VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & TRAINING The Northern Territory’s history of public philanthropy VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & TRAINING The Northern Territory’s history of public philanthropy DON ZOELLNER Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Zoellner, Don, author. Title: Vocational education and training : the Northern Territory’s history of public philanthropy / Don Zoellner. ISBN: 9781760460990 (paperback) 9781760461003 (ebook) Subjects: Vocational education--Government policy--Northern Territory. Vocational education--Northern Territory--History. Occupational training--Government policy--Northern Territory. Occupational training--Northern Territory--History. Aboriginal Australians--Vocational education--Northern Territory. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph: ‘Northern Territory Parliament House main entrance’ by Patrick Nelson. This edition © 2017 ANU Press Contents List of figures . vii Foreword . xi Acknowledgements . xiii 1 . Setting the scene . 1 2 . Philanthropic behaviour . 11 3 . Prior to 1911: European discovery and South Australian administration of the Northern Territory . 35 4 . Early Commonwealth control, 1911–46 . 45 5 . The post–World War Two period to 1978 . 57 6. TAFE in the era of self‑government, 1978–92 . 99 7. Vocational education and training in the era of self‑government, 1992–2014 . 161 8. Late 2015 and September 2016 postscript . 229 References . 243 List of figures Figure 1. Paul Henderson, minister, second from right, and guests on the fifth-floor balcony of the Northern Territory Parliament House, 2005. 17 Figure 2. Paul AE Everingham, Member of the Legislative Assembly ..................................23 Figure 3. Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, near the South Australian border, included a store and post office ...........37 Figure 4. Finke River Mission, September 1905 .................39 Figure 5. Tiwi people on Bathurst Island, January 1941, with Bishop Gsell. .40 Figure 6. Transfer Ceremony, 2 January 1911 ...................46 Figure 7. Catholic Mission School at Arltunga, January 1947 .......49 Figure 8. Train (Commonwealth line) with new engines, Northern South Australia, January 1920 ..................51 Figure 9. The first Legislative Council, 16 February 1948 ..........59 Figure 10. First Legislative Assembly sitting, 19 March 1975, in the cyclone-damaged chamber. Corrugated iron sheets in right foreground were used to channel rainwater away from members’ desks .................................60 Figure 11. Mission Aboriginals [sic] working in a carpentry shop, May 1968 .........................................65 Figure 12. Alice Springs High School from Anzac Hill, October 1958. This was the site of the Adult Education Centre and it became the first home of the Alice Springs Community College in 1974. 70 Figure 13. Electrical experiments at Darwin High School adult training classes, 30 June 1967 ......................71 vii VocatioNAL EducatioN ANd TRAiNiNg Figure 14. Darwin Primary School in January 1957, it later became Darwin Higher Primary and then Darwin High School. This building in Woods Street became the Adult Education Centre under principal Harold Garner ...........74 Figure 15. Apprentice training in the former World War Two railway workshops in Katherine, February 1974. David Handley, first-year apprentice and Robert Scott, trades foreman ......................................78 Figure 16. Opening ceremony of the Darwin Community College by HRH Prince Philip; Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is on the right .......................................82 Figure 17. Goff Letts, former Chief Secretary of the Northern Territory ...................................87 Figure 18. Elizabeth Andrew, February 1974 ...................90 Figure 19. Jim Robertson, Member of the Legislative Assembly, February 1974 ......................................95 Figure 20. Ministers of the new Northern Territory Government, 1 July 1978, swearing-in ceremony. 100 Figure 21. Darwin Community College looking towards Alawa, April 1979. .103 Figure 22. Geoff Chard (Left) ..............................105 Figure 23. Industry Training Commission, first meeting, 1 July 1980, Geoff Chard at far right ....................107 Figure 24. Jim Eedle .....................................108 Figure 25. Dhupuma College, February 1975 .................109 Figure 26. Training Centre, Stuart Park, September 1981 .........114 Figure 27. Ray McHenry .................................117 Figure 28. Training. Calf-tagging training for secondary school students. 121 Figure 29. Restaurant interior, Gillen House, Alice Springs .......122 Figure 30. Tom Harris ...................................133 Figure 31. Geoff Spring ..................................139 viii LiST oF FiguRES Figure 32. The Honourable Terry McCarthy ..................142 Figure 33. Former Minister for Education and Training, Shane Stone. 157 Figure 34. Ministers Fred Finch, Shane Stone and lecturer Kym Livesley celebrating the new course ‘Introduction to Mining Law’ at the Northern Territory University, April 1993 .......................................170 Figure 35. The Honourable Fred Finch handing over motorcycles for licensed training .......................172 Figure 36. Palmerston Campus .............................173 Figure 37. Peter Adamson, Member of the Legislative Assembly, January 2001. .179 Figure 38. The second Burke ministry, 1 August 2000 ...........183 Figure 39. Former Kargaru School, November 1996 ............189 Figure 40. Students with Minister Stirling at a government- sponsored breakfast in Alice Springs, May 2003 ............192 Figure 41. Peter Plummer, centre, served as the Chief Executive of three different Northern Territory Government agencies in addition to being the Principal of Batchelor College ......197 Figure 42. Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, 2011 ...................................210 Figure 43. Marion Scrymgour (left) being sworn in as a member of the ninth Northern Territory Legislative Assembly on 16 October 2001. 215 Figure 44. Margaret Banks, the Chief Executive of the Department of Employment, Education and Training, introducing Minister Scrymgour, at the far left, during the January 2006 scholarships and bursaries awards ceremony held at Parliament House. 216 Figure 45. Minister Henderson preparing to present prizes at the Teaching Excellence Awards ceremony at Parliament House, October 2009 .....................................217 ix VocatioNAL EducatioN ANd TRAiNiNg Figure 46. Minister Burns, second from right, overseeing the celebration of a Charles Darwin University lecturer’s 40 years of teaching ........................................219 Figure 47. Robyn Lambley, Member of the Legislative Assembly, with the Mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan, joining in the celebrations at the Alice Springs campus of Charles Darwin University recognising 25 years of university-level education in the Northern Territory, June 2014 ....................235 x Foreword This book represents a balancing act in drawing together the widely scattered elements of the history of vocational education and training in the Northern Territory—somewhat reminiscent of one of those circus performers with a series of plates spinning on the top of sticks. The first plate balances the temptation to offer a general critique of all government actions as opposed to the limitations of this specific research effort and the evidence associated with vocational training. It seems plausible that one might find that the large health and education agencies with thousands of public employees and large amounts of capital infrastructure might respond to ministerial direction quite differently from that discussed here. On the other hand, sport, recreation and land development might be more similar. Alternatively, there is an important, principled separation between the minister and the police and law courts that might suggest different explanations of Cabinet actions. Plate two in our analogy offsets presenting an accurate, accessible story against the mind-numbing suite of acronyms and systematic complexity for which the sector has become infamous. The third plate poises a theoretical explanation of government ministers behaving as wealthy philanthropists against the desire to create something more than a pure chronology of events. Finally, plate four seeks parallels between the relative roles of government agencies/public institutions/private concerns and the ambitions of those who are elected to public office. There is also an attempt to describe the tone and atmosphere surrounding many of the major events contributing to the story of vocational education and training since the early 1970s. These have been gathered from interviews with many of the key participants, verbal and written reports tabled in the ubiquitous meetings held to give direction to policy and practice, handwritten notations in the margins of archival materials and my personal participation in some of the major activities. xi VocatioNAL EducatioN ANd TRAiNiNg While every attempt has been made to carefully attribute as many