University of Tasmania Alumni: Issue 46, December 2014

Alumni THE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA

ISSUE 46 ❘ DECEMBER 2014

OUR NEW GOVERNOR Alumna Professor Kate Warner, AC, makes history

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Welcome Many Tasmanian families credit the University with guiding their careers down through the generations

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s the only University in this state, we have put down deep roots into the Tasmanian community. We are appreciative of the privileged position we have acquired over 125 years, and also mindful of the responsibilities that accompany this status.

This issue of Alumni magazine explores in part those community ties, as represented by a small selection of the many Tasmanian families who have strong links to the University.

In the spotlight of late are the Flanagans, courtesy of author Richard Flanagan’s Man Booker Prize triumph with his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Readers of The Age will also be familiar with older brother Martin’s writings.

As Richard pointed out at the time, he isn’t part of a literary tradition – far from it.

“I came out of a tiny, little mining town in the rainforest on an island at the edge of the world, my grandparents were illiterate …”

The University of Tasmania is delighted to have played its part in helping Richard on the long ascent to publishing’s pantheon, as it has in the success of his siblings in their chosen fields.

We are equally proud to claim former Deputy Premier Sir Max Bingham, his four children and three of his grandchildren as alumni (a fourth grandchild is a current English Honours student).

Other families such as the Ibbotts, Peacocks and Whites have recognised the importance of education and learning and

The University of Tasmania is delighted to have played its part in helping Richard Flanagan on the long ascent to publishing’s pantheon

FROM THE CHAIR Our 125th anniversary celebrations are about to begin, so join the party

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egular readers of my column in Alumni will know that over the past few years I have been excited about the upcoming 125th anniversary celebrations of the University of Tasmania next year – 2015 seemed a long way off back then, but it’s now almost upon us.

Planning for the year has accelerated at a frantic pace. Tasmanian residents may have read the University will sponsor Cougar II in the upcoming Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The owner of the boat and skipper of the crew is Dr Tony Lyall (MBBS 1978), an alumnus of the University, along with many of his

they too have remarkable stories to tell.

This edition of Alumni magazine also honours Professor Kate Warner who, as we go to press, has just been sworn in as Tasmania’s first female Governor, an appointment that has met with a chorus of approval and goodwill. It is a wonderful endorsement of the importance and impact of this institution that another of our alumni has been called upon to fill one of the highest offices in the state.

This momentous occasion is all the more poignant as we stand poised on our own historic milestone – the University’s 125th anniversary.

Professor Peter Rathjen, Vice-Chancellor

crew. Having Cougar II displaying the regal red lion of the University from Sydney Harbour to the Derwent River will be a wonderful way to start our commemorative year. Thank you to all our alumni who have submitted contributions of stories, photos and anecdotes as part of our anniversary history project. Some of these and other stories will form part of our fantastic new interactive website showcasing many of the people and events which have made our University so great, to be launched soon. I encourage you to find out more by visiting utas.edu.au/125 The Advancement team has been busy planning a full schedule of activities for 2015. Eighteen events have been planned ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

for key overseas locations (London, New York, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur), all major Australian capital cities and, of course, locations right across Tasmania. Planning is also well underway for the premier University Dinners held in conjunction with the University of Tasmania Foundation – they promise to be extra special next year.

May I welcome Mr Alastair Lee as our new Associate Director, Alumni Relations.

Alastair has settled in to his new role well and is already having an important impact on alumni activities and affairs. Alastair will be at many of our events during 2015 so please make yourself known to him.

As 2014 draws to a close may I take this opportunity to wish all alumni my very best wishes for the season, and I look forward to meeting many more of you in 2015.

With very best wishes, Dr Ashley Townsend Chair, University of Tasmania Alumni

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Contents 11

17 Welcome Professor Peter Rathjen

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A Cougar on the prowl 5 The University kicks off its 125th anniversary celebrations hopefully with a win in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race A big year ahead 6 The University has a full calendar of events to celebrate its 125th anniversary Leading the way 7 Tasmania’s first female governor, Professor Kate Warner, AM

Music topples barriers 8 Andrew Legg, the founder of the Southern Gospel Choir 50 a fine score 11 The Conservatorium of Music’s impressive innings

Road to glory Author Richard Flanagan

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Sarah’s time to shine Poet Sarah Day

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Getting a head start 26 AFL coach Brendon Bolton

Life on the edge Dr Owen Ingles has worked in some dangerous environments

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They do us proud University alumni rank high in Queen’s honours

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Stand and deliver A stirring opera on the life of a notorious bushranger

Our top contenders Australian of the Year nominees

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Winning double 32 Graduates Dr Kiros Hiruy and his daughter Tsionawit

Lasting legacy 28 A chance encounter opened a door for Frank Sainsbury

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Family on same page Arch Flanagan had a love of words and instilled in his children a desire to help those in need Alumni is the regular magazine for graduates and friends of the University of Tasmania. Alumni include graduates and diplomats of the University, TCAE/TSIT and AMC, and staff of three years’ service. Alumni is prepared by the Communications and Media Office for the Advancement Office.

Let us know your story at: Alumni.Office@utas.edu.au; +61 3 6324 3052; fax +61 3 6324 3402; University of Tasmania Advancement Office, Locked Bag 1350; Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Cover image: The new Governor of Tasmania, Professor Kate Warner, AC, by Peter Mathew.

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

125TH ANNIVERSARY

A Cougar on the prowl The University hopes to kick off its 125th anniversary celebrations with a lion-hearted effort in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race by its sponsored entry

By Anna Osborne

PETER ROBEY

All shipshape: The University of Tasmania-sponsored Sydney to Hobart entrant Cougar II.

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he 125th anniversary celebrations will take to the water to mark the official start of the 2015 festivities.

The University is sponsoring the Sydney to Hobart entry, Cougar II, which will be aiming for a podium finish in the handicap stakes come the 2014 event.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen said it would set the tone for a milestone year.

“This race is iconic to Tasmania,” he said. “It is full of spirit, life, colour and passion. From that perspective, we saw very strong parallels between this race and our University, which is imbued with those same qualities. The finish of the Sydney to Hobart in many ways signals the start of a New Year in our city, so what better way to start our 125th celebrations?”

The celebrations will also be marked globally with the iconic race capturing significant international audiences.

Cougar II, a TP52, is owned and skippered by Dr Tony Lyall (MBBS 1978).

Members of the yacht’s crew also have strong ties. This year’s race will be the 13th year Dr Lyall has skippered in the Sydney to Hobart.

“From a sailing perspective the Rolex Sydney to Hobart represents somewhat of a grail,” Dr Lyall said.

“I can think of no better symbol to chasing that grail than under the University’s heraldic lion.”

Cougar II underscored her competitiveness by beating six other Sydney to Hobart contenders to chalk up a record-breaking line honours win in the 67th TasPorts Maria Island Race last month. It was the first race outing for the new University of Tasmania black carbon fibre mainsail.

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125th ANNIVERSARY Alumni Events February 27 Young Alumni

Reception, Hobart March 11 Singapore

12 Kuala Lumpur April 20 Sydney May 27 Perth

29 Adelaide June 9 Brisbane

10 Melbourne

30 Hong Kong July 4 Hangzhou

7 Shanghai August 12 International Graduands

Reception, Hobart September 22 New York

25 London October 7 Young Alumni

Reception, Launceston 18 Canberra November 13 50+ Club Lunch December 14 International Graduands

Reception, Hobart

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125TH ANNIVERSARY

A BIG YEAR AHEAD The University has a full calendar of events to celebrate its 125th anniversary across the state, Australia and the world

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STEEN EVALD

ew Year always offers a time for reflection and a promise of new beginnings.

For the University of Tasmania, 2015 will bring festivities celebrating both old and new as it marks its 125th anniversary.

The University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Rathjen, will officially launch the year-long celebration on January 10 with events planned across Tasmania, Australia and overseas.

“This milestone allows all members of the University’s community to celebrate our past and build for our future,” 125th Anniversary Advisory Committee Chair Professor David Rich said.

Alumnus, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (BCom/LLB 1995), is the Honorary Patron of the celebrations which aim to highlight the

By Anna Osborne

Special role: Princess Mary of Denmark is patron of the University’s celebrations.

University’s achievements. As only the fourth university to be established in Australia, achievements have spread far and wide with more than 90,000

We have had a lot of support from across the University community and beyond Professor David Rich

125 STORIES An invitation to contribute

Students, staff, alumni and friends of the University are being invited to share their stories as part of the commemorative 125 Stories project.

To mark the University’s milestone, the project is aiming to capture, preserve and share insights and observations which have helped to shape the University of Tasmania.

Submissions can include photographs, memorabilia, keepsakes and the like with material being presented online

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and potentially made available in other ways including hard copy, exhibitions and displays. The project is commemorating the University’s evolution over the centuries – reflecting the academic and research achievements and national and international impact throughout the past 125 years.

Written submissions should be 250 to 1250 words. Submissions can include any aspect of the University and its people.

Key themes the stories could reflect include learning and teaching at the University; impact of research; the university and its migrant community; internationalisation; foundation and philanthropy; disciplines and distinguished alumni; University’s academic, political and

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

alumni located around the world.

Commemorative highlights include special foundation dinners across Tasmania; 125-inspired events throughout the state, Australia and overseas; a short film and the commemorative 125 Stories project.

“We have had a lot of interest and support from across the University community and beyond,” Professor Rich said.

“We have also received great support from the Tasmanian University Union (TUU) and from a range of external partners including state and local governments in Tasmania.”

Dedicated committees have been formed in each of the state’s three regions to host a range of local activities.

Many of the University’s faculties, institutes, schools and divisions are also planning to host events to mark the historic year.

For more information on the 125th celebrations visit utas.edu.au/125 or email 125@utas.edu.au

economic impact; and University life such as societies, TUU and sporting clubs.

To participate in the project, or for more information, visit utas.edu.au/125/125-stories

NEW REPRESENTATIVE

LEADING THE WAY Trailblazing scholar and alumna Professor Kate Warner, AM, will become the state’s first female governor

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PETER MATHEW

t has taken two centuries but Tasmania finally has a female Governor – and she is an alumna.

The University of Tasmania community is celebrating the appointment of Professor Kate Warner, AM, (LLB Hons 1970, LLM 1978) as the 28th office-bearer since 1804.

The trailblazing scholar, with four decades of distinguished service to the University, was announced as Tasmania’s new Governor last month. She was sworn in on December 10.

Professor Warner was the University’s first female Law Faculty Professor and the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law, and has devoted her stellar career to teaching, research and being a role model to others.

She will retain an association with the University, which will make possible the continuance of her globally recognised research into the delivery of justice.

Her outstanding contribution was honoured with the awarding of the University of Tasmania Distinguished Service Medal in 2012 and she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) earlier this year.

“Of course we are delighted that this appointment reflects so positively on our institution,” the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Rathjen, said.

“But we are also elated that this honour celebrates the importance of teaching and research to the life of the State.”

Professor Warner has paid tribute to her predecessor, Peter Underwood (LLB 1960, Hon LLD 2007), who died in office.

“Succeeding His Excellency Peter Underwood is going to be a really difficult act to follow because I think he brought intellect, dignity, warmth and compassion to the position and I would really hope to be able to do as good a job as he did.”

Mr Underwood graduated from the University in 1960 and retained a life-long

By Peter Cochrane

Continuing success: Professor Kate Warner, AM, was sworn in on December 10.

Her academic talents are matched by her wit and infectious good humour

Professor Margaret Otlowski devotion to the University and the issue of education to the future of Tasmania.

Professor Warner’s career has been distinguished by her breadth of service and indefatigable work ethic.

“I’ve bought a lot of energy to the role of academic and I certainly intend to do the same in this new role,” she said at the time of her appointment.

She is a regular contributor to journals ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

and books; wrote the definitive book Sentencing in Tasmania, an essential research tool for members of the judiciary and lawyers; has attracted dozens of significant grants, and accepted many fellowships and other honours. She is one of the Law Faculty’s most successful academic supervisors. Her colleagues estimate she has had a hand in teaching more than half the State’s serving legal practitioners.

Law Faculty Dean Professor Margaret Otlowski has hailed her “extraordinary and sustained level of commitment” to the University and Tasmania over the past three decades.

“She has been an inspiring mentor and her academic talents are matched by her wit and infectious good humour,” Professor Otlowski said.

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ARTS

Music topples barriers As a student, Andrew Legg loved music and football but his father gave him a choice: he opted for macho football over being bullied as the boy who played classical piano. Wrong choice, his father declared. Today, the founder of the Southern Gospel Choir counts Stevie Wonder as one of his friends

By Jodi De Cesare

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tupid boy”: The two words repeatedly used by a piano teacher to label a young and impressionable student by the name of Andrew Legg (BMus 1986, PhD 2008). The world of gospel music both here and far, far abroad owes that seemingly harsh teacher a debt of gratitude. For it pushed Legg – now an Associate Professor, the Director of the Conservatorium of Music and founder of the Southern Gospel Choir – to strive even harder.

“If you want to know what’s at the heart of Andrew Legg, it’s to literally push back

against that kind of attitude,” he says.

“I felt ignorant, like I didn’t know anything and that I never would, and that’s the killer.”

The man who has Stevie Wonder’s number in his phone contacts and regards other Grammy-Award winners as personal friends certainly proved he wasn’t stupid, and that his talent and drive wouldn’t be dimmed.

So how does a boy born on the West Coast of Tasmania come to lead an allwhite choir on a tour to the very heart of African-American gospel music? On the eve of the tour, Associate Professor Legg reflects on the origins of his passion,

ROBERT HEAZLEWOOD

Welcome to the heartland: Front from left, Grammy Award-winning producer, singer and songwriter Myron Butler, soloist Maria Lurighi and Associate Professor Andrew Legg, with the touring Southern Gospel Choir members at The Potter’s House Church in Dallas, Texas.

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

recalling sifting through his father’s record collection as an eight-year-old and listening to Ray Charles for the first time. The song was a live version of What’d I Say. “I put it on the player and for whatever reason I adored it,” Associate Professor Legg says. “The music owns the musician, it’s part of your wiring. That was the music that I was drawn to. The needle literally wore through the record.”

From an early age, it struck Associate Professor Legg that all contemporary music originated from this single point.

“Contemporary popular music, whether it’s country or hip hop or jazz or whatever, doesn’t exist without African-American slavery and gospel music. That’s where it starts. It’s the secular and the sacred part of African-American musical expression and community, more importantly. They don’t separate various forms of music and art … it’s a single expression of a feeling or emotion. It owns them like it owns us.”

With an Anglican priest father, Associate Professor Legg was also exposed to “essentially whitened up versions” of African-American gospel music as a “little tacker” in church. “For me, the wiring is there to understand it in a fairly profound way. From the first record I heard I sought out everything in my funny little head that sounded like that.”

As a sensitive artistic boy growing up in the ’70s, did he feel compelled to hide his interest in jazz, soul and gospel during his teenage years? “No, I tried to hide the fact that I was being trained as a classical piano player, which in my day was the only available formal training,” he says.

“You can imagine the names other

ARTS

MICHAEL RAYNER

Sharing a love of music: Associate Professor Andrew Legg at the piano.

young men would call the son of a priest who played classical piano. As my way of combatting this oppressive or bullying behaviour, I tried to play as much modern music as I could, because it made me cool in the eyes of everybody else, and I played football all my life. It made me look tough and like everybody else and at that stage I didn’t like to stand out too much from the crowd.”

In fact, Associate Professor Legg’s musical career nearly fell victim to football. “At one point my father gave me the option of pursuing one of my two loves. I chose football and he said wrong choice! It was the best decision my father ever made on my behalf.”

Although his father saw his talent, Associate Professor Legg himself hadn’t realised his full potential, even when he started at “The Con” to study a Bachelor of Music.

“I was still finding myself as a player,” he says. “I was very musical but my technical development compared to other classical piano players was years behind.

I almost gave up three or four times. I

struggled with (classical) music that I didn’t understand and didn’t have much connection with the music I knew and loved.

“Looking back, the lessons I learned at the Con, about the way you play music and opening up ears, has made me the kind of contemporary player that I am.

Imagine the names other young men would call the son of a priest who played classical piano Andrew Legg

“It helps me to stand a little bit apart from the average and gives me a bit of a signature sound. I can see the influence of that training really strongly, even though it was in a genre and a style and at a time that was not easy for me, it’s quite profound the way it’s affected my playing even today.”

Now, as head of the Conservatorium, ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

his student experience impacts his leadership style.

“I have a connection with students, because I also see through them little people, like I was, who sometimes get hurt very easily by comments from outside that are unhelpful. Even when they’re true, they’re put so bluntly that it can be off-putting to students.

“I’m oversensitive to students’ sensitivities, to be perfectly honest. I want the students here to have a positive experience and so I will seek out with all of my energy, everything that is good about the player and I will tell them that’s what is good about them. Once you’ve won their trust, then you can sit beside them and talk about things to fix.

You have to win their confidence first or you’ll never see the real student. That is absolutely fundamental to my teaching pedagogy.

“Tender students can sometimes get missed along the way. Mistakes in a performance can be misinterpreted as a lack of ability, when that’s far from the Continued on page 10

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ARTS

Continued from page 9

MICHAEL RAYNER

truth. Once you can get past nerves or a lack of confidence you can see in the core of the person something that’s true and honourable and genuinely musical. If you can honour that in the student you will go a long way to creating the confidence they need to realise what they truly are.

“If anything underpins the way I am, if I have one redeeming feature, it’s that I want to go to the heart of people and find the musician that cries at the middle to try and get out.”

A huge turning point in his career came in 1994 when he met Anthony Campbell, an African-American pastor preacher and theologian from Boston University. So impressed was Campbell with Associate Professor Legg’s “little white choir led by a white man born at Rosebery” that he invited Associate Professor Legg to the United States to introduce him to his friends. Those friends were none other than Aretha Franklin, Kirk Franklin, Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder. Associate Professor Legg stayed in their homes and was invited to perform as a “Premier Artist” at the Gospel Music Workshop of America in Cincinnati where he was the only white man among a sea of 60,000 African-American faces.

Not bad for someone who’d played football all his life to blend in.

“I was nervous beyond belief,” he laughs. “The roar of the audience was similar to that at the MCG. My naivety really helped because I didn’t know just how ridiculous it might have gone across.”

He recalls hearing some gasps but much applause as he walked to join Stevie Wonder onstage.

“It was a gigantic thing for me,” he says. “Through my head ran a billion thoughts. I’d grown up playing Stevie Wonder stuff, I could do every Stevie Wonder lick. I thought what am I going to do now? The guy I’ve been copying all my life is standing about 15 feet from me – which lick do I rip off? Then, a little voice in the back of my head said, ‘Don’t.

If they want to hear Stevie Wonder play

Choir master: Associate Professor Andrew Legg on his river frontage.

piano, he’s there, he can do it. So just do what you do’. It’s a really complex thought but it happened in milliseconds and I launched into the Andrew Legg version – come hell or high water, let them judge me for who I am.

“If they don’t like me they’ll tell me but at least it will be for what I am rather than what I’m pretending to be. Be who you are. And they might just love you.”

Love him they did. Associate Professor Legg has established himself as one of the leading gospel pianists working in the US and Australia today. He collaborates with Grammy-Award winning artists Kirk Franklin and Myron Butler. Their songwriting needed a local outlet and, in 2000, the Southern Gospel Choir was born.

“Again, I was green enough not to listen to anybody else on the outside,” Associate Professor Legg says. “The reaction was loud and wonderful and confused at the same time.”

The choir has grown from 40 singers and musicians to about 140.

It happened in milliseconds ... I launched into the Andrew Legg version – come hell or high water, let them judge me for who I am Andrew Legg 10

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

All are enrolled in ensemble units at the Conservatorium, as part of the University’s commitment to applied research.

“They’re studying gospel music as they’re singing it,” Associate Professor Legg says. “It’s not just by doing, it’s by story, by connection, by listening … it’s a whole process where they learn how to sing this music in what has become an African-American Tasmanian authentic style.”

It was enough to impress the late Dr Horace Boyer, the grandfather of gospel music who also supervised Associate Professor Legg’s PhD. “He couldn’t believe my little choir,” he says. “They get quite surprised to see someone or a choir doing their thing as authentically as we do. Authentic is a key word. There’s an intent in the way we perform that’s very attractive to people like Horace Boyer.

“The music is wonderful. It touches something in us all which is essentially human, it’s the earthiness part of being human that binds us all together, religious or otherwise. The choir is not a religious choir, it’s a University choir based on the love of singing gospel music. That can be a challenge to African-American churches who would see it as being religious music but thus far nobody has a problem with this funny white choir doing their music and they all want to hear what we’re about and how we do it.”

Myron Butler and Eric Dozier have signed up to the Conservatorium’s PhD program as internationals, bringing enormous reputation.

“Hopefully we can create a centre for research into trans-culturalisation issues around music – how does music swap cultures, how important is it to island cultures, and what are we creating within Tasmania that makes us distinctive?”

Associate Professor Legg says.

“There is something distinctive about being Tasmanian in the most positive sense and when that’s brought to the fore we can begin to make a real international impact; in other words, be international but don’t forget we are Tasmanian.

“There’s a beauty in the marriage of those two things and that’s what the gospel choir sits right in the heart of, as I believe does the University as a whole.”

ARTS

50 A FINE SCORE From humble beginnings, the Conservatorium of Music has celebrated an impressive and enduring innings

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RICHARD JUPE/NEWSPIX

he accommodation was inadequate, the equipment minimal and there were just seven students. Yet as the founding Director of the Conservatorium of Music, the late Rex Hobcroft (Hon DLitt 2004), recalled in 1990: “We were fired with enthusiasm and exhilarated by the knowledge that Tasmania at last had a music school of its own and our talented young musicians no longer needed to go to the mainland to further their careers.”

The Tasmanian School of Music, as it was known in its first year, threw open its doors on February 17, 1964, based initially in the Music Block of the Hobart Matriculation College. There was no opening ceremony, no fanfare. “We simply got straight down to work,” Hobcroft said. (He was no stranger to pioneering endeavours, having at the age of 20 joined Ansett as a pilot after being discharged from the RAAF – Ansett’s fleet then consisted of just three planes).

Fifty years later, the birth of this august institution has been celebrated with much fanfare, over the weekend of October 18-19. Organised by Amanda Wojtowicz, who was part of that first intake (later to become Dean of the Con) the anniversary program kicked off with a tour of the current building on Sandy Bay Road, followed by a dinner that night at the University Club.

The second day’s highlight was a concert involving the Conservatorium Orchestra in the Stanley Burbury Theatre, which began with the first public performance of Hobcroft’s In Memorium, a work he composed in 1948.

Hobcroft, who continued with the Con until his appointment as head of the NSW Conservatorium of Music in 1972, died in September last year at the age of 88.

His third wife, Perpetua Durack-Clancy, made the long journey from Perth for the

By Peter Cochrane

There was no opening ceremony, no fanfare ‘We ... got straight down to work’ Rex Hobcroft 50th anniversary, while the former News Ltd CEO (and composer) Kim Williams, a lecturer and resident concert organiser under Hobcroft at the Conservatorium of NSW, flew in from Sydney.

The genesis of the Con actually dates back to October 1960 when a deputation led by the then Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Keith Isles, approached the Premier, Eric Reece, with a case for its establishment. Reece was non-committal. In the second half of 1961, the University took a significant step towards this goal by establishing a Lectureship in Music, with Hobcroft the first appointee.

In 1966 the appointment of Czechborn master violinist Jan Sedivka to the full-time staff was to have a lasting impact not only on the Con but also on the music scene nationally. Sedivka would replace Hobcroft when the latter ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Left: Graham Brinckman, Amanda Wojtowicz and Alan Cato, who all studied at the Con in the 1960s.

Above: Rex Hobcroft

succeeded Joseph Post as Director of the Conservatorium of Music, with the aim of cultivating live music in the community from the earliest levels to the heights of instrumental and vocal performance.

Another key appointment was that of Don Kay as Lecturer in Composition in 1967 (see p 31 for an article on The Bushranger’s Opera by Kay, which was staged in Hobart in late November).

Kay, in the epilogue he wrote for the 25th anniversary publication, Beginning the Journey, summarised the Con’s first two decades thus: “If the 1960s were characterised by feelings of enterprise, innovation and excitement, under the leadership of the charismatic Jan Sedivka saw the flourishing of the finest string school in Australia.”

Looking to the future, as he envisaged it in mid-1990, Kay referred to the need to accommodate rapid developments in music technology and the imperative to cultivate more innovative thinking.

Those words still hold true as the University prepares to incorporate the Con in its proposed high-tech Academy of Creative Industries and Performing Arts next door to the historic Theatre Royal in Hobart’s CBD.

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ALUMNI

Family on same page Arch Flanagan had a tough life: after a dirt-poor upbringing, he survived the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. But he had a love of words and instilled in his children a desire to help those in need. His sons Martin and Richard shared a love of words, both becoming acclaimed authors. Richard won this year’s Man Booker Prize

LUKE BOWDEN/NEWSPIX

ULF ANDERSEN

Honoured: Above, Richard Flanagan, winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

Proud: Richard Flanagan’s late mother Helen poses for the Mercury after the Booker announcement with, from left, his daughters Rosie and Eliza, sister Jo, daughter Jean and sister Mary Flanagan Voss.

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THE FLANAGANS They’re a successful bunch, the Flanagans. But it’s not their style to swagger. “Just don’t make me more than I am,” said Richard Flanagan’s father Arch, when the family first proposed to write a story about him.

His children share the sentiment, not wanting accolades to get in the way of the truth. ‘We’re just normal people,” Jo Flanagan said after her brother Richard was announced in London as the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize. That humility is at the heart of their success.

Richard’s story about his late father Arch, and his experiences on the ThaiBurma Railway, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, is currently one of the greatest contemporary novels in the English-speaking world. An earlier version of Arch’s time as a prisoner of war was ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

written by Richard’s brother Martin Flanagan, who was also recognised for his short story. It was during the writing of Martin’s story that Arch warned his son against inflating the facts.

Humility is a hallmark of the Flanagans.

Their father taught his six children to be suspicious of glory. Richard typified that trademark humility in accepting the Man Booker for his novel. Flanagan, only the fourth Australian and first Tasmanian to win the prize, told the dignitaries at the black-tie event he didn’t come from a literary tradition. “My grandparents were illiterate and I never expected to stand here before you in this grand hall in London as a writer being so honoured.”

Arch Flanagan died last year at 98, on the same day Richard finished the book. In his final years, Arch was often congratulated on the success of his

ALUMNI

Rich history: From left, Sam Ibbott, his wife Georgie and parents Margaret and Tony.

ALASTAIR BETT

children. His daughter Mary recalled: “People would say to Dad, ‘You should be very proud of your children, they’ve all done well’. And he would say, ‘I don’t know why they’ve done well, they’ve always done the exact opposite of what I’ve told them to do’.” All the Flanagans have done well (in this birth order): PATRICK Flanagan (BEc 1970), retired, executive officer with the St Vincent de Paul Society.

MARY Flanagan Voss (GradDipSpecEd 1976), retired, teacher of children with disabilities.

TIM Flanagan (BSc 1976, MBBS 1979), GP in Longford.

MARTIN Flanagan (LLB 1976), an award-winning author and journalist.

RICHARD Flanagan (BA Hons 1983), Rhodes Scholar, acclaimed writer and the toast of the literary world.

JO Flanagan (BA Hons 1987), a policy officer with the Tasmanian Council of Social Service.

In all the Flanagan achievements there is a common thread of compassion – six siblings motivated by the need to serve others – either practically or in telling their stories. Mary said their father was affected by growing up dirt poor in Tasmania and wanted his children to always help those in need.

Arch developed a love of words and writing, and recited poetry around the house. He co-authored a book with Martin, The Line, which was nominated for the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize. It contained Martin’s short story about his father’s time as a prisoner of war, which was awarded the Henry Savery Award.

When Richard won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for his 2001 novel Gould’s Book of Fish, his father was amazed by the family’s change of fortunes. “My son’s going to meet the Queen yet my father could barely read and write,” he said.

The Flanagan children have also been greatly influenced by their mother Helen, who died on November 14 at the age of 95.

“She was the most prolific letter writer,” Mary said.

– Anne Mather * Reproduced courtesy of The Mercury

Page 22: Road to Glory

THE IBBOTT FAMILY The Ibbott family live their dreams by following their passions.

It’s a tradition built on the attributes that each family member derives from a life-long love of learning and support for each other.

Dad Tony (CertEd 1969, BA 1972, DipEd 1974) and mum Margaret (BEd 1995) have found fulfilment as educators, while sons Sam (BSc Hons 1997), Tom (BSc/BEng

It was always part of the family ... and it’s something we all had from when we were small Sam Ibbott Hons 1998) and Richard (BCom 1998) are following the interests of their youth by building careers in marine science, engineering and business.

As proud alumni, the Ibbotts say they are very grateful for the contribution of the University of Tasmania to their lives.

“The University gave me an inner confidence,’’ says Tony who was a student in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

“I particularly enjoyed the creative side ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

of it. Some of the assignments we did were fantastic. It was a place where you had to apply the mind, rather than merely jump through a set of hoops.’’

Oldest son Sam, whose company provides environmental services to the marine sector, says he went to University because, at the time, it seemed like “the next logical progression in my education’’.

“It was always part of the family, what with both parents being involved as educators, and it’s something we all had from when we were very small.’’

Margaret, who received her degree after many years of part-time study, agrees that she and Tony always tried to build a family environment that promoted the value of education as a provider of opportunities.

“I always wanted to get a tertiary qualification and I also wanted my children to see that; to model that in the home,’’ she says.

“I wanted them to see that Mum studies; that I was doing my homework and they were doing theirs.’’

The Ibbotts’ passion for higher learning stretches deep into their wider family.

The three sons’ partners all have university degrees, while Margaret (nee Davidson) says she came from a family where going to university was “an expectation of a sort’’.

Continued on page 14

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Continued from page 13

Sam’s wife, Georgie (BCom 1997, MBA 2001), says her decision to attend the University of Tasmania stemmed from a realisation she needed a tertiary qualification to have the career she wanted. Now general manager of Family Planning Tasmania, she says her degree was a way “to get a foot in the door’’.

Richard’s wife, Amber (BCom 1998), is also an alumna, while Tom’s wife Chloe (LLB 1998) is an alumna of Monash University in Victoria. Tony, who grew up on a farm and was the first member of the Ibbott family to attend University, admits having done a fair bit of jobhopping when he was young. Before settling into a career as an education leader and management consultant, he tried his hand as a cadet draftsman in the Housing Department and physical education teacher. “In my generation, I’m one of those funny people who liked to move around a fair bit. A lot of people make those leaps now, but in my day they didn’t. I’m very happy that I went back to uni to do Arts and Education (in the 1960s and ’70s) because I found that I was very interested in some of the units and that they provided me with the opportunity to do something that I was good at.

THE PEACOCKS

“A lot of people think an Arts degree is not very valuable, but if you choose the right subjects and know what you want to do, it can be very useful.’’

Tony also did Master of Education studies at the University in the early 1980s but withdrew to support the rest of his family. He says the decision provided him with a wonderful opportunity to help Margaret nurture their growing sons and to teach them how to apply knowledge from their school and tertiary studies.

“For example, Sam’s business is not only the product of what he learned at uni, but also of the many summers I spent with him and my other sons sailing, fishing, diving and generally developing a love for the water,’’ Tony says.

Margaret believes families play a vital role in building awareness about the value of education and higher learning.

“I once told a group of young kids that they would be great at university,’’ she recalls. “They said ‘University! What’s that?’. They were Grade Sixers and the word ‘university’ simply wasn’t in their language.’’

Margaret urges all families to become passionate about their children’s education and to at least discover what’s on offer at the University.

Told a group of young kids they would be great at university. They said what’s that? Margaret Ibbott

MATT NEWTON

In the genes: From left, John, Huw, Hamish and Evan Peacock.

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

The University’s dedication to world-class excellence across teaching, learning and research also extends to sports.

Peacock brothers and current students Hamish (javelin) and Huw (hammer) were selected to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year. Their selection success is somewhat of a family affair, too.

Their father, Dr Evan Peacock (PhD 1996) is their coach and the boys’ grandfather John Peacock (CertEd 1970), is their strength and conditioning coach.

The experience of competing at such an elite sporting level, where Hamish picked up a bronze in the javelin event with an 81.75 throw, is a career-defining opportunity. “To have two Tasmanian brothers representing Australia at two throw events is quite an achievement,” John said. “It’s terrific for the boys, they are very dedicated. We are very proud of them.”

Evan said: “We have been fortunate because the University of Tasmania is part of the elite athlete friendly university network.” Evan is also Director of the University’s Central Science Laboratory.

“The University has given great support to us and we really appreciate that.”

Hamish is in his fourth year of a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), a Tasmanian Institute of Sport Scholarship holder and the current University Sportsman of the Year. Huw is in his third year of a Bachelor of Social Science.

Evan said the boys’ commitment on the sporting field had influenced their approach to tertiary studies.

“For athletes they need to think there is a career after sport,” Evan said. “Many of the high-level athletes are very high academic achievers. You can’t do the two (play sport and study) without having discipline.”

Pursuing sporting excellence, especially in athletics, runs in the family with Evan and John both state champions at shot put during their high school years.

Their life-long interest in sports, John was in sports science at Elizabeth College for over 25 years, continued as Hamish and Huw climbed the state’s sporting ranks. “When the kids were little, they showed good sporting ability, so we took them down to Little Athletics and we haven’t looked back from there,” Evan said.

– Anna Osborne

ALUMNI

Tradition: Back row from left, David Bingham, Tim Bingham, Peter Bingham and Topher Webster; front row from left, Simone Bingham, Sir Max Bingham, Sharon Bingham and Belinda Webster.

THE BINGHAM FAMILY In 1946, as hopeful Australians looked beyond the dark days of World War II, a young able seaman from Hobart began to ponder his future prospects.

One night, as the 19-year-old stood a long and lonely middle watch, his thoughts began to crystallise. Now 87, Sir Max Bingham (LLB Hons 1950, Hon LLD 1998) chuckles when he refers to the night he had a “vision’’. “I was keen to do something useful for Tasmania,’’ recalls the University of Tasmania alumnus who went on to become Deputy Premier (1982-84) and one of the nation’s most respected legal minds.“The place had treated me pretty well and I felt I’d been dealt a good hand. A barrister’s job sounded like something useful that I could do, so I decided to give it a go.’’

Discharged from the Royal Australian Navy in December 1946, Sir Max quickly set about making his “vision’’ a reality.

His enrolment, as a law student in Hobart, was possible only because of assistance from the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. The scheme, established by the Chifley Government in 1944, provided vocational and educational training for servicemen and servicewomen to return to the civilian workforce. “Without that, I would not have been able to go (to university); I simply would not have been able to afford it,’’ Sir Max says. To the delight of his parents, Sir Max became the first Bingham

to attend university. He graduated with honours and then headed for Oxford, England, after being named the 1950 Tasmanian Rhodes Scholar. While in the UK, he received a Bachelor of Civil Law and met his future wife, Margaret Jesson.

The decision to study law had a profound impact on Sir Max’s life, particularly his distinguished career in law and politics. More than 15 family members are UTAS alumni. Between them, they hold more than 20 degrees and have studied in seven of the institution’s

It seems the best endowment you can give your kids is a good education Sir Max Bingham

faculties. All four children of Sir Max and Lady Bingham (dec) – Richard, Belinda, Peter and David – are alumni. Richard (LLB 1976, DipWelfLaw 1985) is a former Secretary of the Tasmanian Department of Justice. He was recently appointed Queensland Integrity Commissioner after almost five years as the South Australian Ombudsman. His wife Sharon (BAppSc1988, MN 1995) is also an alumna and a current PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health Science. Belinda (LLB 1979) is University Secretary at the ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

University of Tasmania. She has been secretary to the University Council since 1999 after forging a successful career as Parliamentary Counsel and University legal counsel in both Tasmania and Victoria. Peter (BEc/LLB 1986) has a well-established career in public sector governance, while David (BEc/LLB 1989) is a Senior Parliamentary Counsel at the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

David’s wife, Simone (BEc/LLB 1990,BCom Hons 2004), is also an alumna.

She is a commercial law and corporate governance lecturer at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics and a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Law. Belinda says all of the Bingham family members are keenly aware of the University’s pivotal contribution to their lives. “There is a sense of gratitude; a recognition of the worth of the institution,’’ she says.

Sir Max was Attorney-General and Minister for Police and Licensing in the Bethune Government from 1969-1972, and Leader of the Opposition from 19721979. He also served as Deputy Premier and held several ministerial positions from 1982-1984. He says he and Lady Bingham were “always concerned to nurture what education opportunities we could’’ for the children. “Nevertheless, I was still surprised to discover that they all wanted to do law. It’s probably a bit old-hat and conservative, but it seems to me that the best endowment you can give your kids is a good education.’’

Three of Sir Max’s grandchildren – Nicholas (BSc 2005, MBBS 2010), Timothy (BBus Hons 2008) and Jennifer (BA/LLB 2011) – are also alumni with successful careers in medical science, business and law. A fourth, Christopher, is an English honours student at the University.

Sir Max’s sister, Margaret (LLB 1974), attended the university as a matureage student and her first husband, Claus Marstrand (BE 1956), was also an alumnus. Her daughter Jane (MBBS 1980) is an alumna and her daughter Elizabeth started a BEc here then transferred to ANU. One of Margaret’s grandchildren, alumnus Edward Doddridge (DipLang 2009, BSc Hons 2011), became the wider family’s second Rhodes Scholar in 2012.

Margaret’s other grandchild, Victoria Percival, is currently an honours student at the University’s School of Land and Food.

– Stuart Gillies

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ALUMNI

Family ties: From left, Amelia Johnson, Mary-Anne Johnson, Peter White and, sitting, Audrey White are all alumni.

ALASTAIR BETT

THE WHITE FAMILY Families throw a lot of goodies into their shared pot of knowledge. Some things are discarded or lost, while other ingredients continue to bubble away, building a rich stew of experience, talent and opportunity for new generations.

Music, study, teaching and the University of Tasmania have been ever-present ingredients across three generations of Audrey White’s family.

Audrey (BA 1952, DipEd 1952, AMusA) has performed, studied and taught music for most of her life. “I started playing piano when I was eight and was performing on the radio for the ABC, and also giving recitals, from the time I was 14,’’ the 83-year-old says.

Audrey completed her Associate Diploma in Music, Australia, at 15.

Neither of her parents had a university education but she recalls her mother “was very anxious’’ for her and sister Marjorie to receive a good education. “It used to be that girls became either nurses or teachers. I didn’t fancy being a nurse, so I thought I’d be a teacher like Marjorie,’’ she says.

Audrey enrolled at the University’s Domain campus in 1948 and graduated in early 1952. “I taught maths, French and social studies at Ogilvie High School when I first came out of University, but they eventually sent me to Devonport High because they said I was the only maths teacher they had who could also teach music,’’ she says. During a long

16

career, Audrey also taught at Hobart High, primary schools and Don College on the North-West Coast. She lived for many years in Devonport but moved back to Hobart after her retirement.

Audrey maintains a strong interest in learning by participating in the University of the Third Age study program for over50s and enjoys attending University of Tasmania Alumni events. “If you don’t

If you don’t study ... it must be a very narrow existence. Study opens you up Audrey White study at all, it must be a very narrow existence,’’ she says. “Study opens you up to a world of knowledge.”

Audrey’s daughter, Mary-Anne Johnson, is also an accomplished piano player and singer with a bag of tertiary qualifications (BEd 2008, DipMus 2012). Her Bachelor of Education and Diploma of Music Performance are from the University of Tasmania, while the other qualifications are from Deakin University in Victoria, the Australian Catholic University and the Sydney College of Divinity. She is studying for a Bachelor of Musical Arts at the University of Tasmania and “doing a bit of teaching’’ after working at the Archdiocese of Hobart for several years. Mary-Anne says she values the ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

University’s community connections as much as its opportunities to do study.

“It’s good they have public lectures and sponsor public concerts,’’ she says.

Mary-Anne is extremely proud of her family’s connections to the University and other tertiary institutions. Husband David Johnson (BSc 1999) was a tutor at the University when he was a computer science student and now teaches at Guilford Young College.

Four of her five brothers are also alumni: Philip White (DipMus 1992), Anthony White (BA 1995), Peter White (BEc 1996, MBA 1999) and Justin White (BA 1994). Her other brother, Christopher, is a motor mechanic.

The music bug also bit Philip, who graduated from the Conservatorium of Music in 1992 and now plays euphonium and trombone in the Australian Army Band at Duntroon.

Anthony studied Japanese at the University and also has two Masters qualifications from the University of NSW. Peter was awarded the Owen McCarthy Medal for Most Outstanding Student in the university’s Master of Business Administration program in 1999. He is now the director of Housing Tasmania.

Youngest sibling Justin graduated in 1994 and now works in the insurance industry in Victoria.

Mary-Anne’s daughter, vocalist Amelia Johnson ((DipMus 2013, BMus Hons 2013), studied at the Conservatorium of Music and was a 2013 University Medal recipient. She is now a tutor at the conservatorium and professional vocal performer.

“I obviously had a really good musical upbringing, having both my grandmother and my mum playing piano and singing,’’ Amelia says. “There was not necessarily an expectation that I would go to uni; it was more that I felt I could do whatever I wanted to do for a career. And I liked that they (the family) were open to me doing music; that they didn’t dismiss it.’’

Amelia is working hard to become a professional performer. She and MaryAnne are members of the Southern Gospel Choir, and she is also finding plenty of work through the network of musicians and mentors she met during study.

– Stuart Gillies

ALUMNI

LIFE ON THE EDGE At 90, Dr Owen Ingles has had a rich and rewarding life ... and a few close shaves along the way, working with secret poisons and asbestos

S

SCOTT GELSTON

worn to secrecy 70-plus years ago, Dr Owen Ingles (BSc 1945, BA 1947, MSc 1948) now feels he can share his story about the secret testing of poisons at the University of Tasmania during World War II. It’s a remarkable story – six students, including Dr Ingles, now 90, were under the wing of John B Polya, a professor in charge of organic chemistry who had fled Hungary for Tasmania before the German invasion.

The group, based at the University in Hobart, tested and studied lethal poisons such as Strychnine and Ricin, which could be used to help the Allies in the war effort.

“We were sworn to silence about that,’’ said Dr Ingles, who now lives with his wife in West Tamar.

“I suppose 70 years later, the understanding of those things has gone past the point where I need to observe the vow of silence.

“It was war time, you understand.

“He (Professor J B Polya) had a class of six of us who he trained in how to recognise and deal with poisons.

“At one stage it was common practice to put a tiny bit at the end of one’s tongue to do taste tests.

“It (the research class) just closed down with the end of the war.

“I’m probably the only survivor of those six, five fellows (including Dr Ingles’ cousin) and one woman.

“He (Prof J B Polya) knew his subject very well – he was very competent in organic chemistry.’’

Back then, Dr Ingles, aside from his science degree, was one of the few students to study German (and French)

By Chris Pippos

Some close shaves: Dr Owen Ingles has worked in some dangerous environments.

at the University, knowing that it could be useful if he wanted to work as a translator.

“It was very unusual to do German during that time,’’ he recalled. (He studied German as a major from 1944-46).

Launceston-born Dr Ingles, a Professor of Engineering and highly qualified chemist who has published more than 150 research papers, and is now involved with the flood levees for Launceston, has had a distinguished career in the academic sphere and private practice in Tasmania.

It has included time with the CSIRO (1950-1973), mostly with the Division of Soil Mechanics, being employed as a

Have to keep on with the foreign-language ... puzzles to keep the mind active Dr Owen Ingles ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Professor of Engineering at the University of New South Wales (1973-1984) and a career in private practice in Tasmania post-1984.

However, dealing with poisons during the war wasn’t the only “close shave’’ during the early stages of his studying and working life before he compiled such a list of achievements.

After graduating in Hobart, Dr Ingles spent some time in Adelaide undertaking research projects for the lead smelter located in South Australia’s industrial town of Port Pirie, in the state’s Spencer Gulf.

This involved filling a furnace with asbestos insulation – a process undertaken over about 18 months.

“Here I am, 90, despite working in the worst possible conditions with asbestos,’’ Dr Ingles recalled.

“I was working in the asbestos furnace, people now regard as deadly. I have had a few close shaves, in other words.’’

Another vivid memory is the April 1929 flood in Launceston, when Dr Ingles was six.

“There was an awful lot of water and it came up further than they tell you it came up today,’’ he said.

“It was right up to the edge of the city, just below the post office.

“Maybe that’s why I’m on the Launceston Flood Authority today – I have seen a big flood and I know what damage it can do.’’

Dr Ingles, who retired at 80, said his work with the flood authority comes to an end soon, and he was not certain what the next decade had in store.

“I suppose the work for the flood authority is coming to a close in the next two or three months,’’ he said.

“After that, I don’t know.

“I will just have to keep on with the foreign-language crossword puzzles to keep the mind active,’’ he joked.

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THEY DO US PROUD GEOFF ROBSON, THE EXAMINER

University alumni rank high in Queen’s honours

By Peter Cochrane

R

etired Chief Justice Ewan Crawford (LLB 1964) headed a strong representation of University of Tasmania alumni in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Launceston-based Mr Crawford was one of seven Australians named a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia; in Mr Crawford’s case for eminent service to the judiciary and law, to the development of the legal profession, to tertiary education and to the community of Tasmania. Mr Crawford became a judge in 1988 and Chief Justice in 2008. Honours graduate and an Honorary Research Professor at the

Retired Chief Justice leads strong line-up in birthday honours University Dr Ian Allison (Hon DSc 2009), of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, has been named an Officer (AO) in the General Division for distinguished service to the environment as a glaciologist, to furthering international understanding of the science of the Antarctic region and to climate research.

Former Chairman of the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania Dr Dan

Norton (Hon LLD 2013) was honoured with an AO for distinguished service to business and finance. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws Honoris causa by the University last December. Graduate, former senator and current West Tamar councillor John Watson (BEc 1960, BCom 1962) was made a Member (AM) in the General Division for service to the community and Parliament.

Anne Brown (LLB 1976), a graduate who went on to become State Commissioner of Girl Guides Tasmania and a Synod representative of the Anglican Church of Tasmania, was recognised with a Medal (OAM) in the General Division for service to youth and to the community.

Alumni Beryl Osborne (DipTeach 1976), David Peters (BBus 1979) and Adrian Howard (BA Hons 1978) also received a Medal (OAM) in the General Division; Mrs Osborne for service to the community, Mr Peters for service to music through the brass band movement and Mr Howard for service to veterans and their families.

Another alumnus, Inspector Mark Beech-Jones, received the Australian Police Medal (Tasmania) for outstanding and distinguished service over 30 years.

Leading-edge school on the quiet rim of the world Friends’ School Hobart is a pre-K to 12 co-educational school with residential facilities. Established by Quakers in 1887, Friends’ has a reputation for academic excellence with 62% of the Class of 2013 achieving tertiary ranking scores in the the top 10% of all Australian students.

Academic Excellence At Friends’, we believe in providing the widest possible range of educational opportunities. That’s why we offer our Year 11 and 12 students the choice of the International Baccalaureate, the Tasmanian Certificate of Education and Vocational Education and Training.

We’d like to tell you more about Friends’ School. For a copy of our prospectus or to arrange a visit, please contact us.

The Friends School PO Box 42 North Hobart 7002 Australia Tel: (03) 6210 2200 Fax: (03) 6234 8209 Email: enrol.office@friends.tas.edu.au

IDP Education Co. No. 995048-V

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

www.friends.tas.edu.au

GREAT AUSTRALIANS

OUR TOP CONTENDERS The University is punching above its weight with nominations for Australian of the Year awards

By Peter Cochrane

SHARON WEBB

Leading contender: Henry Reynolds, Senior Tasmanian Australian of the Year.

successful campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania. He is an honorary lecturer in sociology at the University. Professor Reynolds is an Honorary Research Professor in the School of Humanities. As a historian he has focused primarily on the frontier conflict between European settlers in Australia and indigenous Australians.

Queenstown-based Mr Mostogl, 26, is studying his Masters of Teaching. In any given week, he might be helping young entrepreneurs kick-start their companies, stimulating small businesses, challenging communities to understand their potential or teaching hundreds of students to embrace innovation.

No fewer than eight ... finalists were linked to the University No fewer than eight of Tasmania’s Australian of the Year finalists were linked to the University. Two staff members, the Director of the University’s Conservatorium of Music, Associate

WALKING TALL

Two young researchers make their mark

By Cherie Cooper

Professor Andrew Legg (BMus 1985, PhD 2008) and the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Kate Warner (LLB 1970, LLM 1978), were both Tasmanian Australian of the Year finalists.

Associate Professor Legg is founder of the ARIA-nominated Southern Gospel Choir. Professor Warner, Director of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute, was awarded an AM for service to the law.

Educator and former staffer Dr Graeme Faulkner (BEng 1964, BA 1986, PhD 1994) was shortlisted for Tasmanian Senior Australian of the Year. The Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year finalists included PhD candidate, climate-change campaigner Patrick Kirkby (BSc, Hons, 2010), and the Tasmanian Local Hero finalists included healthy living advocate and alumna Dr Bridgette Watts (MBBS, Hons, 2003, BCA 2013).

Science Fellow. Dr Shabala recently helped start a citizen science project – Radio Galaxy Zoo. The Australian Maritime College’s Dr Walker is a University of Tasmania graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. She was 2012 Fulbright Tasmania Scholar, 2010 Tasmanian Southern Cross Young Achiever in the Science and Technology Category and a finalist for the 2011 Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year.

Young guns: Dr Stas Shabala and Dr Jessica Walker.

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

PETER MATHEW

researchers and communicators.

Dr Shabala has a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours from the University of Tasmania and a PhD in Astrophysics and Cosmology from the University of Cambridge. He has received many fellowships, including the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Fellowship and was also an ARC Super

Equality advocate: Rodney Croome

CHRIS CRERAR

A

lumni and current University of Tasmania lecturers Dr Stas Shabala (BSc Hons 2003) and Dr Jessica Walker (BE Hons 2005, PhD 2010) are 2014 recipients of the Tasmanian Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. The prestigious annual awards recognise the achievements of Australia’s outstanding young scientific

NIKKI DAVIS-JONES, THE MERCURY

T

hree University of Tasmania alumni are in contention for Australian of the Year 2015 awards, following recent state honours. Equality advocate Rodney Croome (BA 1988) was named on October 31 as Tasmanian Australian of the Year, Adjunct Professor Henry Reynolds (BA Hons 1960, MA 1964, Hon DLitt 1998) as Tasmanian Senior Australian of the Year and business mentor Adam Mostogl (BEnvDes 2009) as Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year. Mr Croome, a board member of the Australian Coalition for Equality and campaign co-ordinator for Australian Marriage Equality, fronted the

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SCIENCE

An eye for detail It’s a small lab by comparison to the one on TV’s CSI, but Forensic Science Service Tasmania examines crime scenes for biological evidence, conducts bloodstain pattern analysis, DNA profiling and operates a forensic DNA database just like they do on the hit show – but without the dramatics

By Lana Best

D

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ALASTAIR BETT

r Paul Holloway (BSc Hons 1990, PhD 1997) checks his emails like most people do when they get to work – and that’s pretty much where the similarity ends.

After dealing with emails and other essential paperwork the Forensic Science Service Tasmania (FSST) senior biologist dons the obligatory white coat and heads into the biology lab to collect a parcel.

Not a nice present-type parcel, but one with more sinister connotations from Tasmania Police.

Forensic evidence left behind at the scene of a burglary, car theft or any other crime scene is carefully preserved so it can be tested. The parcel could contain anything from a weapon, a piece of clothing or a household object to some hair, fingernail clippings or a bloodstain.

Dr Holloway’s job is to look for something that contains DNA, such as blood, semen or saliva, and extract a sample and have it tested.

He doesn’t know if the results will help convict or exonerate a suspect, but he does know it’s important.

“An example is a case I was involved in a while ago where someone sexually assaulted an elderly woman, and she named a man who had visited her that day,” he said. “She provided a glass that the suspect drank from to prove through DNA analysis that he was at the scene.

There was DNA all right, but it was someone else’s – the victim’s poor eyesight meant it was a case of mistaken identity and the man was exonerated.”

If there’s a serious assault or a murder Dr Holloway, who is also the Tasmanian

Important role: Dr Paul Holloway.

You feel like you’re making a valuable contribution to the justice system Dr Paul Holloway branch manager of the Australia/NZ Forensic Science Society, can be called to the scene to analyse blood patterns or look for evidence with special tools.

When he’s not in the lab or at a crime scene Dr Holloway is in court doing his level best to present his findings.

He admits taking the stand in court can be intimidating. “It’s like having to give an oral exam, but everyone wants a different answer – but I welcome the hard questions, and I remind myself that I’m not on anybody’s side,” he said.

Dr Holloway originally obtained his science degree through the University of ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Tasmania, majoring in biochemistry and microbiology, then did his Honours year in immunology at the old clinical school in Collins St, Hobart.

He went on to work as a research assistant at the University for both the immunology and the agriculture science departments before going overseas where he worked for 18 months as a medical lab scientist in a London hospitals, identifying diseases, bacteria and viruses.

Returning to Tasmania he secured a mid-year post-graduate scholarship in the Department of Agriculture Science and started a PhD working on the molecular biology of Antarctic bacteria.

This was interrupted by a year in Germany on academic exchange, but he eventually returned and continued the painstaking taxonomy work looking for previously undiscovered bacteria in soil samples that had the potential to produce a new form of antibiotic or other drug.

His next job was as a post-doctoral scientist with CSIRO Division of Livestock Industry in Perth, WA, where he spent three years working on a vaccine to reduce the methane emissions from livestock.

With a wife and two young children he returned to Tasmania, and after another short stint with the University of Tasmania he secured the job with FSST. “Being a forensic scientist is interesting and challenging work – you feel like you’re making a valuable contribution to the justice system, and cases when you can help someone who has been wrongly accused, or on the other side of the coin help a victim who would otherwise have nothing to support their claim, is very satisfying,” he said.

SCIENCE

BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS Team helps keep our roads safe

F

ALASTAIR BETT

orensic Science Service Tasmania (FSST) Toxicology Manager Miriam Connor (BPharm 1997) has been working at the Hobart laboratory for six years and still can’t believe how many people drive with alcohol and drugs in their system.

Drivers who exceed 0.05 and don’t accept their breath-test reading and drivers who have tested positive in an oral fluid test for the possible presence of illicit drugs all have three vials of blood taken so that one can be tested, one can stay with the owner and one can be stored as a control sample at the laboratory.

Miriam and her team, consisting of another three scientists and three technical officers, are all involved in the toxicological analysis of biological samples within the laboratory.

The scientists write up the reports based

Keeping watch: Miriam Connor.

on laboratory analyses and, when required, go to court to give evidence based on their findings.

Toxicology biological samples, which are mostly blood samples, are also tested for coronial cases (after autopsies conducted by forensic pathologists) and criminal cases – relating to suspected drug traffickers, alleged sexual assault victims or other criminal matters.

The handling of the blood is done in the safest possible environment, where

gowns, gloves and the use of a safety biohazard cabinet is all part of the daily routine.

And it’s a case of keeping up with trends in drug use – the most comprehensive analysis in blood conducted at FSST detects up to 150 different substances, including many substances that are potentially important in terms of impairment or toxicity.

Testing for the presence of illicit drugs only screens for the presence of drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and morphine.

The three most common substances identified include alcohol, cannabis and methylamphetamine.

Miriam works alongside her husband Charles, another University of Tasmania alumnus, who has been at FSST for 12 years as a DNA scientist, forensic biologist and crime scene examiner.

“I love the variety of my job, no two days are the same and there’s lots happening in our small lab – including queries from clients and the public,” she said.

– Lana Best

Worldwide issues.

Worldwide issues.

World-class research. World-class research.

There’s no limit to what our researchers can achieve. That’s why your University is tackling the biggest issues facing the world, both local and global, through our key research strengths: Environment, Resources & Sustainability; Creativity, Culture & Society; Better Health; Marine, Antarctic & Maritime; Data, Knowledge & Decisions.

And we’re having a lot of success, due to our world-class facilities and researchers who are leaders in their fields – two of the reasons why we sit in the top 2% of research institutions in the world.*

There’s no limit to what our researchers can achieve. That’s why your University is tackling the biggest issues facing the world, both local and global, through our key research strengths: Environment, Resources & Sustainability; Creativity, Culture & Society; Better Health; Marine, Antarctic & Maritime; Data, Knowledge & Decisions.

And we’re having a lot of success, due to our world-class facilities and researchers who are leaders in their fields – two of the reasons why we sit in the top 2% of research institutions in the world.*

utas.edu.au/research

utas.edu.au/research

UTMC13645rj CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B

UTMC13645rj CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014.

*

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014.

*

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

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BOOKS

ROAD TO GLORY MATT CROSSICK/PA

Writer Richard Flanagan’s tenacity has been rewarded with one of literature’s most coveted prizes

By Peter Cochrane

U

niversity of Tasmania alumnus Richard Flanagan (BA Hons 1983, Hon DLitt 2002) has described a writer’s life as to be “defeated by ever greater things, it is a journey in humility”. Richard’s own journey took a spectacular – and for him, surprising – twist recently when he won the world’s richest book prize.

The hours immediately after being announced in London as the winner of the $A88,000 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a book described by one of the judges as “a literary masterpiece”, were like being on a rocket, he told ABC Radio, “I may spend the rest of my life trying to understand what it all meant.”

When asked about what Tasmanians can take from his triumph he said: “In the end I just hope that it means something to them. If it moves just one

The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan, published by Vintage Books

person to feel differently about life, about themselves, then it has been worthwhile.”

Later, he added: “I hope everyone in Tasmania knows that it is one of their stories that’s gone to the world and I want them to take as much pride in it as they can take. That would be wonderful.”

The novel has since been named co-winner of the fiction category of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is set partly in World War II on the infamous Death Railway, inspired by his father Arch’s experiences as a POW. The novel represents a long journey

for Richard. It took him 12 years to write.

During that time he wrote and pulped no fewer than five drafts. (He also penned two other novels while wrestling with this storyline). The final manuscript was completed the day his father died.

The Flanagan family has extensive connections to the University. He has five siblings who are alumni and children who are students (see p12).

Older brother Martin (Bachelor of Laws, 1976) concluded a recent Age column with this summary of Richard’s attributes: “I would say three things about my brother. He is brave, physically and artistically; I have never seen him back off to anyone. He is an original – always has been. And he is a good man to go drinking with.”

Above: Richard Flanagan after being announced as the 2014 Man Booker Prize winner.

ALISON MINES HISTORY FOR GOLD

By Cherie Cooper

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The Ambitions of Jane Franklin Victorian Lady Adventurer Alison Alexander, published by Allen & Unwin

Governors’ Ladies: the Wives and Mistresses of Van Diemen’s Land (later republished as Obliged to Submit) and thought she would like to devote a whole biography to Jane Franklin because she was such an interesting and unique woman. Dr Alexander said she was “absolutely astounded” by the news of her win.

“I’m usually just working away at home, so to suddenly win a national prize is absolutely wonderful.”

Dr Alexander said Jane Franklin left a huge number of diaries and letters, providing a wealth of material and the chance to “really get to know her”. “She climbed mountains, she walked to the West Coast; nothing stopped her. It’s wonderful to write about a woman who was so adventurous and courageous – she dared to be herself. When women were expected to stay at home, she didn’t.”

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

VANESSA BOND

Alumna Alison Alexander’s biography of a pioneering Victorian woman has won the $25,000 National Biography Award.

Dr Alexander (BA Hons 1975, DipEd 1976, PhD 1991), Adjunct Researcher in the University’s Humanities Faculty, received the accolade for her book The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer.

Lady Franklin was the wife of Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer who became the Governor of Tasmania in 1837.

In 1987 Dr Alexander wrote

Above: Alison Alexander with her award-winning book.

Dr Alexander is working on her next two books, one of which tells the story of “early Tasmanian go-getters” Maria Riseley and Edward Lord, and Hobart’s first 20 years. The second is a commissioned history of South Hobart.

BOOKS

SARAH’S TIME TO SHINE Poet Sarah Day lifts the tempo with her sixth collection of poetry that explores the nature of time Reviewed by Dr Ralph Spaulding, University Associate

S

TEMPO Sarah Day, published by Puncher & Wattmann, 2013, $25

the end of “Skies” points to “the continuum of change / since the dawn of civilisation” noting that we are one with our “earliest ancestors” as we “appraise the mood and shape of day”.

Readers will appreciate this theme of the “eternally present” in human experience despite “the flux of time or chance or sense”, and also those instances where the poet moves “outside time” and celebrates the “knowing instant”, either frozen in time (“In Time, Pompeii”) or the “statue-still” hiatus of hens as they “pause to revel in the luxury” of having drunk from the water bowl. Other poems explore particular settings or experiences with taxonomies “of the particular”. Some like “Plantation” make a point (trees “breathe death in life” and no birds sing “in the precincts of / its dreary avenues”); others like “Dawn” describe in detail the sensation of morning light finding its way into the house “not as a sly intruder / but with radiant in-pouring / a casual brilliant right of entry”.

The poet conveys her fascination with the human story in beautifully controlled and crafted writing. Her

The poet conveys her fascination with the human story in beautifully controlled and crafted writing.

Her imagery highlights arresting moments

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

NICOLE MAYNE

arah Day’s sixth collection of poetry, Tempo, won this year’s Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize at the Melbourne Writers Festival, and more recently was shortlisted for the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for poetry.

Tempo comprises more than 70 lyrical meditations on the nature of time. These range in subject from the personal and anecdotal to history, myth and the universe. The poet reminds us of a past sometimes “tucked away” or “sandblasted” clean and forgotten, as in her poem “Port”, but invites us to explore more deeply the continuity between the past and the present through the lens of time’s circularity, its “vast, timeless, unceasing loop”.

In the poem “Darwin’s Orchestra” the “hieroglyphs” on the scores of an orchestral symphony are reminders of music’s evolution from “neolithic skin and bone” and “air’s vibration in the first bone flute”. Today’s loaded truck of hay in “Hay Load” is a “timeless” memory that “speaks of seasons, atavistic labour, a job well done”. As she listens to a herd of fresians cropping grass at night, the poet senses the experience of “Our forebears, huntsmen and herdsmen / out on the steppes, the savannah” who like her might “have listened to beasts feed / in the dark of night’s synaesthesia”. A stanza near

Her time has come: Sarah Day (BA Hons 1980, DipEd 1981) with Tempo, her awardwinning collection of poetry.

imagery highlights arresting moments: “the inky-black / acuity of forest ravens”, the “crystal hard-edge scent of snow”, the nap in cows’ hides “like a windblown grass paddock”. And her adept use of a variety of poetic forms ranging from sonnets to four, three and two-line stanzas and free verse is the work of a mature and confident poet.

Sarah Day’s first collection of poetry published in 1987 was praised for its “meditative precision”. Tempo demonstrates this same quality and fully deserves the public success it has achieved.

Alumnus Stephen Edgar was also shortlisted in the poetry section of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, for his intricately rhymed Eldershaw (Black Pepper, 2013).

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BOOKS

Aboriginal Convicts: Australian, Khoisan and Maori Exiles Kristyn Harman, UNSW Press, 2013, $39.99

The winner of the Australian Historical Association’s 2014 Kay Daniels Award, Aboriginal Convicts

illuminates an overlooked but instructive aspect of Australia’s convict past by revealing the lives and fates of some of the indigenous peoples who became enmeshed in the convict systems of New South Wales and Tasmania in the first half of the 19th century.

“This book succeeds in tracing a multitude of diverse experiences and outcomes, ranging across different colonial settings, and is enriched by contextual detail that captures a world defined by the exigencies of frontier conflict, the dubious application

From Aboriginal convicts to the history of lamingtons, these are diverse literary offerings Mothers Grimm Danielle Wood, Allen & Unwin, $27.99

In a fairytale, the only good mother is six feet under. All the others are bad news.

A fairytale mother will exchange her firstborn child for a handful of leafy greens.

The Lamington Enigma: A Survey of the Evidence Maurice French, Tabletop Publishing, $39.95

Alumnus Maurice French (BA Hons 1968, DLitt 1995), Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Southern Queensland, draws on cultural anthropology, culinary histories, newspaper cookery columns, old recipe books, family histories and oral traditions to investigate how the lamington

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And if times get tough, she’ll walk her babes into the woods and leave them there.

But mothers of today do no such things. Do they? In this collection the mothers of the Brothers Grimm stories are brought – with wit, subversiveness and lyrical prose – into the here and now.

Danielle Wood (BA Hons 1994), whose first novel, The Alphabet of Light and Dark won the 2002 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the 2004 Dobbie Literary Award, turns four fairytales on their heads and makes them her own.

Dr Wood teaches creative writing at the University of Tasmania.

became an Australian icon alongside Vegemite, pavlova and meat pies.

He traces the history of the lamington from its appearance in the early 20th century to its attainment of iconic status by the early 21st century, he assesses the evidence for the lamington’s creation (was it the then Queensland Governor’s French chef, Armand Galland; the Governor’s temporary cook in Toowoomba, Fanny Young; Brisbane Technical College cookery instructor, Amy Schauer; or a nervous maid dropping stale sponge cake into a bowl of melted chocolate?) and finally he places the lamington in the context of late 19th century culinary history.

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

of law, and the malevolence and hardships of convict servitude in some of the darkest corners of the system,” reads the AHA citation.

“Presented in an engaging and down-to-earth style, Aboriginal Convicts is accessible to a very broad readership, at the same time as it is a most valuable contribution to our contemporary understandings of and debates about early Australian history.”

Dr Kristyn Harman (BA Hons 2004, PhD 2008, GradCertUTL 2009) is a lecturer in the University’s School of Humanities.

NonDualism in Eckhart, Julian of Norwich and Traherne James Charlton, Bloomsbury, 2014, $125

Spirituality is a hot topic. Definitely out of fashion in the 1970s and ’80s, courses in religious studies in Europe and the Americas are now obliged to set quotas.

People wonder: is “faith” the world’s number-one problem, or is it part of the solution?

Dr James Charlton (BA 1975, PhD 2011) has been interested in so-called mystical spirituality for much of his life.

One of the spin-offs is this book published

by Bloomsbury in New York. Non-Dualism in Eckhart, Julian of Norwich and Traherne is not an historical analysis of the work of the three mystics as much as a poetic reflection. Non-Dualism refers to the bringing together of sometimes-supposed “opposites” – for example, spirit and matter, subject and object, divine and human. Charlton is well known as a poet, with the books Luminous Bodies and So Much Light to his credit.

‘Is “faith” the world’s number-one problem, or is it part of the solution?’

James Boyce, Black Inc., $34.99

The Library at the End of the World: Natural Science and its Illustrators Edited by Anita Hansen (BFA 1989, MFA 2007, PhD 2013) and Margaret Davies (BSc Hons 1967), Royal Society of Tasmania, $75 (hardback), $50 (softcover)

According to the doctrine of original sin, humans are born bad and only God’s grace can bring salvation. Alumnus and University Associate James Boyce (BA Hons 1995, PhD 2006) shows how these ideas have shaped the Western view of human nature right up to now.

“What is wrong with me? This question has haunted the West for 1500 years, but until recently it came with an answer –

which was called original sin.

Western people believed they were ‘born bad’ because they had inherited the sin of the first humans,” James explains.

“The purpose of this book is not to defend or condemn the Western creation story, but to challenge the assumption that its influence was ended by science and secularism.”

Science and art come together in this lavishly-illustrated, 240-page book which explores the natural history art to be found in The Royal Society of Tasmania’s Rare Book Collection now housed in the University’s Morris Miller Library.

The brief from the two alumni editors to the numerous scientific authors was to view these early volumes and their exquisite illustrations and to consider how important they were to the understanding of their particular group of organisms in early times, and

what influence they have had on the science today.

The authors were asked to bring to life the incredible men and women who produced the art work reproduced in this volume. So often their talent and identity are overlooked, yet without them we would have nothing but verbal description that conveys nothing of the real wonder of the organisms.

Change lives.

Yours first.

utas.edu.au/education

You’re considering a change of career. You want to help others become the best they can be – you’re inspired to teach. Or you’re already an inspired teacher who wants to be an education leader. A postgraduate qualification in education from the University of Tasmania can make all these things – and more – happen.

Our programmes are committed to creating the world’s best education practice – for you, the students you’ll teach, and the educators you’ll lead. So if you want to teach, inspire or become a leader in your field, contact the University of Tasmania.

Change lives.

Change lives.

Yours first.

Yours first.

You’re considering a change of career. You want to help others become the best they can be – you’re inspired to teach. Or you’re already an inspired teacher who You’re considering a change of career. You want to help others become the best wants to be an education leader. A postgraduate qualification in education from they can be – you’re inspired to teach. Or you’re already an inspired teacher who the University of Tasmania can make all these things – and more – happen. wants to be an education leader. A postgraduate qualification in education from Our programmes are committed to creating the world’s best education practice the University of Tasmania can make all these things – and more – happen.

– for you, the students you’ll teach, and the educators you’ll lead. So if you want to Our programmes are committed to creating the world’s best education practice teach, inspire or become a leader in your field, contact the University of Tasmania.

– for you, the students you’ll teach, and the educators you’ll lead. So if you want to teach, inspire or become a leader in your field, contact the University of Tasmania.

utas.edu.au/education utas.edu.au/education

UFED13787rj CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014.

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

25

UFED13787rj CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014.

Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World

UFED13787rj CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014.

BOOKS

HUMAN MOVEMENT

Getting a head start Brendon Bolton was thrown into the deep end when he took over coaching Hawthorn from senior coach Alastair Clarkson who stepped aside due to illness. But lessons learnt at the University of Tasmania had prepared Bolton well for the big league.

He was able to harness the power of the mind to get the best out of his players

By Alex Fair

T

alk to Brendon Bolton (BHM 2001) about what it was like to be the interim coach of AFL premiers Hawthorn this year and the 35-year-old, from the small township of Pipers River in Tasmania’s north, is quick to credit his experiences as a teacher in helping him get to the position.

It’s the experiences he gained after graduating with a Bachelor of Human Movement from the University of Tasmania’s Newnham campus in 2001.

Speaking before steering Hawthorn

to a 44-point win against West Coast at Launceston’s Aurora Stadium, Bolton said he had fond memories from his time at the University.

“One thing that the University really did well for us was being able to go out and apply that theory of teaching, which I found so valuable,’’ Bolton said.

“The sooner you get the opportunity at university to apply that knowledge the better. The thing I take out of the University of Tasmania was that they were able to set that up early and regularly.’’

Dealing with the mind of a sportsperson was something Bolton also

first started to get his own head around at University.

“I’ve always thought in sport that we look at a lot of the technical aspects of sport, but the mind is so powerful in sport and the simple psychology of it,’’ he said.

“How people think determines how they feel, and how they feel determines how they play.

“Dean Cooley (from the school of Human Movement), who lectures in sports psychology there, often made us look at our readiness to perform, and that’s something I’ve shown an interest in since I’ve left uni – making sure the mind is ready to play.

“I think my Tasmanian journey in general – the University, early teaching exposure and the opportunity to coach at a very young age – is something I’m very thankful for.’’

Dr Cooley remembers Bolton well.

“As with all of our Health and Physical Education students, he was confident in dealing with all individuals with empathy and understanding.

“He was organised and always very dedicated to ensuring he was ready for any task.”

These qualities served him well during his five-week stint as interim Hawthorn

How people think determines how they feel ... how they feel determines how they play Brendon Bolton

AAP/ROB BLAKERS

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Master’s apprentice: Brendon Bolton during a match between Hawthorn and West Coast at Aurora Stadium.

PAUL SCAMBLER / THE EXAMINER

coach this season. He finished with an undefeated record. Coach Alastair Clarkson said on his return from illness he would love to see his assistant have the opportunity to coach full-time at the highest level.

That opportunity may come sooner rather than later. Four days after the Grand Final, at which he was publicly acknowledged by Clarkson on the premiership dais, Bolton is understood to have flown to Adelaide to present for the vacant Crows coaching position (the job eventually went to a South Australian, Phil Walsh). He was also in contention for the Gold Coast Suns coaching job.

Having played and lived at both ends of the state, Bolton sees himself as a true Tasmanian who doesn’t get caught up

He was organised and always very dedicated ... for any task – Dean Cooley in the North-South rivalry Tasmania is known for. “I love getting back to Tassie,’’ he said.

“We love coming down there, we love the place and the state has embraced us.

“I grew up at Pipers River and I enjoy getting back there and just enjoying some time in the country and the opportunity to go fishing.

“It’s one of the untouched places in the world, Tasmania, and hopefully it stays hidden to some extent.’’

Bolton was part of the North Launceston team that won the TFL premiership in 1998, winning the Baldock Medal as best on ground; he also played for the Tassie Devils when the state was in the VFL. He coached at North Hobart from 2003-05 and at Clarence in 2008, as well as having an interim coaching stint at the Tassie Devils in 2006 and coaching Box Hill in the VFL in 2009-10.

He is married to Louisa and has two young children, Ned and Rosie.

Additional reporting by Peter Cochrane.

In action: Former Northern Bomber Brendon Bolton is now Hawthorn’s assistant coach.

Make yourself proud this Summer We take pride in you all year round with an exclusive offer just for UTAS Alumni: 10% off your Unigym membership Unigym Hobart 6226 2084 | Unigym Launceston 6324 3092 | Unigym Burnie 6430 5281 Discount only available for UTAS Alumni that show proof at time of purchase. Terms and conditions apply, please contact us for more information. www.unigym.com.au

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

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COMMUNITY

LASTING LEGACY A chance encounter opened a door for Frank Sainsbury, inspiring him to devote his energies to helping others

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Close to the heart: Frank Sainsbury gives his time to helping children of Australian servicemen and women through Legacy.

PETER COCHRANE

rank Sainsbury (BSurv 1986, GradDipSc 1991), a former University of Tasmania staffer who continues to provide part-time IT support to the School of Medicine, is a proud Hobart Legatee, one of at least 11 current members with University links.

A one-time ward, Frank was inspired to become a Legatee seven years ago, in circumstances that were rather unusual.

Sent by the University to undertake a supercomputer course in Canberra, he found himself wandering around looking for a toilet while on a lunchtime stroll. He entered the Department of Veteran Affairs building and struck up a conversation with a woman in reception.

On mentioning that while his deceased father had been a veteran of the Korean War – he’d fought at Kapyong, one of the most famous actions of the Korean War involving Australian troops – his mother was not receiving a war widow’s pension, the receptionist checked her eligibility and cheerily suggested to Frank that, ‘You should talk to Legacy when you get back’.

Legacy took up her case and Frank’s mother was soon receiving a pension.

Impressed by Legacy’s advocacy and feeling the need to contribute more to the community, Frank became a member.

Tragically, his connection to Legacy actually goes back much further than that.

“In August 1972, my father collapsed in front of me and subsequently died in hospital from a cerebral haemorrhage.

I was 13 years old. Legacy stepped in to help look after myself and my younger brother and sister,” he recalled.

“In time they found me my first job, and on Friday nights would host us at the club – a meal would be provided and we would do leatherwork, trampolining and play badminton. They would be also take us on holidays. ‘‘There were close to 70 of us then, and

By Peter Cochrane

Most ... we look after are elderly widows but it’s the children who have issues Frank Sainsbury even today there are 19 children, which I find extraordinary.

“Most of the people we look after are elderly widows but it’s the children who have issues across the board. Today these are the children of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.”

In an eloquent summary of Legacy’s appeal, he said: “When you give your time as a volunteer, it is important that not only is the cause worthwhile but you can actually make a difference – and Legacy gives me that opportunity.”

Other Legacy alumni who meet most Tuesdays include the current president, Peter Hodge (BEd 1982, MEd 1989), immediate past president Paul Crew and Facilities Manager/board member Alec Young, plus Tasmanian School of Business and Economics lecturer Dr Lindsay ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Nelson (BA Hons 1976, PhD 2001) and the Acting Manager, Strategy and Planning, Faculty of Health, Robert Jones.

Probably the best known of the University Legatees is the late Professor Sam Carey, head of Geology post-World War II and an influential senior academic in his day. Professor Carey, who became junior vice-president of Hobart Legacy after he left the University stage in 1976, was a member of Z Force, the special forces unit formed during World War II to operate behind Japanese lines.

As Peter Hodge proudly points out, Legacy had its genesis in Hobart, in 1923, the brainchild of the state’s great military leader, Major General Sir John Gellibrand.

Originally called the Remembrance Club, it had “the avowed object of living and working in remembrance of old comradeship as a means to higher things”. A second club was established in Launceston four years later.

By 1925, its focus was refined to “providing services to Australian families suffering financially and socially after the incapacitation or death of a spouse or parent, during or after their defence force service”.

The Hobart club became Legacy in 1940 and the years after World War II ended saw an explosive growth around Australia.

Today there are 50 clubs, including one in London. Hobart Legacy looks after 1400 widows, from Queenstown to Swansea, raising about $180,000 a year – much of that by the sale of badges, pens and bears during Legacy Week in early September – to support its work.

Further information, visit legacy.com.au/hobart/HobartLegacy

COMMUNITY

THE OUTBACK CALLS Andrea Craigie packed her swag, donned a bushman’s hat and headed for the outback to fulfil her dream

D

By Merian Ellis

uring her final year of studying Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania, Andrea Craigie (BAgSc Hons 2013) often found herself drifting off from her books to a mythical destination on a horse behind a mob of cattle in the outback. The dream took shape following graduation and while Andrea’s fellow graduates were polishing their CVs she rolled her swag, cleaned her boots, bought a big white hat and moved 4000km from her home in Tasmania to the Kimberley region of WA. Andrea’s destination was a 1.4 millionhectare cattle run in one of the most

remote regions of the country, where she was part of a mustering team bringing in 37,000 head of cattle from the far-flung corners of the property. The working hours were long, the days hot and dusty and the pay nothing to write home about,

Once I started my degree I knew ... l had made the right choice but Andrea loved her seven months at Yougawalla Station so much she is considering heading back for another season. Andrea grew up on a mixed

farm near Latrobe and after considering studying medicine, followed her heart and headed to Hobart to complete the fouryear Bachelor of Agricultural Science.

“Once I started my degree I knew straight away that I had made the right choice.”

During her degree, Andrea was the recipient of a Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Horizon Scholarship which supported her study and enabled some practical experiences of agriculture on farms in Queensland and Victoria. On completing her degree Andrea knew her future was probably as an agronomist, but in the short term she needed to follow her outback dream.

The University Club provides a pleasant environment for members to enjoy a morning coffee or lunch from 9.30am – 2.15pm (lunch from 11.45am) weekdays.

Membership is open to alumni, staff and postgraduate students of the University.

For enquiries please phone 03 6226 2005 or visit: Pinot Noir is central to the Tamar Ridge experience. At the cellar door, friendly, knowledgeable staff will take you on a journey of wine styles, including the elegant Pirie sparkling, a selection of Devil’s Corner wines (sourced from the dedicated vineyard on the East Coast) and the full range of Tamar Ridge table wines, including exclusive back vintages of Tamar Ridge’s finest pinot noirs.

utas.edu.au/campuses/university-club

Tamar Ridge Cellar Door

Opening Hours Daily 10am - 5pm with food platters available.

1A Waldhorn Drive Rosevears 7277 Phone (03) 6330 0300 www.tamarridge.com.au

410124_TR_WINE ROUTES - Ad_128x93.indd 1

15/09/2014 am ALUMNI ISSUE 8:54 46 DECEMBER 2014

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RESTORATION

FACE LIFT FOR A GRAND DAME After 165 years, ‘architectural beauty’ Domain House is being restored with tender loving care

reopened Old English Town quarry in the foothills of Ben Lomond. Inside poultice is being employed to extract salt from the stone walls before the application of a three-coat plastering process using lime.

Patching-in of new flooring has occurred in some rooms and previously coveredup fireplaces and doorways have been reinstated. The mezzanine level added

We are appreciative of the University for taking on small local firms Peter Walker when the Great Hall became a library during the University’s previous tenure has been removed, in the expectation that this space will once again host grand occasions. Concessions to modern technology include the use of chemical damp-proofing and the addition of a ventilation drain skirting the perimeter of the external stonework.

“This has been a real collaborative effort,” Cumulus Studio’s Peter Walker (BArch Hons 1998) said, “and we are appreciative of the University for taking on small local firms to undertake the conservation rather than bringing in expertise from the mainland.”

Mr Walker is an alumnus, as is his ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

PETER COCHRANE

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UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA SPECIAL AND RARE MATERIALS COLLECTION

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or a landmark building variously described by colonial commentators as having “some pretensions to architectural beauty” and as an “architectural attraction yet to be equalled in this hemisphere”, Domain House has endured much neglect during its 165-year history.

As noted by conservation architect Paul Johnston (BEnvDes 1986) during a lecture at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, very little money has been spent on maintenance during its 165 years. The response too often had been simply to cover up damage and deterioration.

That is, until the site was returned to the University of Tasmania by the State Government in December 2011.

Paul Johnston Architects, working with Cumulus Studio and Peter Freeman, has been given the task of arresting the decay and stabilising the building fabric.

Structural problems, within Domain House and in later additions to the site, and crude adaptations over time have added to the challenge. The project will also deliver policy on a future use of the building considering disability access, servicing, and energy management.

The first stage of conservation is scheduled to be completed by midDecember. A team of masons, joined recently by plasterers, has been working on-site for eight months, both teams using traditional methods where possible.

The exterior’s cement pointing of the 1920s – which has been a contributing factor to the sad state of the sandstone walls – has been replaced by a strong lime-based mortar. On the building’s western façade cheap patchwork renders which were added right up to the 1990s to hide damaged stone have been stripped away. Much of the sandstone itself has been refaced or replaced with a similar fine-grained stone sourced from the

By Peter Cochrane

Rescued from decay: Domain House is being restored to its former glory inside and out.

Pictured above is conservation architect Paul Johnston in the Great Hall.

business partner, Todd Henderson (BArch Hons 2001); Mr Johnston is a graduate of the College of Advanced Education, which was incorporated into the University in 1981.

Domain House was built in 1848 as Hobart’s first high school, a Protestant response to the establishment by the Church of England of The Hutchins School in Macquarie Street. Alexander Dawson’s design was “Gothic intent, with peculiar Tudor-esque elements”, Mr Johnston said.

“At the time it was a very economical building.” When Domain House became the home of Christ College in 1885, it was in decay. It became the first home of the University in 1892 and Mr Johnston said that the burden of mounting maintenance costs may have been behind the University’s early decision to sell the building’s bell for five shillings.

MUSIC

OPERA DELIVERS Overcoming many hurdles, a dedicated group staged a stirring opera on the life of a notorious Tasmanian bushranger

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AAP IMAGE/JOE CASTRO

o composer has yet stood and delivered an opera about Ned Kelly (Reg Livermore’s 1978 rock opera aside) but there is now one devoted to the Tasmanian bushranger Michael Howe and his Aboriginal companion Black Mary.

Yorkshire-born highwayman Howe was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1812 and soon absconded to join a large group of escaped convicts, which he eventually became leader of, writing letters to the then Governor Thomas Davey calling himself the “Lieutenant Governor of the Woods”. Cunning and callous, he was finally cornered in 1818 and battered to death by a soldier and convict stockkeeper after the general location of his hideout had been revealed to the authorities by Black Mary.

On November 29, The Bushranger’s Lover, a three-act opera based on the story of Howe and Black Mary had its world premiere concert performance in the Hobart City Hall. A large number of alumni contributed to this one-off performance.

Smithton-born Don Kay, former Tasmanian Conservatorium Head of School and Head of Composition, wrote the music to a libretto by filmmakerwriter alumnus John Honey (BA 1965).

Three of the four principal singers were alumni – London-based soprano Jassy Husk, Melbourne-based baritone Michael Lampard and Hobart baritone Phillip Joughin.

The other principal was distinguished Aboriginal soprano Deborah Cheetham AO, Associate Dean (Indigenous) of the Faculty of VCA and MCM at the University of Melbourne. She sang the role of Black Mary.

Musical director/conductor was alumnus Simon Reade (BMus 1998, BEd

By Peter Cochrane

Principal role: Aboriginal soprano Deborah Cheetham in Melbourne in June.

2005), and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus was prepared by their Chorusmaster, alumnus June Tyzack (BAMus 1976).

The 40-piece orchestra of members of the Hobart Wind Symphony and Hobart Chamber Orchestra included a large proportion of alumni, as did the

Performance made possible by goodwill of the Hobart music community John Honey 60-member TSO Chorus.

John Honey recalls the challenge which led to this opera’s creation, and the challenge then of getting it onto a stage: “In early 2011, I presented Don with the libretto of an opera, the story of the tempestuous love affair between Michael Howe and Black Mary, and their quest for ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

freedom in a raw, young penal colony.

“Having collaborated with Don on two song cycles, I wanted to set him a major challenge – his first three-act opera, to be finished by his 80th birthday, in January 2013. Without hesitation Don accepted, and his 350-page score was complete and printed with time to spare,” John recalled.

“But getting a performance of this wonderful new work off the ground would not be so straightforward. In spite of enthusiastic support from major figures, among them Graeme Murphy (Hon DLitt 1990) and Paul Dean, two planned initiatives were abandoned for financial reasons.

“We applied to Arts Tasmania to fund a production of our own, but were unsuccessful,” he said. “We then approached the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, the Hobart Wind Symphony and the TSO Chorus, all of which volunteered their support free of charge.

We raised the balance of the budget privately.

“So this was a genuine community performance, made possible by the goodwill of the Hobart music community.”

For John, the satisfaction – apart from finally seeing the opera staged – has been in “developing a libretto that respects the historical record while inventing the way these lives worked day-to-day, minute-byminute, and presents a story that can be convincingly sung, and grip and carry an audience to a cathartic operatic climax”.

Fellow Tasmanian, composer and pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, in writing about Kay and this opera, hailed his “exquisitely sensitive, pellucid music”.

“A humility and counting of his blessings pervades all of Don’s output, his music a celebration of how lucky we are and what responsibility is owed to the original owners of the land, and to the environment.”

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GRADUATES

WINNING DOUBLE Dr Kiros Hiruy and his eldest daughter Tsionawit shared a moment of pride when they graduated together

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CHERIE COOPER

or a father and daughter, the August graduation ceremonies in Hobart were a chance to celebrate their academic achievements on the same stage.

Kiros Hiruy and his eldest daughter Tsionawit Gebre-Yohannes, 21, graduated together in the same ceremony. Dr Hiruy received his PhD in Regional Development and Tsionawit was awarded her combined Bachelor of Economics and Arts.

Dr Hiruy’s thesis examined issues of social empowerment and inclusion in Australia, with a focus on refugee communities and the interaction of government policies and NGOs. The topic is one close to his heart, as his

By Cherie Cooper

Family affair: Kiros Hiruy and his eldest daughter Tsionawit Gebre-Yohannes.

family came to Australia from Kenya as humanitarian refugees in 2006.

In Kenya, Dr Hiruy worked for the

International Organisation for Migration and helped escort refugees around the world. In 2004 he came to Hobart as an escort for African refugees and immediately hoped he could bring his own family here.

Dr Hiruy said Tasmania had offered his family “wonderful opportunities”.

“Tasmania is small enough to move around, and big enough to get whatever you want,” he said.

Tsionawit, who will soon begin her Honours degree, said she loved her life in Tasmania.

“The people here are great,” she said.

The end-of-year graduation ceremonies kicked off in Burnie on December 9, followed by Launceston (December 13) and Hobart (December 16-18).

UNIVERSITY SALUTES JANIS Maritime chief honoured for service

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efence Science and Technology Organisation Maritime Division chief Janis Cocking’s outstanding contribution to maritime engineering has been recognised with an honorary degree from the University of Tasmania at its mid-year graduation ceremony.

The University Council confers honorary degrees on people who are distinguished scholars and have given exemplary service to the Commonwealth, the state or the University. Dr Cocking accepted her degree at the graduation ceremony at Albert Hall, Launceston, on August 23.

“Conferral of the degree of Doctor of Engineering honoris causa is a welldeserved and fitting acknowledgment of Janis Cocking’s outstanding contributions to the University and to

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the state of Tasmania,” Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen said. “Dr Cocking has played a substantial and active role in enhancing the interests, capabilities and international connections of the Australian Maritime College and the University. She has been the champion and major driver behind much of the extensive interaction between DSTO and AMC for many years.

Her high-level support has culminated in important, strategic outcomes including Commonwealth Government support for major AMC facility upgrades and collaborative research projects.

“This has enhanced the reputations of both AMC and the University within the international defence community.”

Dr Cocking is an international expert in the field of undersea technology and has more than 30 years’ experience

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

Outstanding: Janis Cocking with her husband Malcolm at the graduation ceremony.

managing science and technology research projects. She has a degree in Metallurgy from the University of Melbourne and joined DSTO after graduation, undertaking research into high temperature alloys for hot end gas turbine blades in RAAF aircraft engines.

The honorary degree conferral follows the signing of a five-year Defence Science Partnering Deed between DSTO and the University, designed to establish a collaborative alliance for mutually beneficial activities.

SIX DEGREES

HIGH ACHIEVERS

ALISON WATKINS BACHELOR OF COMMERCE 1985

MICHAEL O’FARRELL SC BACHELOR OF LAWS 1983

DR ALEX ROBBINS MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY 2004, PHD 2013

In March this year Alison was appointed Group Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil, having previously been chief executive of Australian agribusiness giant GrainCorp (2010 to December 2013) and a non-executive director of ANZ. She is one of only a few female CEOs of an ASX200 company and was the first to head a listed Australian agribusiness.

Alison grew up on a farm in Tasmania’s Midlands and planned to go to agricultural college on leaving school.

However, encouraged by her mother, she enrolled in commerce at the University of Tasmania before following her husband Rod to Sydney to gain corporate experience as a chartered accountant at Touche Ross (now part of Deloitte).

Next came a decade as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. It was her biggest break, she recalls. “It gave me the ability to operate at senior levels in large organisations.”

In 2002 she became chief executive of fruit juice company Berri. As well as giving her experience running a stand-alone company, the role took her back into the food and agricultural sector for four years.

Alison’s next job, as CEO of private investment group Bennelong, was all about learning to run an umbrella group with several businesses, including funds management and a British golf company.

Michael took up his new position as Tasmania’s Solicitor-General on September 1.

The Solicitor-General provides legal advice to ministers, agencies and instrumentalities of the Crown and also represents the state in any constitutional litigation.

Michael was admitted as a practitioner in September 1984. He worked in the Crown Solicitor’s office and Solicitor General’s office from 1984 to 1986 and then joined Dobson Mitchell and Allport as a practitioner from 1986 to 1990 and then commercial litigation partner (1990 to 2002).

He joined the Independent Bar in July 2002. He was President of the Tasmanian Bar Association from 1996 to 1998 and in 2004 became a member of the Bar Council.

In 2009, he was appointed a silk.

He served as President of the Tasmanian Bar from 2010 to 2012.

In announcing his appointment as Solicitor-General, the Attorney-General, Vanessa Goodwin, said Michael would “bring to the role extensive knowledge of and experience in a wide range of areas of the law – including general and commercial litigation, property disputes, industrial and employment law and judicial review and administrative law.

Alex graduated from the Australian Maritime College with a Master of Philosophy in Hydrodynamics in 2009 and a PhD in Hydrodynamics in 2013.

He works at DMS Maritime in Sydney as the Engineering Manager overseeing a $325 million ship acquisition program for the Commonwealth. Last year he was awarded AMC’s prestigious Rob Lewis Medal, in recognition of his research into catamaran wash in shallow waters.

“After five years of after-hours parttime work it was hugely satisfying to just gain my PhD, so to then be chosen for this award is not only unexpected, but an honour,” he said at the time.

Alex’s thesis, “Shallow Water Catamaran Wash – Simple Characterisations for a Complex Phenomenon”, explored catamaran-generated wash in shallow water with the goal of simplifying the complex phenomenon into user-friendly characterisations.

The thesis comprised five published papers and the first four each examined a separate wash characterisation, outlining performance in shallow water. These papers were the outcome of physical tests in the AMC’s model test basin. Dr Robbins is continuing his wave wake research at AMC. He is also part of the National Centre for Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics industry advisory panel.

ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

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SIX DEGREES

HIGH ACHIEVERS

JOHN PERRY BACHELOR OF COMMERCE, BACHELOR OF LAWS 1994

ELLISSA NOLAN MASTER OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS 2008

JAMES CRETAN BACHELOR OF MEDICINE, BACHELOR OF SURGERY 1984

The Deputy Chair of the Tasmanian Leaders Program Board, John has just been appointed by the State Government to the role of Co-ordinator General in New York. In announcing his appointment, State Growth Minister Matthew Groom said John was “extremely well qualified to act as an ambassador for investment and job creation in Tasmania”. He has also played an ambassadorial role for the University of Tasmania, serving as the London network co-ordinator for the Alumni office.

In 2009, John joined American Airlines on their fast-track leadership program after having completed his MBA at the University of Cambridge. He moved to New York in 2013 to become Commercial Lead for the Atlantic Joint Business between American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and Finnair, having previously managed Europe Business Planning for American Airlines in London.

Before undertaking his Masters, he was Head of Innovation and Enterprise for one of London’s largest universities.

Before this career transition, he was a senior corporate transactions lawyer with a leading London-based international law firm, having earlier been a partner with a large Australasian firm.

Ellissa’s Masters project saw her establish, with the late Professor Vincent McGrath, the University of Tasmania Creative Arts Summer School which remains a highlight of the University’s Launceston calendar.

Recently she set her sights much higher – at least in a literal sense. As a Rotarian, she organised a bid to set two new world records on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The event was timed to coincide with the arrival of 19,000 international Rotarians from all around the world to attend the 105th Rotary International Convention.

“We set the new Guinness World Record for the most number of flags flying simultaneously (219 international flags from countries where Rotary works around the world on humanitarian projects) and also set the new world record for the most number of people ever on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (previously set by Oprah Winfrey in 2010).

“From this event we raised $110,000 to immunise 240,000 children against polio,” she said. The polio virus is still prevalent in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge event received media coverage in Europe, the US and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The new Chair of Tourism Tasmania brings extensive experience in tourism, business and corporate governance to the role.

His experience includes two years as Deputy Chair of the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, Chair of the Tasmanian Skills Institute for five years and a former Board Chair of TAFE Tasmania.

He is a Director of Intuit Technologies and Chair of the Tasmanian Industry Group. James founded the Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village and worked on other ventures including the Swansea Beach Chalets, Swansea Holiday Park and the Shoreline Hotel. Through his role on the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, he was directly involved in a number of tourism industry projects including Tourism 21, the industry review of Drysdale Institute, the Tourism Forestry Protocol Agreement and the International Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Tasmania.

Before becoming involved in tourism he chaired the Board of TAFE Tasmania (2004-2008). Previously he was both Director of Business Development and Director of Emergency Services, Tasmania, for Australian Hospital Care Ltd (1997-1999).

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ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

LUPTIISIM VOLOREPE

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71 NELSON RD, SANDY BAY WWW.HUTCHINS.TAS.EDU.AU ALUMNI ISSUE 46 DECEMBER 2014

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From Beauty to the Beasts (and everything in between)

The TSO’s 2015 season has it all. From the sublime beauty of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto played by superstar violinist Karen Gomyo to the Dirty Beasts of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic, the TSO’s 2015 season promises to be bigger, bolder and more exciting than ever.

Tickets are on sale from 15 December.

You’ll be bombarded by Beethoven, charmed by Tchaikovsky, mesmerised by Mahler and much, much more. To request a 2015 brochure call 1800 001 190 or view the full season at tso.com.au.

Get ready to live it live.

TSO.COM.AU 1800 001 190

There’s a lot to look forward to.