Annual Report 1998

Report from the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London

1997

In 1997 the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies in London turned a corner. In the previous year financial cuts had forced the suspension of the Centre's Lectureship. Professor Carl Bridge, the new Head of Centre, an historian from the University of New England, arrived to find himself the Centre's only member of academic staff. His economies, however, soon produced sufficient surplus to appoint Dr Bernard Attard, an economic historian with degrees from Melbourne and Oxford, as lecturer.

The Centre also welcomed a new Public Service Fellow, Mr John Ryan, an economist from the Department of Industry, Science and Technology. Mr John Arnold, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, was the 1997 Monash Lecturer at the Centre.

Highlights of the year were: the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard's delivering of the Rio Tinto-sponsored 1997 Menzies Memorial Lecture on 'Australia and the United Kingdom: the Contemporary Relationship'; Professor Mark Finnane's P&O-sponsored 1997 Reese Memorial Lecture on 'Colonisation and Incarceration in Australian History'; seminars by Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, and by the great cricket writer, E.W. Swanton.

Conferences were held on:

* 'The History of the Book in Australia: the British Connection' (with Monash and the British Council),

* 'Ranging Shots: New Directions in Australian Military History' (with the Australian War Memorial and the Imperial War Museum),

* 'Janette Turner Hospital' (with the British Australian Studies Association),

* 'Raising Economic Growth: Australia, France, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom' (with the OECD), and

* 'Three Centuries of Science in the Pacific' (with The Pacific Circle);

* and Literary Links readings at Australia House by, among others, Herb Wharton, Robert Drewe and Helen Garner.

The Hon John Howard signing the Visitors' book at the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies with Professor Carl Bridge
In addition, Dr Attard organised the first of a quarterly series of 'Australian Updates' business seminars, sponsored by Telstra and the first Menzies Centre History Studentship was awarded to Ms Susan Blake, a third year undergraduate from the University of New England to complete the final year of her Australian degree by reading third year History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. Some fifteen scholars and fellows were appointed under the Australian Bicentennial, Northcote, Laporte, and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts schemes.

1998

In 1998 the Menzies Centre in London had another busy and successful year. Dr Susan Pfisterer, from Southern Cross University, joined the staff as Lecturer after Dr Attard resigned to take up a post at the University of Leicester, and Ms Megan Mitchell, from the Department of Health, replaced Mr John Ryan as Public Service Fellow, and Mr John Arnold was again Monash Lecturer for a term.

The Rio Tinto-sponsored 1998 Menzies Memorial Lecture was delivered by Mr Jeff Kennett, the Premier of Victoria on 'Australia: Defining a Model for the New Millennium' and Associate Professor Jeff Grey from the Australian Defence Force Academy gave the P&O-sponsored 1998 Reese Memorial Lecture on 'A commonwealth of histories: the official histories of the Second World War in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States'.

Conferences were held on:

* 'Australian Studies/British Studies' (with Monash and the Centre for British Studies, University of Adelaide),

* 'The Constitutional Convention' (with, among others, Dr Neal Blewett, the High Commissioner for Australia in the UK),

* 'The British World: Diasporas, Cultures and Identities' (with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies),

* 'Australian and British Churches and Social Action' (with the Diocese of Lincoln and Peter Hollingworth, Archbishop of Brisbane, as keynote speaker),

* Pacific Prospects: Australian and New Zealand Roles in Future Conflicts' (at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, sponsored by British Aerospace Australia),

* 'The Federal Election', 'Sydney 2000, Britain Nil?: Australian and British Sporting Traditions into the 21st Century' (with De Montfort University),

* 'Australia and Britain: Comparing Two Democracies in Total War' (with the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst), and
* 'Australian Cultural Gatekeepers' (with the British Australian Studies Association).

Seminar speakers included, among others, the writer Geoffrey Dutton and Andrew Podger, Secretary of the Federal Department of Health, and Literary Links readings at Australia House, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Les Murray and John Tranter. The Telstra-sponsored 'Australia Updates' business briefings became an established fixture. Two Menzies Centre History Studentships were awarded, including the first to King's College London, which was won by Mr Charles Parkinson, an Arts/Law undergraduate from the University of Melbourne, and, as usual, some fifteen scholars and fellows were appointed under the Australian Bicentennial, Northcote, Laporte, and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts schemes.