university magazine

EDNA AND ME Cultural icon goes back to where it all began

ISSUE 2, 2015

EARTHQUAKES STEMMING A FATAL TIDE

2015_MUM4_p1 Cover.indd 1 27/08/15 12:00 PM 3 unimelb.edu.au/3010 EDITORIAL WE WELCOME ADVISORY BOARD YOUR FEEDBACK DR JAMES ALLAN Email your comments to: DIRECTOR, ALUMNI RELATIONS [email protected] EOIN HAHESSY Write to us at: ADVISOR COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS, ENGAGEMENT The Advancement Office The DR JENNIFER HENRY 3010, (BAgr(Hons) 1990, PhD 2001) EARTHQUAKES DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT (SCIENCE) Call us on: Dealing with a PETER KRONBORG +61 3 8344 1751 (MBA 1979) UNIVERSITY OF violent nature 6 MELBOURNE ALUMNI COUNCIL With millions of people under threat from SIÔN LUTLEY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADVANCEMENT earthquakes, University researchers are working to minimise the risks. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TIMOTHY LYNCH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY NEWS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Improving the student experience 4 SIMON MANN EDITOR, THE CITIZEN, OPEN FOR BUSINESS CENTRE FOR ADVANCING JOURNALISM 6 A fresh wave of entrepreneurs 10 CATRIONA MAY CONTENT SPECIALIST (ENGAGEMENT) AND CRIME AND PUNISHMENT TEAM LEADER, EXTERNAL RELATIONS Defending those on death row 12 MAXINE McKEW TEACHING’S NEW CLASS VICE-CHANCELLOR’S FELLOW Transforming our schools 15 PROFESSOR PETER McPHEE AM (BA(Hons) 1969, MA 1973, PhD 1977, LLD BY THE NUMBERS 2009, TRINITY COLLEGE) MELBOURNE Towards a greener University 18 GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING THE ESSAY DR DAMIAN POWELL A global climate challenge 22 (BA(Hons) 1989) PRINCIPAL, JANET CLARKE HALL ANOTHER DIMENSION The wonder of 3D printing 24 EDITORIAL TEAM 12 22 WORK IN PROGRESS VAL McFARLANE Seeking equality in the workplace 26 MANAGING EDITOR KEN MERRIGAN BODY OF EVIDENCE EDITOR, MEDIAXPRESS Forensic dentist Pamela Craig 28 BILL FARR CLOSE ENCOUNTER DESIGN, MEDIAXPRESS Kitty Chiller’s Olympic quest 30 This publication is produced on a Forest Stewardship Council ALUMNI PROFILES AND NEWS (FSC) certified paper that is Making a mark 32 produced at an FSC certified paper mill under an ISO14001 environmental management system, ALUMNI MILESTONES using elemental chlorine-free whitening processes. Printed by Complete Colour, an ISO14001 Appointments and accolades 36 environmental management system and ISO9001 quality management system certified printer 15 30 THE LAST WORD with FSC (Chain of Custody) certification and My life as an illusionist 38 Sustainability Victoria Wastewise Gold certification, on an ecologically rated printing press using a chemical recirculation system and produced with vegetable-based inks made from renewable resources. This publication is fully recyclable COVER STORY 19 — please dispose of it wisely. Views expressed by contributors are not A megastar necessarily endorsed by the University. is born ISSN: 1442-1349 Produced for the University of Melbourne ON THE COVER: by MEDIAXPRESS mediaxpress.net.au Barry Humphries recalls the night Edna Everage

first hit the stage at the 2015 ISSUE 2, University’s Union Theatre. COVER PICTURE: NIC WALKER For more exclusive content visit:

unimelb.edu.au/3010

2015_MUM4_p2-3 Contents.indd 2 27/08/15 12:15 PM 2015_MUM4_p2-3 Contents.indd 3 27/08/15 12:16 PM 4 universitynews 5

PLAN PARTNERSHIPS SYNTHESISER CAMPAIGN EXHIBITION

Strategy to improve student New opportunities A note or two Alumni back Rare prayer book experience and promote research for Indigenous from Dr Who students in need goes on show engineers For the past 20 years one of the world’s One of the world’s most exquisite The University is leading a rarest synthesisers, the EMI Synthi manuscripts is on display at the nationwide initiative to vastly 100, sat idle in a University storage University until November 15. improve opportunities for Indigenous facility. Now, thanks to the passion of The 500-year-old Rothschild engineering students and increase Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Prayer Book is one of the most the number of Indigenous engineers Senior Technician Leslie Craythorn, valuable illuminated manuscripts working in Australia. it has been restored to its former glory and is considered one of the most The Partners for Pathways project and will be available for students. important books of its type in aims to create scholarships and The Synthi 100 was delivered to existence. devise strategies to promote entry the University’s Electronic Music The 16th century prayer book into engineering for Indigenous and Studio in 1975. Soon after, Leslie was is at the centre of a free exhibition, other students who do not have the employed as the studio’s technician. An illumination: the Rothschild Prayer required background in maths and “On my first day at work, the first Book & other works from the Kerry science. thing I did was walk through to look Stokes Collection c 1280-1685 at the A former Chief Executive Officer at it,” he said. “I remember thinking Students in need have received new Ian Potter Museum of Art. of Sinclair Knight Merz, Professor it was the best day of my life!” support, thanks to the generosity of On loan from the Kerry Stokes Paul Dougas (BE(ChemEng) 1971), Nearly two metres long, the Synthi alumni and friends of the University. Collection, the exhibition contains is leading the program, which is 100 is more of a laboratory piece More than 1400 donors contributed rare masterpieces of breathtaking backed by a Commonwealth grant than a musical instrument. And with a record $940,557 to a fundraising beauty and power including the of $700,000. an overwhelming number of knobs, appeal held over just a few weeks in monumental work of Calvary by The first National Indigenous joysticks and patch-pins to navigate, May and June. the Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel Engineering Summit was held in ‘playing’ it is certainly not for the The money raised by the campaign, the Younger. The exhibition is June and brought together industry, faint-hearted. According to Leslie, part of the University’s Annual Appeal, accompanied by a series of public professional bodies, representatives you’d need three months to gain a will provide scholarships, bursaries lectures and floor talks. of most of the major Australian basic understanding; two years to and fellowships to students facing The Rothschild Prayer Book was university engineering schools and become a master. financial problems. made in the Belgian cities of Bruges policy leaders to exchange ideas. The Synthi 100 is most often The Annual Appeal has been and Ghent in the early 1500s. It is Indigenous engineers from around associated with the Doctor Who running since 1989 and over the years illustrated with gold and contains A commitment to improve the will grow in the key areas of the country also took part. theme although, as Leslie points out, has helped thousands of students to 67 full-page miniature paintings, student experience and increase engineering and science to ensure “We heard from a number of “there are about 20 different versions continue their studies. each considered a masterpiece. international research collaborations the University can be globally practising Indigenous engineers who of that tune and only one was ever Master of Teaching student These types of manuscripts is part of the University’s latest competitive. “There will be some agreed that education was the key to a played on it”. Courtney Rose (pictured above) is were created in monasteries and strategic plan, Growing Esteem programs in other faculties that may better future for themselves and their The restored instrument is housed among those who have benefited. used by priests and monks for 2015‑2020. grow at the graduate level, but this families,” Professor Dougas said. within the VCA’s new Brian Brown “Last year I considered giving up my liturgical purposes. They were often The plan, published in July, is going to be done in a targeted and “These engineers can now be Recording Studio. It joins a number of Rare instrument: studies due to financial pressures,” commissioned by people of means aims to build on the strengths and considered way,” he says. mentors to current students coming other remarkable vintage synthesisers Leslie Craythorn she says. such as emperors and princes, achievements of the University’s past “The development of graduate through the ranks and are able to in the University collection. To watch with the Synthi 100 “However the generosity of donors and in the 13th and 14th centuries decade while creating a secure future online programs will also play a part, provide advice on what barriers and the Synthi 100 in full-flight visit: at the Victorian meant that I was able to access private persons bought and used for the institution. and create a truly global student cohort FACULTY experiences they had, to help build a unimelb.edu.au/3010 College of the Arts. a crucial bursary, giving me the “books of hours”, which contained Under the plan, students will that will experience the University in FACTS tangible pipeline into the profession.” opportunity to continue my education prayers to be recited throughout the benefit from increases in quality different and exciting ways.” at Melbourne and make the most out day. The Rothschild is one of about 30 accommodation, work-based learning Professor Davis says the current of my studies.” remaining illuminated manuscripts opportunities such as internships, and environment means the University 1553 Donations to the Annual made as private worship books study abroad options. needs to make some big decisions Number of research A new face Appeal count towards the target between 1500 to 1510. Timetables will be made more about how it continues to evolve. and teaching staff of Believe – the Campaign for the flexible and new opportunities created “In many ways we are thriving, but within the Faculty of at the helm University of Melbourne. More than For more information visit events. for students from all backgrounds, this document isn’t about the present. Medicine, Dentistry 19,000 donors have supported the unimelb.edu.au/rothschild including Indigenous students. It’s a competitive sector. It’s about and Health Sciences. The University has welcomed a new Campaign, which aims to raise There will also be an increased asking ourselves what do we need to Vice-Principal (Advancement). $500 million by 2017 to address emphasis on international research do to make sure our future is secure, $630 Nick Blinco will lead University of three main priorities: educating collaboration with industry and other while staying true to the principles Melbourne Advancement, which tomorrow’s leaders, finding answers partners, and a growth in public we established 10 years ago.” million includes alumni relations and to the world’s grand challenges, and engagement with communities in The faculty’s annual philanthropic campaigns. He was enriching communities. Melbourne and Australia. Visit about.unimelb.edu.au/strategy- revenue, of which previously Director of Engagement Vice-Chancellor Professor and-leadership to read the strategy about 55 per cent at the University of Birmingham. Visit campaign.unimelb.edu.au Glyn Davis AC says student numbers in full. relates to research. Learn more at unimelb.edu.au/3010 to learn more.

2015_MUM4_p4-5 UniversityNews.indd 4 27/08/15 1:26 PM 2015_MUM4_p4-5 UniversityNews.indd 5 27/08/15 5:45 PM 6 EARTH SCIENCE EARTH SCIENCE 7 unimelb.edu.au/3010

BY TIM THWAITES (BSc(Hons) 1974, TRINITY COLLEGE, Shifting ground JANET CLARKE HALL) As the world’s population avid Norrish was getting ready for a costume party when the soars, millions of people Earth moved. Resplendent in are at risk from earthquakes. baggy green hippie pants and Da tie-dye shirt, he was on the University researchers are roof of his four-storey apartment building in Kathmandu, Nepal, when the first jolt sent working to identify the risks him staggering. It was April 25, this year, and an earthquake had struck. and minimise the losses. “Struck really was the right term for what the earthquake did,” says the University of Melbourne genetics researcher, now working with the Nepal Health Research Council. “There was no warning or gradual increase in intensity. One moment the world was sane and stable, and the next the whole building was shuddering back and forth. I stumbled and caught my balance, and my brain needed a few seconds to figure out what was happening and how I should feel about it. “All the earthquake training we had done was only relevant for being inside a building. I ended up just dropping down where I was and crouching in a ball in the centre of the roof. Right before I hit the ground I caught a glimpse of the city and this surreal image is burnt into my mind: a swarm of black rising. It was thousands of crows taking flight in a wave of panic.” When the shaking stopped, Norrish (BSc 2009, MSc 2011) grabbed a first aid kit from his apartment and rushed out into the street. “I bumped into a nurse friend of mine who was on her motorbike heading to the local hospital, and I gave her the first aid kit. She told me later that the hospital had been so under-resourced that that first aid kit, by being there at that time, ended up saving several lives.” He wore his party costume for the next few days, as he came to terms with a catastrophe that devastated the city and killed more than 8500 in the region. Preparing victims for “Hundreds of thousands of people were cremation after the left living in the scary uncertainty of a dying 2015 ISSUE 2, earthquake that struck city, with no electricity or running water Kathmandu in April. PICTURE: DANIEL BEREHULAK/ and rapidly dwindling access to food and THE NEW YORK TIMES/HEADPRESS transport,” he recalls.

CONTINUED PAGE 8

2015_MUM4_p6-9 Earthquakes.indd 6 27/08/15 12:44 PM 2015_MUM4_p6-9 Earthquakes.indd 7 27/08/15 5:20 PM 8 EARTH SCIENCE EARTH SCIENCE 9 unimelb.edu.au/3010 FROM PAGE 7 Media Communication Prize and the 2014 Geological Society of America Public Earth’s fault lines put big cities at risk It’s a scene likely to become increasingly Service Award. he thin, solid skin or crust on plates in a process known as subduction. along fault zones are likely to cluster. common, says Associate Professor Mark “My shift to Melbourne is not which we live is only five to 70 These motions are jerky. The friction of About 95 per cent of earthquakes occur Quigley (PhD 2007), who has forged surprising,” Quigley says. “It’s building kilometres thick, or about 1 per huge tectonic plates pressing and rubbing at plate boundaries. The people most at a worldwide reputation in earthquake recognition in the field and has a strong cent of the distance to Earth’s against each other is immense. risk live in these regions, particularly at the science at the University of Canterbury engineering school. Many of the world’s T centre. But by the time you reach the Along active plate boundary faults, edges of the Pacific Ocean and across Asia,

in Christchurch. He will be returning to a leading earthquake scientists live in mantle underneath, the temperature such as the San Andreas Fault in California, from central China, along the Himalayas specially created position at the University intraplate settings. But that comes with has risen to more than 600 degrees, and the pressure builds up until it exceeds and extending through Iran and Turkey of Melbourne in October, adding a responsibility to tackle earthquake- the material you are passing through is the strength of the fault and the earth into Europe. significantly to a research area of growing related challenges that transcend regional becoming plastic. By the outer core, it has slips rapidly, moving metres in a matter The cities where most death and importance in science and engineering. boundaries, and with a particular focus on become liquid. The Earth’s core is hot – of seconds. In the case of Nepal’s recent damage is likely to occur are in developing Earthquake damage to humans and assisting nations with a higher seismic risk about 6000 degrees at the latest estimate. earthquake it moved about three metres. countries – Islamabad, Tehran, Quito, infrastructure is on the increase as the and lower science capacity.” The crust and upper mantle is broken That rupture causes an earthquake Manila. But 5 per cent of earthquakes world’s population grows and settles over One urgent need, he says, is information into a jigsaw of moving tectonic plates. as it cascades along the fault until the occur intraplate. These are the ones more and more of the planet, he says. on where the greatest risks are, how Their movement crushes them together, friction becomes too great to overcome that affect Australia, and while neither Researchers from the US Geological resistant we need to make buildings, pulls them apart, and forces them to slide and the rupture is terminated. But that as frequent nor typically as big as those Survey predict that the number of and where we should avoid construction past each other. concentrates stress on the fault further at the plate boundaries, they can still be earthquake-related deaths could more than altogether. And that information has to Some are pushed under neighbouring down the line, which is why earthquakes significant and destructive. double in the 21st century to 3.5 million. be solid enough to resist the pressure But it’s not urban areas such as Los of inappropriate development in places Angeles and Tokyo where lives are most at David Norrish in Kathmandu. where there may have been little sign of risk. As populations centres in well-to-do an earthquake for many years. nations, their infrastructure is relatively “We need to work hard to plan and prepared to withstand any shock. The real develop cities and infrastructure that are problems are in the burgeoning, crowded informed by geologic information,” he Tehran cities of less developed countries. says. “The use of the geological record to And living in Australia, seemingly one understand the location, size, frequency Islamabad of the seismically quieter parts of the Earth’s and effects of past earthquakes for the surface, is no reason to be complacent. purpose of reducing our vulnerability Tokyo Los Angeles Two of Australia’s most recent earthquakes to future earthquakes is what underpins – at Tennant Creek in 1988 and Newcastle the fields of paleo-seismology and in 1989 – were of a magnitude similar to earthquake geology. Manila or larger than the recent Christchurch “For example, our research in earthquakes. New Zealand has demonstrated virtually Quito In New Zealand, Mark Quigley – all of the worst effects of the 2010-11 Lima earthquake sequence had prehistoric aka Dr Quigs – and his partner Candice Jakarta became caught up, literally, in the geologic predecessors of similar severity earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. and extent that could have been better Their house was in one of the most incorporated into land use planning vulnerable areas, and the sandy soil policy. This is the field in which my underneath it erupted to the surface, in a expertise lies and the work I will be process known as liquefaction, resulting continuing with vigour at the University ALL EARTHQUAKES in serious damage and the property’s of Melbourne.” WITH POPULATION 1,000,000 + eventual demolition. At the University Mark Quigley will But the two earthquakes were very “Some of the public has lost rejoin his PhD supervisor, Professor different propositions for Quigley, as Mike Sandiford (BSc(Hons) 1978, PhD geologist-participant. “On September 4, trust in our abilities. It was 1985), who holds the Chair of Geology Program, which is bringing together Australia are the south-east and south- building codes that address the risk. 2010, Christchurch hosted the perfect in the School of Earth Sciences, and historical seismic data from all over the west corners of the country, as well as Buildings can be engineered and retro- earthquake. Details of the rupture a difficult, but important, with whom he has worked previously, world to create earthquake hazard maps. central . fitted to resist earthquakes, Goldsworthy process were captured by a dense array examining earthquakes and the formation It’s not an easy task. Precise Our complacency doesn’t help. In the says. And we now know quite a lot about of instruments. And the surface rupture time to be an earth scientist.” of mountain ranges in central Australia measurements of earthquakes go back past few years, several insurance industry resistant materials and construction, from itself was a sight to behold – a geologist’s and the Himalayas. less than a century – a mere blink of executives have expressed concern at the investigating the reaction of buildings DR MARK QUIGLEY (ABOVE) dream. While there was some damage, Of all the tectonic plates, says geological time, although techniques lack of basic earthquake risk mitigation to events such as Christchurch and also no lives were lost. And we did as scientists Sandiford, the Indo-Australian plate are being developed to gain indications by business and government in Australia. from the latest research work on damage- should do. We conducted research, tested Some of the public has lost trust in our is moving the fastest and is the most of much earlier events. Earthquakes That’s a situation that researchers in the resistant technologies. hypotheses, collaborated with colleagues, abilities. It was a difficult, but important, highly stressed. This puts Australia play out differently in different School of Engineering and its associated Meanwhile, David Norrish has spoke to the media, gave public talks, time to be an earth scientist.” among the areas most prone to intraplate geological environments, Gibson says, Centre for Disaster Management decided to stay on in Kathmandu as it published papers and told our story to In the aftermath, Quigley became a earthquakes. One of those who knows so comparisons become difficult. “A and Public Safety, such as Associate gets back on its feet. the world. household name in New Zealand and most about Australia’s seismic activity, magnitude-5 quake in Western Australia Professors Helen Goldsworthy (PhD “After a couple of months, things are “On February 22, 2011, Christchurch worldwide. For months, he appeared particularly with respect to the rest of may be felt 400 kilometres away, but only 1990) and Nelson Lam (PhD 1993)and only superficially back to normal,” he says. 2015 ISSUE 2, hosted a much different seismic event. almost nightly on New Zealand television the world, is Gary Gibson (BSc 1968), 150 kilometres away in Victoria, given its Dr Elisa Lumantarna (BE(CivEng)(Hons) “The traffic’s back to full bore. But you can This one caused many deaths, unbelievable as the voice of science and evidence- a principal research fellow in seismology softer, more absorbent rock.” 2001, MEngSc 2004, PhD 2012), are still see where the houses are damaged. destruction and mass evacuations from based information. Among other honours and president of the Asian Seismology While the maps are preliminary and trying to change. They are working on And the tourists have completely emptied the city. The science response has been for his efforts, he was awarded the 2011 Commission. He has been contributing constantly being updated, they show the earthquake-resistant building design and out of the country. That’s seriously

different, sombre and more subdued. New Zealand Prime Minister’s Science to the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment areas of greatest earthquake hazard in the development and implementation of affecting livelihoods.”

2015_MUM4_p6-9 Earthquakes.indd 8 27/08/15 12:44 PM 2015_MUM4_p6-9 Earthquakes.indd 9 28/08/2015 4:48 pm 10 ENTERPRISE ENTERPRISE 11 unimelb.edu.au/3010 How to make an Time is entrepreneur Can you teach entrepreneurship? The rise of academic entrepreneurship programs would suggest so. But entrepreneurs need more than a great idea and business know-how: they also need the right personality to deal ripe for with the risks inherent in starting something from scratch. So what do you do if you’ve got the great idea, but not the personality traits to go with it? Dr Luke Smillie, Director of the Personality Processes Lab in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, fruitful says all is not lost. He says that while our personality is relatively stable over time, it’s also possible to change it – particularly if you set yourself the goal of doing so. “One way it seems to work is that by simply engaging ventures in the behaviours you are cultivating habits – fake it until you make it. There’s also the idea that you can redefine who you are and begin to behave more in accord with Australia needs a new that self-concept. If you do that for a while it does calcify into a more enduring characteristic,” he says. generation of entrepreneurs, And he believes perceptions of entrepreneurs as risk-takers can be wrong. “People use the word risk in and the University is working different ways,” he says. “What a lot of people are talking Long-time partners: about is functional risk-taking – seizing an opportunity, hard to generate them. Emma Welsh and acting quickly, doing something that they might not Tom Griffith. be most comfortable with, taking calculated risks. Risk-taking is not necessarily about recklessness.” PICTURES: CHRIS HOPKINS BY VAL Mc FARLANE

mma Welsh’s first foray into the fruit trade made us make some mistakes,” says Welsh. They hired The teaching will be practical, blending academic and mixed teams, and it’s working. Since its launch in wasn’t a huge success. As a young girl she people to do jobs they should have done themselves. study with advice from entrepreneurs like Griffith. 2013, Scale has recruited 75 members who have invested developed a plan to raise enough money to buy They were thrifty, but not thrifty enough. Students will graduate with a business plan that is more than $3 million in six start-ups. E a saddle for her horse by picking strawberries. But slowly they found their way around their new hopefully strong enough to attract venture capital. Oliver believes a change in attitude is critical. “I thought I was going to make a fortune!” she laughs. industry. “It was like pulling at a thread,” Welsh says. Associate Professor Rufus Black, Master of Ormond, “Everybody thought the US was on its knees post-GFC But after calculating she had earned $1.50 for three “You just follow along all the things that need to be says students will come from a range of backgrounds, but they hoisted themselves up through their confidence hours’ back-breaking work, she abandoned the plan and done – what’s the bottle going to be like, what are the but will share a passion for creating something with and their ‘can do’ culture. Here we’re doubting Thomases didn’t even bother going back to collect her pay. ingredients going to be, what’s the recipe going to be … impact: “Finding ideas is not the hard part – turning and it can be a reason why our start-ups move to the It’s fair to say her next fruity venture has been more you just keep talking to people and following it along.” those ideas into something that will be a successful, US,” she says. productive. She and childhood friend Tom Griffith founded Relationships have been key. “We’ve learned a lot competitive business is.” She welcomes new additions, like the Wade Institute, Emma & Tom’s in 2004, after Tom spotted a gap in the from talking to other people,” says Griffith. “Really Some of those ideas will likely come from areas in to the entrepreneurial landscape. “We need as many Australian market for additive-free bottled fruit smoothies. everyone has the same issues and challenges, whether which the University already excels – medical research players contributing as possible,” she says. “And we also They’ve gone from an initial range of just four flavours – you are selling hamburgers, fruit juice or insurance. or engineering, for example – but Black (BA 1990, need to recognise that we are a small, small voice in a developed in Welsh’s home kitchen – to an array of drinks It’s about pricing, dealing with new types of customers, LLB(Hons) 1991, Ormond College) is keeping an open big, big world and if we don’t work collaboratively and and snacks that’s stocked in cafes, delis and supermarkets what margins should we be aiming to achieve … all the mind. “Disruptive players are almost always black swans dynamically we are wasting the opportunity.” across the country. Griffith might describe Emma & Tom’s things you just don’t know by instinct.” – they come up with innovative and unexpected ways to She’d like to see Australia follow the UK’s example as “the grown-up version of the kid’s lemonade stand” but it A decade on, they still have external advisers. Welsh meet the world’s needs.” and allow individuals investing in start-ups to claim it is now a serious player in the Australian market, with plans says: “It’s really important to have people who can look Between the new Masters and the Melbourne as a tax deduction. “We subsidise real estate investment to expand overseas when the time is right. critically at your business to help you see the wood from Accelerator Program, which provides a place for through our taxes. Why don’t we subsidise technology or And it’s exactly the kind of business that Australia needs, the trees as well as to make the most of other people’s entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, Black says the start-up investments?” she says. with manufacturing jobs disappearing and the economy experiences. University can make a major contribution to creating a She’s also wary of government policies that seek to over-reliant in the eyes of some on a few big names too “As an entrepreneur you have to be an optimist and much-needed “entrepreneurial ecology” in Australia. “pick winners” in the entrepreneurial market. “I always focused on the domestic market. The small business sector you have to be driven. That can be a weakness because “Other mid-size economies have recognised that feel really doubtful about governments that say they are – which accounts for half of private sector employment – you are so hell-bent on making it succeed, you actually they have got to create the next generation of globally going to back med-tech, or pharmaceuticals, or whatever is under pressure too, with more firms going under than don’t see that you are going down the wrong path.” competitive businesses that will provide the future wealth else. What that is really saying is that they are going to launching. Having learned on the job what works and what and jobs. We need to do that here. We need a new institutionalise the research base and endow this group But Griffith (BCom 1986, Ormond College) and Welsh doesn’t, Griffith is an enthusiastic advocate for the new generation of entrepreneurs,” he says. of people, whether there is something fabulous there or (BAgrSc 1988, Trinity College) are proof that it is possible Wade Institute for Entrepreneurship at Ormond College. “This is a really big issue for Australia. We’ve tended not. It just makes it bureaucratic and stodgy,” she says. to succeed with the right product and approach. Established with a $10 million gift from entrepreneur to look to big business or government to provide an “There are going to be bursts of energy all over the Both had successful corporate careers after graduation – and Ormond alumnus Peter Wade, it aims to give economic future – that has got to change.” place and you can’t institutionalise that. You have to 2015 ISSUE 2, Tom as a chief financial officer and adviser to the UN, and budding entrepreneurs the tools they need for success. That’s a view shared by alumna and entrepreneur allow that burst of energy to flourish wherever it is.” Emma as a commodities trader and marketer – and both had From 2016 it will offer a Master of Entrepreneurship Susan Oliver (BBldg 1973), co-founder and chair of run start-ups in London before setting up Emma & Tom’s. degree, delivered in partnership with the Faculty of female-led angel investor network Scale. Its aim is to Meet young entrepreneurs That didn’t mean it was all smooth sailing. “The experience Business and Economics and the Melbourne School develop a group of savvy investors who can support making their mark at

we had made us avoid some mistakes but I think it also of Engineering. early-stage ventures, particularly those led by women unimelb.edu.au/3010

2015_MUM4_p10-11 Entrepreneurs.indd 10 27/08/15 1:52 PM 2015_MUM4_p10-11 Entrepreneurs.indd 11 27/08/15 1:52 PM 12 LEGAL AFFAIRS LEGAL AFFAIRS 13 unimelb.edu.au/3010

BY IAN MUNRO operation. In February 2006 they were found guilty of trafficking and t was when all was lost and sentenced to death. In the shadow their plight was at its worst Almost immediately legal networks that the condemned men in Melbourne and overseas were tapped I were at their best. to provide a defence. It began in

With their deaths by firing squad 2006 when the Chan and Sukumaran imminent, and families sought out Lex Lasry QC, who of the firing , once alleged by police to was known for trying to save another be the “strongman” and the “Godfather” Australian, Van Tuong Nguyen, who respectively of the drug went to the gallows in in 2005. smuggling operation, confirmed the Lasry recruited McMahon, another truth of their rehabilitation with deeds who had acted for Nguyen. squad of compassion. Over time the team would grow and “It’s well documented that the process change as circumstances and career shifts of execution is deeply traumatic for dictated. In 2007 Lasry was made a After a long legal struggle, two all involved,” says Julian McMahon Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, (BA(Hons) 1987, LLB 1990, Trinity leaving McMahon as the sole . Australian drug smugglers were College), the longest serving of the team He in turn recruited eight of Australian lawyers who represented and solicitors to the collective, but along executed in Indonesia earlier this the condemned men. the way two more left to take up senior year. For their team of defence Chan and Sukumaran knew that they appointments: John Champion SC were being watched, and their integrity (LLB 1973, GDipArts(Crim) 1974, lawyers, the journey was both was being assessed to the last, he says. GDipCorp&SecLaw 1994), who became They faced death caring for their fellow Director of Public Prosecutions; and harrowing and uplifting. prisoners and their executioners. Mark Taft SC, who became a County “They held everyone else together. Court judge. The prisoners as a group died praying Other recruits were prominent and singing, and I saw most of them at defence barrister Peter Morrissey SC length in the days leading to their death. (BA(Hons) 1981, LLB(Hons) 1991), and They were composed, and for the most Michael O’Connell SC, who has lived in part…” – here, McMahon pauses for Indonesia and is fluent in the language. a long moment to find the right word Just like the shifting membership, before concluding – “serene.” there was a touch of improvisation in Though their case had rolled on for the way each lawyer’s role played out. 10 years, dropping in and out of Australia’s Morrissey became local and international national consciousness, the nation was media spokesman, while McMahon, transfixed when the two convicted O’Connell, and solicitor Veronica Haccou, Australians were executed in Indonesia who is also fluent in Indonesian, worked earlier this year. on the ground in Indonesia. Standing in their corner for eight Despite the desperate nature of the of those years – largely unseen – was exercise there was no lack of lawyers that band of volunteer human rights willing to try to save the men. None lawyers, committing their time, skill and would be paid, but that is not unusual, emotional energy to trying to save the says McMahon. pair as their case wended its way through “Barristers in criminal law operate the Indonesian judicial system. under the cab rank principle – you take The deaths of Sukumaran and Chan the next case that comes along if you would ultimately leave some in the legal have the time and it’s appropriate that team feeling raw and frustrated, while you do it, for example, if you don’t have insisting none of it was really about them. a conflict of interest,” he says. McMahon, for one, resists any focus on “Often barristers try to apply that himself and refuses to discuss the case in principle whether or not a brief is a paid personal terms. one. It’s also common for barristers to The long road to Nusakambangan carry multiple briefs at the same time. Island, where the Indonesian government “You don’t have one case and work conducts its executions, began at Bali’s on it until you have another case, so the Denpasar Airport on April 17, 2005 when pro bono case is just another case you are four young Australians were arrested working on.” with heroin strapped to their bodies. McMahon tells students at the 2015 ISSUE 2, “With the luxury of quality Three others in possession of heroin were University that the privilege of studying education comes the arrested at a Kuta Beach hotel. brings the obligation to share their skills responsibility to show courage Chan and Sukumaran – “the boys” pro bono. He told a student publication and to lead,” says Julian McMahon. to their lawyers – were also arrested

PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS in connection with the smuggling CONTINUED PAGE 14

2015_MUM4_p12-14 Bali.indd 12 27/08/15 5:28 PM 2015_MUM4_p12-14 Bali.indd 13 27/08/15 5:30 PM 14 LEGAL AFFAIRS EDUCATION 15 unimelb.edu.au/3010 FROM PAGE 13

in 2012: “With the luxury of quality education comes the responsibility to show courage and to lead.” Peter Morrissey says working unpaid on deserving cases is “good for the soul”.

“We all do a lot of pro bono,” he says. “With me, it’s all mixed in. I was doing (paid) work along with this at all times. It’s really your own principles at work. For me it’s really a joy to be in the thick of legal life. It’s nice to live a life where altruism and self-interest complement each other.” Does it take a personal toll? “There is a sadness in the loss, if you lose a case,” says Morrissey. “And very frequently that happens, but that’s part of the lot of being a defence lawyer. If you are For the defence: Peter Morrissey, SC (above); and Julian McMahon visits Myuran Sukumaran playing at the top level of criminal law you and Andrew Chan in the Denpasar court (below). PICTURES: JULIAN KINGMA/DANNY ARCADIA have people who are going to get 20 years. “During the running of the case the Once President Joko Widodo thing that happens in jail. And you come toll is on your family. I don’t have any unexpectedly refused clemency for the to feel very protective towards them.” complaints. I wish I had done more.” pair in December 2014 and January 2015, Over time, he believes, the public While the Australian lawyers drafted the lawyers had to try to fight that decision perception of the pair shifted, but only appeal and clemency applications for in the courts. They took the case to each once they shifted first. Says McMahon: Sukumaran and Chan, in court the work fell of the courts where it might have been “About seven years ago they made a to Indonesian human rights lawyer Todung possible to have the merits of the case or decision to lead good lives. They not only Mulya Lubis, who was recommended to the President’s decision reviewed, but were stuck with the commitment, but they McMahon as he built the team. unsuccessful in obtaining a full hearing showed tremendous integrity and courage “At this point (August 2006) they had in each instance. A further complication in holding to that ideal so that by leading lost in the Supreme Court and had been emerged with allegations of judicial good lives themselves and encouraging sentenced to death three times in eight corruption. O’Connell recalls: “Even on others to lead good lives through months. Their profile in the media was the day of the executions we were arguing education, in Myuran’s case, and religion disastrous and there was a real expectation with the Judicial Commission, saying in Andrew’s case, they could help other that execution was a strong chance in the that they should summon Andrew and prisoners and improve themselves, and foreseeable future,” says McMahon. Myuran as part of their investigation into have anyone who chose, notice that they “All of my contacts in a number of the corruption allegations. Right up until had reformed and were good people. countries identified senior commercial they were killed we had those arguments “And the proof of the depth of that lawyer Mulya Lubis. He has a lifelong running. It’s impossible not to be touched transformation was exhibited in the history of fighting for human rights in by the intensity of it.” manner of their dying, which was Indonesia.” Following such tortuous legal paths essentially an exercise in taking care of the Yet representing accused drug offenders burnt up untold nervous energy and other prisoners who were to be executed, carries a stigma in Indonesia. “He was creative thought. “He will not tell you, but and the guards and their executioners.” A new class of In the deep end: submitting himself to enormous personal Julian was astounding in those months,” For Morrissey, the truth of their Tara Crivari has spent criticism in order to act for people on says Morrissey. “He was almost full time rehabilitation was its emergence under the year honing her death row,” says McMahon. “He is a from December (2014) while taking zero trying circumstances. “By the time I met teaching skills at person I hold in the highest regard.” paid work here in Australia.” them each had a good name in prison,” Kambrya College. And why do they speak of the he says. “They changed their lives and they TEACHERS PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS ichael O’Connell had studied condemned men as boys? “They were 21 sustained that change. You are under such Indonesia’s language and and 24 when arrested,” says Morrissey, pressure in a prison that you can’t fake it.” literature, had taught legal “and there is a sort of arrested development Ultimately, they were executed with six A fresh generation t’s a hard business. to the way trainee doctors or nurses M aid lawyers there and was others, their final legal case unresolved. Intellectually demanding, test their skills in teaching hospitals, familiar with its legal system. Trying to As McMahon describes it, it is almost of educators is physically exacting, and hence the term “clinical practice” – the save the lives of Chan and Sukumaran was accidental that he campaigns on the death I emotionally full-on. requirement that teachers assess and a collaboration, he says. penalty. “I just take the briefs that come being schooled in a That’s what a new generation of diagnose the individual learning needs “We would write draft papers … send into my room. People know I do the student teachers at the Melbourne of students. them to Indonesia saying these are the work so they send it to me. I am involved different approach Graduate School of Education has “The whole experience has underlined types of arguments we think are open. because I never say ‘no’ if someone wants discovered after full immersion in the for me just how hard teaching can be,” says They would look at them and accept them me to speak about the death penalty.” to the classroom. first phase of their training in the Master one of the student teachers, Tara Crivari. 2015 ISSUE 2, or not. They would Indonesian-ise the Morrissey likewise says he would not of Teaching (MTeach) course. But it’s an approach that’s paying off. arguments they wanted and would work hesitate to take on a similar case: “It’s not By Maxine McKew From the start, these students test the Graduates of the MTeach program – those up. It meant going there two or three an abstract career move where you think, theory of university lectures against the which only accepts the highest achievers times a year to see the clients and talk to ‘Oh, it’s time I did a death penalty case’. experience of being in front of a school

the lawyers.” It’s more that the story comes to you.” class two days a week. It’s not dissimilar CONTINUED PAGE 16

2015_MUM4_p12-14 Bali.indd 14 27/08/15 5:30 PM 2015_MUM4_p15-17 Student Teachers.indd 15 27/08/15 6:01 PM 16 EDUCATION EDUCATION 17 unimelb.edu.au/3010 FROM PAGE 15 and it needs to be because teaching is intentions. Kambrya has simultaneously hard work. You are always thinking about addressed under-performance and – are highly sought after by school how best to address the needs of students stretched the best. principals. And these newly-qualified and how to help them become successful As a result, it’s a near-perfect fit for teachers are able to hit the ground running: learners,” she says. Crivari and fellow student Dr Sarah more than 90 per cent report that they feel “If you are doing the job well, you Avitabile, part of a small team of trainees well-prepared for what they find in the are constantly assessing, implementing who have spent the year honing their skills

classroom. strategies and evaluating, which is in extended classroom sessions. Just as well. demanding. But the one thing that At 48, Avitabile is a mid-career changer. A level of professional self-confidence teaching has over all the other professions She spent 20 years as a nurse, before is the only defence these days against the is that it is hugely rewarding and uplifting. returning to study and completing a PhD assaults of politicians, the demands of in fire ecology. She brings a high level parents, and the expectations of young of science expertise and significant life digital natives, long accustomed to instant “You are always thinking experience to teaching and, with only gratification. The arguments about a few months’ exposure to boisterous schooling and what teachers “should do” about how best to address teenagers, she knows she has found her run the gamut – from the call for back to true vocation. basics to a view that, in of Google, the needs of students.” “I love it,” she says. “I love the instant the role of the teacher should be more feedback from the class. The relationship scribe on the side than sage on the stage. you have with students and the general All this is set against highly publicised busyness of the day. That said, it’s the global measures that rank countries hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’ve done according to educational performance. a lot of hard things.” As a result, it’s not surprising to see that For Avitabile, that includes time spent debate now centres on whether it’s reform nursing terminally ill children, combining that’s needed, or a completely new form work and study as a mature-age student, of educational delivery. and the demands of a doctorate. None of The pressure on universities offering it compares, she says, with the challenge degrees in education has never been and thrill of teaching a Year 8 class about greater. The core business remains – particle theory and “watching a student the training of teachers who will have demonstrate their understanding by being a transformative effect on the lives of able to explain the concept to someone students. But in the 21st century, there is e l s e”. a premium on educators who know how After teaching a Year 10 English class, to challenge and constantly extend the Crivari, 23, feels much the same. She says learning capacity of those in their care. the experience of being in the classroom Program Co-ordinator Dr Daniela has made her “much more reflective about Acquaro (MEd 2005, PhD 2013), a teaching my practice”. In setting out to demystify veteran herself, is the first to say that the Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing Master of Teaching course is “miles in front she quickly realised that her own love of of anything I studied over 20 years ago”. the text meant she was taking too much She says the feedback speaks for itself. for granted. She slowed down, focused “We have principals contacting us all Dr Daniela Acquaro, Program Co-ordinator on students who were struggling with the time. It’s because they are seeing the comprehension, and got the whole class different way these graduates think. “Spending time with young people and to act out the play. “The best thing I Making science relevant: Dr Sarah Avitabile oversees an experiment at Kambrya College. PICTURES: CHRIS HOPKINS “And that’s because of what we do here. helping them find a piece of the puzzle have learnt this year is the importance We explicitly teach them to think about that connects to something else, well, that’s of adjusting my teaching. Being set in MEd 1976) and Professor John Hattie, requires candidates to demonstrate their The hope is that the mindset and their practice in the classroom.” a gift.” your ways or being stubborn should never the school devotes immense resources understanding through a case study. training embraced by the Graduate That means a program heavily focused The Graduate School’s 2015 intake has come into it.” to defining what it is that constitutes Crivari offers up an example of a School has a contagion effect, promoting on “differentiated teaching” – the art weathered the first shock and awe phase excellence in teaching. female student, on the surface a confident, an Australia-wide shift toward high- and science of adapting lessons to meet of being thrown in the deep end. Trainees ut what about the application As Daniela Acquaro emphasises, conscientious member of the class, but quality graduate qualifications and the needs of individual students, rather have to quickly come to terms with the of clinical practice, based as it students are exposed to a range of one who struggled with comprehension. a generation of teachers who can than simply expecting them to keep up huge variability among school students, is on the notion of diagnostic subject material that has been refined Crivari noticed that she failed to write a accommodate challenge and complexity. regardless of their circumstances. particularly in the first years of high school. B intervention and the ability over the years. “The starting point single note during lessons and as a result A bonus would be in achieving Through a network of partner schools, This is certainly true of Kambrya to promote intellectual growth for every for us is to focus on the research that retained little of what was taught. Crivari something close to what we see in high- MTeach candidates are constantly testing College, a large comprehensive high school student? How do novices get a handle works. We’re conscious there is a lot persuaded the student to take dot points performing Finland and Singapore, what they learn at university with what in Berwick, in outer eastern Melbourne. on this? of misinformation out there. A lot of of key messages and then to use this where teachers are prized professionals, they encounter in the classroom. Under Principal Michael Muscat, The Graduate School’s reputation for contradictory advice.” material to help clarify her writing. on a par with doctors. For those who may approach teaching Kambrya has dramatically lifted from being excellence, confirmed again in the past Professor Hattie’s seminal insight is Avitabile has had similar challenges But ultimately, the beneficiaries will with a somewhat romanticised view – one of the state’s poorest performers, to year with its ranking as the number one that teachers need to “know thy impact”. with her science students, some of whom be future generations of children – that it will be an opportunity to star in an one where Year 12 VCE students are in the graduate school of education in Australia, It’s a mantra that Avitabile and Crivari fail to see the relevance of what they an incalculable return on investment. 2015 ISSUE 2, updated version of Goodbye, Mr Chips or top 25 per cent of the state school cohort. is the key. Under the leadership of Dean probably recite in their sleep. It’s also are being taught. “I think we’ve lost our Welcome Back Kotter – the course’s rigour That success has been built on a model Professor Field Rickards (BSc(Hons) central to how they prepare for a key way on this,” she says. “We need to value provides an instant corrective. of instruction that puts the stress on 1970, PhD 1984, Queen’s College) and part of their MTeach assessment – the the teaching of science and that means Maxine McKew is an Honorary Fellow at the Acquaro is unapologetic about the subject clarity, differentiated teaching, with globally recognised researchers such clinical practice exam. The CPE, daunting getting experts into primary school so we Melbourne Graduate School of Education

demands. “The course is damned hard monitoring of data, and clear learning as Professor Patrick Griffin (BSc 1968, for many, is an oral presentation that can start early.” and author of Class Act (MUP).

2015_MUM4_p15-17 Student Teachers.indd 16 27/08/15 6:01 PM 2015_MUM4_p15-17 Student Teachers.indd 17 27/08/15 6:02 PM 18 ANNIVERSARY 19

A GREENER UNIVERSITY unimelb.edu.au/3010 Sustainability is more than a subject for study at the University of Melbourne – it’s a way of life for many sta and students. The University is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. And it’s making 32,746 good progress, as these gures show… tonnes carbon savings (up from 9713 tonnes in 2008) 20,000 A number of native trees planted to oset the emissions generated by University motor vehicles. 1311 mega tonnes (40%) The University has of waste diverted supported Greeneet from land ll to recycling in osetting its in 2014, compared with motor vehicle 95 tonnes (16%) in 2009 carbon emissions (only applies to Parkville, Southbank, Burnley and Werribee campuses) 72 since 2007. drinking star is water 5204 tonnes recycled from 2009 to 2014. fountains across the University. Also, Southbank born campus has stopped selling bottled water – It’s 60 years since Australia’s the rst Victorian university campus greatest satirical character, to do so. 3 2100 Edna Everage, made a reluctant number of number of bike stage debut at the University. Melbourne Bike Share parking spaces now stations on University available on Her creator, Barry Humphries, campuses (operated Parkville by RACV) campus had no clue of the triumphs Furniture and that would follow. Equipment Re-use Program Michael Shmith reports. From 2012 the University has t is hard to believe that Edna Everage, redeployed 4 who did not study at the University of 5-Star Melbourne, actually made her stage debut

7400 Green Star Buildings I there. On the night of December 13, 1955, pieces of furniture 1. Faculty of Business & Economics a demure Melbourne housewife from Humoresque Diverted 190 tonnes (The Spot) 2. Melbourne Brain Centre Street, Moonee Ponds, was an unexpected performer of waste from land ll – 3. The Peter Doherty Institute 4. Leicester Street Student Accommodation in a show called Return Fare, the annual revue of saved $3.6 million based on estimated the fledgling Union Theatre Repertory Company. retail replacement value Mrs Norman Everage appeared opposite the late actor and saved $200,000 on Noel Ferrier in a two‑hander, Olympic Hostess. land ll charges. It is even harder to believe that Edna’s almost‑as‑ famous artistic assistant, Barry Humphries AO CBE, 350kg 1 who did study at the University of Melbourne (“I did amount of old 6-Star law, then I did British history for a bit, then English and stationery re-used by Green Star Building philosophy, and finally fine arts”), was not keen at all at sharing it at a stationery Melbourne School of Design putting Edna on the boards. But then Edna and Barry (Faculty of Architecture, party for students. have seldom seen eye to eye. Building & Planning) CONTINUED PAGE 20 GRAPHIC: FRANK MAIORANA

2015_MUM4_p18 MelbourneUniGraphic.indd 18 27/08/15 6:21 PM 2015_MUM4_p19-21 Dame Edna.indd 19 28/08/2015 11:40 am 20 ANNIVERSARY ANNIVERSARY 21 unimelb.edu.au/3010 “I employed a falsetto, “My mother had a twin-set which I discovered I had. with a big fur. She’d bought I called her Edna, after a sort of it at George’s. So I wore that,

nanny who looked after us.” with a very large dress.”

FROM PAGE 19 local ladies would give a little supper. Dame Edna we all know and fear with heels on her shoes. She was a little more Then one of the ladies made a speech, the mousey Mrs E who traipsed on to the knowing, a bit more confident, and not This is a story that needs to be told, thanking Mr Lawler and his company for tiny Union Theatre stage. For a start, she that shrill, shy irritating figure of the 50s. and Humphries is just the person to tell bringing culture to, say, Benalla. She would looked so un-Edna-like. She’d become a little more authoritative, it. Before that, however, it is important say how lovely it all was. When I did my “I had to get something to wear,” a little more [pause] insistent.” to place matters in perspective. little monologue at the back of the bus, I Humphries says. “My mother had a The myth of Dame Edna (the In 1955, the University was a smaller impersonated some such lady – the dentist’s twin-set with a big fur. It was blue and damehood was “conferred” upon her in and vastly different place than what it wife, or whoever she was – and what speech she’d bought it at George’s. So I wore that, the early 1970s by the then Australian is today. “Even then, it had a collection she might make. It got more elaborate and with a very large dress. Flat shoes, no Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam) has, of some of the ugliest buildings in absurd. tights. I had unshaven legs. The hat was over the years, reached astounding Melbourne,” Humphries says. “But it “I employed a falsetto, which I discovered pointed yellow. I combed my own rather proportions. She has performed in did have the Gothic-Revival Law School. I had. The company heard just the voice dank brown locks down the middle and London’s West End, on Broadway, on The Wilson Hall had just been burned of this lady. I called her Edna, after a sort wore just a little bit of red lipstick. It was radio, television and in film. Edna, down, but there were bits of lawn that of nanny who looked after us. I liked her really no attempt. Edna didn’t even have although recently and officially retired, hadn’t been built over yet, and students very much.” the glasses, which were introduced in the keeps making surprising comebacks – could be seen sitting under the trees, Back to the revue, and this pithy early 60s.” most recently in June, at the Adelaide reading.” interchange between Lawler and Humphries. Olympic Hostess was very successful. Cabaret Festival, directed by Humphries. Humphries was a member of the “Why don’t you do her?” So much so, Humphries believes it He looks back with mixed feelings at Union Theatre, the forerunner of the “No, it’s just a voice. I don’t want to might have restored his reputation, even his time at the University, which awarded Melbourne Theatre Company. “It was dress up.” if he still thought he wasn’t meant to him an honorary degree of Doctor of Law housed in the Union Building. On the “It’s a revue. You know, you could do it be an actor after all. This was more or in 2003. He is now a patron of Believe – the left, as you went into the Union, was a like a pantomime dame.” less consolidated when, not much later, Campaign for the University of Melbourne. bas-relief, a marble thing, of an oriental “I’ll write something, but get Zoe Caldwell he was asked to join the Phillip Street “I didn’t do that much there, really,” scene, ‘The Wheel of Life’. It was frequently to do it.” Theatre in , a company specialising he says. “I went with great promise, with disfigured with what only later came to “Look, she’s got three songs in Act I and in revues. scholarships and exhibitions. I did very be known as graffiti. two in Act II and so far you’ve got nothing.” “I suddenly realised that’s what I meant well at school. But by the time I got to “I was very bad at learning my lines, So Humphries, with some reluctance, to do: get out of Melbourne. So I went to university, all the desire to study left me. and getting smaller and smaller roles. but spurred on by simple practicalities – Sydney, very apprehensive. No nice cream I had that priggish feeling that I knew I knew I was being phased out when I “I wasn’t considered either very funny or very brick homes there.” more than they did. finally got a job in a play, Of Mice and good” – wrote a sketch featuring the hitherto “My literate tastes had been formed, Men. I had to be a dog, barking offstage. invisible Edna. Subject: the approaching p to then, Edna’s appearances my artistic interests were established. I was very good at it. I managed to bark 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. had been sporadic. There I used the time by holding Dada correctly, with textual fidelity. But I knew “There were big ads in The Herald were a few more sketches exhibitions – I was very interested in it was the end. My only salvation was asking housewives to put up athletes or U and, indeed, an appearance cultural anarchy. You know, Melbourne going to be the annual revue.” tourists. Because we’d been in a mad on a live Christmas variety show on was a very smug little town, a very The revue’s content, written by all the scramble to appear international, we had ABC Television. But Humphries says self-satisfied town. I found that rather company members, was determined at demolished all the hotels. There’s only the the prevailing mood of the time was that frustrating and naively thought I might a series of meetings held in a little office Windsor left. So they asked housewives to Edna was a limited talent. “They did be able to change that.” next to the Wheel of Life. Humphries give up their spare bedrooms for visitors. warn me in Melbourne, don’t take her to In a way, it could be said, Humphries recalls: “The director of the company You had to go into the Melbourne Town Sydney, she’s too Melbourne, they won’t did change things by holding a mirror was Ray Lawler, who on the quiet had Hall and describe your house to some get it. And when I finally left Sydney, up to society. In the process, he also written something called Summer of the official. They’d come and look at it and MAIN PICTURE: NIC WALKER they said don’t take Edna anywhere else; changed himself. Seventeenth Doll, which sounded like they would billet someone there when the she’s too Australian.” “I think that’s another purpose of a Tennessee Williams pastiche. No one games came. Humphries was himself still university, don’t you think? It got me expected much of it. Anyway, he asked “The Edna sketch was a dialogue uncertain. “I never thought I’d keep this going. And thank goodness for that. me, ‘Would you write something? Why between me and an Olympic official, who character in my repertoire,” he says. I would not have been invited to join the don’t you do something like that woman was played by Noel Ferrier. It was all really So he put her away in a box for a few Union Theatre if I hadn’t been in some you do on the bus?’” Edna describing her house in great detail years, until the early 1960s. “By the time student shows. I was allowed to stage a The woman on the bus was invented to this man. In minute detail. It ended Edna was brought out and dusted off revue I wrote, Call Me Madman. It was 2015 ISSUE 2, by Humphries during one of the Union with Edna saying she was very happy to for another show, she had undergone a only one lunchtime show and it caused Theatre’s excursions into country Victoria. put up an athlete, but she drew the line at transformation. She had slightly wavy great offence. “We were touring Twelfth Night, and foreigners.” hair, although it wasn’t yet tinted mauve. “I’m pleased to say that even today, everyone sang and did things to cover Sixty years on, it is almost impossible to But she did wear butterfly glasses and as rather a staid figure, I still manage to

the boredom. At every town we played, equate the luridly and globally omnipresent tights, so she had smooth legs. And small offend some people. Good, isn’t it?”

2015_MUM4_p19-21 Dame Edna.indd 20 27/08/15 6:53 PM 2015_MUM4_p19-21 Dame Edna.indd 21 27/08/15 6:53 PM 22 theessay climate change 23

PROFESSOR DON HENRY, PUBLIC POLICY FELLOW AT THE MELBOURNE SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY INSTITUTE Signs of hope on the road to Paris n November last year the leaders of the United States and China from any one country affect the climate of us all, global action is some of the damaging impacts already locked into climate systems. and their implementation. The disciplines of climate science, made what may well be a truly historic statement. required. Two years of intense negotiations have delivered a draft The effects of increasing storm intensity because of warming engineering and technological development, the social sciences Releasing the US-China Joint Announcement on Climate text for the Paris negotiations. Each country is now putting forward oceans and sea level rise associated with this are already being felt with their understandings of human behaviour, political science Change, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping indicative commitments of their proposed emission reductions in many tropical island nations, including Australia’s Pacific Island and international affairs, climate policies, law and international Icommitted to work together, and with other countries, to “adopt and actions. neighbours, the Philippines, Indonesia, and south-east Asia. governance, economics and business, are all informing decision- a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal Significantly, November’s US-China announcement included Related to this is the need to scale up and encourage private-sector making and action. force” at the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris later this year. targets. The US intends to achieve an economy-wide emission investment in cleaner technologies. A recent commitment by the What are the prospects of success at Paris? Because the negotiations The announcement went on: “They are committed to reaching reduction of 26 to 28 per cent below its 2005 level by 2025. It agreed Indian Prime Minister to substantially boost his country’s renewable follow the United Nations consensus approach they can be fraught. an ambitious 2015 agreement that reflects the principle of common to make “best efforts” to reduce its emissions by 28 per cent. energy is most encouraging, but highlights the need for a rapid Finding common ground among so many countries and competing but differentiated responsibilities and China expects its CO2 emissions increase in private-sector investment. interests is always difficult. respective capabilities, in light of to peak about 2030 and undertook With the costs of renewable energy But the leadership of the US and different national circumstances.” to make “best efforts” to peak earlier. dropping rapidly – in particular solar China is highly significant and has Whether or not the leaders of the It intends to increase the share of and wind – a transformation of energy built momentum for an agreement world’s largest economies, and the two non-fossil fuels in primary energy systems in many parts of the world is at Paris. In their joint announcement, largest greenhouse gas-emitting nations, consumption to about 20 per cent now occurring. Globally the level of the leaders said the intent of their provided the leadership needed for a by 2030. In the announcement both investment in new renewable energy countries was to build the impetus new global agreement to limit global sides intend to continue to work to projects has now exceeded investments for a successful agreement. warming will largely depend on “increase ambition over time”. in new fossil fuel projects in energy “The United States and China hope negotiations in Paris in the first two Overall, governments have now generation. that by announcing these targets now, weeks of December. agreed to the goal of keeping warming So what is the relevance of the they can inject momentum into the What are these negotiations about? below an additional 2 degrees on Paris negotiations to Australia and global climate negotiations and inspire What are some of the key elements pre-industrial temperatures to try to the Asia-Pacific region? People across other countries to join in coming under discussion? And what are the avoid the most dangerous impacts of the region, including in Australia, forward with ambitious actions as prospects of success? climate change. support action on climate change soon as possible,” they said. In May the Intergovernmental Some of the outstanding issues and cutting emissions. Policy settings Apart from any agreement, the Panel on Climate Change finalised a in the negotiations include what vary across governments, but in most current focus on climate change Synthesis Report of their latest findings additional actions to reduce emissions countries in the region there is an action around the world is creating for all governments. Written by more can be encouraged if the sum of the increasingly rapid uptake of renewable the opportunity for the development than 800 scientists from 80 countries, national commitments does not energy and a mix of policies is being and deployment of innovative and based on an assessment of over adequately close the gap on what is put in place to start the job of cutting technologies, continued public 30,000 scientific papers, the report needed to keep warming below that emissions. education, the advancement of science, tells policymakers what the scientific 2-degree goal. The important role that For example, in Australia more and implementation of new policies, community knows about the scientific cities and state governments around than one in seven households has all of which are delivering significant basis of climate change, its impacts and the world can play in addition to the rooftop solar panels. Bangladesh has advances for societies everywhere. future risks, and options for adaptation efforts of national governments is the highest rate of solar installation The key question remains, can our and mitigation. “In essence, cleaner and more efficient another focus of discussion to assist in the region, while China and more “Finding common ground agreements and actions globally and economies can continue to deliver with this challenge. recently India are dramatically scaling among so many countries nationally meet the great challenge of The key findings are: There is also considerable debate up manufacturing and use of renewable the urgency of emission reductions and ■ Human influence on the climate growing economic benefits while about whether there should be a energy. China is on track to introduce and competing interests is the development of cleaner economies system is clear; cutting emissions.” goal for decarbonising economies legal restrictions on emissions and an always difficult.” that our scientific community is so ■ The more we disrupt our climate, around the world. A recent meeting in emissions trading scheme next year. clearly pointing us towards? the more we risk severe, pervasive Germany of the major industrialised The position that Australia takes A substantial portion of the and irreversible impacts; and countries that form the G7 built momentum for this. At the conclusion, into the Paris negotiations is significant. At preliminary negotiations greenhouse gases being emitted are long-lived in the atmosphere. ■ We have the means to limit climate change and build a more German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the meeting had agreed on in Bonn in June, China pointed out to the assembled nations that Action today to bring down emissions is urgent. We have seen many prosperous, sustainable future. the goal to “decarbonise the global economy in the course of this Australia had received more questions than any other country on years of very slow progress on global action to tackle climate change. century”. its commitment to cut emissions. The compelling nature of the science and the great opportunities It is one thing for governments to accept the urgency of reducing Experience in Germany, California, and more recently in China, Interestingly, international negotiations are now demonstrating for economic prosperity and jobs growth through new cleaner greenhouse emissions, but the challenge has been in getting them to shows that economic prosperity can be decoupled from growth that there are two strong drivers of change. One is the need to reduce economies should encourage every nation to strive for success at Paris. agree on a way forward. The Paris negotiations are occurring under in emissions and pollution. In essence, cleaner and more efficient emissions because of the damaging impact on climate; the other is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, economies can continue to deliver growing economic benefits while the opportunity to develop new pathways to economic prosperity first adopted in 1992. cutting emissions. and well-being based on highly efficient and cleaner economies. Professor Don Henry is a Public Policy Fellow for Environmentalism at the Of course, many countries now have policies to limit emissions Another key element of the Paris negotiations is how to ensure The continuing work of universities around the world, including Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. He was formerly Chief Executive and to stimulate renewable energy. However, because emissions sufficient funding is available to help vulnerable countries adapt to the University of Melbourne, is important to the Paris outcomes Officer of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JUDY GREEN

2015_MUM4_p22-23 Essay.indd 22 27/08/15 7:07 PM 2015_MUM4_p22-23 Essay.indd 23 27/08/15 7:07 PM 24 FIVE QUESTIONS FIVE QUESTIONS 25 unimelb.edu.au/3010

University of Melbourne alumni are at the forefront of developments in 3D printing medical technology. This year Dr David Ackland WORKING (BE(Mech&ManufEng)(Hons), BSc 2003, PhD 2009, GCertUniTeach 2014) led the engineering design

and testing of a titanium jaw joint IN THE implanted to correct a patient’s rare congenital jaw deformity. Dr Ackland is a senior lecturer and researcher in experimental muscle and joint biomechanics at the THIRD University of Melbourne. And in 2014 a team including St Vincent’s Hospital surgeon Professor Peter Choong (MB BS 1984, MD 1993) implanted a DIMENSION titanium-printed heel bone into a man whose own bone was cancerous. Without it, the patient FIVE QUESTIONS FOR 3D PRINTING would have had to have his leg EXPERT BERNARD MEADE amputated below the knee. Dr Ackland and Professor It’s the stuff of science fiction: printers that can Choong will be among speakers at the University’s 3D printing create not just plastic or metal objects, but food showcase, to be held at Parkville campus on October 9 and 10, 2015. and even body parts. Bernard Meade (BA, BSc The event is aimed at everyone from school students to researchers 1996), organiser of the University’s annual 3D Amazing potential: and aims to highlight the potential printing showcase, explains how this technology Bernard Meade inside the of 3D printing. University’s 3D workshop. For more information visit will change how we live. Val McFarlane reports. PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS showcase2015.3dprinting.edu.au

What exactly is 3D printing – but they can make it beat. That’s a really big step. A company There’s even a printer being developed by NASA and others It’s going to change education too. Engineers will spend and how does it work? in China is actively working with printing bone material, and that will print food for astronauts, and it could be that eventually less time trying to perfect a design on paper or in a computer cosmetics companies are using printed skin to test for reactions. you will be able to print your food at home. When we eat, a and more time developing prototypes. Medical students won’t 3D printing is another term for additive manufacturing, which in Immediately after they publicised the operation, the Melbourne fair amount of the experience comes from the appearance and necessarily have to learn their anatomy on cadavers – they will some ways is more descriptive. To get a good idea of how it works, company that produced the titanium jaw joint got an order for 25 smell of the meal. A 3D printer can replicate a lot of those things have a 3D printed version of the body. imagine a piece of paper that you put through the printer, and you more. And that’s just a jaw – the same process will be applicable and we know it works – a trial was carried out in an aged care In the beginning 3D printing was very expensive. Now you print words on it. You then put the same piece of paper through to pretty much any other bone. Eventually a patient will be able to facility where the residents had to have soft food, which looked can buy a printer for $500. A kid in the US built one using Lego. the printer again and again. The toner starts to build up in the have a cancerous bone cut out, and a replacement printed and put unappealing. They printed out food that looked like steak and Most of us will want something more robust but it shows that the same places and you eventually end up with something in three straight in, in only a few hours, instead of in two or three surgeries broccoli, and it was much more enjoyable. development is really active. There are so many people working dimensions. lasting much longer. Ninety-nine per cent of the Smithsonian’s collections are not in this space and it’s not limited to engineers, universities, A lot of traditional manufacturing is what we might now think A US defence research organisation is looking at doing MRI available to the public because they are so precious. The museum big businesses – it’s anybody. of as subtractive manufacturing. For example, when you create a scans of soldiers, and separating out the scans of each part of the is now going through those artefacts and printing them so that wooden chair you have to have a piece of wood that’s bigger than body. The hope is that in the future, if one of the soldiers is injured the public can enjoy them. Is there a downside to 3D printing? each component. You take away the parts that you don’t want and in battle, they can print out the replacement part they need to 3D printing has the potential to impact on so many things – what you are left with is the product. help them. it’s probably easier to identify the industries on which it will have The fear of people printing guns is played on a lot, particularly With 3D printing you add only what you need, and you can little impact. here in Australia. But people can get guns already with a licence, manage the structural integrity of a product much better than with What about other uses? and you can already make a gun without having a licence. But even traditional techniques. It’s incredibly efficient. Will we all have 3D printers though people can make guns, they typically don’t. Ultimately 3D In defence, there’s a design for an aeroplane with a 3D printer at home in the future? printing allows clever people to overcome obstacles and if you Engineers from the University were inside that can print drones as required. They will be programmed are trying to overcome the obstacle of making a better gun you’ll to self-destruct so they will fly, do their job and then the inside will I think it will be similar to how we use 2D printers at the figure it out. involved in the creation of a 3D printed jaw disintegrate, leaving no useable components behind. moment. Most of us have a 2D printer at home but if we wanted Some people might choose to replace certain bones with joint this year (see breakout). What other When astronauts on the International Space Station needed something professionally done we would send it to a professional titanium, for example, because imagine how hard you could hit medical uses might 3D printing have? to fix something last year, they printed a tool out, using a design printer. It could also change the way we shop. At the moment, if you had a fully metal arm. Or if you could put titanium flakes 2015 ISSUE 2, emailed to them from earth, and it did the job that they wanted if you need to buy a bracket from a hardware store, for example, throughout your skin – you would be almost bulletproof. There is It was thought we’d never be able to print living tissue, that we’d it to do more effectively than the toolset they had. This is exciting you pick from a standard set of sizes, and the store has to have also always the risk that we will think we can fix things when they never print an organ, but researchers have been able to print out because as you can imagine, the toolkit on the ISS has to be a whole inventory available for purchase. It’s possible that in don’t need fixing. It could exacerbate body dysmorphia problems. tiny livers that live for about 40 days – long enough to do specific enormous. With 3D printing, they can just print out what they future you will go into the store, order the bracket you want Ultimately there is real benefit to 3D printing but there has to

drug testing. They’ve even printed a small heart – just a few cells need then recycle it. from a catalogue and print it out. be some wisdom applied to the way we use it.

2015_MUM4_p24-25 3Dprinting.indd 24 27/08/15 7:16 PM 2015_MUM4_p24-25 3Dprinting.indd 25 27/08/15 7:16 PM 26 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 27 A work in progress unimelb.edu.au/3010

for women

Many women are frustrated by the slow pace of change in the gender balance in corporate Australia.

BY KIRSTY SIMPSON

r Jackie Fairley has built of management of larger organisations women, compared with a mere 8.9 per cent both note the importance of role models. look at engineering classes you are likely is now chairman of Nestlé Australia and a career ignoring gender (those with 100 or more employees), and in 2009. And, in the first six months of Simson’s mother, Lorna Elms, worked in to find fewer women, and I suspect much the Bank of Melbourne, recently told the stereotypes, rising to the top the gender pay gap remains stubbornly 2015, 26 per cent of new positions were the mathematics department at Monash of that is not sexism, but self-selection. ABC’s AM program: “Who would have D of Australia’s corporate elite higher here than in other OECD countries. filled by women. While this is a substantial University in the 1960s. “There are probably sectors that are thought we’d still be talking about this in on determination and hard work. Neither Fairley nor Naomi Simson improvement, many still find progress Fairley’s mother was Professor Priscilla better and worse than others. The health 2015? I think, whether you call it quotas Fairley, chief executive of biotech (BCom 1984) – entrepreneur, motivational agonisingly slow. Kincaid-Smith AC CBE (MD 1968, LLD sector is better. There are some sectors, or targets: without some mandating of firm Starpharma and a board member of speaker and ‘Shark’ on Network TEN’s The 2014 World Economic Forum’s 1991, University College), renowned for like mining, that are not so good. In my or for gender diversity – and remember, the Melbourne Business School, started business reality program Shark Tank Global Gender Gap Report ranked finding a link between headache powders experience, and when I look around, diversity is much more than gender – working life as a vet. After first studying Australia – feels that overt sexism has held Australia 24th out of 142 countries when and kidney damage and campaigning I can’t see any [vestiges of sexism]. then I think we probably still will be science, where more than 50 per cent her back. They found it more a motivating judging equality against economic, political, against their use. She was also a past I wouldn’t tolerate it.” talking about it in 2025 and beyond. of the graduates were female, she was factor than a hurdle. education and health criteria. president of the Australian Medical At Starpharma, 53 per cent of the staff “So I think that we need targets or surprised to find only a quarter of her And though the principle of equality Association and, in 1975, became the quotas to ensure that companies and fellow students at the Melbourne Business may be sufficient motivation for most of University’s first female professor. all organisations focus on how they School’s MBA program were women. us, it’s worth noting that gender diversity – While their mothers were clearly comprise their top teams: both boards “At that time there were certain not just on boards but throughout business shining examples, both women also cite and senior management.” stereotypes in the views of students. One – is linked to increased productivity the importance of other mentors and role Simson goes further. She advocates of the things that motivated me was to and work satisfaction, according to the models within the business community. “naming and shaming” the worst prove a fellow student wrong. [He said] Workplace Gender and Equality Strategy When Fairley was younger, giving birth to performers to spur more employers into that girls can’t do finance,” Fairley recalls. Project at the University of Melbourne’s her now-teenage children, it was during a action. “The fact that I had beaten him in Centre for Workplace Leadership. period of rapid promotion. With 120 staff “We already have that information,” finance all the way through was irrelevant. The research fellow in charge of the to manage, she took only a few weeks of she says. Since 2012 all businesses with This was 1992, and another [male student] project, Dr Jesse Olsen, says he suspects maternity leave for each of her children. more than 100 employees are legally said that no companies should have gender imbalance is due more to embedded For her, it was important to see that other required to report their gender equality women on their boards. There were some Advocates for change: Naomi Simson . . . sub-conscious cultural biases than any women in business were also able to . . . and Dr Jackie Fairley performance to the Workplace Gender pretty extreme views, you know the sort of widespread cases of overt sexism. sustain a career while rearing children. Equality Agency. thing, that you shouldn’t get a scholarship Yet it is far from easy to pinpoint the “There’s a lot going on and the complexity “Recent research from Harvard found are female, while 37 per cent of executive After the recent launch of an ANZ because your husband is a doctor.” reasons why the journey to equality in the is what makes it hard to address,’’ he says. that the daughters of successful women positions and 42 per cent of leadership Bank report into financial gender equality, In the best response to such beliefs, top ranks of business has been so slow. “Culture is a really big piece and we really earn more and the sons tend to have roles are held by women. Simson noted that one of its most Fairley (BSc 1982, BVSc(Hons) 1987, Many initiatives have been taken to lead need to examine how the Anglo-Saxon more stable relationships. [My mother] So what should be done across the alarming findings was that women earn MBA 1992) went on to win the Clemenger by example in addressing this imbalance culture has viewed gender roles. I think was very important to me [as a working business world to improve diversity? 4 per cent less in their first graduate job Medal for highest overall marks throughout in executive ranks and boards, notably it’s less about explicit discrimination, but female role model],” she says. While Fairley disagrees with setting than men with the same qualification. the Melbourne Business School’s MBA through the Male Champions of Change there is stuff going on in our heads about But determining what equality actually quotas for the number of women who “A full-time working woman will program, the third woman in a row to mentoring program, which aims to level what men and women are supposed to looks like is vexed. must be employed in senior ranks, earn $295 per week less on average than 2015 ISSUE 2, do so. Given the program’s gender skew, the playing field. be like. We still have this idea about the “For me gender equality is not about Simson and other high profile women a full-time working man,’’ she blogged. this was more than against the odds. Latest figures from the Australian women being the care giver, and while it’s numbers but opportunity,” says Fairley. believe a more even gender balance won’t “That is $15,000 over the course of a year. But glass-ceiling breakers remain in the Institute of Company Directors show that getting weaker over time, it still persists.” “There are sometimes reasons why some be achieved without firmer action. Extended over the course of a typical minority. Across Australia, women make 20 per cent of board positions in the top Growing up, both Fairley and Simson workforces have more or less. Numbers Another prominent business figure, 45-year career, that gap becomes a

up barely a quarter of the top echelon 200 listed companies are now filled by had strong women around them, and are more a surrogate for equality. If you Elizabeth Proust AO (LLB 1985), who staggering $700,000.”

ILLUSTRATION: FRANK MAIORANA

2015_MUM4_p26-27 Champions.indd 26 27/08/15 7:30 PM 2015_MUM4_p26-27 Champions.indd 27 27/08/15 7:30 PM 28 FORENSIC SCIENCE FORENSIC SCIENCE 29 unimelb.edu.au/3010

Dr Pamela Craig has worked on enough cases to make several seasons of a CSI-style TV series. Body of evidence PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS When disasters Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires.

Fortunately for the identification effort, strike, forensic most victims had been to the dentist and none of the local dental surgeries had scientist Pamela been burnt out. This identification process offered Craig is often one its own unique difficulties, including “comingled” skeletal remains, with some of the first on the people dying huddled together with their pet animals. scene, using her The process of identifying victims will always be harrowing for the forensic dental knowledge specialists involved, says Craig. But, as to identify victims. she discovered in her first case, in 1991, there is a satisfaction in being able to offer relatives an end to the terrible uncertainty about the fate of a loved one. BY LIZ PORTER In that case, involving a jawbone found on Cape Woolamai beach, Craig ctober, 2002: Clad in a heavy Beyond comprehension: Tourists offer flowers at Kuta Beach in 2002. worked with Tony Hill to establish that plastic apron and gumboots, PICTURE: CHOO YOUN-KONG/AFP/GETTY IMAGES it belonged to a local youth who had Dr Pamela Craig is part of an been washed out to sea while surfing O Australian Federal Police anatomy and radiology at the Melbourne barrister while giving evidence in court nearly a decade earlier. No dental X-rays forensic team working in the mortuary of Dental School. – the kind of experience that persuades were available. The scientists had only Denpasar’s Sanglah Hospital. The forensic Studying an X-ray of the victim’s some forensic scientists to add a law a school photo, in which the boy wore odontologist is examining, charting and maxilla, the front part of his upper degree to their qualifications. a blue-checked shirt, to guide them X-raying the teeth of victims of the terrorist jawbone, she noticed the roots of the Other cases have been less Using the checks as a scale, they were bombing of two Kuta Beach nightclubs, teeth were growing outwards, in a confronting. In 2007 she was consulted able to enlarge the photo to life size. an atrocity that killed 202 people. V-shape, with a wide gap in between – by a Singaporean businessman concerned They then superimposed a photo of the It is hot and exhausting work, but less suggesting a tooth had once been there. about the authenticity of a tooth, jaw bone, lining it up with the chin cleft, emotionally draining than the alternative: Trawling through the dental records supposedly one of the Buddha’s molars, teeth and bite line, as seen in the photo. working in the hospital’s “reconciliation of the missing, she came across a 21-year- just installed as the centrepiece of a The forensic scientists never met the room”. There she would be matching old man from Perth who, at the age of new and expensive Buddha Tooth Relic boy’s family. But they received a message these charts and X-rays with the dental nine, had an extra tooth extracted from Temple. This time nobody argued with of thanks from them, via the police. records of Australians missing since the between his two central incisors. But first her expert opinion: the tooth belonged “It gave them closure,” says Craig. “After bomb blasts. She would be looking at the she had to wait for the dental records to to a cow or a water buffalo. that they were able to have a funeral.” victims’ photographs and personal details be flown in from Perth. When the X-rays As a research partner to forensic “Nobody would give me a place in “He was barely off the plane when I was While outsiders often dwell on the – and thinking of their families. arrived on Craig’s last day, they confirmed Egyptologist Dr Janet Davey, Craig has the graduate surgery program because I on the phone to him,” recalls Craig. confronting nature of forensic work, The non-expert might assume that that the victim was that man. also worked on some of the oldest “cold was a woman,” she says. “The only thing By 1993 she was a permanent Craig points to the positives. Death, for working in the mortuary is the most cases” imaginable. In one, she examined I was offered was paediatric dentistry part-time lecturer in anatomy and example, holds fewer fears for her. confronting aspect of her work, especially “Having seen so much death scans of the teeth of a child mummy because that was ‘suitable’ for women.” radiology and, along with fellow “Having seen so much death I have when victims’ bodies are decomposing or from Egypt’s Graeco-Roman period. She Then in 1974, while a registrar, she forensic odontologist Tony Hill a more practical attitude toward it bear the signs of violent death. I have a more practical concluded that the child had died as the was offered a place in the PhD program. (GDipForenOdon 1991), who died in than most people, in that I accept it as But clinical examination allows Craig result of septicaemia after an orthodontic When she divulged that she was 2013, working as a consultant to the an inevitability at the end of life,” she (BDSc 1966, MDSc 1973, GDipForenOdon attitude toward it than procedure in which teeth were removed pregnant, the offer was withdrawn. Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. says. She also believes her work has 1991) to focus on the abstract details from an overcrowded mouth. “It was the most rotten time,” says It is Craig’s work in the highly given her an increased appreciation of of anatomy. Her expertise in this area most people.” She has also spent more than 20 years Craig. Forced to build a new life, she specialised area of disaster victim the sheer delight of human existence. is important because body parts are all as a part-time consultant in insurance and started part-time in a clinical practice in identification that has made her “I know that one has a very tenuous that remain of some victims. It is their worker’s compensation cases. Camberwell, continuing there until 2005 reputation as one of Australia’s top hold on this mortal coil and it takes very photographs and personal belongings, the Craig has worked on enough cases to Yet this impressive career in forensics when her wrist “wore out” and needed forensic scientists. little to push us over. It makes me think trappings of their individual humanity, make several seasons of a CSI-style TV was never part of Craig’s life plan. In reconstruction. On Boxing Day 2004, when news that life is very precious. So I am more that she finds most confronting. series, including one horrific fact, she believes if she had graduated in By 1989 she was a mother of two, broke that a tsunami had devastated careful and safety-conscious perhaps Thirteen years on, the details of her murder in which a man with protruding an atmosphere of equal opportunity she busy combining the Camberwell work coastal areas of South East Asia, from than I should be.” final case in that 10-day tour of duty in teeth was accused of strangling and would have become an oral surgeon. with sessional university teaching, but to Sri Lanka, she was among Craig also talks of the need to keep Bali stay with her. The only examinable murdering 17-month-old Deidre Kennedy, Enrolling in dentistry in 1962, she hankering for an intellectual challenge. the first to be called by the Australian an emotional distance from her work. 2015 ISSUE 2, part of this victim was a small part of his whose body was found with bite marks. heard comments such as “it’s a scandal, Then she heard news that would Federal Police. She subsequently served “You have to build a wall and upper jawbone. Talking about that case remains a training a girl’’… “she’s taking the place change her life. University of London four stints with the Thai-based multi- become dissociated from it,” she says. “There was almost nothing to go on, painful experience for Craig. While the of a man” … “she’ll never work (as a forensic specialist Dr John Clement was national team of forensic scientists. “But it gets you in the end.” Yet, if there except a knowledge of anatomy,” recalls details of the crime were horrific enough, dentist)”. Worse followed when she joining the Melbourne Dental School and In 2009 Craig worked on identifying is another mass disaster in coming years,

Craig, still an honorary lecturer in oral she then faced an aggressive defence enrolled for postgraduate study. starting a forensic odontology diploma. victims of a different kind of disaster: she will get the call. And she will go.

2015_MUM4_p28-29 Forensic Dentists.indd 28 27/08/15 8:27 PM 2015_MUM4_p28-29 Forensic Dentists.indd 29 27/08/15 8:28 PM 30 CLOSE ENCOUNTER CLOSE ENCOUNTER 31 unimelb.edu.au/3010 Kitty Chiller’s favourite sporting memory “It would be the appointment Australia’s Rio as deputy chef before London. I remember the phone call from John Olympics team is Coates (Australian Olympic Committee

president). To be honest, that was eyeing a top-five finish probably more of a thrill for me than in the 2016 medal qualifying to compete at Sydney (in the 2000 Olympics). That was memorable, rankings, and chef for sure, because I had a broken nose, I’d retired but came back when the de mission Kitty Chiller news came through that the modern pentathlon was going to be in for is pulling out all Sydney. I’d been at the IOC meeting when they voted to put it in, and I’d stops to achieve it. been involved in the movement to get the females put on to the program. I fractured my kneecap the week BY MARTIN BLAKE before the Sydney Games, and the fact it was an 18-year journey to get hen the Olympic Games women on to the program, that was are held in Rio de Janeiro a huge thing.” in August next year, Kitty W Chiller will be out front of A University memory the Australian team carrying the elaborate “It would be working with Franz Stampfl. title of “chef de mission”. I probably spent more time on the So, what’s with the French connection? running track and in his little hut than Well, it is one of the two official languages in the lecture theatre. I was a swimmer of the Olympic movement, along with and then I started running, and Franz English, and all the team leaders carry was my coach. It was him who said ‘why that title. As for Chiller (BA 1984), she is don’t you start this modern pentathlon? happy with plain old “chef”, although her Kitty Chiller is MISSION: It’s going to be in the Olympics in 1984!’ business in Brazil will have nothing to do preparing to head I joined the fencing club at Melbourne with culinary skill. Australia’s Olympic University, that’s how I started fencing, Rather, she will be the one doing the team; during her years so Melbourne Uni for me was more explaining if some pubescent swimmer or as a pentathlete (inset). memorable from a sporting point bike rider punches a random drinker in a PICTURE: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA POSSIBLE of view.” bar at 4am. That’s not the way she likes to think of her job, but it is also one of the realities. “I see myself as CEO of the team,” had come out of retirement to qualify, the Olympic position, even though it is series of 12 lectures by past Olympians. “The message I’ve been delivering at That is what we are there for. We can’t she says, by way of explanation. fractured her kneecap a short time out from effectively an honorary job with a small Chiller is about culture; it was part of these road shows is ‘if you’re selected for make Sally jump cleaner or Anna ride That puts her in charge of 470 athletes the event, but ended up finishing 14th. honorarium. “It’s a choice I made,” she her pitch for the role that the Olympic Rio, you’re not just going to be a member better. All I’m trying to do is to develop and nearly 300 officials from Australia at It was Franz Stampfl, the University’s says. “I am not complaining.” team needed to be seen as one team, of the 2016 Olympic team. You’ll be an environment that’s based on sound Rio, about 750 people over the fortnight legendary track coach, who first suggested Chiller sees it as a full-time position. not a collection of individuals or a set of adding your name to a 120-year-old team values and one team, a united team, of the Games. For many of them, these she try the pentathlon back when Chiller She has made four trips to Rio already, many teams from different sports. It was that started with (Australia’s first gold a supportive team, and one that from will be the most significant weeks of their was a student with an interest in athletics sorting out accommodation and security a notion that rang true to the AOC, well medal winner) Edwin Flack in 1896’. every appointment to every room young lives; emotions will be running high. and a love of all sports. Chiller followed aware of the cultural issues that afflicted That’s what I’m trying to connect, that that we have, everything is based on It is also a test for 50-year-old Chiller, Stampfl’s advice, and made it her career. “That’s what I’m trying the Australian team in London. they’re in the same team as Dawn Fraser performance for the athletes.” hand-picked by the Australian Olympic But her appointment as Rio team “For three years and 50 weeks they and John Landy and Betty Cuthbert.” The AOC has a stated aim of finishing Committee for the task after impressing as head has more to do with her work since to connect, that they’re operate in their own little bubble, as There are echoes of the national men’s in the top five on the Rio medal table, deputy chef de mission at London in 2012, retiring as an athlete, particularly as they should do,” says Chiller. “They go cricket team and the cult of the Baggy a tough ask given that Australia came when the former Oarsome Foursome head of workforce training for the 2006 in the same team as to their world championships and world Green cap in this. “I want people in the 10th in London, with its fewest gold rower Nick Green OAM (DipAppSci Commonwealth Games in Melbourne cups but it’s just rowing or athletics or team to respect what they’re a part of, medals for 20 years. Kitty Chiller, leader (Horticulture) 1993) was head of the team, through Holmesglen TAFE College. Dawn Fraser, John Landy swimming. and to respect others in the team.” of the Australian pack, has a target. and through her success in group training After that success, Holmesglen and “It’s important for athletes to fully She is also focused on high “It’s an aspirational goal,” she says. projects. Chiller won the contract to deliver the and Betty Cuthbert.” understand that the Olympic Games is performance. From a chef de mission’s “I think we can do it, it’s realistic but Chiller is a former Olympian herself. same service for the Asian Games in Doha, not just another world championships view, this is about creating the right it’s going to be bloody hard. What’s A world No. 1-ranked athlete in the where about 50,000 volunteers and 5000 that happens to be going alongside 27 environment for the athletes. important to me is that I’m responsible modern pentathlon – the combination paid staff were trained. and setting up “The Edge”, a drop-in centre other world championships. So they’re “Every decision we make is based for a team that is provided with the 2015 ISSUE 2, of fencing, running, swimming, shooting More recently she has worked as head for athletes, families and friends, working given that understanding of what it means on ‘is this going to make the boat go best opportunity to reach that top-five and show jumping that simulates the of a community program at the Australian through copious briefings about security. to be part of the Australian Olympic faster?’ or ‘is this going to make Sally outcome. If they don’t reach that, but experience of a cavalryman behind enemy Sports Commission and then as general She has also travelled around Australia team, the history and the tradition and run quicker?’ Every decision we make they do their best and walk away proud lines – she competed at the 2000 Sydney manager of Surf Life Saving Australia in for a series of functions that tell a lot about the culture of that team, and the respect needs to be based on ‘what is going of what they’ve done and respectful of

Olympics. This was a story in itself. Chiller . She left that role to take up her approach: the “Ignite the Dream” that the team has around the world. to help the performance of the team?’ their teammates, that’s a good result.”

2015_MUM4_p30-31 Kitty Chiller.indd 30 27/08/15 8:41 PM 2015_MUM4_p30-31 Kitty Chiller.indd 31 27/08/15 8:42 PM 32 33 alumniprofiles stay connected alumni.unimelb.edu.au

“It becomes an unsustainable Taking the bite Conduct cycle of killing, breeding out of rabies becoming and killing, with rabies not CHARMAINE THAM NICHOLAS CARTER changing in its rate of incidence. (BAnimSc 2002, BVSc 2004) (BMus 2007)

It may even get worse.” hen Dr Charmaine Tham was a small hen Nicholas Carter was at the University girl growing up in Singapore, dogs were in the mid-2000s, he was already deeply anything but her best friends. involved in the profession that would W They were frightening. They also W shape his life. Between his singing and carried diseases, like rabies, something that worried her piano studies, Carter was part of a small team that even more. helped establish the Victorian Opera company. “I was “As kids we would tease each other about getting loyal to the University, though,” he says, “I stayed three- rabies, whether or not it existed,” she recalls. and-a-half to four years, and actually graduated.” How things changed. Tham conquered her fears and Almost 10 years later, Nicholas Carter is one of went on to become, of all things, a veterinarian. Australia’s most exceptional and busiest conductors. And then she fell in love. Her name was Pepe and He has conducted most of the state orchestras, she was a Pomeranian-Chihuahua cross that had been including three years as assistant conductor of the rescued from a local shelter. Sydney Symphony. He’s quite busy in Germany, too, But it was while working as a volunteer for as Kapellmeister (resident conductor) at the Deutsche Vets Beyond Borders Australia that Tham got the Oper Berlin, where he is musical assistant to its music opportunity to do important work in communities director, Donald Runnicles, and conducts about four where stray dogs are a danger to people, spreading operas each season. Before then, Carter worked at the diseases such as rabies. Hamburg State Opera, as assistant to its then music “I happened to speak to someone who was going on director, Sydney-born Simone Young. a Vets Beyond Borders trip to China to teach the vets But it’s at home that Carter is making news. In April, over there and he asked, ‘Would you like to come along? at the age of 29, he was named principal conductor You speak Mandarin and would be a great help.’ of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He takes up “And I said, ‘Yes, absolutely, for sure.’ the appointment next year. Intriguingly, Carter is the “And so that was my first experience with Vets first Australian to be appointed to such a post with a Beyond Borders (VBB). That’s pretty much how the mainstream Australian orchestra since the late Stuart journey started.” Challender AO (BMus 1968) a quarter of a century ago. Today, Tham is chair of the group, overseeing “I am humbled to be that person,” Carter says. “It seems funding and management of projects throughout Asia. to be that the chemistry was right: the right person at Much of the work concentrates on India, a country with the right time.” a high incidence of rabies. Carter will be joined at the ASO by two most “What we know about rabies and dogs in these distinguished musicians: violinist and conductor communities is, if you cull the dogs they just breed and Pinchas Zukerman as artist-in-association; and the it becomes an unsustainable cycle of killing, breeding British maestro Jeffrey Tate as principal guest conductor and killing, with rabies not changing in its rate of and artistic adviser. Carter recently caught up with Tate incidence. It may even get worse.” in Berlin. “He’s the most extraordinary human being Since 2003, VBB estimates it has vaccinated more who’s had a remarkable career,” he says. than 65,000 cats and dogs and sterilised more than Conductors, though, also have to be communicators 30,000 street dogs, which has led to more stable about fine music in all its forms. The knack, Carter says, “I am humbled to be that populations and a better appreciation of animals in lies in bringing your audience along with you, especially local communities. with contemporary music. “But in trying to convert person. It seems to be that the No longer a practising vet, Tham’s career now is them, I’m not going to ram it down their throats. as a technical manager at a complementary medicine Trust is vital. If we put together a good program with chemistry was right: the right company, Blackmore’s, overseeing the development of contemporary music in context, they’re more likely to natural health products for dogs, and speaking up for accept that than smashing them over the head with a person at the right time.” VBB. The latter, she says, is a skill she can trace to her Xenakis cycle.” days at the University. Carter will have the best of two possible worlds: the “I learnt to speak up more during tutorials, which mighty culture of Berlin, which has seven orchestras was quite different to my previous experiences in and three opera houses, and the smaller but, to him, secondary education in Asia and that has helped me just as thriving culture of Adelaide, which, he says, has hugely in my career since.” “one of the finest orchestras not only in Australia but, as Sadly, Pepe the Pomeranian-Chihuahua died last year. I am starting to realise, the world”. He can’t wait to get These days Tham shares the love and affection of her started. “My experience living in both cities is that each housemate’s dog, Benji, a spitz cross. complements the other.” JENI PORT MICHAEL SHMITH PICTURE: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA

2015_MUM4_p32-33 Profiles.indd 32 27/08/15 8:56 PM 2015_MUM4_p32-33 Profiles.indd 33 27/08/15 8:57 PM 34 alumniprofiles alumninews 35

NEW ALUMNI DIRECTOR

Meet the man from Deep River Prominent graduates share experiences BY EMMA BRIMFIELD-WALSH in video series

PICTURE: DAMIEN WHITE Nobody grows up wanting to be a Director Alumni at the top

PICTURE: MATT LYNN of Alumni Relations. Not even James Allan. of their careers Born and raised in Canada, James started his have shared their career as a lecturer before deciding to change experiences in direction. a series of video “I was teaching and enjoying it, but interviews aimed a lot of the work I was doing was pretty at inspiring current lonely,” he says. “The nice part about alumni students and new relations is that I get to meet people and graduates setting Trading on a milk run A higher calling support higher education without having out on their own career path. to grade all the undergraduate essays.” The Career Journeys Worth Sharing DAVID ZHU ROBYN SHACKELL He looks forward to meeting as many videos feature Oxfam Australia Chief (BE(ElecEng)(Hons) 2009) (BA 1977) Melbourne alumni as possible. Executive Helen Szoke (pictured above), Allan is a strong advocate for the value Melbourne City Councillor Arron Wood, hen David Zhu decided to start a business in obyn Shackell is a trailblazer, but a patient one. of a university education. His parents Australian College of Optometry CEO Shanghai, he knew he wanted to stay connected to the She waited decades for the Anglican Church’s were among the first generation of their Maureen O’Keefe and Speak Percussion country he calls his second home. “I love Australian Ballarat diocese to welcome women to the priesthood. families to attend university and their lives Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti. W culture,” he says. “I lived in Australia for several years, R When they finally did in 2013, she was one of the first were very different because of it. “My dad They are part of a range of career so I wanted to bring Australian products back to China.” two women ordained and became Warrnambool’s first and only graduated with a PhD and went on to some resources for alumni, which also After graduating in 2009, he set his sights on the dairy industry, female priest. significant roles in the nuclear industry and includes webinars, discounts on future seeing a “huge demand” for imported dairy in China, especially “It was really wonderful,” she says of her inaugural Sunday my mum studied physical education and ran study and networking opportunities. since 2008, when a deadly toxin called melamine was found in service in her parish, when she celebrated the Eucharist and wore the community programs for the whole town on Watch the videos at alumni.unimelb. Chinese milk and infant formula. vestments, the traditional robes of the priesthood. health and fitness.” edu.au/career-journeys and learn Zhu registered his imports company, Henger, in 2011, and began Shackell, a grandmother of two, says she brings a “different The town he’s talking about is Deep River, more about the career support available importing dairy products from Australian companies such as A2 Milk perspective” to a male-dominated profession. Though some people a remote scientific community in the Ottawa to alumni at alumni.unimelb.edu.au/ and Gippsland’s Longwarry Food Park. The company also sells its were uncomfortable having women in church leadership, she says Valley. It was the first planned community career-centre. products online, through e-commerce sites such as Amazon China her community has been overwhelmingly supportive. built by the Canadian government in 1945 and Alibaba, and through offline channels, like Wal-Mart China. She recalls a woman in her 80s who approached her after a recent to accommodate employees of the nearby His work allows him to travel to Australia several times a year. service and told her, “I’ve been waiting all my life for this”. Chalk River Nuclear Research Laboratories. BOAT RACE “It’s not like I’m going to a different country,” he says. “It’s familiar Shackell had too. “I guess I always felt that God was calling me “It was a weird little place to grow up,” The Australian Boat Race returns to to me.” to something but I didn’t quite know what,” she says. Allan says. “It’s a suburb without the ‘urb’. Melbourne in 2015, with top-class Zhu, who was born near Shanghai, moved to Australia in 2003 to Shackell grew up in Sydney with three younger brothers and There’s winding cul-de-sacs, forests and rowers from the Universities of attend high school in Brisbane, where he stayed with a local family. parents who thought educating a girl would be a “waste of time”. rivers but there’s no city – just nuclear Melbourne and Sydney hoping to Initially, he struggled with the English language and other cultural But she was determined. reactors.” With a population of 4000, Deep take home the trophies on Sunday, differences. He still remembers feeling shocked by his first lunch in She successfully applied for a scholarship to teachers’ college, and River may have been small, but it was far October 25. Australia, when his homestay family gave him a humble sandwich, later moved to Melbourne to study theology at Melbourne College of from parochial: it had the highest number James Allan: From Toronto to Melbourne. The Universities’ rowing clubs first a far cry from China’s more elaborate midday meals. Divinity, where she received a Licentiate in Theology and a Diploma of PhDs per capita in Canada for many years. competed against each other, on the After high school, he moved to Melbourne to study electrical of Religious Education. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Allan went on the best and brightest from the University,” Yarra, in 1860. The tradition was reborn engineering – with the encouragement of his job-minded parents – Shackell eventually enrolled in a bachelor’s course in psychology to graduate with a PhD, but not in science Allan says. 150 year later, in 2010, when the first but soon discovered that entrepreneurship was better suited to his and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Melbourne. – in communications and media studies. At the inaugural event in June, thinkers head-to-head men’s and women’s gregarious personality. “I like to talk to different people,” he says. After graduating, she moved to Koroit, where her husband, Denis, He led the alumni relations program at York included academic “rock star” and world- crew races were conducted on Sydney “I like social networking. I like making friends.” worked as principal at a local primary school. University, Toronto, for eight years before renowned cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and Harbour. Show your support this year Zhu, who met his wife at the University, grew to love Melbourne, She was 40 when she finally found her calling, in 1986, during becoming Director of Alumni Relations at astrobiologist Paul Davies. by heading to the banks of the Yarra its trams and its diverse food culture. Though he knew he didn’t a trip around Australia with her husband. In Tennant Creek they Melbourne. But Allan says the best is yet to come. to watch this historic event. want to be an engineer, he says he learnt critical, logical thinking met parishioners at a small church lamenting the departure of He was attracted by Melbourne’s constant “June marked the beginning of a three-year More: australianboatrace.com and problem solving skills that have proved useful in his business. their priest. willingness to explore new ideas, like the program, and the calibre of speakers they’re He now mentors young University of Melbourne students It was then that she knew what she wanted to do, though it would recently announced For Thought partnership considering is extraordinary. I encourage WINNER studying business or finance who want to enter the Chinese market. be years before she could fulfil her ambition in her home diocese. between the University, Sydney Opera House our alumni to pay close attention to Alumni Janet Brown (BSc(Ed) 1978) has won So what’s his advice? “Talk to people, make lots of friends and be She became a workplace chaplain in 1988, counselling employees and the Wheeler Centre. The partnership eNews for further updates.” a $250 book voucher after opting to ambitious,” he says. “And of course, work very, very hard.” of companies such as Nestlé, Fletcher Jones and VicRoads, and in promises to deliver a series of scintillating receive future editions of 3010 by email. Zhu is only 30, but he has big plans for the future of his company. 1998 she received a Master of Ministry from Melbourne College events for alumni and the wider community. Go to unimelb.edu.au/alumni/enews If you would prefer to have the “I want to be listed on the Australian stock exchange,” he says. of Divinity. In 2008, the Ballarat diocese voted to ordain women as “For Thought is a three-hour deep-dive to view and subscribe to Alumni eNews. magazine delivered to your inbox, “That’s my goal.” deacons. Several years later, at age 67, she was ordained a priest. into a topic that puts phenomenal thinkers For more on For Thought visit sign up for the digital version at KATE STANTON KATE STANTON from around the world in conversation with events.unimelb.edu.au/forthought unimelb.edu.au/3010

2015_MUM4_p34 Profiles.indd 34 27/08/15 9:15 PM 2015_MUM4_p35 AlumniNews.indd 35 27/08/15 9:31 PM 36 37 alumnimilestones stay connected alumni.unimelb.edu.au

AWARDS, HONOURS & ACHIEVEMENTS AWARDS, HONOURS & ACHIEVEMENTS For more Milestones visit unimelb.edu.au/3010

Eminent professor of neuropsychiatry Professor Dr Milinda Pathiraja (BArch(Hons) A notebook filled with drawings by Immunologist Christos Pantelis (MB BS 1979, Dr Helen Peter Doherty AC 2001, PhD 2011) won a Bronze award Jo Buckland (BFineArt 2014) was Professor MD 2004) has been awarded an Durham (BA (LLD 2012) tackles in the 2014 Holcim Awards for included in The Sketchbook Project, Ian Frazer AC honorary doctorate by the University 1989, LLB(Hons) climate change, Sustainable Construction in the Asia a crowd-sourced art project based at (MD 1988) of Athens. Professor Pantelis is an 1991, SJD 2000) one of the most Pacific region. Dr Pathiraja’s project, the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. has won an NHMRC Senior Principal Research was one of polarising topics Post-War Collective, is a community Ms Buckland was one of thousands of international Fellow, Foundation Professor of the inaugural of our time in his library and social recuperation artists who contributed sketchbooks award from the Neuropsychiatry and Scientific recipients of latest book. In The building near Colombo, Sri Lanka, to the project, with each being European Patent Director of the Melbourne the Australian Knowledge Wars, the Nobel Prize- which aims to reintegrate former catalogued and added to the library’s Office for developing the world’s Neuropsychiatry Centre at the Peacewomen Awards, presented winning scientist makes a passionate soldiers into post-civil-war Sri Lankan shelves. Some of her drawings have first cervical cancer vaccine. University of Melbourne and by the Women’s International case for citizens to become informed society. now been published in a book on Professor Frazer, of the University Melbourne Health. He holds an League for Peace and Freedom. and evaluate the facts of the climate the project, The Sketchbook Project of Queensland, shared the Honorary Professorial Fellow Dr Durham received the award change debate for themselves. Award-winning World Tour. European Inventor Award with his position at the Florey Institute for in recognition of her efforts as director late Chinese colleague, Jian Zhou. Neuroscience and Mental Health Director for International Law Heather Merrylees (BSc 2014) was Gary Abrahams Alumni Charles Ferrall and Dougal The pair developed the Gardasil and heads the Adult Mental Health and Policy at the Geneva-based selected for the Jim Willis Studentship (PGradDipPerf- McNeill analyse the literary response vaccine, which is now used in Rehabilitation Unit at Sunshine International Committee of the at the Royal Botanic Gardens Creation 2007, to the 1926 General Strike in their new 121 countries and has been Hospital. Red Cross. Melbourne. The studentship offered MThPract 2008) book, Writing the 1926 General Strike. administered more than 125 Ms Merrylees the opportunity to created The Lonely The strike not only drew writers into million times. The designers of the Melbourne work on a project capturing pollen Wolf (or an political action but inspired literature School of Design building on Parkville Royal College of Surgeons of diversity in the buckwheat family incomplete guide for the unadvanced that served to shape 20th century campus, John Wardle Architects and Edinburgh. The honour reflects his Polygonaceae, a plant family soul), presented as part of Melbourne British views of class, culture and Two Melbourne alumni have received NADAAA, have won the United contribution as surgeon, researcher, including around 1200 species. Theatre Company’s NEON season in politics. Mr Ferrall (BA(Hons) 1983, Australia’s second highest civilian Nations Association of Australia educator and mentor to his trainees June. The dance-theatre production MA 1986) and Dr McNeill (PhD 2008) honour, the Companion of the Order World Environment Day Green and colleagues. Several alumni received honours was inspired by the Herman Hesse both work at the Victoria University of Australia (AC), in the 2015 Queen’s Building Award for 2015. It’s the latest from the Australian Veterinary novel Steppenwolf and the writings of Wellington. Birthday Honours. in a long line of accolades for the Academic and Association (AVA) at the 2015 Pan of philosopher and psychoanalyst Professor Nathan environmentally-friendly building. author Dr Tony Pacific Veterinary Conference. James Hillman. VCA alumni featured heavily in Efron (BOptom Birch (BA(Hons) Dr David Beggs (BVSc 1990, MVS Macbeth, one of the films selected 1976, PhD 1982), one Associate Professor Prudence 1991, MA(CrWrtg) 1997), Lecturer in Cattle Medicine Professor Michael Goddard for competition at the 2015 Cannes of Australia’s leading Francis (BMedSc 1980, MB BS 1983, 2000, PhD 2003) at the Faculty of Veterinary and (BVSc(Hons) 1972, PhD 1979) of the Film Festival. It was directed by optometrists, was MD 2008) has won the Medical has joined Victoria Agricultural Sciences, received the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Justin Kurzel (GDipFT 2004), known recognised for his Oncology Group of Australia-Novartis University as the President’s Award in recognition of Sciences has been awarded the for Snowtown and The Turning; work in creating Oncology Cancer Achievement first recipient of his outstanding practical contribution prestigious Royal Society Fellowship. cinematography was by Adam two life-changing inventions – daily Award for 2015. The award recognises the Dr Bruce McGuiness Indigenous to veterinary science in Australia. Professor Goddard is known for his Arkapaw (BFT 2006), known for disposable contact lenses and an eye her contribution to the improvement Research Fellowship. The Fellowship Emeritus Professor Bruce Parry research into quantitative genetics Animal Kingdom, Lore, Snowtown, test that can give early diagnosis of of cancer control nationally and is named for one of Victoria’s most (BVSc 1976, PhD and the genetic improvement of True Detective, and Top of the Lake; diabetes. Professor Efron, president internationally. Associate Professor respected Aboriginal elders and a 1982) was made a livestock. The Fellowship of the Royal and it stars Elizabeth Debicki of the Australian College of Optometry Francis is the Head of the Medical long-time activist in the struggle Fellow of the AVA, Society is made up of the most (BDramArt 2011), since 2012, is based at the Queensland Oncology Breast Service at the for Aboriginal justice. Dr Birch’s the Association’s eminent scientists, engineers and who appeared in University of Technology. He is a Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. research will explore the implications most senior award technologists in the Commonwealth. The Great Gatsby, Type 2 diabetes sufferer who has of climate change on Aboriginal for service to the Past Fellows and Foreign Members as Lady Macduff. used his own experiences to influence Matthew Tyler communities, and the value of organisation. have included Newton, Darwin, Under the Sun, a much of his research into diagnosis (BA, BCom 2006) Aboriginal knowledge of land and Professor Parry Einstein and Hawking. film by Qiu Yang and treatment of the condition. has been awarded the natural environment to inform was a member of the Melbourne (MFT 2014), was The Hon Justice Christopher an RG Menzies the wider community. Dr Birch is Veterinary Science faculty from 1985 Award-winning director and selected for the Sofie Laguna (DipDramArts Maxwell (BA(Hons) 1974, LLB 1983, Scholarship to also a highly respected novelist and to 2011, and has been a member of theatre-maker Peta Hanrahan Cinéfondation section, which is for (Acting) 1992) has won Trinity College), President of the Harvard, Australia’s author of many books and short many committees of the AVA. Dr Sam (PGradDipPerfCreation 2013) has works by film school students. Australia’s top fiction prize, the Victorian Court of Appeal, received most prestigious stories, including Shadowboxing, Morgan (DVM 2014) been appointed Artistic Director of Miles Franklin Literary Award, his honour for eminent services to national award Blood (shortlisted for the 2012 Miles received the Don actor training centre Verve Studios. Two exhibitions of the work of artist for her novel The Eye of the the law and the judiciary. Justice for postgraduate study in the Franklin Award) and The Promise Kerr Veterinary Ms Hanrahan was the founder of Richard Lewer (MVisArt 2000) Sheep. The book is her second Maxwell is best known for leading United States. During his Masters in (shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Student Award for The Dog Theatre in Footscray. have been staged in Auckland, novel for adults but she has administrative reform of the Victorian Public Policy at the John F Kennedy Premier’s Literary Award). He was a his strong academic New Zealand. It’s More Than a Game written 20 children’s books, Immunologist and virologist appeals process, helping the Victorian School of Government, Matthew will writer-in-residence at the Wheeler record and his Shanghai: Decadence with Chinese at the Gow Langsford Gallery plays and a screenplay based Professor Anne Kelso AO has Government to develop jury law explore how innovative partnerships Centre in 2014. exceptional Characteristics, an exhibition by celebrated Mr Lewer’s love of rugby, on her first adult novel, One been appointed as the new Chief reforms that have improved the between the public and private commitment to Shanghai-based photographer, writer while Custom of the Sea at ST PAUL Foot Wrong. That book was Executive Officer of the National quality of admissible forensic sectors can overcome rising Allan Myers AO QC has been named cattle medicine. Dr Trish Stewart and cinematographer Dave Tacon, St Gallery, AUT University, was inspired longlisted for the Miles Health and Medical Research evidence – a move that has sped up inequality in Australia. the inaugural recipient of the Fellow (BVSc(Hons) 1980, MVS 1987, Janet was featured in the sixth Ballarat by the true story of yachtsmen Franklin and shortlisted for Council (NHMRC). Professor the criminal appeal process. Justice of the University of Melbourne award Clarke Hall) received a meritorious International Foto Biennale. Portrait stranded off the coast of Africa. the Prime Minister’s Literary Kelso (BSc(Hons) 1975), PhD Maxwell was previously president of Andrew Heggie (BDSc 1977, MDSc in recognition of his community service award for long-term service and photo-documentary work by Awards in 2009. Previous 1980, St Hilda’s College) has had civil liberties advocacy group Liberty 1981, MB BS 1991), Associate Professor leadership and significant to the AVA. Dr Stewart teaches Mr Tacon (BA(Hons) 2000), is held Anna O’Byrne (BMusPerf(Hons) Miles Franklin winners include a distinguished career in medical Victoria and commissioner of the in the Department of Paediatrics at contributions to the University. veterinary nursing at Box Hill Institute in the permanent collections of the 2008) starred as Maria in West Side alumnae Michelle de Kretser research and an impressive track Legal Aid Commission (currently the University of Melbourne, and Mr Myers (BA 1969, LLB(Hons) 1970, and has previously been a small National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Story, presented by The Production (BA(Hons) 1979) and Dr Anna record in immunology and known as Victoria Legal Aid). Head of the Section of Oral and LLD 2012, Ormond College, Newman animal surgical resident and surgical the National Library of Australia, Company in Melbourne in July. Funder (BA(Hons) 1988, influenza research. In all, more than 60 Melbourne Maxillofacial Surgery at the Royal College) is Chairman of Believe – registrar with the University, and the State Library of Victoria and the Her performance followed successful LLB(Hons) 1991, MA(CrWrtg) PICTURE: NHMRC/IRENE DOWDY alumni and staff received Queen’s Children’s Hospital, has been awarded the Campaign for the University of president of the Victorian division Royal Melbourne Institute of lead roles in Love Never Dies and 2002). Birthday Honours. the fellowship ad hominem of the Melbourne. of the AVA. Technology. Phantom of the Opera.

2015_MUM4_p36-37 Milestones.indd 36 27/08/15 9:48 PM 2015_MUM4_p36-37 Milestones.indd 37 27/08/15 9:48 PM 38 THE LAST WORD Narrowing the reality gap

BY SIMON CORONEL (BA, BE(SoftEng)(Hons) 2004)

n April 1999, I began the first year of a combined a set of visual stimuli that will create the impression in the BA/BEng in Psychology and Software Engineering. audience’s minds of seeing a coin disappear. Making a coin On a whim, I also joined the Melbourne University disappear is impossible. Making someone “think’’ they saw it I Magicians’ Society. It was one of the 200 or so clubs disappear is a complex and interesting challenge. and societies on display at first-year orientation week, and one The links with engineering are more subtle. A good illusion, of about 15 I joined with a desire to connect with interesting- when performed properly, looks effortless. It’s easy to forget that sounding things on campus. there’s a huge amount of complexity behind the scenes. Some I had no background in magic whatsoever. Like many people, illusions are based on sleight-of-hand dexterity. Some are based I’d had a magic kit when I was about 12, but nothing about it on incredibly clever optical principles. Some are based on the particularly resonated with me back then. The few magic shows subtle use of secret devices or obscure physics principles. I’d seen in my life had just seemed like vaguely baffling show-off All of them, however, have a method. A method that needs sessions that I couldn’t really connect with. to be designed, developed, tested, and executed near-flawlessly However, the people at the magic club seemed cool, and were each time. To this day, when working on a new show, I still find offering to actually teach beginner-level tricks to people who myself thinking in terms of the lessons I learned when studying joined. I figured learning a card trick might be fun, so I paid software deployment. Design, test, deploy ... and iterate. the $5 sign-up fee. I turned up to a meeting and, to my surprise, Throughout university, magic was simply something that discovered a fascinatingly deep art and craft. fascinated me. When I graduated, I briefly considered trying Most people have never actually seen a really good magic to do it professionally. Instead I got a graduate position at a performance. I don’t even like using the word “magic” to describe business consulting company, which lasted six years. In those what I now do professionally, because it carries a lot of the wrong years though, the magic hobby grew. I started to win awards, connotations. I’ve spent almost my entire life, at heart, as a truth- and to get paid gigs. After six years of business consulting, seeking scientist/engineer. My initial interest in magic stemmed I leapt from the safety of a corporate career into the maelstrom purely from a desire to understand what I’d just seen, and then of professional showbiz. Bridget Loughhead later to share it in a way that leaves the audience understanding That was five years ago. Since then I’ve performed in seven Current student and more, not less, about reality. countries across four continents, and had far too many stranger- scholarship recipient It was oddly fortuitous that just as I was starting to learn about than-fiction experiences to even begin to describe here. Now, magic I was also studying psychology and software engineering. ironically, the majority of my income comes from corporations The links between psychology and magic are well-documented. booking me to entertain, MC, or speak at their events – sharing Illusions, in the “magical” sense, literally happen in the mind the insights I’ve gained about perception, innovation, and things of the observer. You don’t make the coin disappear; you provide that seem impossible but aren’t.

A LITTLE GIFT CAN MAKE A VERY BIG DIFFERENCE

As one of four children growing up in regional Victoria, my parents didn’t have the option to financially support me in moving to Melbourne. Receiving the Mildura Alumni Scholarship changed everything. I feel very privileged to be able toca studymp here.ai Agn lot of.uni rural melb.edustudents don’t get.a thisu chance, and many people in “The links between the city take it for granted. I’m so thankful to everyone in the alumni community who contributed in order psychology and magic to give me this opportunity. are well-documented,” says Simon Coronel.

Visit campaign.unimelb.edu.au to find out more

2015_MUM4_p38 LastWord.indd 38 27/08/15 8:01 PM 2015_MUM4_p39-Ad.indd11727-BelieveAds3010.indd 39 1 campaign.unimelb.edu.au 28/08/201528/08/2015 11:56 3:34 pmam Special Offer for University of Melbourne Alumni

NGV Membership Special Offer for NGV Members receive discounted entry to For more information on NGV Members University of Melbourne Alumni ticketed exhibitions and programs, access benefits and our special offer for In celebration of NGV’s partnership with the to exhibition previews, after-hours events, University of Melbourne Alumni, University of Melbourne, valued members of Gallery magazine subscription, discounts please call +613 8620 2233 or visit the alumni community are able to purchase at NGV design stores and cafes, access to ngv.vic.gov.au/unimelb-offer a 1-year Individual NGV Membership at the two NGV Members Lounges Concession price of $69.* and much more.

*Valued at $99. Special offer applies to individual NGV Membership category only. Valid only during the exhibition season and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great is showing from 31 July to 8 November 2015.

2015_MUM4_p40 Ad.indd 40 27/08/15 7:55 PM