A Great Honour

I have done many exciting things in the past few weeks and another is about to come my way.  At the end of last week I was invited to be a member of an expert panel to a House of Representatives Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation. This has been my principal research field for the last 30 years, which has led to my being a Fellow of two Institutes, and I've my hand in the game right up to the present.

Indeed, I spent a couple of hours last Wednesday morning discussing these issues at Sydney's University of Technology with a good colleague, Lee Pugalis and we even debated submitting an Australian Research Council request early next years connected with this theme. And I'm even discussing with two other colleagues, one in Melbourne and the other in Adelaide, organising a conference session on similar themes.

So my appointment is perhaps not so surprising after all. Then, on the other hand, I have long argued that Australia's approach to regional development has largely not realised expectations, for a whole lot of uncomfortable reasons. Such ideas might have permeated parliament because back in 2000 I was asked to write a report on the subject by the Department of the Parliamentary Library for circulation to all Members and Senators. I am forbidden to report in this blog what I'm likely to say to the Select Committee, some ten members of Parliament from across the political spectrum. And I've just signed a form provided by Hansard to that effect.

Thus I'll turn up at Parliament in Canberra next Monday morning to commence my new on-going role. It's a longish journey by UK standards, as Canberra - our national capital - is almost 800 km (500 miles) from Armidale by road one-way, using the inland route. I guess you're expecting at least one photo, so here's my destination. By the way, I'll have to fly there and back and not drive the 1600 kms.



AS

Lunch With Alexander Downer

Yesterday I was privileged to be invited to a lunch at Sydney's Centre for Independent Studies where the guest of honour was Australia's High Commissioner (=ambassador) to London, Alexander Downer. I was perhaps a little out of place among Sydney's business elite wearing their suits .. and usually ties. As usual, I managed to turn up looking a bit like a Silicon Valley nerd with open-neck check-shirt and drain-pipe pants, all bought from a surf-ware shops in which I have share-holding.
Anyway, the dinner and the company on my table were both excellent, and we had some energetic and productive discussion amongst ourselves.

The it was Alexander's turn to speak and what he had to say about the Brexit vote, its subsequent handling by the UK Government, the likely pluses and minuses for the UK itself and the remainder of the EU, potential impact on Australia and our global relationships, and whether we should sign a free trade deal with the UK and, indeed, the EU was masterly and thought-provoking. He also fielded questions ... one from me ... expertly and I gained the impression that Australia is well-served by his presence in London.

Participation in affairs of state at this level is for me an enduring joy and it reminded me that I've personally had the opportunity in many places to have my own say among our governing elite. For example, some 17 years ago I addressed an audience that had the governors of 4 Reserve Banks (Australia, NZ, PNG and Indonesia) sitting across the table from me. I've also presented at Canberra's Shine Dome, the HQ of the Academy of the Sciences, delivered keynote addresses to prestigious audiences, and been invited to national summits in such places as Canberra's Parliament House. And today, when I got home from Sydney, I found a voice message inviting me to sit on an expert panel at an inquiry into regional development being held by the Federal Government in Canberra on Monday week. And so it goes on, as I'm now part of a network funded by our Department of Foreign Affairs that brings together researchers from three countries: Australia, Chile and Argentina. Maybe a forthcoming post to this BLOG will come from one of those countries.

Enough of that! Now for a few pictures of yesterday's lunch, which was held in the CIS library. Here's the CIS's founder Greg Lindsay introducing the event ... I've known Greg for probably getting on for 40 years.

And here's Alexander making his detailed analysis of events.

AS

UNE's Natural History Museum

Over thee last 2-3 years the University of New England (UNE) has been constructing a large and new Agricultural Building very close to where my office is located, and I often witnessed its progress as I walked "to work" from my car. The building was opened in 2016 but until this last weekend I had never stepped inside, although I was a aware that UNE was developing its version of the Smithsonian in there in the form of a large collection of rocks, stuffed creatures of various kinds, dinosaur remains and so on.

Well, this weekend the Vice Chancellor held an open day for Armidale's public to come along and see some of our natural history treasures and we decided to go along and have a look at the offerings. So did a large number of other people - perhaps in the thousands - and when we got there the building was crammed with bodies (alive by the way).

I won't describe each exhibit, because they're blindingly obvious.

In addition, the building's laboratories had some hand-on exhibits like sand-pits with buried bits of skeletons or rocks. The whole museum was excellent and attracted a large number of children who must have learned a lot about the natural world.

AS

Agmentation

I received an invitation to take part in an unusual event yesterday co-hosted by the university's (a) SMART farm and (b) business incubator. It was called agmentation, which is I gather a new word in the English language. In practice it means agricultural augmentation, and the event, held at the SMART farm about 6 km north of the university campus, was all about identifying problems experienced by farmers and teams of people working out solutions.

So, at 7.30 am, in a temperature of about -4 C (25 F) and with sun barely up - it's winter - I parked my car, registered, and grabbed breakfast - a ham and egg bun - being cooked outside on a barbecue. In my view, barbecues are intended to operate when the temperature is more like 20 C, not -4, but one couldn't complain since breakfast was free and there were lots of people to meet. These included the organisers, most of whom I knew, farmers about to make their pitch to the contestants, judges, a large team from Cisco Systems who were interested in the potential technological aspects of the event, and the contestants. The latter would form themselves into 6 teams after hearing the farmers' pitches, choosing the problem area that most interested them. They were, in fact, both university and high-school students.

Here's breakfast, with a good deal of discussion among people milling around before Professor David Lamb called on us to begin proceedings.

First,  however, the organisers introduced the various actors in the event, read out the rules of the contest, and invited each of the farmers to make their pitches - defining what they saw as the problem that interested them. Then each of the roughly 30 contestants identified the problem that interested them and, after a process to even out team size they were sent away for something like 5 hours to talk over the relevant issues and options, with each team to have a mentor to guide proceedings. That was to have have been my role, but apparently lots of people put their hands up for this task, so I was merely invited as an observer - a role I accepted enthusiastically.

Here we see the farmers explaining their concerns and helpers documenting their requests.

At 4 pm, the teams assembled to to giver their solutions to the problems identified using a variety of A-V techniques, and I have to say that they gave good answers to the questions posed. I sat alongside the judges in the front row, who incidentally included James Harris, UNE's Chancellor - himself a farmer. While they went off to adjudge the winners, the rest of us trooped outside into the gathering gloom to eat our dinner - yet another barbecue held in increasingly frigid conditions as the sun set over the lovely New England countryside. It was a great occasion to talk with many friends and acquaintances about technology in general, how the farming community might best survive massive looming changes, how UNE might best assist in all these dimensions, and so on. And the SMART farm, with all its technological gizmos spread around us, was an excellent venue.

Here are some of the technologies displayed at the SMART farm. 

This is tree sap-flow measurement, followed by a device around a sheep's neck measuring how it responds to virtual fencing - wires underground that send a warning to the animal not to cross the boundary!

 And finally, I provide an image of the New England countryside in which the event was held.

Armidale lies beneath the hill in the background.

AS

One of my favourite walks

Winter has been, until now exceptionally mild this year, and many day-time maxima have reached 15 or 16 degrees C with clear blue skies and even mild nights. That, around here, means temperatures above 0 C, as a result of which bulbs are blooming earlier than usual and the bright yellow wattles are also out, despite Wattle Day being a week or so from now. And all this is in July, which corresponds to January in the northern hemisphere.

On one such marvellous day, I donned my shorts and just a shirt before heading off to walk the tracks close to one of my favourite local spots, Dangars Falls. This is part of the Oxley - Wild Rivers national park and the spectacular falls occur when Salisbury Waters plunge 120 m (nearly 400 feet) over an inland cliff face. After a storm, the volumes of water can be spectacular, as it was on this day. And several tracks lead from the falls. Being a nice day, I decide to tramp to McDirt'y Lookout, a return distance of 7 km (4.35 miles), and advertised as a 3 hour return trip. Well, I don't hang around and may have rushed a little in taking only two hours for the trip, even including stops at various lookouts en route.

Have a look at the scenery en route:

These first views are from near the car park and show the heavily incised nature of the various streams.

And here's the 120 m drop of the falls. One can walk to the top of the falls, as I did, and stand within a few inches of the water plunging over the edge.

Upstream the usual trickle of water had been replaced by a solid flow resulting from a major storm we had over a couple of days.

And this picture, taken from the McDirty trail, shows the metal platform I mentioned earlier, which overhangs a little the stream flow as it plunges over the top of the falls. Downstream the deep gorge snakes through the countryside in spectacular fashion.

Extensive woodland drapes the undulating surface of the adjacent 1100 m  high tablelands (3,600 feet) through which I was walking - the path was uneven gravel and rock much of the way. Note the eucalypts still have their leaves despite it being winter, which makes for a green landscape all-year round.

And here we are at McDirty's lookout, 3.5 km from base. This is true wilderness, with barely anyone living in this kind of country ... and only a few farm families living atop the pastures surrounding the national park. And you can see a lonely wattle bush bathed in yellow flowers.

Shortly after I departed on the return journey, I was sweating profusely and removed my shirt. Since there was hardly anyone around I wasn't particularly embarrassed. Thus emboldened, it was half-way back when I took my life in my hands and perched atop a very steep drop into the gorge below to take this stunning view of the gorge.

And, since it's not my ghost writing this post, you can assume that I i didn't fall off.

AS

A Rich Cultural Life

Armidale might have a small population of around 25,000 and be located remotely from major cities, but we can boast a rich cultural life. Dot and I have just attended some recent events and anticipate some interesting offerings in the short term.

For example, last weekend we attended an amazing performance of Monty Python's Spamalot produced by the Armidale Drama and Musical Society.

This started as a motion picture developed by the renowned John Cleese can called Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It tracks King Arthur's quest for the holy grail and features such participants as the Lady of the Lake, Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Bedevere, and a large cast of 'others'. However, the version we saw was a musical 'ripped off' from the film by impresarios in New York. Most of the participants in our version were local, including a huge production team of about 25 people, an orchestra of 14 players - mostly wind and percussion, and something like 30 people acting and singing on the stage. The whole event was superbly done - dynamic, amusing - what else given John Cleese's work and the title which clearly sent-up the Arthurian legend, wonderful sets, and great singing. What more could one want? And the stage? That was The Armidale School's (TAS) Hoskins Centre. This top-flight private school has a theatre in which grand opera and events like Spamalot can be performed. It has everything needed for such performances.

Six days later we returned to the same venue to listen to The Australian Haydn Ensemble, a group of very young but excellent musicians who perform nationally and internationally - including the United States. Now Armidale is on their itinerary!

They were also excellent and performed a variety of works by Haydn (String Quartet 'La Chasse' (The Hunt)), Mozart (Oboe Quartet K370, String Quartet  (The Hunt), and Janitsch (Oboe Quartet). This quartet has, earlier in the week, given classes at Armidale's Conservatorium ... yes, we have one of those too!

Coming up in two weeks time we have our annual international film festival, and this one features 13 films over 3 days that have all won or been nominated for major awards: Palme D'Or, Gloden Globe, BAFTA, Oscar, Silver Ribbon, Cannes, and so on. More interestingly for me are the national origins of the films. Would you believe that they come, in order screened, from: Spain, Estonia, Mongolia, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Iran, France, Japan, Sweden, Romania, China, and Germany. Where are Hollywood, Bollywood, Australia and Britain. It seems we don't produce anything worthwhile!

And just one week later, the Armidale Symphony Orchestra is having an evening with Rogers and Hammerstein, featuring music from Oklahoma, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Carousel, South Pacific, and State Fair. This will actually be performed twice, so they must be expecting a large audience! As with the fist two events, the performers are mostly local.

If you'd like to move to Armidale to enjoy a great cultural life, let me know and I might be able to help!

AS