The Open Door, 1958

PUB: 8 Item 3(28)1 OPEN DOOR 1958 ZINE OF THE SWINBURNE TECHNICAL COLLEGE This year's cover is the work of third-year art student, Barbara Patterson, it symbolises the Jubilee Year and the varied activities associated with the College. THE OPEN DOOR JUBILEE EDITION Entrance to Swinburne Technical College. At this site on 19th September, 1908, the foundation stone was laid by Sir Thomas Bent, Premier of Victoria. The stone, darker in colour, is the seventh down from the sign OFFICE. George Swinburne, founder of Swinburne Technical College. THE OPEN DOOR 1958 The Magazine of the Swinburne Technical College THE OPEN DOOR | CONTENTS Foreword 5 Editorial 6 Introduction 7 Literary Section 8 Humour From The Past 83 General News 89 Personal Items 102 Clubs And Activities 112 Sport Record 123 Scholarship And Skill 131 For typing of the manuscript of this magazine thanks are extended to Barbara McKenzie, Lurline Archer, Valda Eliott, Marjorie Herbert, Pat Brown, Betty Solomon, Joan Brock, Estelle Hannah, Judith Winbanks and Margaret Reed. Miss Small, teacher-in-charge, is also thanked for her co-operation. FOREWORD I respond very gladly to your invitation to contribute a short foreword to the Jubilee Magazine. Last year we had to choose a name for a new University in Victoria, and we chose the name Monash, which has been accepted as symbolising for a University, which will have the pro motion of the practical sciences as a main object, the qualities we wish to emerge from that University. John Monash was an illus trious example of a man who gave the community, to an unexcelled degree, the benefits of his intense application to scientific training and wide culture. At Swinburne, you take your name without any searching or question from a generous benefactor to your College, who was a great Victorian and who would have been a great man in any community. In his youth George Swinburne was an apprentice. He was trained to work skilfully and diligently with his hands. All his life he was concerned with practical things which had to be made and operated. His practical sense and his love of quality made his industrial and business life a success in every sense of the word. But George Swinburne is not to be remembered only, or prin cipally, as a successful and magnanimous man, who was deeply interested in your College. His gifts were given to his fellows without limit and without thought of reward. For him it was a duty to take part in public affairs, and he devoted his life to the service of the State. His practical sense and his desire to serve made him one of our greatest benefactors. His great work was the design and estab lishment of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, which was instrumental in bringing water to huge areas and has made a contribution which can never be measured. He was a great Minister of Agriculture. He was one of the original Commissioners of the State Elec tricity Commission. He was one of those responsible for the estab lishment of the C.S.I.R.O. He was always devoted to the cause of technical education. His life and his motives were always above question or challenge. We shall always be deeply in his debt for his work and his example. I hope that students at the College which bears his name will learn more of his life and that he will always be remembered as an inspiration. In the name Swinburne you have a real privilege. JOHN BLOOMFIELD, (Minister of Education, State of Victoria). 5 EDITORIAL On a wet Saturday, fifty years ago, the foundation stone of Swinburne Technical College was laid by Sir Thomas Bent, Premier of Victoria. On March 9th, 1909, classes were opened for trade subjects. Seeing no need for a second technical school in the metro politan area, some doubted the worth of George Swinburne's venture. But from that day the size and scope have extended until the College is now an institution with two junior schools and senior schools in Art, Chemistry, Commerce, Engineering and Trade. Night and part-time classes also cater for a wide variety of academic, technical, commercial and cultural interests. In 1958 enrolments exceeded 5,000, and the main difficulty is an acute shortage of accommodation. In the pages that follow the divisions give a picture of the College and its many activities. As only a fraction of the available material can be reproduced, always the aim is to reflect what is general or representative — with one exception. This being the Jubilee Year, attention has been given to the past in the first portion of the literary section. Much of this documentary material has been obtained from old magazines and other records. The result is an interesting and valuable account of the first years at the College and of early technical education in Victoria. More than ever, the 1958 issue is a students' magazine. Under lying this approach is the philosophy of the Principal that written expression is very important in technical schools. Thus, in a great variety of reports, paragraphs, articles and poems, students reflect their interests and opinions. In the process, they write the record of 1958 and reveal something of the Swinburne spirit. Once again many are to be thanked for their help in compila tion. There are occasional acknowledgments, but most of the keenest helpers — by choice — remain anonymous. This is the spirit respon sible for the production of the special Jubilee Edition. The contents are proof of a vital contribution to past and present Australia, a complete rebuttal of George Swinburne's critics. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE E. BUDGE J. KEANE W. FRICKER K. LEVENS (Miss) B. FLETCHER (Miss) L. PENDLEBURY B. HAMES (Vice-Principal) S. ROBERTSON A. JORDAN A. TYLEE (Principal) General Editor: C. SAUNDERS 6 INTRODUCTION For Health, Wealth and Happiness In the year this College was founded the discovery of bakelite by a Belgian chemist gave a start to the modern plastics industry. In the same year an aeroplane crossed the English Channel for the first time; and a start was made in fitting four wheel brakes, inde pendent suspension and self starters to motor cars. A record of scientific discoveries and technical advances made since would read like a list of much that goes to make our lives comfortable or even possible: radio, motion pictures, air travel, electrical gadgets, modern highways, canned and frozen foods, surgical techniques and life saving drugs, to say nothing of automation, television, and atomic power. By training tradesmen, technicians and technologists for the last fifty years, this College has made its contribution to the health, wealth and happiness of Australia, and, indeed, of other parts of the world, as we discover when, from time to time, we receive letters from ex-students now engaged in technical work overseas. In training such people we have done all that is normally expected of a technical institute in providing specialised knowledge, techniques and skill. But over and above this, our College is unusual in at least two ways. Practical community life is ensured by the varying ages, origins and interests of the students, who are junior and senior, boys and girls; coming from homes adjacent to the College, from country towns, and from East Asia; having previously been in technical, high or registered schools and now pursuing, in the one College, courses in art, chemistry, commerce, engineering or one of the trades, and mixing on various class and social occasions. Then, again, this being a Council-controlled College, there is more permanence of staff than in Departmental Schools, so that through the tapestry of the College's history there run many golden threads of long, outstanding service given by members of staff ranging from caretaking to top administration. Such people have built up a tradi tion of personal interest in each student, a tradition which may be traced back to the spirit of the founder, the late Honourable George Swinburne. [The introduction to the Jubilee Edition has been written by the present Prin cipal of the College, Mr. A. F. Tylee, who was appointed in 1950. A reference to his work for the College appears on page 40. A pen portrait of the first Principal, Mr. J. R. Tranthim-Fryer (1908-1928), is given on pages 19-21; an article written by the second, Mr. F. W. Green (1928-1950), will be found on pages 21-25.—Ed.] LITERARY SECTION ORIGINS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION With the accumulation of more knowledge and the development of a greater perspective, it has become increasingly clear that the discovery of gold in Australia was an event of major importance — the dividing line between the simpler, pastoral economy of the early nineteenth century and the more complex, urban and highly indus trialised society of modern times. The finds of 1851 led immediately to new social problems of great magnitude; they provided much excitement, an era of rapid transition, during which attitudes for all classes were reorientated and redefined. However, the pre-gold period has three points of interest for the story of technical education: the spirit of trade unionism was alive; not all the assisted immigrants were docile or lacking a social consciousness; Mechanics' Institutes had been established. The latter owed their origin to George Birbeck, of Glasgow, Scotland. The germ of the idea came from a class formed by Birbeck for journeymen mechanics. But the scheme was not properly organised till 1824. The idea soon spread to Australia, Melbourne's first Mechanics' Institute being formed in 1839. In the years that followed Institutes played a large part in adult education in Australia.

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