The pot Les Murray is one of New England's best known writers. I mention this because back in February Michael Jensen, the blogging parson, put up a rather nice post on Les Murray's poetry that I have only just discovered.
Update
Neil Whitfield featured one of Les Murray's poems as his Friday poem. You will find Les Murray's web site here. The poety site lyrikline includes his poetry with audio readings.
As part of its strategic planning process, UNE outlined a vision to achieve regional and global impact. This was followed by an academic restructuring and now UNE has advertised for no less than ten professorial heads of schools.
I will comment on the new structure in a moment. But first, a plea to the University. Please don't do what Sydney University did.
A year or so ago when Sydney moved to a new structure, the effect was to reduce student choice because it became harder for students to mix and match courses to do what they really wanted to do. Students were locked in to much more narrowly defined paths.
Sydney can get away with this. UNE cannot. Students have always had a centrality at UNE that has not existed in many other places. Academic structures exist to enhance student experience and choice, not to limit it.
So what does the new structure look like? To begin with, we now have two faculties, Arts and Science and the Faculty of the Professions.
The Faculty of the Professions is a fascinating concept. In writings on one of my professional blogs discussing the idea of a discipline of practice, I argued in part that the professions could learn from each other. The UNE structure might in fact facilitate this.
The new faculty has five schools: Education; Business, Economics and Public Policy; Law, Health; and Rural Medicine.
Education covers early childhood, primary, secondary and adult education. These are all areas where UNE has a long tradition and great strength. The inclusion of education as one of the professions is a great move.
The next school, business, economics and public policy, covers business, economics and administrative leadership. This one strikes me as a lot messier simply because I do not know at this point how things fit in. This is also an area where students need access to subjects in the other faculty, Arts and Sciences. A case in point.
Eldest was doing business studies at UTS. At the end of first year that the course was too narrow, so she decided to look elsewhere focused on Arts/Economics combinations.
She went first to Sydney because she was attracted by the extra curricular aspect of the place including SUDS, the drama society. She quickly backed off because the rigid academic structures precluded her doing the subject combinations she wanted. So now she is enrolled at UNSW in Arts/Economics.
The third school in the Faculty of the Professions is law, covering law and agricultural law. This one is pretty clear cut.
Then we have two health school, health itself (nursing, counselling, health management) and rural medicine, a course offered in conjunction with the University of Newcastle. Always good to see New England's universities cooperating. This is a potentially powerful combination of areas with significant international outreach potential.
The new Faculty of Arts and Sciences is somewhat messier. Again, the capacity for students to study across schools will be important in attracting them.
The school of arts includes english, communication studies, theatre, languages and music. Then we have behavioural, cognitive and social studies - geography, planning, linguistics, psychology and sociology. And humanities - archaeology and paleoanthropology, classics and ancient history, history, philosophy, politics and international studies, indigenous studies, peace studies.
To my mind, the interlinks between these schools will be critical to the effectiveness of the new system in practice. Students have to be allowed to mix and match across schools.
Then we have two science schools.
The first is environment and rural science - agronomy and soil science, animal science, genetics, earth science, environmental engineering, botany, ecosystems management, marine science, zoology. Not a bad combination that combines UNE's traditional interests with the new.
The second is science and technology - human biology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, physics and electronics, maths, stats and compute science.
This one strikes me as being rather more mixed. But I am not a scientist.
In all, I will be interested to see how it works out over time.
I was saddened to see that Eric Rolls had died on Wednesday 31 October 2007 after a short illness.
I first read Eric Rolls' A Million Wild Acres many years ago. Published in 1981, the book is the epic story of what is now known as the Pilliga Scrub. This area, once open because of Aboriginal burning, became dense scrub/forest following the arrival of the Europeans and the withdrawal of fire.
I so loved the story that I gave it to my Uncle Ron for his birthday. Ron was no reader, but he too loved it because he loved the land and knew the area. The material that follows is drawn from Tom Burton's obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, 7 November 2007.
Tome described Eric Charles Rolls as a farmer, poet, cook, fisherman and a supreme writer about the history and nature of his own country. "He lived with vigour and manifest joy and leaves Australians a remarkable legacy of words and insights. His voice has become part of this land and has forever changed the way we live here."
Eric Rolls was born at Grenfell into a western NSW farming family. Apparently his promise as a storyteller emerged earl,y at kindergarten. In Tom's words, he "found a way of telling stories that made listeners feel they were sitting on his knee. He carried a rare combination of authority and intimacy. With short sentences, vivid verbs, sensual imagery and a necessary swagger, this poet-turned-prose writer wove a kind of magic."
From Grenfell, Eric won selection to Fort Street High ( a selective high school), before serving in New Guinea in World War II. From 1946 he farmed his own land in the north-west of New England on the edges of the Pilliga Scrub.
In 1969 he published his first non-fiction book, They All Ran Wild, a history of pests in Australia, especially rabbits. However, of all his 20 books it was A Million Wild Acres that made him famous.
Its central story is the growing of a forest. "Australia was not a timbered land that has been cleared," Rolls argued. In much of Australia, Aborigines kept the forests open with their light, regular burning. The prolific germination that always follows fire was kept in check by the plentiful wallabies, possums, bandicoots and rat kangaroos, which ate the seedlings.
Now this was an argument that struck a real chord with me, for it was one of the lessons I drew from my studies in Australian pre-history. If, as Rolls argued, the Australian environment was human created, what did this say of our desire to "preserve"? Wasn't this just another human modification of the landscape?
Rolls the farmer found "wild" nature to be feral, mongrel and hybrid, nature enlivened by human intervention. He concluded that many of today's forests are different and new - exaggerated communities of plants and animals, volatile and vulnerable.
This view drew him into conflict with some of the "purists" in the environmental movement, yet it is (I think) clearly correct. Without Aboriginal fire management, wildfires do erupt, creating conflict and dispute including around the Pilliga itself, the first European made forest to be declared a national park .
As well as a pioneering environmental history, A Million Wild Acres is (in Tom Burton's words) a regional history like no other, where birds, animals and plants share the stage with humans. One hero is the white cypress pine. Through his democratic recognition of all life, Rolls enchants the forest, presenting a country raucous with sound and nervous with creative energy. Australian poet Les Murray read it "with all the delight of one who knows he has at last got hold of a book that is in no way alien to him".
Rolls was also an outstanding historian of the Chinese in Australia, demonstrated by his two-volume Flowers and the Wide Sea (Sojourners in 1992 and Citizens in 1996). Other books included poetry (Sheaf Tosser, The Green Mosaic, Selected Poems), children's books, memoirs, A Celebration of Food and Wine, and other histories, From Forest to Sea, Visions of Australia, and Australia: A Biography.
At 60, Eric Rolls decided to give away the land and focus just on writing. He and his second wife, Elaine van Kempen, moved to Camden Haven on the New England Mid-North coast.
Eric Rolls had two long and happy marriages, first with Joan (Stephenson), who died in 1985, then with Elaine, who survives him with his children Kim, Kerry and Mitchell, Elaine's children Nick, Sue, Simon and Adam, and his sister Dellas.
Upon his move to Camden Haven he helped found and was patron of the Watermark Literary Society, which organises a biennial "muster" of environmental and natural history writers in Camden Haven.
Vale to Eric Rolls.
Once, as a child, I made an ocean journey
With my parents and brothers; the big ship waited
At Circular Quay, stately in her leisure, while
White-suited stewards trundled trolleys up the gangplanks.
All through the morning we milled around on deck,
Poked around our cabins, said our farewells,
Till ship’s horn roared a warning; All Guests Disembark!
From Jenny Kimberley, Moving Along
During the week I got a very nice surprise, and email from Jenny Kimberley (photo), nee Kemp. The email was triggered by earlier stories on the Armidale Demonstration School (here and here).
Jenny's brother Peter was in the same class as me at Dem and then later at TAS (The Armidale School).
I won't repeat the whole email, but I thought that some readers with an interest in Dem might find some of the reminiscences interesting. I have added a few supporting comments.
What a memory you have! I was there too, but a couple of years older and in the girls' part -- never the twain shall meet ... Is there any blog on the girls' school that you know of?
So far, Jen, no. On separation of girls and boys, after a joint time at infants, the primary schools were very separate. The older boys school was at the bottom of the hill, the two story girls school at the top. We only met the sheilas when we had to learn folk dances, or at some combined things like the showing of a film on Hiroshima.
I was amazed to read that while we were in England your teacher covered material on London and whatnot. I remember our 2-year trip quite vividly, especially that boat trip of 6 weeks to get there! I write poems and have written one about that, and the loss of those old liners. I'll attach it in case you like poems.
I have included an excerpt from the poem at the start of this post along with a link to the original on Jenny's web site, Poetry from Jen. I am sure that Jenny's comment is correct, but it did not come from me. I will check with her.
With both a Teachers College and a University, Armidale was very much an academic city from which people went on secondment and sabbatical to other places, always in those days by ship. Jen's poem captures this very well.
I took violin lessons from Mrs. Letters, wife of Professor Francis Letters. ... I visited her a few years ago just before she died, and still have her book she wrote about his career, History Will Out. I played violin for 45 years until my hands got arthritis. At those TAS Gilbert & Sullivan shows, I was in the audience and at intermission, found a dark room to weep in, for grief that I couldn't be in one myself.
I've played in many orchestras and now sing in the Colorado Symphony Chorus, and to my great joy, we've done several Gilbert & Sullivan operas!
The artistic streak clearly runs in the Kemps, for brother Peter took an active part in the TAS G&S. Under the leadership of Jim Graham, the TAS G&S performances were a major school tradition enjoyed by a much wider audience. Australian singer Peter Cousins is one of those who got their start here.
I live in the U.S. and have done (except for 5 years in the 70s), since 1963. The minute I finished at Syd Uni, I was on the boat to Berkeley and my boyfriend's new home there with his family. He was at Syd Uni too. We married and I have two sons, one in NY and one in Illinois. We divorced and I married a second time to the man in charge of UC Berkeley's tandem computers, and sadly lost him to cancer in 1999. Now I live in Colorado and just 3 months ago bought a house here. I'm a writer at a company that creates and optimizes websites.
And so things go. Armidale kids have gone all over the world.
Unlike Sydney or Melbourne, for most kids being born in Armidale meant that you were born to move. Very few now live in Armidale or, for that matter, the broader New England. New England's lack of higher level jobs made movement necessary.
Of my immediate friends at Dem, I do not think that any now live in Armidale. A considerable proportion were to leave Australia, in some cases for ever.
I haven't calculated exactly, but a remarkably high proportion left the country. This is not, I think, unique to New England, but holds across many areas of non-metro Australia. I suspect that once you have been forced to break the links with home, further movement into the unknown becomes easier.
This does not mean that you lose the heart strings to your ancestral homeland. Far from it. But you cannot go back because your homeland - I am not talking about Australia - has gone, changed. But this should really be the subject of another post. At this point, I would just note that one objective of this blog is to give the huge New England diaspora a link back.
Here are some names of kids I remember in Armidale: Gay McKenzie, Diana Ford, Jennifer and Anne Bassett (daughters of the Teachers' College Principal), Margaret Wicks, my best friend, whose father was a social worker, Julie Anne Knaggs, another friend, and many others who I can see in my mind, but can't remember their names.
These are all names that I knew of. As an example, Bob Wicks was in the same class at Dem as Bruce Hoy and myself. I wonder what Mr Wicks would think of the current problems facing the NSW Department of Community Services. I suspect that he would be horrified!
Thank you, Jen, for getting in touch.
Postscript
Email update from Jen. The story about our teacher using the Kemp's overseas trip in class came from Bruce Hoy.
Jen confirmed that her dad, Leslie (Les) Kemp who had been Vice-Principal at the Armidale Teachers' College went back to Sydney in 1960 to become Principal of Sydney Teachers' College. Brother Chris was also at TAS, a few years behind me.
I have been browsing round trying to find material on the history of the University of Newcastle. While I found things of interest about people that I did not know or had forgotten with Newcastle connections, it proved remarkably difficult to find consolidated historical material about the University itself. I also could not find a decent photo to go with this story.
A few notes follow just to get some chronology down. With one exception that I will give in a moment, I am not giving links. The material is just too fragmentary.
The one exception? The Hunter Valley Research Foundation has a useful page setting out a chronology of some Hunter Valley historical events.
I have actually been intending to do a story on the Foundation. Founded in 1956 under the direction of Cyril Renwick, Professor of Economics at Newcastle University College, the Foundation has made a significant contribution to the Hunter, as has Professor Renwick himself.
A few dates follow.
1949 - Newcastle Teachers' College established as, I think, the third teachers' college in NSW. Griffith H Duncan became Principal of the College, a position he was to hold until 1975.
1951 -Newcastle University College established as a college of the NSW University of Technology (now University of New South Wales) on the Tighes Hill Newcastle Technical College campus.
As an aside, the NSW University of Technology itself was created in 1949 from the Sydney Technical College. 1958 the University changed its name to The University of New South Wales, and broadened its areas of study starting with a Faculty of Arts.
In Newcastle, Ralph Barsden who was Principal of the Newcastle Technical College from 1940 to 1959, also became Warden of the new University College, a position he was also to hold until 1959.
1965 - University of Newcastle gained autonomy - Shortland campus construction commenced.
1973 - Newcastle Teachers' College becomes College of Advanced Education.
November 1989 - College of Advanced Education and University of Newcastle amalgamated under the University of Newcastle name.
Visitor 9,000 arrived this afternoon.
He/she came in via a search on Google - demographic changes in gunnedah - with a NSW big pond address.
Welcome.
I have just been updating my New England blog list. In so doing, I have been able to fill the Newcastle information black hole that I have complained about before.
Now that I am starting to build a reasonable list of New England blogs, I have put a link to the list on the side bar.
Many New Englanders will have happy memories of Sydney’s ferries and especially the Manly service including the iconic South Steyne.
I see from the Sydney Morning Herald that the Walker Report has recommended the privatisation of Sydney’s ferry services. Apparently the report was absolutely scathing about ferry management and the Government’s interference in that service. Why doesn’t that surprise me?
I also see from the same story that John Watkins, the Sydney Government’s transport spokesman, is reported as saying that there is no more public money available for infrastructure in NSW. The budget has been exhausted. Again, why doesn’t that surprise me?
I wonder how many remember that the Manly service itself was run by a listed public company, the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Co. Ltd?
This company ran the service very successfully for very many years. However, in the sixties and seventies increased competition from other transport modes forced the service into a loss. In 1972 Port Jackson was taken over by Brambles.
The new owners had no interest in the ferry service and let it run down. The Sydney Government was forced to take it over 1974. In that year, too, the South Steyne itself caught fire caught fire and was badly damaged. The South Steyne was later restored by volunteers and can now be found at Sydney's Darling Harbour.
Will privatisation work this time? It may, simply because the new owners will be able to run the ferry services without the heavy administrative overlay that seems to be inevitably attached to Government ownership.
If you’re heading to the legendary Country Music Festival in Tamworth this January and need to know where to stay, a few hints about places to rest your weary head when the singing’s done each day.
After all, with 2,500 events on offer, you don't want to worry about your base!
Rated among the world’s top 10 festivals, the Tamworth Country Music Festival is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and attracts people from all over Australia and around the world.
Although most of the hotel accommodation is booked out months in advance, camping, home hosting or staying in a nearby town are still viable options closer to the event.
“The friendly Tamworth community is always ready to welcome more people to join in the Festival fun and what better way than staying in a local’s home, or camping out beneath the starry country sky,” said Tourism Tamworth’s General Manager, Rebel Thomson.
Ms Thomson added that while Tamworth is always fully prepared to handle the influx of visitors each January, Festival-goers are advised to research their accommodation options well in advance.
Over 50,000 festival-goers take in 10 days of fun, music and memories, with many of them returning year after year with the event listed as a “must-do” on their annual calendars.
A comprehensive guide to Festival accommodation is available through Tourism Tamworth phone 02 6767 5300 or on the web at http://www.visittamworth.com/ (follow the links to the accommodation pages). You will need to contact each accommodation service direct to make bookings.
MOTELS/APARTMENTS
Ranging from two and half to five star, Tamworth boasts over 30 motels and apartments, all within easy distance of the Festival venues which are usually the first to be booked out. You may get in on a cancellation, but don’t rely on this option.
Accessibility to festival venues, restaurants, cafes, clubs and shops are the advantages with this choice but there’s nothing too far from anything in Australia’s Country Music Capital.
HOTELS
Many of the hotels in Tamworth also serve as Festival venues so you’ll be right amongst the live music action should you choose to stay in one of the great pubs. At the end of a night-time show, your bed could be as close as one flight of stairs away!
B & B’S/ FARMSTAYS
Always popular is either a bed and breakfast or farm stay.
There are over a dozen B&B choices in the Tamworth Region, ranging from youth hostel style up to luxurious five-star and unique dwellings. Farm stays are the quintessential Aussie experience and hold great appeal for families.
With several located within easy driving distance of Tamworth, you have every opportunity to ensure the kids are entertained from dawn to dusk. The obvious advantages for both are that breakfast is included in the tariff, the comfort level is on a par with home and your hosts are more than happy to share their local knowledge.
HOME HOSTING
As the popularity of the Festival grew and regular accommodation channels were at full capacity, the local Tamworthians opened their homes to visitors and now the Festival relies greatly on the local hospitality to facilitate the Home Hosting accommodation on offer.
Home hosting means you’ll get breakfast, home comforts, country hospitality and local information. There’s also the option of staying in a vacated home.
There are a few home hosting agencies that can help source a home stay, a farm stay, a vacated home or vacated caravan for you. Contact Tourism Tamworth for contact details.
HOME RENTALS
Real estate agents can source fully furnished homes for rental during the festival. These are usually houses vacated by the owners specifically for the duration of the festival.
HOME EXCHANGE
Some Tamworth residents choose to leave town for the duration of the Festival. If you want to swap your house with theirs, then it might pay to run an ad in the Tamworth newspaper, the Northern Daily Leader. Phone (02) 6768 1222 or email: classifieds.ndl@ruralpress.com
CARAVAN PARKS & CAMPGROUNDS
Camping or caravanning is the best pick if you’re booking late or if you’re on a small budget. The caravan parks in town offer the best facilities and always a friendly welcoming smile. A number of other venues open up specifically as temporary campgrounds for the festival, including the Tamworth Showground, the North Tamworth Rugby League Club, West Tamworth Leagues Club, McCarthy Catholic College and St Nicholas Primary School. If you don’t have your own camping gear, some places provide tents with beds, such as West Tamworth Leagues Club.
Outside town, there are other campgrounds available such as Attunga Sports Ground 20kms away); Lake Keepit (50kms away); and Kootingal Camping or Pony Club (20kms away). There are also temporary council campgrounds in: Attunga (20kms); Dungowan (20kms); Kootingal (20kms); Moonbi (25kms); Werris Creek (48kms) and Woolbrook (75kms).
Each caravan park and campground has different rules about bookings during festival time, so make sure you phone ahead and check before you leave home.
NEIGHBOURING TOWNS
If you still can’t find a bed in Tamworth, then you’ll easily find accommodation in one of the neighbouring towns. Phone any of the following numbers in these towns for information:
Gunnedah: (77km from Tamworth) Visitor Information Centre (02) 6740 2230
Uralla: (91km from Tamworth) Visitor Information Centre (02) 6778 4496
Armidale: (112km from Tamworth) Visitor Information Centre (02) 6772 4655
Walcha: (97km from Tamworth) Council Tourism Officer (02) 6774 2460
Barraba: (141km from Tamworth) Visitor Information Centre (02) 6782 1255
Quirindi: ( 60km from Tamworth) Visitor Information Centre (02) 67461096
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
The Tamworth Country Music Festival runs from January 18 to January 27, 2008. For all enquiries, phone the Tamworth Visitor Information Centre on 02 67675300 or log onto http://www.visittamworth.com/. You will need to contact the accommodation provider direct to make any booking.
Photo: John and Judy travel in traditional style.
The Outstation is a new farmstay in northwestern New England giving guests a realistic and relaxing experience of the bush.
The 3,500 hectare sheep and cattle property, located 80km west of Quirindi and 80km south of Gunnedah, has been held by the Simson family since 1887.
Owner Reg Simson decided to renovate the shearer’s cottage and open up the farm to visitors because the cottage was sitting idle for most of the year.
The cottage was originally an outstation – hence the name – and was moved in the 1950s to become part of the ‘Gannany’ homestead (Aboriginal word meaning ‘smoke rising from hill’).
Reg and his wife Fiona have two young sons, Andy and Alex. They aim to make their farmstay family friendly and hope to attract international visitors as well as Australians.
“We think we can offer a genuine Australian experience on a working farm,” Reg explained.
The property is covered with native pastures and trees and there is an abundance of native wildlife.
The cottage has three bedrooms and sleeps six people; a fully equipped kitchen including full sized gas stove; a living / dining area with 5-channel television and DVD player and open fireplace; two bathrooms, one with a claw foot bath and the other that doubles as a laundry. All linen, towels and bedding are supplied but guests need to bring all their own food.
Outside, there’s an all weather tennis court and a 10-metre in ground pool. Guests are invited to come on a farm drive to check stock waters or to assist with farm jobs if they choose.
“We want to allow guests just to experience the farm and the environment for what it is. I suppose it’s a low-key kind of approach,” said Reg.
For some local sightseeing, guests can take day trips to the Warrumbungles National Park, the village of Spring Ridge (35kms away), or to the towns of Quirindi and Gunnedah.
Rates are: adults (17+) single $75 per night; two or more $50 per night per person; children $20 per night per person.
For more information please phone (02) 6747 6257 or visit http://www.theoutstation.com.au/ The Outstation is at 'Gananny', 6467 Bundella Road, Quirindi
