

• Awareness of which sense participants could do without (5 participants; 5 opinions) • “Taste” can be underrated - primitive man and animals rely heavily on taste to avoid foods which would harm them (ie., they taste bad).

• Sense that we have help to make us human.

• Amputation of a body part (e.g., finger) or loss through disease (retinoblastoma = loss of eye) requires a deal of adjustment in reorganising one’s life.

• One of the participants who is colour blind has made adjustments necessary (e.g., living near public transport) to live happily with constraints imposed by that condition.

• An acute sense of smell is a double-edged sword e.g., a burden if one is near an aroma that is unpleasant (e.g., rotten egg gas) or an aroma that pleasing (e.g., a favourite perfume). It is said that babies distressed when away from the mother can be calmed is some item from the mother (e.g., clothing) carrying her “smell” is placed near the baby. This probably explains why some young children may have particular attachment to “a comforter”.

• The senses of smell and sound can give rise to memories of the past. (e.g., long finger nails on a female teacher snapping on the blackboard.

Schoolboy tasked with listing the 7 wonders of the world. Could get only 5. When the teacher investigated why he was struggling, found he had listed the 5 senses and told her he did not know what the other two were.

2 Most healthy people will, without thought, use all 5 (touch, taste, hearing, sight and smell) many times everyday.

3 Interesting to reflect on what sense one could do without if an accident, age or disease removed one.

4 People born without sight or sound ( probably the most significant 2 of the 5) usually find ways of compensating (e.g., touch becomes more important).

5 People who are born with all 5 in working order and later lose one (e.e., sight) tend to rely heavily on memory (e.g., people who go blind in mid-life, use memory to describe (reasonably accurately) things (e.g., colour - “I want a blue colour that has very little yellow or green, it’s about as tall as a 3 storey building.”

6 New technology (e.g., hearing aids and eye drops can replace loss or divination of sight.

7 What about the illusive (nebulous) 6th sense. Not godgiven to all but can be developed with life experience e.g., sensitivity to atmosphere, social tension.

The next forum is on 15th February, with the topic The Importance of “Why”.

The forum is free.

Lunch is at Member and non-member prices.

www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 27

FEEDBACK

The customer service is not just excellent it is also pleasant and friendly making each visit a pleasure.

- Allan Casey The food and drinks were excellent. The only thing to improve is if the plates could be heated.

- Tony Cole

The American style meal ‘chilli con carne’ was a very new experience and much enjoyed! The ambience in the dining room is so enjoyable. Recently, my sister from Brisbane and grand daughter from Adelaide enjoyed a meal with me. Thanks Bill and Rosie - always delightful.

- Margaret Mayers The hospitality and communication has been excellent as a visitor to Australia form Scotland and I hope to get the opportunity to return so I will wish you a Scottish New Year.

- Mrs Anna Gunn Came here to celebrate husband’s birthday - with a voucher. Thank you. Every time we come we vow to come more often. We can never fault the service - I think we are being watched as every need is met before we realize it.

- Andrew Casey Soup at Graduate House. Not only do I always enjoy the soup, but I also learn Basma’s recipes so that I can provide the soup for a local group which has been meeting informally for 15 years. I will never run short of ideas while Basma advises me.

- Mac Nicoll We very much appreciate your kind hospitality to our grandson Nathan. It truly exemplifies how The Graduate Union is very much a family organisation.

- Christopher and Michelle Worsnop It is always lovely to dine at Graduate House and I’ve enjoyed bringing friends and family here as guests. I especially enjoyed the special St Patrick’s Day lunch this year - well done!

- Rowena Ryan

The lucky feedback-givers are for November Tony Cole and December Rowena Ryan who each won a bottle of Emeri De Botoli Chardonnay Pinot Noir

Your feedback is important Submit Dining Room Feedback Form to be in the Monthly Draw AND be in the running for the Year-End Prize of a $500 Coles Myers Gift Voucher

28 | www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B

FEATURE

Discovering Melbourne Melbourne Summer Night Markets

Donut Fest Melbourne Queen Victoria Night Market till 8th March Wednesdays, 5.00pm - 10.00pm Queen Victoria Night Market is back with global street foods to indulge on, curated bars to explore, as well as, of course, artisan and vintage store holders and many fun activities for the whole family.

Spend summer evenings in a beautiful market surrounding, and experience a more quirky side of Melbourne.

South Melbourne Night Market till 23rd February Thursdays, from 5.30pm There will be a feast of street food, market stalls and free entertainment and music across four stages.

This year's night market will be bigger and better than ever with the Market’s Centre Aisle and many permanent stalls opening for the first time during the evenings.

The Village Melbourne, 557 St Kilda Road, 12th March, 2.00pm - 8.00pm

Gracing Melbourne’s shores from Los Angeles, USA, Donut Fest is, as the name suggests, a festival celebrating deep fried dough!

Pop-up Cinema Common Man, 39 Dukes Walk, South Wharf Enjoy a free (yes, you heard right FREE) open-air cinema, complete with astro-turf, air-beds and a candy bar, while enjoying fantastic flicks under the stars.

Open until 17th February, check website for session times.

Taste all the donut creations that Melbourne’s bakers have to offer, as well as enjoying some fine beverages.

If you have any recommendations for places or events of interest for our Members, email publications@graduatehouse.com.au www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 29

Welcome BBQ Friday, 10th March 6.00pm The Graduate Union welcomes you to the new academic year!

Join us in welcoming in 2017 with a mixed grill BBQ at Graduate House.

There are vegetarian options and a wide range of salads.

Resident Members FREE Non-resident Members $22 Guests and non-members $32 Concession $27

RSVP by email admingh@graduatehouse.com.au contact us on (03) 9347 3428 or come to the Reception desk

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9347 3428 mingh@graduatehouse.com.au www.graduatehouse.com.au

uaTe

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Phone: 03 9347 3428 Email: admingh@graduatehouse.com.au Website: www.graduatehouse.com.au

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D onat i on For m 2 0 1 4

From its establishment in 1911, Members Donation Formhave lived, learned and met together to continue the experience of ‘the meeting of the minds’ beyond university as they entered the workforce, had families, became leaders, From its establishment in 1911, Members have lived, learned and met volunteered across the world andofretired. together to continue the experience of ‘the meeting the minds’ beyond university as they entered the workforce, had families, became leaders, volunteered across the world and retired.

Members built the organisation through great generosity

These in the form of These donations of funds and buildings, bequests and sponsorship, Members built the organisation through great generosity in the togetherform withof volunteer pro work.

We seek always to honour donations ofand funds andbono buildings, bequests and sponsorship, together with volunteer and proofbono work.

Wecontributing seek always to honour this legacy and to foster a culture active and membership. this legacy and to foster a culture of active and contributing membership.

PleasePlease give give to our unique association of graduates. to our unique association of graduates. giftdeductible is tax deductible and acknowledged in in TheThe Melbourne Graduate Your giftYour is tax and acknowledged Melbourne Graduate (please specify if you wish to remain anonymous). (please specify if you wish to remain anonymous).

Donor Information

or Information TiTle: naMe: daTe of birTh: naMe of orGanisaTion, Group or universiTy deparTMenT/ school: (for orGanisaTion MeMbers only)

birTh: Contact Information of orGanisaTion, Group or universiTy deparTMenT/ school:

of

business : GanisaTion MeMbers only)

tact

ss:

afTer hours:

Mobile:

eMail: address: (nuMber, sTreeT naMe or posT office box, suburb, sTaTe, posTcode and counTry) Information My donaTion will be $aud:afTer aT frequency:

hours:

once-off

Mobile: weekly

MonThly

annually

i auThorise The GraduaTe union To send Me a reMinder To send in a cheque or puT Money inTo The Gu accounT

ss: (nuMber, sTreeT naMe or posT office box, suburb, sTaTe, posTcode and counTry)

onaTion will be

equency:

uThorise

$aud:

complete this section, and the sections oPlease nce-off weekly MonThly overleaf, and send to The Graduate Union

annually



Carlton, Victoria The GraduaTe union To send220 Me Leicester a reMinder Street, To send in a cheque or puT Money inTo The Gu accounT Australia, 3053. www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B | 31

DONATION

Phone: 03 9347 3428 Email: admingh@graduatehouse.com.au Website: www.graduatehouse.com.au

Funding for Futures

The Graduate Union 220 Leicester Street Carlton VIC, Australia, 3053

D o nat i o n F o r m 2 0 1 4

The GraduaTe union of The universiTy of Melbourne inc.

Method of Payment

Please tick choice of payment and write the amount you wish to donate

cheque aMounT $ payable To The GraduaTe union of The universiTy of Melbourne incorporaTed

bank Transfer accounT naMe: The GraduaTe union of The universiTy of Melbourne incorporaTed bank: naTional ausTralia bank bsb: 083 170 accounT nuMber: 515612137 swifT code: (for inTernaTional Transfers) naTaau3303M descripTion of Transfer: your surnaMe or Group/ orGanisaTion and The word ‘donaTion’ crediT card aMounT $

card nuMber: expiry daTe: cardholder naMe:

/

/

/

siGnaTure:

Direct My Donation to:

Please indicate your preferred donation target

The fund of highest priority and need at the time of my donation Buildings Resident Members Capital Fund I am Interested in Gifting to Name: a space wiThin The GraduaTe union (buildinG, floor, rooM or oTher space) a scholarship or an award To a residenT MeMber a recoGniTion of excellence award for a residenT or non-residenT MeMber a career or reTireMenT developMenT proGraM for an in-career or a reTired MeMber

My Bequest (will) i would like To provide for The GraduaTe union in My will



(please Telephone The GraduaTe union on 03 9347 3428 in This circuMsTance)

To donate, please cut along this line and send the completed form to 220 Leicester Street, Carlton, VIC 3023, Australia

aMounT $

32 | www.graduatehouse.com.au | ABN 55610 664 963 | Incorporated Association Registration No. A0023234B