ARTICLE COMPILED BY: University of Tasmania

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis

Times change and we change with them.

Since its foundation in 1890 the University of Tasmania has made a significant contribution to the Australian and international community.

Through their intellect and ability many graduates and people associated with the University have exercised a key influence in the level and direction of change that has taken place since European settlement.

They have been at the forefront in driving, adapting and building on major cultural and educational shifts in Australia.

Through innovative thought and research, the University has played a pivotal role in the growth of the nation. Its people have legislated in various houses of parliament, made decisions in boardrooms, explored the resources of Australia and of the Antarctic, provided professional services in medicine, agriculture, aquaculture, law, and in accounting, and by teaching and playing music. They have fought in times of conflict and acted as a peacemaker in turbulent political times, and ‘got on with things’ at all stages in between.

They have responded to global change and concern about the world’s environment and have helped to develop unique disciplines that exploit the distinctiveness and natural advantages of Tasmania. They lead the nation in areas such as Antarctic and Southern Ocean studies, population health studies, forestry and wilderness studies, earth sciences, agricultural science and aquaculture research and have taken the university to its current position as one of the top ten research universities in Australia.

We have profiled below some of these ‘agents for change’ who have had a close association with the University of Tasmania. The list that follows is by no means exhaustive — either in the range of the contribution, or of the person who made that contribution. It does, however, indicate the calibre of lecturers, administrators and graduates of this Tasmanian institution.

Some of the names will be well known, others less so. The intention is to show a broad example of people who have contributed to change in the Tasmanian, Australian and international communities.


1890’s

James Backhouse Walker was a ‘Founding Father’ of the University of Tasmania, and a staunch defender of the infant university. He was the son of the Quaker missionary traveller, George Washington Walker. James worked as a solicitor in Hobart and became a keen local historian and stalwart of the Tasmanian Council of Education. In association with the Rev. George Clarke he strove for a local university and drafted the act establishing it in 1890. He lobbied Members of Parliament and produced strong public arguments to ensure the University’s retention in its first difficult years. Although he was not a university graduate James Backhouse Walker was elected Vice-Chancellor in July 1898. Tragically, he died of pneumonia late the following year. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the establishment of a new university — particularly in a penal colony — was perceived as an outrageous idea. People like James Backhouse Walker who had vision, and the courage to back their vision, laid the foundations for the higher education of subsequent generations.

1900’s

Andrew Inglis Clark was an eminent lawyer (eventually a high court judge), Vice-Chancellor of the University, Member of the University Council, part-author of the Hare-Clark voting system and notably, a key figure in connection with the Federation of Australia. As member of the Minerva Club, Clark was the centre of a group of intellectuals accustomed to debating great issues of the day. He was Attorney General when the University Bill was passed in late 1889. Although he did not draft the Bill himself, Clark was sympathetic and worked extremely hard to ensure the secularity of the new institution. Clark was still Attorney General in 1895 when the Braddon Government decided that it could no longer afford a teaching university and attempted to cut the grant to the University of Tasmania to virtually nothing. Clark opposed his own government on the issue and eventually, the Legislative Council insisted on the restoration of most of the original grant and the Braddon Government acquiesced. In June 1901, the University Council elected Clark, then a puisne judge, as the University’s Vice-Chancellor. During his period in office, the University faced another attempt by parliament to destroy its existence by cutting off its funding. Clark worked tirelessly with others — successfully re-using the arguments put in earlier crises by his predecessor, James Backhouse Walker. Andrew Inglis Clark was one of Tasmania’s most distinguished politicians, lawyers and intellectuals.

1910’s

Professor Alexander McAulay —was appointed as the first lecturer of mathematics and physics at the University of Tasmania in 1893, and in 1896, the first professor in the discipline. He was born at Luton, Bedfordshire, England and the famous mathematician Francis Sowerby McAuley was an elder brother. Alexander McAuley, with Professor E G Hogg, carried out a magnetic survey of Tasmania in 1900-01. He compiled a pocket volume, Five-figure logarithmic and other tables (London, 1909), which was remarkable for the amount of information it contained, and it was used by scientists and engineers for at least fifty years. In his later years he published several papers on relativity. When failing eyesight hampered his research he adapted the Braille system to include his complex mathematical notation. Professor McAuley was a distinguished scientist and among his numerous achievements was his pioneering role in the evolution of hydro-electricity. He studied the flow and fall of water from Great Lake on the family property, Kanna Leena, at Shannon in central Tasmania. As a consequence of his work and advocacy, the first major hydro-electric station was completed at Waddamana, close to the property, in 1916.

1920’s

Professor Douglas Copland was a leading authority in Australia on currency prices, finance and the statistical side of economics. Sir Douglas taught history and economics at the University of Tasmania from 1917-1923. He was committed to broadening the role of economics, particularly in public affairs and was a leading commentator and adviser to state and federal governments. Sir Douglas chaired the federal committee that formulated the 1931 Premiers Plan, which helped to lift Australia out of the depression. He continued as an economic adviser to the federal government until the end of World War II before going on to hold many prestigious positions, including one as Ambassador to China and first Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University. He established the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in 1960. His other numerous achievements include his position as the first holder of the Sidney Myer Chair in Commerce at Melbourne University.

1930’s

Professor Leicester McAulay the brilliant son of Alexander McAuley and a distinguished physicist in his own right was educated at Hutchins and the Cambridge and Manchester Universities. He lectured in Physics from 1922 and was appointed to the position of Chair of Physics in 1927. He blazed new trails in physics and built up the research capacity of the Department. The topics of particle physics, cosmic radiation and metal surface electrochemistry were included among his early publications. He became interested in biophysics in the 1930’s at a time when most physicists felt that their field of study did not extend beyond the inanimate world. He encouraged the establishment of experimental stations in Antarctica, Macquarie Island, New Guinea and around Tasmania. In 1940 when Australia had no optical industry and was suffering from a paucity of components for military equipment Professor McAuley was permitted to carry out military optical work in his laboratory. It proved to be a most remarkable period in the war. McAuley, working with FD Cruickshank, Associate Professor of Physics, very quickly established an optical annexe and recruited senior students as staff. They not only performed vital war work, but also broke new ground in optical astronomy. Within months McAuley’s team was producing precision prisms and lenses for gun-sights and cameras. He and his co-workers developed an entirely new method of lens design. The Department’s subsequent national eminence in both optical and radio astronomy reflects the genius of Leicester McAuley.

1940’s

Sir Roland Wilson was born at Ulverstone and educated at Devonport High School and the University of Tasmania. He was the 1925 Rhodes Scholar and the first state high school boy to win the award. He attained a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford and a second doctorate at the University of Chicago. He went on to become one of Australia’s most prominent economists of the mid 20th century, dominating economic policy-making, and holding many of the Commonwealth’s top positions. He was the youngest head of a national statistical agency in the world. Sir Roland was instrumental in the rebuilding of the economic structure in Australia after the World War II. He established and directed the Federal Department of Labour and National Service early in his career. Sir Roland was secretary to the Commonwealth Treasury from 1951 to 1966 after serving as Commonwealth statistician and economic adviser to the Treasury. He served as a counsellor in the Australian Legation and later in the embassy in Washington. Sir Roland made a significant contribution to the economic clauses of the United Nations Charter as well as to the establishment of a foundation of Australian-United States economic cooperation in the 1940’s. He was Chairman of Qantas and of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation. Sir Roland was one of the few people to be knighted twice, once in 1954 and also awarded the KBE in 1965.

Joyce Eileen Phillips (nee Eyre) was appointed Lecturer in English at the University in 1946, the first woman appointed to a full-time teaching position within the English Department. She held this post until her untimely death in October 1950. During the five years of her appointment at the University, she founded and directed the Glebe Theatre Players, a group within the English Department that provided practical training for students studying drama texts. Of national significance was her introduction of the teaching of Australian literature at the University. She is now recognised as one of the country’s pioneers in the teaching of this subject at tertiary level. The extensive nature of the course and the depth of study expected made it the most significant study of Australian literature undertaken by any University in the country at that time. As such, it received national attention and support. She was also a foundation member of the Tasmanian Branch of the Fellowship of Australian writers. Joyce Phillips was an associate of Professor Morris Miller and was compiling an anthology of Tasmanian poetry at the time of her death. She and Professor Morris Miller established a tradition within this University of scholars, poets and writers such as James McAuley, Vivian Smith, Laurie Hergenhan, Margaret Scott, Lucy Frost and Philip Mead who have contributed significantly to Australian literature, both as writers and teachers.

1950’s

Professor Sam Carey AO, FAA took up the Foundation Chair in Geology at the University of Tasmania in October 1946. He came to the University with a well-established reputation as a geologist with drive and vision. He was a graduate of the University of Sydney with first class honours in Geology. He gained a M.Sc in 1933 and a Ph.D in Science in 1939. Following his military duties during the Second World War he was appointed as Government Geologist of Tasmania. He took to that position his undoubted ability for organisation and in his short term in that office undertook a reassessment of the geology of Tasmania resulting in a new synthesis particularly of the geology of the metalliferous regions of western Tasmania. As Professor of Geology, Sam Carey rapidly established himself as an enthusiastic, stimulating and innovative teacher. He enthused and challenged his students. He encouraged them to take off the ‘blinkers of dogma’, to pursue the evidence, to be critical, but at the same time, be original. His lectures have been described as ‘electrifying’. He attracted students from all over the world — many of whom have gone on to achieve eminence in their own right. Professor Carey continued to pursue his geological interests in the broad structure and evolution of the Earth. From his student days he had been impressed with the evidence for continental drift — an unorthodox idea for almost two thirds of the twentieth century. He assessed the evidence carefully and found flaws in the then current idea of the fixity of continents. He spoke, wrote and organised symposia on the ‘drift’ idea in Tasmania, other parts of Australia and overseas. Professor Sam Carey has won many honours — been invited to lecture to the premier geological organisation in Australia and overseas, been awarded honorary membership of prominent overseas geological bodies, holds medals from scientific bodies from around the globe. Within Australia he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1977 and later elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Carey brought enlightenment and stimulation to his students, changed peoples’ perception of the Earth and its history within a wide geographic range.

1960’s

Professor Harry Bloom eminent scientist and anti-pollution trailblazer, graduated with a MSc from the University of Melbourne and received a PhD from London University and a DSc from the University of Melbourne. He had been associate professor at Auckland before being appointed as Head of Chemistry and Professor of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Tasmania in 1960 — a position he held until his retirement in 1981. He served the university in many capacities, including holding the position of dean of the faculty of science, and as a member of the University Council. A keen conservationist, he was, at the time of his appointment, already a world authority on the physical chemistry of molten salt systems. Working in Hobart with his active research group, he further contributed to both pure and applied knowledge in this field. In the 1970’s he turned his attention to environmental chemistry and in particular to the problems posed by heavy metal pollution in air, land and sea. He developed trace-metal analytical methods and initiated monitoring programs. Professor Bloom’s studies on the Derwent River were one of the most significant contributions to chemistry in Australia. When he made his work on the Derwent River public in the 1970’s his findings were dismissed. He took that criticism head-on and worked tirelessly over the next 15 or so years to convince industry and government of the need to change the practices that had caused serious damage. That the Derwent River is now close to its former pristine state is due to the work of Professor Bloom.

Dr Winfred Curtis was born in England and graduated from University College, London. While teaching in England she carried out botanical research leading to a MSc degree before immigrating to Tasmania in 1939. In Tasmania she taught, wrote and lectured while conducting research that led to PhD and DSc degrees. She also became involved in two major projects, The Students Flora of Tasmania and The Endemic Flora of Tasmania — the former taking more than 40 years to complete and considered to be the definitive work on the topic. In 1939 she was appointed to the academic staff of the University of Tasmania becoming only the second woman to hold such a position. In the same year she was also appointed Science Mistress at Fahan School and initiated the teaching of elementary science. She found it frustrating to use textbooks that described only British plants and animals, so she wrote a text at School Certificate level, Biology for Australian Students, published in 1948 with three revised editions to 1962. The book served a generation of students. Winifred Curtis is renowned for her contributions not only to botanical research but also to teaching in general and particularly to the advancement of women in education.

Mr Peter Byers a graduate of the Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, came to the University of Tasmania in 1968 having held teaching positions in New Zealand and mainland Australia. He served as President of both the local Staff Association and FAUSA before being seconded in 1980 to assist in the integration of Mount Nelson College of Advanced Education. In 1984 he became the University’s Business Manager and four year later, Deputy Principal. He made a huge contribution to the development of physical resources benefiting both the University and the broader community. He played a major role in the acquisition, development and establishment of facilities like the CRC and CSIRO building for Temperate Hardwood Forestry. Others, like the Centenary building, Life Sciences extension and refurbishment, the Commerce and Economics building, the University Farm and its development, the Jones Building conversion to the Art School, the University telescope at Cambridge and student housing. He also made a significant contribution toward the encouragement of art as a discipline and its display in public places — the University’s exemplary contemporary art collection is largely due to his efforts. Mr Byers played a pivotal role in the formation of the Essential Oils of Tasmania Company — incorporated to commercialise R&D undertaken by the University — and considered a revolutionary step at the time.

1970’s

Dr Richard Jones the distinguished environmentalist was born at Sarina, near Mackay in Queensland. He graduated as Bachelor of Science and gained his Masters at the University of Queensland. He achieved a PhD in Botany at the University of Melbourne. He was appointed senior lecturer in Botany at the University of Tasmania early in 1970. The Department of Environmental Studies was created later that year. In 1974 a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science was established and Dr Jones became a part-time coordinator. He was appointed Director in 1978. He was heavily involved in a campaign that changed the course of Australian history — the campaign to save Lake Pedder from inundation. Although unsuccessful, it was the basis of the national effort that later saved the Franklin River and established Tasmania’s World Heritage Area. He chaired the turbulent meeting in Hobart Town Hall, which established the United Tasmania Group in 1972. He was elected President of the UTG — a position he held through to 1979. The formation of the United Tasmania Group was a landmark in ecological history. It was the world first Green Party, preceding Britain’s Ecology Party of 1976 and Germany’s Die Grunen of 1978. During the time of the Pedder protests Dr Jones also became a Vice-President and later a life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He took a leading role in converting that organisation into the nation’s major environmental body. As the foundation director of the Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania, he helped position the Centre into one with enormous stature nationally and internationally.

Professor Jean Norelle Lickiss —a graduate of the University of Sydney and a consultant physician, was appointed lecturer in the department of medicine at the University of Tasmania in August 1970, to join Professor Albert Baikie and Dr Graham Macleod in the further development of the undergraduate course. Her interests were especially in cancer medicine and research related to cancer in Tasmania. This was combined with an interest in the community dimensions of medicine, fostered by her doctorate research in the health of the Aboriginal people of Sydney, undertaken in 1968-70, with the help of aboriginal leaders including the late Eileen Lester, Shirley Smith and Charles Perkins. The program of teaching in the department of medicine, with the leadership and encouragement of Professor Baikie, soon included community based student research as well as course work in community medicine. It also included innovative programs including teaching on the clinical aspects of the care of dying patients: an interest in international dimensions of health, especially in developing countries, was also aroused in the students. Professor Lickiss went to PNG as teacher and physician during vacations in mid 70's to assist the few staff remaining after independence. The untimely death of Professor Baikie in October 1975 led to Norelle Lickiss being Acting Head of Medicine for 18 months, at the same time as taking up the Foundation Chair of Community Health. During this time, she sought to broaden the conceptual base of medicine, clinical and community. She became, especially concerned (after a period of study leave in Israel in 1980), with the role of doctors as advocates of the weak in society, and with the ethical failures of the profession in early 20th Century in Europe. In 1985, Norelle Lickiss was appointed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, as Director of Palliative Care, initially within the Dept of Cancer Medicine under the headship of Professor Martin Tattersall (and subsequently was appointed Clinical Professor (Medicine), University of Sydney), with a conjoint appointment to UNSW. Registrars from 1987 sought training in palliative medicine in such numbers that a network of positions was established initially in Central Sydney and the Sydney Institute of Palliative Medicine emerged. The developments of this institute reflect the areas of emphasis seen in the Tasmanian period. Precise clinical medicine, energetic teaching, a commitment to the humanities, and to the international dimensions of medicine (expressed especially in WHO consultancy and teaching concerning cancer pain relief in China, and serving as Visiting Professor in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan). She was one of the two Western speakers at a major medical symposium celebrating the coming of Western thought to Japan 400 years previously. She remains basically a clinician and clinical teacher; her particular clinical interests have become focussed in palliative care for women with gynaecologic cancer, concurrent with anti-cancer treatment, and her considerable influence has been exercised internationally.

Mr Michael Mansell is a passionate and incredibly driven advocate of the Aboriginal people in Australia, and particularly in Tasmania. A graduate in Law from the University of Tasmania, he has been a practising lawyer with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for more than sixteen years and is its Legal Manager. At the same time he has maintained his involvement in broader Aboriginal issues. His contribution to the political landscape of Tasmania is significant and his role as a key negotiator in the Living Marine Resources Management Bill 1995 (Tas) resulted in a positive outcome for Tasmanian Aborigines. He also played a pivotal role in the decision to return 0.06 percent of the landmass of Tasmania to Tasmanian Aborigines with the passage of the Aboriginal Lands Bill. Michael Mansell is one of the founding members of the Aboriginal Provisional Government, and he continues to campaign strongly on national and Tasmanian Aboriginal issues. He was instrumental in the successful campaign to have Aboriginal remains returned from Europe and the United States and in having Australian Aboriginal input to the international policy on indigenous rights through the United Nations in Geneva. He continues to be involved in ensuring that rights under the Mabo decision are not diluted by government legislation. Michael Mansell’s people are Trawlwoolway on his mother’s side and Pinterairrer on his father’s side. Both tribes are traditional owners of the Lumaranatana region of North Eastern Tasmania.

1980’s

Professor Stephen Fitzgerald — a graduate in History and English from the University of Tasmania, Professor Fitzgerald took his doctorate in International Relations from the Australian National University and subsequently studied Chinese Language and Literature. He is well-known as Australia’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and has spent thirty years developing the experience, business associations, political networks and cultural insight that make him one of Australia’s foremost authorities on Asia. Professor Fitzgerald was concurrently Ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In recognition of Professor Fitzgerald’s work in Australia’s foreign relations he was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 1984. An extensive commitment to major policy and advisory committees is characterised by his appointment in 1991 as Co-Chairman of the Joint Policy Committee established under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of Indonesia and the Northern Territory to coordinate joint economic development. Professor Fitzgerald is currently Chairman of the Asia-Australia Institute at the University of New South Wales.

Dr Peter Dunn was a Bachelor of Science with Honours and Doctor of Science graduate of the University of Tasmania and one of its most outstanding graduates. Born at Smithton, he spent his childhood in the Arthur River area before moving to Burnie to complete his secondary education at the Burnie High School. His career has been notable for the excellence of his research and his service to the wider national and international community. He was a distinguished Australian who made major contributions to world peace, and showed considerable courage in his efforts in disarmament activities in Iraq on behalf of the United Nations. Prior to his involvement in chemical disarmament Dr Dunn made an important contribution to polymer science in his work at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. In the 1980’s he was asked to be a member of a team to visit Iran and Iraq to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in the war between those two countries. In 1991 he was appointed Chief Inspector, United Nations Special Commission, to lead the first international team of specialists into Iraq. He became Commissioner to the United Nations Special Commission and Coordinator, Chemical and Biological Weapons Working Group. His many honours include the award of an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (its highest honour), an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia, the award of the ANZAC Peace Price and the award of the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct. Peter Dunn helped facilitate change for the well-being of humanity. The University awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws in 1997.

1990’s

Professor Terry Dwyer arrived in Tasmania in 1985 from Sydney where he had worked as a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney. Previously he had studied at Yale and worked at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and the CSIRO Division of Human Nutrition, Adelaide. Professor Dwyer made a significant contribution to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) research through the Centre's first study that identified a link between sleeping position and SIDS. This finding and the subsequent fall in the SIDS rate in Australia and overseas, was recognised as one of the 10 major contributions by the Prime Minister's Science and Engineering Council in 1994. In addition, the research was recognised as one of Australia's 13 most significant medical research achievements this century by a National Health and Medical Research Council report published in the prestigious international journal 'Lancet'. The Menzies Centre now holds data on 11,000 Tasmanian babies in its Tasmanian Infant Health Survey compiled as part of the SIDS research. More than 400 pieces of information have been collected on each mother and child. While this database is continuing to contribute to the understanding of the causes of SIDS, Professor Dwyer and the Menzies Centre's researchers continue to use the data to search for ways to prevent other significant diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and asthma.

Professor Kate Warner is a graduate of the University of Tasmania. She was appointed to a lectureship in 1981 and in 1992 she was elected as Dean of Law, the first woman Dean of Law in the history of the University. She was made a professor in 1996. She has been an active campaigner on many issues of law reform. In the 1980’s she prepared papers and reports for the Law Reform Commission on rape law reform, lobbied and advised politicians and spoke publicly on many occasions advocating change which included the abolition of marital rape immunity and other reforms which sough to ameliorate the position of the rape victim in the criminal justice system. After legislation was passed in 1987 she continued to urge further changes in the law. In the 1990’s was involved in the movement for gay law reform and was adviser to the Greens in the drafting of reforms that resulted in the most liberal laws in relation to homosexuality in Australia. She has continued her research and work in the area of sexual offences and in her writing and teaching has endeavoured to challenge the meaning of rape in an effort to achieve change by changing social attitudes as well as merely changing the law. Other areas in which she has worked for change include restrictions on the availability of guns, reform of the laws in relation to child witnesses, abortion and juvenile justice. In addition she has acknowledged as an expert in the area of sentencing law and has published widely in this area.



These profiles were compiled with information and assistance generously provided by:

Professor Richard Davis

Professor Michael Roe

Mr Graham Foster

Mr Ralph Spaulding

Professor Robert Menary

Dr Alf Hagger

Dr Peter Smith

Dr Bruce Scott

Dr Max Banks

Ms Eilis Rae

Dr Bob Brown M.H.A.

The Hon. Justice Pierre Slicer

Miss Rhonda Ewart

Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment

Tasmanian Trustees Limited

Professor Arthur Sale

The Menzies Centre

Information was also sourced from the following publications:

Togatus

University of Tasmania Calendars and Examination Papers

Open To Talent The Centenary History of the University of Tasmania — Professor Davis

Tasmania 2010 Forum papers

Graduates In The Community a University of Tasmania publication

The Mercury Newspaper

Australian Dictionary of Biography Melbourne University Press

Aspects of Tasmanian Botany — A tribute to Winifred Curtis — Published by the Royal Society of Tasmania — A Biographical Sketch by Gintaras Kantvilas

Essays on the Mabo Decision