Christmas is a time for giving. Many do not realise that each year the Menzies Centre, via its various studentship, scholarship and fellowship schemes across all academic disciplines brings about a dozen Australians to Britain and sends about ten Britons to Australia. In addition, we bring two or three continental Australianists to London to use our resources. These routine activities of the Centre normally go unsung, but they are very important, and they certainly bring cheer to lots of people and not just the lucky winners.
Recently I have had cause to calculate for the Australian government how much their annual grant is leveraged by other fund-raising and by expenditure that passes through the Centre. I was gratfied to discover that, in sheer financial terms, the Centre leverages the grant by five times. And, arguably, in terms of influence and outreach (eg through the students of our fellows, or through the media), is multiplied several times more.
The Centre, indeed, is about to reach out for another new audience in the Telstra Australian Updates briefings, the first of which will be held in January. These briefings aim at giving people in the business world informed analysis of the Australian political, economic and business scenes. They are an exciting new venture for us.
In February, Associate Professor Jeffrey Grey, from the Australian Defence Force Academy, will deliver the 1998 Trevor Reese Memorial Lecture. His subject is the writing of official military history -- an intellectual minefield if there ever was one. Knowing Professor Grey as I do, I'm sure there'll be plenty of fireworks.
Finally, I am delighted to announce that Emeritus Professor Joan Rydon, who has been a friend of the Centre since its inception, has proposed to establish from January a Rydon Fellowship in Australian Political History. The first Rydon Fellow will be Dr Bernard Attard, who is currently the Centre's half-time lecturer -- the fellowship will account for the other half of his time. On behalf of everyone connected to the Centre, I should like to thank Professor Rydon most sincerely for her most generous and timely gift.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all from all of us here.
Since September 1997 the following have been academic visitors at the Menzies Centre
From Carl Bridge's diary --
September: had talks with Professor David Robinson, Vice-Chancellor of Monash University; was interviewed by BBC for a Discovery programme on Burke and Wills; spoke on Manning Clark at the EASA conference in Klagenfurt, Austria; acted as external assessor for the Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin.
October: lunched with Geoff Walls, Agent-General for South Australia; attended the opening of the School of Advanced Study, University of London, by the Chancellor, HRH the Princess Royal; spoke on Australia in the Great War to the Military History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London; lunched with Jim Potts, Director of the British Council in Australia.
November: attended the 'Welsh in Australia' conference at the University of Wales, Lampeter; spoke on Australia and the Vietnam War to the International History Seminar, Christ's College, Cambridge; opened the one-day conference on 'Three Hundred Years of Science in the Pacific', which was jointly sponsored by the Menzies Centre and Pacific Circle; spoke on Australian Immigration and on Simon Schama as Historian to classes at University College, Cork; lunched with Alistair Niven, Head of the Literature, British Council; met with Professor Wray Vamplew of de Montfort University to discuss a joint conference on Australian and British Sport; chaired the Bicentennial Scholarships and Fellowships Committee and the Laporte Scholarship Committee.
December: visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Archive in Hyde Park, New York, and the United States National Archive in Washington to do research on Australian-United States relations in the Second World War; visited the Georgetown University Centre for Australian and New ZealandStudies in Washington.
Bernard Attard started work at the Menzies Centre on 29 September. In October, he represented Carl Bridge at a British Council lunch to welcome six Australian writers touring Britain as part of the newImages Australian-British writers' exchange; he attended the opening of the new premises of the School of Advanced Study by the Chancellor of the University of London, HRH The Princess Royal; he met the Director of the Australia & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce UK, which is supporting the 'Australian Updates' briefings; and addressed a large group of British teachers going on exchange in 1998 to schools and colleges in Australia under the auspices of the League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers. In November, he attended 'The Welsh in Australia' one-day conference at the University of Wales, Lampeter and held regular meetings with Telstra UK in connection with 'Australian Updates'. He gave interviews to BBC World Service and Radio 5 Live on native title issues in October and December respectively, and provided background information to Greater London Radio. In early December, he attended a reception given by the Public Affairs Branch in the Australian High Commission
In September the public service visiting fellow, John Ryan, chaired the OECD Industry Committee meeting. In October he convened a highly succesful international conference on raising economic growth rates. The conference was held at Senate House and had speakers and participants from Australia Europe and North America. John was also involved in high level discussions in the UK and Ireland with Russell Higgins, Secretary, Australian Department of Industry, Science and Tourism. In November John gave a seminar on lessons for Australia from the recent Irish economic success. Also in November he chaired the extraordinary meeting for the OECD Industry Committee for the preparations of the forthcoming Ministerial meeting in February.
A major international conference on industry development strategies for raising economic growth rates was organised by the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies on 21 October. International speakers included Don Johnston, OECD Secretary General; Professor Luc Soete, MERIT, Maastricht University; Cecile Chicoye, French Ministry for Economics, Finance and Industry and permanent secretaries from industry departments -- Russell Higgins (Australia); Michael Scholar (UK) and Paul Haran (Ireland). The issues discussed were industry globalisation and its impact on growth, the policy agendas to stimulate growth and the balancing of community equity issues with the growth objective. Globalisation of industries was recognised as one of today's major forces of economic change. The most successful economies will be those that best adapt to globalisation. Success will depend in part on communities seeing the benefits of change and embracing it. The speakers agreed that countries cannot shield themselves from the impact of globalisation. It was agreed that macroeconomic policies alone will not produce the highest growth rates. Countries need to improve their competitiveness and policies need to focus on this objective. Increasingly countries want to develop activities that are higher value added and knowledge intensive. Improving labour skills, removing impediments to investment, encouraging innovation and enhancing markets were some of the strategies identified. Importantly solutions will often involve ministries other than industry departments. Hence success will depend on how effectively policies are coordinated. The proceedings from the colloquium will be published in early 1998.
Ruth Brown, Research Associate, arranges the Aotearoa/New Zealand seminar at The Insitute of Commonwealth Studies, and she wishes that Australianists and students of New Zealand would talk to one another more. Increasing political and economic links between the two countries appear to have strengthened, rather than diminished, New Zealand's insistence on a separate national identity and Australia's propensity to ignore its smaller neighbour. A one-day conference in October on Australian and New Zealand Cinema aimed to bring Australasian cultural commentators together. Bruce Bennett from ADFA most directly addressed the question of cross-cultural influences in his discussion of the anthologies of Australian and New Zealand film by George Miller and Sam Neill. Other speakers included Brian McFarlane, who talked about 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' and the "debilitating tastefulness" which it cast over Australian film, and Maggie Taylor, who showed that the industry had emerged from Hanging Rock's long shadow in her paper on Performance and Sexuality in 'The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert', and 'Strictly Ballroom'. The cross-Tasman theme cannot be said to have dominated discussion: it was reflected, nevertheless, in the serving of Australian and New Zealand wines in equal quantities.
Ruth's publications in 1997 include Cultural Questions: New Zealand Identity in a Transnational Age published by Kakapo Books UK in the series Studies in New Zealand Culture, and 'Maori Writing Contextualized' in Under Review (Whitireia Publishing, NZ 1997). She has also reviewed Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand for The Round Table, and Michael Wilding, Studies in Classic Australian Fiction, for Modern Language Review.
Carl Bridge, Jane Samson and Philip F. Rehbock (visiting from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa) hosted 'Three Centuries of Science in the Pacific', a one-day conference, on 27 November with sponsorship from the Pacific Circle for the History of Science. This was the first Pacific Circle event to be held in the UK, and we hope it will inspire other seminars and conferences on the Pacific region! Its informal atmosphere, excellent catering (thanks to Paula Symons, Kirsten McIntyre and Edel Mahony), and superb Australian wine (thanks to Carl Bridge and the Centre) helped the conversation to flow.
The speakers were (in order of appearance) Jane Samson (ICS) on missionary ethnography in the south Pacific; Elizabeth Edwards (Pitt Rivers Museum) on the photography of the Cambridge Torres Strait Expedition; Ken Orchard (University of Wollongong and National Gallery of Australia) on J.W. Lindt's photographs of Aborigines; Arthur Lucas (King's, London) on the Mueller Project; Sara Joynes (National Library of Australia) and Queensland Heritage Retrieval Project) on sources for the history of Pacific science; Andrew Lambert (King's, London) on the Pacific/Asia origins of geostrategic thought; Glyndwr Williams (Queen Mary & Westfield) on the problem of scurvy; and Patricia Fara (Darwin College, Cambridge) on masculinity and identity in the portraiture of Joseph Banks.
Abstracts of the papers, and more information about the Pacific Circle, will be published in the next issue of the Bulletin of the Pacific Circle, and on the Circle's website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~frehbock/pcn/pcn.html. Anyone with suggestions about future seminars or conferences with a Pacific theme, and not only in the history of science, is welcome to contact Jane Samson at [email protected].
"In Wales there was almost an entire ignorance of the colony ... " (Mr John Robyns to the Colonial Secretary of NSW the Hon. Henry Parkes, 22 September 1873, reported in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian 6 December 1873).
Mentioning a research interest in emigration from Wales to Australia in the nineteenth century elicits the usual response of "Was there any ?" Anyone present at the one day conference on 1 November 1997 at Lampeter in Wales on Welsh migration to Australia would have perhaps been surprised at the level of research activity in an area which ten years ago was in its infancy. The conference, held by the Centre for Australian Studies in Wales at University of Wales, Lampeter presented current research, shared resources and posed questions as to future directions.
After a welcome by Dr Graham Sumner (Lampeter), Dr Bill Jones (University of Wales, Cardiff) opened the day with a paper which surveyed the history and historiography of the Welsh in Australia. Lesley Walker (Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Sydney) focussed on nineteenth century Welsh women's experiences of migration and Debbie Zeraschi (University of Wales, Cardiff) continued with an examination of the notion of exile in the work and experiences of Welsh poet and academic T. Harri Jones who emigrated to NSW in the 1960s.
That numbers of Welsh people emigrated in the nineteenth century to Patagonia is well-known. What is less well-known is that in the early twentieth century a number subsequently emigrated from Patagonia to Australia. Using archival sources and oral testimonies, Dr Michele Langfield (Deakin University, Victoria) explored their motivations for relocation and experiences of resettlement in NSW and WA. As UK co-ordinator of the Queensland Heritage Retrieval Project, Sara Joynes gave an overview of Welsh settlement in Queensland and outlined the project to locate, collect and document sources on Queensland's history which may be hidden in the UK.
The conference concluded with a Research Forum where the speakers discussed resources and future directions for research in this area. The need for comparative studies with other groups of emigrants from the UK and also with other groups of Welsh immigrants in for example, Canada and USA, was identified as important for future studies.
Overall the conference was a great success in bringing together researchers in the field and providing an opportunity for work in progress to be presented and shared. The importance to both British and Australian history of the sorts of detailed studies on migration which are being undertaken should not be overlooked. Migration studies locate Australian history and experiences in an international context, linking societies and to some extent overcoming what has been described as 'the isolation of Australian history'; for Britain, the studies and the detailed sources on which they are based, can provide a window into aspects of British society and culture which have been long overlooked. By Lesley Walker
Newswletter on Australian literary culture (please send us information about conferences and other events)
3rd number of "Terra Austalis Italia". Articles on any Australian subject, 3,500 words in Italian or English for translation into Italian.
Enquiries:
BASA Postgraduate Conference on Australian Studies University of Leeds, Friday 27 March 1998
Participation and offers of papers are invited from those working on Australian literature, history, geography, cultural studies, visual and performing arts, etc. The aim is to bring students with diverse interests together to discuss research, ideas and developments in the field of Australian Studies.
Offers of papers for the conference should be submitted by 5 January, 1998, and must include a title and a brief abstract of up to 100 words. Proposals and queries should be directed to the following address;
The 1998 British Australian Studies Association Conference University of Wales, Lampeter, -6 September 1998.
This conference will address the range of cultural/environmental interactions which have moulded Australian cultural and physical environments as the continent approaches the millennium.
Further details from:
Warwick University, 6-8 February 1998
'Going Australian: Reconfiguring Feminism and Philosophy' is the first forum for many of the voices of Australian feminist philosophy to be heard together in Europe. This major international conference, to be held at Warwick University, 6-8 February 1998, will feature many key feminist philosophers and theorists who will be flying over specially from Australia, New Zealand and France to participate. 'Going Australian' will be an important event in the dialogue between European philosophy and contemporary Australian thought. The conference, which is open to both men and women, will be opened on Friday 6 February by a Public Lecture to be given by the distinguished philosopher, Professor Genevieve Lloyd (University of New South Wales), entitled 'No-One's Land: Australia and the Philosophical Imagination'.
For further details of the conference, the public lecture and the celebratory reception in the Mead Gallery, contact the Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL; e-mail: [email protected]
The following have been awarded Northcote Graduate Scholarships:
The following have been awarded Australian Bicentennial Scholarships and Fellowships to travel to the UK:
The Laporte Scholarship has been awarded to Aaron Micallef, Chemistry, Queensland University of Technology.
On 25 March, the Menzies Centre will hold a symposium on the Constitutional Convention which will meet in Canberra in February to discuss whether, when and how Australia should become a republic. The symposium will review the convention and analyse the principal isses that it raises. Speakers will include Dr Neal Blewett, Australian High Commissioner In London. Please contact the Menzies Centre for further details.
The Menzies Centre History Studentships commenced in September with Susan Blake taking up a place for the 1997 academic year in the Department of History at Queen Mary &Westfield; College in the University of London. Susan is a BA/LLB student in her second year at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, and at last report had taken QMW by storm.
The Studentship allows Australian BA students majoring in history in an Australian university who are entering at least second semester of their second year a free place in second/third year History tenable at either QMW or King's College, London. They are also provided with access to the student halls of residence. The units they complete are credited towards their Australian degrees.
In the new year, the Menzies Centre will advertise at least two further Studentships at London University tenable in the 1998 academic year.
In October, Emeritus Professor Joan Rydon announced that she would be providing a bequest to the University of London to create the annual Rydon Fellowship in Australian Political History tenable at the Menzies Centre. Prior to the completion of the formal bequest, Professor Rydon has made a donation to the Menzies Centre to allow the appointment of the current half-time lecturer in Australian Studies as the first Rydon Fellow from January 1998. Professor Rydon held a Chair in Politics at La Trobe University in 1975-89. She has been associated with the Menzies Centre as an occasional Visiting Fellow since its inception and been an active participant at the Australia Seminar. Her generosity in endowing the Rydon Fellowship will contribute substantially to maintaining Australian Studies as a strong presence in London and has been warmly received by everyone associated with the Menzies Centre.
Seminars are to be held on Wednesdays at 5.30 pm (unless otherwise
indicated) in the Menzies Room, 28 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DS.
Tel: 0171-580 5876
Fax: 0171-580 9627
email: [email protected]
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
* Joint meeting with the Commonwealth History/Decolonization seminar
** Contact Kirsten McIntyre for details, tel: 0171-580 5876
Organisers: Professor Carl Bridge and Dr Bernard Attard (SRMCAS)