AUGUST 2004 Eye on the High Country CRABCRAB WATCHWATCH onon ChristmasChristmas IslandIsland LA TROBE UNIVERSITY HONORARY DOCTORATE Bulletin IN THIS ISSUE J M Coetzee reflects on Work begins on new AgriBiosciences Centre 3 Report urges court reforms for mentally ill 4 Computer game to reach homeless 5 A way of life Help for abused youngsters 5 HIV prevention: Religion needs Cape Town – where he was Distinguished a radical shift 6 ld indigenous cultures – those of the O South African Bushman, northern Professor of Literature – and has held Research in Action Inuit and Australian Aborigine – are being numerous Visiting Professorships. converted into new global commodities for During the past thirty years, Professor What causes High Country change? 7 the tourist industry. That was the theme of Coetzee – who now lives in South Saving Christmas Island’s red crabs a literary evening in August featuring Australia where he is an Honorary Visiting from yellow ants 8 Nobel Laureate and two-time Booker Prize Research Fellow at the University of winning author, John Maxwell Coetzee. Adelaide – has published a wide range of Research in new auditory works, many translated into French, neuroscience laboratory 10 Addressing a packed audience at the Melbourne Town Hall, he also read a short German and Swedish. His major books Making mobile communications story dealing with this subject. Professor include The Life & Times of Michael K faster, more secure 10 Coetzee said he was reluctant to use the (1983), Boyhood (1997), Disgrace (1999), term ‘culture’, preferring ‘way of life’ to and Elizabeth Costello (2003). Appointment of four new professors 11 emphasise a deeper meaning. Too often Delivering the award citation, La Trobe Focus on Asia-Pacific security and today ‘culture’ signified something that can Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the co-operation 12 easily be put on or Mildura Campus, taken off – such as Professor Alan Empowering role of Koori Court 13 ‘corporate culture’ Frost, said J M Graduates in Islamic education 13 or ‘sporting cul- Coetzee’s works ture’. deal with some of Golden opportunity for the major cur- future archaeologists 14 The evening was part of the rents of Western Scholarships recognise disability research 15 ‘Melbourne thought and present discom- Boost to INU travelling scholarships 16 Conversations’ series presented by forting analyses La Trobe Uni- of the human versity in asso- condition. ciation with the ‘In doing so, he Cover: Monitoring the health of City of Melbourne, has also focused Christmas Island’s famous red crabs, Australian Book see story page 7. on situations and Review and themes which Photo: Peter Green Readings Books resonate with and Music. such horrors of Earlier, visiting the twentieth La Trobe’s main century as war, Melbourne campus the Holocaust at Bundoora, Pro- and apartheid. fessor Coetzee, Deploying lucid The La Trobe Bulletin is published ten times a year by the was awarded an honorary doctorate for his and spare prose and intricate literary Public Affairs Office, La Trobe University. outstanding contribution to literature and structures, he has unflinchingly probed the Articles may be reproduced with acknowledgement. learning. dark recesses of the human condition, so as Photographs can be supplied. to contemplate such things as slavery, Raised in South Africa’s Cape Province, Enquiries and submissions to the editor, Ernest Raetz, torture and the evils of colonialism.’ La Trobe University, Victoria. 3086 Australia Professor Coetzee holds Honours degrees Tel (03) 9479 2315, Fax (03) 9479 1387 in English and mathematics as well as a Accepting the award, Professor Coetzee Email: [email protected] PhD in English, linguistics and Germanic thanked La Trobe University and Design: Campus Graphics, 58895 languages. Australia’s academic and literary La Trobe University. communities for the generous welcome He has taught at the State University of Printed by Print Media Group. extended to him since his arrival in Website: www.latrobe.edu.au/bulletin New York at Buffalo, the University of Australia. Ⅲ 2 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN NEWS An architect’s impression of the new building. Work begins on new AgriBiosciences Centre ustralian agricultural industries Professor German Spangenberg, Research fostering an environment that promotes may expect significant benefits Director, Plant Genetics and Genomics of effective interactions, networks and the from research to be carried out at Primary Industries Research Victoria, DPI, incubation of spin-off companies. the new $19.5 million Victorian and Director of the Plant Biotechnology La Trobe University, through its Institute A Centre, who will chair the committee, and AgriBiosciences Centre (VABC) to be of Advanced Study, will provide built at La Trobe University. Professor Roger Parish, Head of the opportunities for tenants to collaborate University’s Department of Botany. La Trobe and CRI Australia have with visiting scholars and to access La Trobe R&D Park Director, Ms Sue Bell, overseas speakers for seminars, forums entered into a development agreement for is also a member. the new Centre on the La Trobe University and conferences. R&D Park at the Bundoora Biotechnology Professor Parish said that research in the The facility will occupy approximately Precinct. new Centre would range over many areas two hectares of the 50 hectare La Trobe of plant industries, including research R&D Park. It will consist of a two-storey The agreement follows the establishment aimed to improve the productivity of such of the VABC Consortium, a collaborative state-of-the-art research facility, with crops as wheat and canola. Other research approximately 5,500 square metres of floor venture between La Trobe University, would attempt to identify genes Victoria’s Department of Primary space as well as a number of other R&D responsible for traits which render crops capabilities. Industries’ (DPI) Plant Biotechnology and pasture plants more resistant Centre which is located at La Trobe to environmental stresses such as drought These include several unique initiatives, University, Monash University, RMIT and and cold. including a ‘Research Hotel’ with PC2 Florigene Ltd, a division of Suntory. standard laboratories. CRI Australia will Professor Parish said that other When the facility is completed, procure and manage the design and important research would aim to improve construction of the development. expected in May 2005, it will resistance of crops and pasture plants to accommodate more than 200 research fungal and viral diseases and to attack by s Bell said the agreement with CRI personnel. insect pests. M marked a watershed in the trend to successfully combine research, academic La Trobe University is providing $12.7 Professor Spangenberg said that the and industry requirements into facilities million for the construction of the building establishment of VABC will significantly that satisfied high-end research needs as to house the Centre with other enhance the science and technology base well as the commercial demands of contributions coming from the Victorian and innovation capability in the industry. Department of Innovation Industry and agricultural biotechnology sector. The Regional Development ($5 million) and VABC will act as a Victorian science and ‘Not only will this development offer the Victorian Department of Primary business incubator providing integrated research facilities, it will operate as a Industries ($2.5 million). key platform technologies for academia business incubator, offering accom- Two La Trobe academic staff members and industry. modation, and business infrastructure to commercial start-up businesses in the plant are on the Centre’s five-member He said the Centre will co-locate bioscience field,’ she said. Ⅲ Management Committee. They are academic and commercial R&D groups AUGUST 2004 3 NEWS Prisons – which the report describes as the ‘asylums of the new millennium’ – are brimming with the mentally ill. De- COURTING institutionalisation, while supposedly upholding the rights of the mentally ill, has often resulted in further abuses of, and discrimination against, mentally ill people, CHANGE the report claims. ‘Prisons – asylums of the new millennium – are brimming Research also shows overcrowding in women’s prisons has created an ‘incredibly with the mentally ill.’ stressful environment’ where lack of privacy creates additional tensions Curran, who supervised the two projects, escalating to violent outbursts. says the students recommend establishing a Mental Health Court to deal with the high Another problem is that scant provision number of mentally impaired people is being made for mentally ill prisoners to appearing before Victorian courts. re-enter the community. Few release plans are being developed with prisoners for Their report – titled The Mentally Ill and their accommodation, employment, the Criminal Justice System – says the welfare or continuing treatment after court should be an extension of the release. Magistrate’s Court, presided over by a specially appointed magistrate to ensure a Often when courts found defendants had consistent approach. A charged person a mental impairment and should not be with a mental illness should then have the sent to jail, they were imprisoned because right to elect to be tried either by the there was a shortage of beds at the Thomas Mental Health Court or a normal court. Embling Hospital, one of few ‘approved mental health service’ hospitals in Victoria. The court should also adopt a less