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Issue 39 * November 1996
London's autumnal mood of the past week - bringing if not mists and mellow fruitfulness, at least blue skies and yellowing leaves quietly adrift - seems to be gone for good. Thick grey cloud sits just above the treetops, rain sluices across the tops of the dawdling red buses and traffic coils itself into irritable knots all round the square. Valedictory weather, as I live and breathe! And so 'Vale' it better be, without too much fuss or pomposity.
The Menzies Centre has always had an impact and an influence out of all proportion to its size - at any given time there have rarely been more than two or three highly versatile figures busily pulling the strings and organising the scenery behind a deceptive facade of calm. But the names add up over the years: Kate, Rob, David, Tom, Nick, Libby, Michael, Kirsten, Lou . . . Counting me in, we're one short of a cricket team. And, if it comes to that, it's been a very good innings which I've enjoyed immensely and which, I hope, has made some significant contribution to Australian Studies in Europe and Britain and to Australia's image generally. (Attempts to continue the cricket metaphor foundered amidst platitudes about 'runs on the board', 'despatching to the boundary', etc, hence its rather wimpish abandonment; another minute and I'd have been talking about the great scoreboard of life).
I am very grateful for the steadfast backing of our large constituency in both hemispheres; and for the unstinting support and collaboration of Professor Bob O'Neill and the two ICS Directors with whom I have worked - Professor Shula Marks and Professor James Manor. And I especially thank, for their loyalty, friendship and quite gigantic achievements, my staff in the past four years - Kate Darian-Smith, David Lowe, Nick Economou and Tom Griffiths. There are far too many others to name individually and I'll be seeing many of them personally anyway in the next few weeks, but I must mention two more: first, the person whose name is familiar to everyone who has any connection with the Centre, the indispensable, unflappable Kirsten McIntyre, without whom . . . well, it doesn't bear thinking about; and second, H.E. Dr Neal Blewett, High Commissioner for Australia, who has been an absolutely magnificent supporter of all our ventures and an influential adviser and advocate through thick and thin.
So that's it. It was wonderful. Over to you, Carl. If you enjoy it all as much as I did - and I'm sure you will - you're in for a great experience.
Brian Matthews
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BTR SPONSORSHIP
We are pleased to announce that BTR plc has become a major sponsor of the Menzies Centre's publications programme. As the premier Australian overseas study centre, the Menzies Centre has pioneered a number of formats for bringing Australian scholarship and perspectives to non-Australian audiences. These include:
We are grateful that BTR's sponsorship will enable aspects of this publications program to be maintained.Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies
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Brian Matthews
On 15 August, Professor Matthews attended a farewell for Victorian Agent-General, Ken Crompton, who was a strong supporter of the Centre during his time in London. From 30 August to 1 September he attended the BASA Conference, Comparing Australia, at Stirling University, where he gave the final Plenary Address - a paper entitled 'Millennarian Anxieties: The Australian Case'.
On Friday 6 September he was the lunch guest of Professor Jarlath Ronayne, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University, Melbourne. On 18 September, in his familiar role as 'Literary Links' Master of Ceremonies for the last time, he introduced poet, ecologist, farmer, and award-winning non-fiction writer, Eric Rolls. The following day, Professor Matthews formally opened the Centre's conference, Ecology and Empire: The Environmental History of Settler Societies (see elsewhere in this issue). Also on 19 September, with Menzies Committee Chairman, Michael Cook AO, he was invited to meet Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Mr Alexander Downer, at the office of the High Commissioner, to discuss the Centre's work and future. That evening he was a guest at a private viewing of the Will Dyson Exhibition at Australia House and on 20 September he attended an ABE luncheon at which Mr Downer spoke. On 30 September Professor Matthews chaired his last Northcote Graduate Scholarships meeting and later that afternoon hosted a farewell for Lou McSeveny, the Centre's popular and much-to-be-missed Publications Officer.
From 1 - 5 October he attended the official opening by Senator Margaret Reid of the Potsdam Australia Centre's permanent premises and then went on to the Frankfurt Book Fair. On 11 October he was visited by Mr John Ryan, who will be the Centre's Public Service Fellow in 1997-98 and later that day had discussions with Professor Neville Weston, West Australian Centre for The Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University, concerning arrangements for the continuance of the SRMCAS/WAAPA Visual Arts Fellowship. On 15 October he was an invited participant and adviser at a meeting of the planning committee for the 1997 Commonwealth Literature Prize celebrations; and later that day visited the Architects Association at the invitation of Mr Hugo Hinsley.
Professor Matthews will give the Menzies Lecture on 5 November and will lecture on Patrick White at the City Lit on 12 November and at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia, on 22 November. He will give a reading of his fiction to a meeting of the BASA Literature Group on 16 November. On 28 November he and his wife, Jane Arms, will attend a farewell function given by ICS Director, Professor James Manor, and a reception hosted by the High Commissioner on 4 December. Professor Matthews leaves for Australia on 16 December. He has been offered and has accepted a Professorial Fellowship at Victoria University in Melbourne for 1997 and will resume his Personal Chair in English at Flinders University, Adelaide, in 1998.
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Dr Tom Griffiths
In September, Tom Griffiths commenced teaching of the second and third year undergraduate course on the History of Australia, and also took a class in an MA course in Commonwealth History (Australia) offered by the Centre in association with King's College London. Tom coordinated the Autumn programme of the Australian Seminar at the Menzies Centre and organised the forthcoming 1997 Winter seminar programme.
Summer is often one of the busiest times at the Menzies Centre as it coincides with the mid-year semester break in Australia and many academic visitors from Australian universities base themselves here for periods from one to ten weeks or more. Throughout June, July and August, Tom and other Menzies Centre staff welcomed these visitors to London and the Centre. On 29 August, Tom and Dr Alan Platt led a party of twenty British Australian Studies Association (BASA) Conference delegates on a visit to the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, Scotland, where they viewed the world's oldest clipper ship, The City of Adelaide, which is currently undergoing restoration and interpretation. Director of the Museum, Jim Tildesley, warmly welcomed the visitors, and expressed his appreciation of this strong scholarly interest in his Museum and its evocative artefact, which is as much a part of Australian history as it is of the Scottish maritime past. From 30 August to 1 September, Tom attended the BASA Conference in Stirling, Scotland which addressed the theme of Comparing Australia (see report in this newsletter), and gave a paper entitled 'Parables from the Plains: Comparing environmental frontiers in Australia and the USA'.
From September 3 to 8, Tom made a brief and unexpected visit to Australia to attend a function at the Sydney Opera House where his book, Hunters and Collectors, was awarded the 'Book of the Year' prize at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and also the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. He also attended the announcement in Melbourne of the shortlists for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and read from his book at the New South Wales Spring Writers' Festival in Sydney. On 18 October, Hunters and Collectors was awarded the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. The book has also been shortlisted for the New Scientist/ Reed Books Eureka Science Book Prize administered by the Australian Museum in Sydney and to be announced on 14 November.
In mid-September, Tom was delighted to welcome Eric Rolls to London for his 'Literary Links' evening at Australia House on 18 September (see report in this newsletter). Eric's marvellous reading introduced the Menzies Centre's two-day conference on Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies on 19 and 20 September, at which Eric also spoke. Tom, together with Libby Robin, organised the conference and welcomed a very distinguished gathering of speakers and guests to London. A book from the conference is also planned, and a contract has been drawn up with Keele University Press. The book is expected to be published by Keele in mid-1997. On 20 September, as part of the Ecology and Empire conference, Eric Rolls launched - or actually 'declared open' - the UK edition of Tim Flannery's award-winning and best-selling ecological history, The Future Eaters. Tim Flannery was also a speaker at the conference. On 21 September, Brian Matthews and Jane Arms hosted a reception in honour of conference guests and the conference sponsor, Qantas (represented by Peter Roennfeldt, the Regional General Manager for UK and Ireland).
On 4 October, Tom attended a meeting of the British Australian Studies Asociation Executive, and on 14 October he attended the launch by Sir David Attenborough at the Fine Arts Society of a magnificent book on Tree Kangaroos by Tim Flannery, Roger Martin and Alexandra Szalay, illustrated by Peter Schouten. On 11 October he was interviewed by Stephanie Bunbury of the Melbourne Age about Hunters and Collectors, and on 17 October spoke to Doug Aiton of Radio 3L0 Melbourne about the book. At the end of October, Tom was invited to join an Australians Studying Abroad tour group during part of its time in Europe. In November, he looks forward to giving talks at two very active centres of scholarship in Australian studies, Lampeter in Wales and Stirling in Scotland.
Tom will be completing his term at the Menzies Centre in early December, and will be taking up a research fellowship in the History Program at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. He takes this opportunity to thank the many people in Britain and Europe who have made his two years in London a very happy and stimulating time. In particular he thanks Dr Alan Platt, the Menzies-Wilson and Gammell families, the executive of BASA, the staff of the Australian High Commission, the staff of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the many friends of the Menzies Centre, and the people he has worked with most closely in the Centre: David Lowe, Nick Economou, Louise McSeveny, Kirsten McIntyre and, above all, Professor Brian Matthews.
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NEW PUBLICATIONS
Order now from Kirsten McIntyre at the Menzies Centre (�7)
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SRMCAS NEWS
Introducing Professor Carl Bridge, the next Head of Centre
The Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies are delighted to announce that the next Head of Centre, taking up his appointment from January 1997, will be Professor Carl Bridge. Many people in London know Carl well, for he was the Lecturer here at the Centre in 1987-9, and has maintained a strong interest in its activities since, working with staff on conferences, giving seminars, and also maintaining scholarly links with staff of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Carl was also an active member of the executive of the British Australian Studies Association (BASA), and he looks forward to renewing that role.
Carl was educated at Fort Street School, Sydney University (BA) and Flinders University (PhD), tutored at Flinders (1977-81), was Official Historian of the State Library of South Australia (1981-3), lectured in history at the University of New England (1983-7), enjoyed an action-packed few years at the Centre in London, and then returned to the University of New England (Armidale, NSW) as Senior Lecturer and then Associate-Professor (1989-96). He maintained associations with Britain and the Centre through Visiting Fellowships at Clare Hall Cambridge and King's College London. His research interests include twentieth-century Australian political, diplomatic, military and cultural history; twentieth-century British imperial history and the history of political ideas. His books include Manning Clark (1994), Munich to Vietnam (1991), A Trunk Full of Books (1986), Holding India to the Empire (1986) and Revolution. A History of the Idea (1985). He is currently completing a book entitled War and Society in Twentieth Century Australia and is editing Russel Ward's Colonial Australia, as well as a volume called Between Empire and Nation: Australian External Relations, 1901-39.
Carl was born in Sydney, supports the Balmain Tigers, and describes himself as `an aging wicket-keeper' for the University of New England Veterans. His wife, Jenny, is a librarian, and they have three grown-up children who will be remaining in Australia at school and various universities. Carl is looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones. We wish him all the very best in his new position.
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'HUNTERS' COLLECTS
Tom Griffiths' book, Hunters and Collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia (Cambridge University Press), launched by David Lowenthal at the Menzies Centre in May, has recently received several literary awards in Australia. In September it was named `Book of the Year' at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and it also won the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. In October, Hunters and Collectors was awarded the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. In June it was shortlisted for the National Book Council `Banjo' Award for Australian Literature (Non-Fiction), and it has just been shortlisted for the New Scientist/Reed Books Eureka Science Book Prize administered by the Australian Museum in Sydney. The Science Book Prize will be announced in November.
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ASA sponsorship
Australians Studying Abroad, a very successful Australian company that represents an innovative and scholarly initiative in cultural tourism, has recently become a sponsor of the Menzies Centre through its support of the Menzies Centre's forthcoming Ecology and Empire publication. The Director of Australians Studying Abroad, Chris Wood, visited the Centre in May and began discussions about this and other possible joint projects with the Centre.
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Tracy Ryan wins poetry award
Tracy Ryan, Australian poet, novelist and supporter of the Menzies Centre, has won the Times Literary Supplement's Poems for the Underground competition, and received her award in London on 31 October.Thank you The Sir Robert Menzies Centre maintains a small library of Australian material, for which books are collected on an ad-hoc basis. If you would like to donate Australian books to the library please contact Ms Kirsten McIntyre at the Centre.
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Thank you
Thank you to the following people who have donated to the library and the work of the Centre:
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'Ecology and Empire: The Environmental History of Settler Societies': A View from the Bookstall by Edel Mahony
On September 19th and 20th, a stellar cluster of writers, thinkers and researchers on ecological matters gathered at Australia House. Perched rather gingerly on the gilt chairs of the Downer Room were some of the most significant names in the field. Those present included Tom Griffiths, Stephen J. Pyne, Michael Williams, Eric Rolls, Libby Robin, Tim Flannery, Brigid Hains, J.M. Powell, Tom Dunlap, Elinor Melville, Jane Carruthers, Richard Grove, William Beinart, Shaun Milton, Geoffrey Bolton and David Lowenthal. All had come to participate in the conference on 'Ecology and Empire: The Environmental History of Settler Societies', which had been organised by Dr Tom Griffiths and Dr Libby Robin of the Menzies Centre. As Professor Brian Matthews pointed out in his opening remarks, 'Empire' and 'Land' have each been recurring themes at Menzies Centre conferences. Here, the two were finally drawn together in an exciting way, and in an appropriately imperial setting.
During his eloquent opening address, Tom Griffiths called for less monolithic constructs of both empire and ecology, a call which was clearly heeded by those who followed. Michael Williams traversed western boundaries to include imperial China and Japan in his discussion of imperialism and deforestation, while Tom Dunlap ranged through the entire Anglo-settler community when analysing the local flavours imparted to the science of ecology. Stephen J. Pyne's paper on fire practices pitted European against indigenes, but also dealt provocatively with the opposition of settlers to the colonial centre. The centre-periphery relationship featured in Joe Powell's work on water conservation in Australia, although he argued that the congress in scientific expertise was far more reciprocal than many commentators have allowed. Elinor Melville, too, was keen to emphasise the influence which indigenous societies exerted over colonial powers. Drawing on the work of Latin American researchers, she challenged the centrality which environmental historians have given to European colonisers as the harbingers of a new world order based on commerce.
As might be expected from such a comprehensively titled conference, comparisons abounded, particularly between North America and Australia. Libby Robin, for example, contrasted the development of the science of ecology in Australia, Britain and the United States, contemplating the importance of empire as a shaping force in the discipline. South Africa was also well represented. In a timely paper, Jane Carruthers questioned the very definition of 'national' when applied to South Africa's National Parks, emphasising the divisions and exclusivity which sometimes attended the institution of such schemes. On the Australian front, there was a great deal to admire. The conference had been preceded by a Literary Links session, where Eric Rolls delivered a reading which was both lyrical and painstakingly detailed. Those who longed for his gravelled tones to wash over them once more were treated to a paper on 'The Nature of Australia', in which he made an impassioned plea for a greater appreciation of Australia's unique heritage. Eric Rolls was also responsible for launching Tim Flannery's The Future Eaters at the close of proceedings. Some of the central arguments of the book were summarised in the author's paper during the conference, which illustrated how low-energy ecosystems, such as that which exists in Australia, have massive implications for the development of human as well as animal and plant societies.
To an interested onlooker at the bookstall, this was a cutting-edge conference, full of commitment and originality, and mercifully free of degrading jargon. There is not space here to recall all of the papers given over the two days. However, a book is promised. If it lives up to the conference itself, it will offer an embarrassment of riches to the reader.
Edel Mahony is a doctoral student at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Menzies Centre and, together with Rodney Mace, Luisa Prcopo, Ruth Brown, Kirsten McIntyre and Louise McSeveny, provided wonderful organisational support at the conference.
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Postgraduate Conference 'Australia'
Call for papers 21&22 March 1997
The conference is jointly sponsored by the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies and the British Austalian Studies Association, and is intended to provide a platform for new research in the field of Australian studies. Post-graduates from all disciplines are warmly welcome to participate and offer papers. Comparative research would also be welcomed. Abstracts of 200 words maximum should be sent to either of the following:
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LITERARY LINKS - Eric Rolls
On 18 September, Eric Rolls read from his work at Australia House. It was a moving and memorable performance.
Here is the text of Professor Brian Matthews' Introduction
Good evening everyone and welcome to the last Literary Links for 1996, at which it is a great pleasure and an honour to have as our guest and reader, Australian writer, farmer, poet, food and wine critic and ecologist, Eric Rolls. Eric is also a guest speaker at the Menzies Centre Conference, Ecology and Empire, starting tomorrow. This evening's occasion is doubling as the first function and warm-up for that conference, and so I'd like to extend a special welcome to a number of the speakers and conferees who are here tonight.
Eric Rolls is something of an iconic figure among Australian writers and students of the environment. He is one of those writers whose work trenchantly challenges what Donald Horne recently called 'the tyranny of fiction' - the assumption that fiction is somehow the senior service and that other kinds of writing can only be defined in terms of fiction and in the negative - as non-fiction. And with that definition there has tended to go the further assumption that fiction is art and non-fiction somehow cannot be. This is all of course the greatest nonsense but like much nonsense has had a good run. Eric Rolls is one of thenon-fiction writers who has put this canard to rest over and over again - in books like They All Ran Wild, for example, where formidable research and scholarship is translated into a wonderfully laconic, Lawsonian narrative voice: here's a very little bit:
I probably don't have to point out to you the artless yet actually very artful way in which Australian place names and terminology are used there with such marvellously lyrical effect. As for its being Lawsonian, well - you could just as easily read that first sentence like this: Rabbits crossed the black plains east of the Barwon in 1904 and 1905 [read in a monotone with broad, flat Aussie vowels] and convince anyone you were quoting While The Billy Boils.
Eric Rolls is also the author of the autobiographical The River, the justly famous and award winning A Million Wild Acres , and the truly stunning A Celebration of The Senses - a total departure from all his other work to that date, a sensuous, even voluptuous work of seductive power and poetic beauty. And then there is Citizens, which we have here tonight hot off the press, a sequel to his Sojourners: The Epic Story of China's Centuries Old Relationship With Australia . When you add in the fact that Eric Rolls is also a food and wine writer-about to bring out a book on those subjects- and also a very fine poet (and I have to reveal that the second review I ever wrote in my life was of Eric Rolls' first book of poetry, Sheaf Tosser. I liked Sheaf Tosser very much, but Eric probably didn't ever see the review which, written by an obscure 25 year old postgraduate, appeared in an even more obscure Melbourne Jesuit publication - if any Jesuit publication can ever be called obscure). Anyway, when you take account of all that, it's easy to say he's versatile and even easier that he's prolific. But this is to miss the fact that here is a fine writer who has produced a body of work of enormous quality and diversity, through which our country and our people, our aspirations, successes, failures and quirks, may be seen as through a prism for years and years to come. And the reason that this body of work will last for future generations to consider is that it is not merely a historical, or ecological or environmental or other record, not merely non-fiction - it is above all an artistic achievement of the highest order.
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RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
(Reports from Rodney Mace, Alison Palmer and Ros Poignant will appear in the next Newsletter.)
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BASA LITERATURE GROUP
will hold a Day Conference - Saturday November 16 1996, 9.30 - 5pm - Menzies Room, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Programme to include reading and commentary by Professor Brian Matthews and presentations of work in progress by post graduate students and others. All welcome.
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'Australia and the End of Empires', edited by David Lowe Aus.$24.95
(Based on a Menzies Centre conference)
How did the postwar dismantling of European empires in Australia's region affect Australia? This book has the process of decolonisation at the centre of twelve related inquiries into Australia's approach to its changing region. Leading commentators explore the impact of change in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, with specific attention to Papua New Guinea, West New Guinea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, Vietnam, colonial island territories, the Colombo Plan, and the Australian-British relationship.
Collectively, these studies demonstrate the significance of the end of empires for Australians. In focusing on episodes of decolonisation, they challenge the dominance of the Cold War and great power alliances as paradigms for our understanding of Australia's role in world affairs during the twenty years following the second world war. Chapters are:
*Copies available from B.H. Blackwells in the UK. Alternatively, contact Deakin University Press on fax no: +61 52 27 8140.
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OTHER CONFERENCE NEWS
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It'd been through the wash - it was in fact half-a-chilli looking fibrous and not a little washed out. But there was no doubting it was a chilli, I accepted that - no need for laboratory tests, the eye and honesty adequate analysis. So, why do you do it they asked. I dunno, just a habit I guess. The sun dropped below the horizon like a billiard ball. The chilli glowed in a hand. One of them rubbed his eyes and they began to sting. We'll have you for assault they said.