UWA NEWS14 JUNE 2010 Volume 29 Number 8

In this issue P2 GLOBAL FITNESS P3 A SOLUTION TO BUSSELTON’S SMELLY PROBLEM P6 OUR GOLDEN BOYS

continued on page 2

A huge challenge to help the smallest babies

After winning a Rhodes Scholarship and enduring the successful struggle for life by his premature baby daughter, Scott Draper is about to take on another huge challenge.

He and another five young Australians, all studying for doctorates at Oxford University, will attempt to swim the English Channel next month, to raise money for a charity that helped to save little Holly Draper’s life nearly four years ago.

They will take on one of the most difficult stretches of open water in the world, to bolster the funds of the Women and Infants Research Foundation at King Edward Memorial Hospital. They will also raise money for the Fund for Children at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital in the UK.

Four of the six swimmers in the team are UWA graduates; three are Rhodes Scholars; one is a General Sir John Monash Award winner; and two of them went to school together in Perth.

The currents that swirl through the English Channel are nothing compared to the links

by Lindy Brophy ABOVE FROM LEFT: Eric Knight, Scott Draper, Michael Molinari, Travers McLeod and Laith Tapper get used to the chilly waters of the northern hemisphere. They’ve been training for more than a year and will set off on their crossing on July 11. They expect it will take them about 12-15 hours, depending on the tides.

FLASHBACK (below): Gemma McLeod (left) and little Holly Draper featured in UWA News in 2006

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia2

that connect these swimmers – and lead back to a tiny preterm baby fighting for her life at KEMH.

Scott Draper (2006 Rhodes Scholar) and Travers McLeod (2007 WA Rhodes Scholar and member of the team) didn’t know each other when Holly was born four months early in 2006. But Travers’ mother, Gemma McLeod, was already working on finding the best nutrition for Holly and other preterm babies. Her PhD with Winthrop Professors Peter Hartmann and Karen Simmer investigated how to optimise the nutrition of human milk for their specific needs. During her research, she met Holly.

Another of Professor Hartmann’s PhD students working on an aspect of human milk is Claire Molinari. She is the sister of one of the Oxford swimming team. Like Gemma’s, her project is linked to the neonatal unit at KEMH. Her brother Michael Molinari won the Beazley Medal

Ready for the Challenge: Members of the Love House teams (Are we There Yet? and Soul Sisters) Elaine Barnes, Clare Alderson (front), Yvonne Button (back), Marilyn Bacus, Kenn Martin and Belinda Ireland

They walked an average of seven kilometres a day and lost 4.6 kilos last year – and they’re at it again.

More than 60,000 workers around the world joined the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) and left their desks to walk themselves to health and fitness.

The 2010 GCC began last month and was launched at UWA’s Business School.

“We decided to hold the launch here so that most of us could get in some extra steps on this first morning of the challenge,” said Bob Farrelly, Director of Human Resources.

UWA staff have formed 25 teams, including three from the University Club, a total of 175 participants. Last year, 98 people took part in 14 teams.

The aim is to walk (or achieve an exercise equivalent of) 10,000 steps (just under seven kilometres) a day for 16 weeks, to improve overall health and wellbeing.

Participants all receive two pedometers and they are encouraged to walk with their team mates.

As the distances walked are logged on-line by the thousands of people involved in the challenge, their total will be shown on a world map on the GCC website. The starting point for this year is Red Square, Moscow.

GCC is a private company with the mission of ‘getting the world moving.’ It supports sustainability research, heart disease and diabetes research and the Footprint Initiative – helping communities survive crises brought about by poverty, war, famine and disease. This is the seventh year of the challenge.

Last year, UWA ended up as the 105th fittest team in a field of 750 teams worldwide. This year the aim is to be in the top 50.

The challenge members at UWA have a group page on Facebook. If a team is going for a lunchtime walk, they can

post the details so that other teams can join them. Participants can also tweet their walking plans on https://twitter.com/login

Kenn Martin and Belinda Ireland from Organisational and Staff Development Services have offered to help people set up Facebook accounts.

The challenge finishes on September 7.

Staff get moving again

when he finished high school in Perth. He then went to Melbourne University. His schoolmate, Hsien Chan, is also in the team. He studied medicine at UWA and won a General Sir John Monash Award which took him to Oxford where he met up with the others.

Tackling the Channel with Scott, Travers, Hsien and Michael are 2007 Rhodes Scholar Eric Knight, from NSW, and UWA graduate Laith Tapper, the only team member with long distance open water swimming experience. He has completed the Rottnest Channel swim twice: as part of a team of four in 2008 and as a duo with his sister last year.

The Aussies at Oxford have been training for nearly a year, swimming 12km a week in indoor pools. Six weeks ago they braved the chilly English spring (10C maximum) for their first swim at an outdoor triathlon training centre, where the water temperature was 13C.

The water in the Channel is expected to be around the 15C mark when the team dives in at Dover on July 11, taking advantage of the first spring tide. They plan to do the swim the traditional way, without wetsuits. They will wear ordinary bathers and coat their skin with animal fat to keep warm

The shortest distance between England and France is 34 kilometres. The men plan to swim relay legs of an hour at a time, hoping to maintain a speed of 3km an hour, against the tides that can move at up to two metres per second. They estimate the crossing will take between 12 and 15 hours, much of that in complete darkness.

The team will rely on a pilot boat to guide them through one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, with more than 400 ships a day passing through.

To donate to the team’s charities, go to http://www.mycause.com.au/mycause/raise_money/fundraise.php?id=4934

A huge challenge continued from page 1

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 3

Stinking mountains of rotting seagrass have made life miserable for hundreds of Busselton residents for many years.

UWA research has found the solution is to replace three groynes.

Port Geographe, a canal development a few kilometres out of central Busselton, promised a resort lifestyle to its residents before the development was built more than a decade ago.

Every winter, piles of seagrass, known as wrack, accumulate on most beaches after a storm. Usually the next storm surge will wash it back into the ocean. But at Port Geographe, the mounds of wrack stay where they are, becoming bigger with every bout of rough weather.

The massive piles decompose, emitting hydrogen sulphide, at times causing headaches and nausea among local residents.

Professor Carolyn Oldham, at the School of Environmental Systems Engineering, was asked by the Department of Transport and the Busselton Shire Council to lead a team of researchers to help them understand the wrack dynamics so they could find a solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, the council has been sending in bulldozers every day between June and September, to scoop up the piles of wrack that can get up to 2.5 metres high. It is transported to nearby

Simple but expensive solution to Busselton’s smelly seaweed

Wonnerup Beach, where it is returned to the ecosystem.

“Three groynes that were built for the Port Geographe development have been causing seagrass accumulation,” Professor Oldham said. “The rotten egg smell, the visual pollution of the mountains of wrack and the noise of the heavy machinery removing it has been very difficult for some residents.”

She explained that wrack comes from the upper leaves of seagrass that are broken off in rough weather. “The groynes are stopping the natural circulation of the wrack in the bay, so the wrack is not being returned to the ocean,” she said.

The two-year research project, in collaboration with Edith Cowan University and DHI, an environmental consulting company, looked at the cycle of wrack: when it comes onto the beach, how it decomposes and when and how it comes off.

Professor Oldham was joined by Professor Paul Lavery and Dr Kathryn McMahon from ECU, a big group of graduate students and research assistants; Tony Chiffing from DHI and Winthrop Professor Chari Pattiaratchi.

“We also had a lot of help from people in the local community. Some took photographs for us every day to document the sites,” she said.

The group took their new knowledge of the origin and movement of seagrass wrack particles and incorporated it into a hydrodynamic model; nobody had done that before.

“Chari Pattiaratchi did the modelling for the project and, after extensive testing of the computer model, we found that the problems would be solved by removing two of the three groynes and replacing the third one with a groyne that follows the curve of the land, rather than jutting straight out. Some further sand and water quality modelling needs to be done now, to finalise the recommended re-configuration.

“We’re still not sure of the exact role of wrack in our coastal ecosystems, but our hypothesis is that the decomposing wrack provides essential nutrients that keep our reefs and seagrass meadows flourishing.”

The excess seagrass ruins the beach at Port Geographe

Monitoring the decomposition

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia4

Alan Robson Vice-Chancellor

TOP tribologistsTribology research at UWA has become part of the five-year strategic plan of the US-based International Energy Agency (IEA).

Tribology deals with the interaction of surfaces in relative motion and their design.

Winthrop Professor Gwidon Stachowiak and Associate Professor Pawel Podsiadlo, from the Tribology lab in the School of Mechanical Engineering, have both recently become members of the IEA’s executive committee.

One of the agency’s programs, Advanced Materials for Transportation, aims to reduce the fuel consumption in motor vehicles, and hence the emission of carbon or global warming gases, through the reduction of parasitic friction generated at power-transmitting interfaces.

This is where Professor Stachowiak’s and A/Professor Podsiadlo’s research comes in. Their research has been adopted by the IEA and the US Department of Energy invited UWA to join the agency.

One of the biggest consumers of petroleum products and one of the largest emitters of carbon or exhaust gases is the transport industry. The Tribology group’s work in this area received strong support from the UWA executive and the Australian Government.

Professor Brett Kirk, Head of Mechanical Engineering, congratulated his colleagues on the recognition of their work and thanked the Faculty of Engineering Computing and Mathematics and the UWA Executive for their support of their intiative over recent years.

It is said that high achievement takes place in the framework of high expectation. If we measure the success of our University by the success of our graduates and staff then we can all be proud following accolades in the past few weeks.

Five graduates and staff were honoured at the recent 2010 Western Australian Citizen of the Year Awards. Paediatrician Dr Trevor Parry, a Clinical Professor with our School of Paediatrics and Child Health, received the Children and Young People Lifetime Achievement Award. And consultant plastic surgeon Robert Pearce, a Clinical Associate Professor with our Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, received the Professions Award. They were joined by graduates Estelle Blackburn (Arts, Culture and Entertainment category), Andrew Forrest (Governor’s Award for Regional Development) and Malcolm McCusker QC (Community Service category).

As you’ll have seen earlier in this edition of UWA News, another four of our graduates are part of a team of six young Australians now based at Oxford University who are planning to swim 34km across the English Channel next month to raise funds for charity. Laith Tapper, Scott Draper, Travers McLeod and Hsien Chan aim to swim non-stop and unaided from Dover to Calais, negotiating one of the world’s most challenging swims.

And as they have been preparing for that challenge, another graduate – Patrick Hollingworth – last month become only the third West Australian to make it to the top of Mount Everest. The Science Honours graduate reached the 8,848m peak after a four-day ascent.

Meanwhile three graduates – Helen Merrick, Jonathan Strahan and Shaun Tan – have been nominated for science fiction’s prestigious Hugo Award. The

Graduates and staff live up to high expectations

winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in September.

Also on a literary note, I would like to note the passing of Arts graduate, poet and novelist Randolph Stow who died at his home in England at the end of May.

In an obituary published in The Australian, Winthrop Professor Dennis Haskell of our School of English, Communications and Cultural Studies and Chair of the Australia Council Literature Board wrote: “Stow was able to evoke the sense of place in succinct prose or verse, but place always had deeper psychological and philosophical implications…”. Professor Haskell also noted that his influence on writers such as Dorothy Hewett and Tim Winton was readily discernible.

All these matters remind us of the enormous contribution of our graduates and staff to almost every field of human endeavour. While only a small percentage make the headlines, we are constantly reminded of the tens of thousands of graduates who work tirelessly in business, industry, government and the community.

Their achievements are always cause for celebration. They have gone beyond excellence simply for the sake of excellence. Their work reflects the larger purpose of the University – community service.

New Courses 2012Visit http://www.newcourses2012.uwa.edu.au/register to register online for the latest updates on New Courses 2012 where details on the proposed majors and professional postgraduate degrees are now available. Rachel Schmitt in Public Affairs is available to discuss your New Courses 2012 marketing queries: rachel.schmitt@uwa.edu.au or 6488 7241.

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 5

In more than 30 years at UWA, Barbara Williamson has encountered hundreds of diverse colleagues, including a tea-lady with a claim to fame and two guide dogs.

Her first job, as a 17-year-old shorthand-typist, was with Economics lecturer Dr Arnold Cook, who brought the first guide dog to Australia and set up guide dog training here.

Now many years on the Crawley campus and various positions in four faculties and a union office later, Barbara is working alongside another guide dog, that of receptionist Greg Madson in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

“I didn’t have much to do with Arnold Cook’s dog, Ingrid,” Barbara said. “She would sit on his side of the desk and I would come in and sit on the other side and take shorthand, as we did in those days.

“Ingrid would take him to lectures but I would take him to morning tea.

“He was a bit of a difficult chap to work with, but it must have been incredibly frustrating in those days,” she said. “Greg is lovely to work with. I’m constantly amazed at what he gets through. And it’s great to have a bit more contact with his guide dog Nicholas, who is gorgeous.”

Greg said it was understandable that a blind person might be a bit difficult to work with. “When things get on top of you, everybody tends to be more, shall we say, forthright than they mean to be,” he said.

“Even with the technology I have that helps me today ( including voice-activated software and a machine that reads aloud typed documents), there are times when I get frustrated by not being able to see.”

Barbara said she used to read Dr Cook his mail and the Financial Review and The Economist. “He wrote all his lecture notes in Braille.”

Greg also still uses Braille and is a firm supporter of the system, even though some younger people who are blind or vision-impaired think they don’t need it.

Barbara’s work goes to the dogs again

He said his dog Nicholas would love to take him to morning tea, if it existed as it did in Arnold Cook’s day. Barbara said all the staff of Economics, and those in all other faculties, would gather in a tea room, where a tea-lady would have tea, coffee and biscuits waiting.

“Our tea-lady, when I worked for Dr Cook, was the mother of Bon Scott, who was already becoming quite famous for his band AC/DC.” Scott was the lead singer and lyricist for the hard rock band,

who died in 1980. He is honoured as a son of Fremantle with a life-size bronze statue at the port.

Barbara has worked (with breaks to bring up children) in Economics, History, Law, the National Tertiary Education Industry Union and now Agriculture, where she is on secondment for 12 months in the Future Farm Industries CRC.

Nicholas is Greg’s second guide dog, taking over from Pollock, who retired last September and died in February.

Barbara Williamson is glad to be able to cuddle Greg Madson’s guide dog Nicholas, after a more formal relationship with another guide dog at UWA

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia6

Two UWA students are the ‘golden boys’ of a national Mandarin-speaking competition.

Andrew Chubb and Thomas Williams came first and second overall in the ninth annual Chinese Bridge Competition, a global contest for students of Mandarin to prove their expertise in general knowledge and cultural understanding as well as the spoken word.

Having fun with the language wins top spots

On top of things: Andrew Chubb (left) and Thomas Williams with their teacher Liyong Wang

The Australian champions are both third year students of Liyong Wang, co-ordinator of the Chinese Specialist unit and lecturer in Chinese language and culture in Asian Studies and at the Confucius Institute.

Andrew, who lived in China for 18 months before studying the language at UWA, won the public speaking component and the cultural performance

and came third in the general knowledge section.

Thomas, a Fogarty Scholar, who is also studying Law, came second in speaking and cultural performance and second overall.

Another of their classmates, Justin Hewett, was second in general knowledge and third in public speaking.

“The Chinese Bridge is a competition of the highest standard for students studying Chinese all over the world,” said Mr Wang. “The students in my class won nine out of a total possible 12 prizes. This is the first time in the nine years of the competition that one class has won almost everything.

“I am very proud of my golden boys,” he said.

Their speech was about the World Expo which is currently in Shanghai.

The contestants could choose their own form of cultural performance. Some recited poems, sang popular songs and even performed folk dances.

Andrew sealed his place as the winner with a rendition of traditional story-telling, mimicking a famous Chinese story-teller, Shan Tianfang.

“That guy is my idol,” Andrew said. An English language news service in China described his imitation as “sonorous and powerful”.

Tom tried his hand at stand-up comedy – and succeeded. “I managed to put together between four and five minutes of comedy in Mandarin,” he said.

“It wasn’t too hard,” said Andrew. “Weak jokes are an art form in China!”

Their off-beat sense of humour resulted in them choosing to be photographed for UWAnews sitting on the roof of the social sciences building.

Andrew and Tom will be heading off to the World Expo in Shanghai during the July break.

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 7

A dozen graduate students are preparing to change the world.

The Centre for Integrated Human Studies enrolled its first 12 students this semester in one of the University’s first complete online programs.

Education for world futures is the goal of the new program, in which founders Professor Neville Bruce and Steve Johnson, in Anatomy and Human Biology, have created three graduate courses (Diploma, Certificate and Masters) and are working on undergraduate courses which they hope will be introduced next year.

“We have been working on the programs for several years and we believe that Integrated Human Studies will give students a better understanding of the world in the 21st century and practical skills to respond

New course takes on the future

One of the first students in the Diploma of Integrated Human Studies is philanthropist and UWA patron Annie Fogarty.

She and her husband Bretteney are directors of the Fogarty Foundation which champions education.

“It’s a very interesting course and its aims are tied in with the Fogarty Foundation’s, in particular in educating future leaders,” Mrs Fogarty said.

“It’s been very challenging, coming back to study, especially using the new technology. But this course has made me have to use it, which is an important new skill to have.”

“Because the Foundation is very involved with education, I’m interested in where education is going. The Centre for Integrated Human Studies uses a new approach which I think is the direction that a lot of new learning will take.

“I’m also really fascinated in learning how we can tackle the big issues as these will have a big impact on us all,” she said.

The Fogartys have two children at university and Mrs Fogarty said the tables had been turned on her. “It is the kids now who are urging me to study and not to leave things until the last minute!”

thinking; new graduates who don’t know what direction to take; and the simply curious who want to know what it means to be a human being in the 21st century and who are interested in the future.

“Our programs are not just theoretical,” he said. “They are practical, giving students the capacity to have an impact on the world and its future.”

Courses cover human origins including evolution and historical transitions, the present state of the world and future scenarios and challenges. They bring together perspectives from the sciences, arts and humanities on contemporary environmental and social issues.

“Delivering our courses online is crucial to our mission to bring students together to collaborate with each other all over the world. Even when we introduce the undergraduate units, part of the course will be online to expose students to bigger problems than we have in Perth,” Professor Bruce said.

The Centre is using Moodle, a virtual learning environment that was developed in WA, and other online technologies to deliver live tutorials and enable students to contribute to the ongoing development of the programs.

Students are assessed by the ePortfolio they produce, containing evidence of skills practised during the unit; an investigative project; and their contribution to online discussion.

“We have had great support from many staff at UWA, including Professor Graeme Martin, who we are hoping will run the first undergraduate course next year within the School of Animal Biology, and Assistant Professor Mark Pegrum, from the Graduate School of Education, who has advised and supported the centre in its choice and use of new technology,” Professor Bruce said.

Next semester, Integrated Human Studies will form UWA’s first partnership with Open Universities Australia. “We are hoping to build up to 100 graduate students,” he said.

For more information about Integrated Human Studies, go to www.ihs.uwa.edu.au

Philanthropist Annie Fogarty and Director of the Centre for Integrated Human Studies, Professor Neville Bruce

to major local, regional and global problems,” Professor Bruce said.

“We’re thrilled with our first 12 students who have come from many different backgrounds and include a senior public servant, a philanthropist and a champion of people with disabilties. Their education is diverse, from philosophy, anthropology and psychology to law, nursing and public health.

“We believe Integrated Human Studies is also a perfect undergraduate interdisciplinary subject which instils valuable skills and understanding and would fit brilliantly into the New Courses, which aim to broaden undergraduates’ education.”

For postgraduates, Professor Bruce sees the programs benefitting people who want to shift careers and incorporate a more meaningful way of

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia8

She knows when to bow rather than shake hands, not to offer anything wrapped in white paper to a Chinese guest, and whether she should cover her shoulders.

Kim Brown is UWA’s protocol officer: co-ordinating, arranging and hosting visits to the University by VIPs.

“Some people think it’s a glamorous job, but I’m really an events co-ordinator, representing UWA,” said Kim, whose previous jobs have included enrolled nurse and funeral director.

“All my work has been in the area of caring for people, looking after them and helping to solve their problems,” she said. “My maxim is: Tell me what your problem is and I will help you solve it.”

The guests she has looked after over two-and-a-half years include local and Federal Members of Parliament, consuls and ambassadors, Vice-Chancellors and other executives from universities around the world.

“The highest profile visitor was the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Her visit was arranged and co-ordinated by the Premier’s office but I worked with them and learnt a lot from that function,” she said.

About a third of the visitors require an interpreter. “The correct protocol is for both the visitor and UWA to provide interpreters. We don’t have an interpreter service but we do have a lot of people in the faculties who speak languages other than English, who are often called in to help.

“We use Eva Chye (Vice-Chancellery) and Professor Gary Sigley (Confucius Institute) a lot for our Chinese visitors.

Even short visits can require a lot of work.

“I have to find out the visitor’s interests (for example, somebody from Somalia might be interested in dryland farming techniques), then contact the faculties to draw up a guest list. I always have to be mindful of the University’s priorities and steer the visit towards them.

“I organise the catering, but rarely eat anything while I’m working. I arrange gifts, being careful not to embarrass the

visitor with a gift that is too luxurious. The Vice-Chancellor likes the gifts to be UWA-branded and preferably made in WA. One of the favourites is a small dish bearing the UWA crest and a motif of a local flowering gum.

“Gifts must not be something the visitor will need to declare at Customs, so no wood; not too big, not fragile or heavy.

“For Chinese guests, who make up a substantial proportion of our visitors, we must not wrap a gift in white paper or have white flowers in the room: white is the colour of death and funerals; we must not give a knife or even a letter opener; and nothing decorated with a crane, a stork or a turtle.

The welcoming face of the University

Kim Brown at work greeting the US Consul

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 9

Four young Canadians cycled into UWA last month at the end of a cross-Australia ride that raised money for and awareness of microfinance as an end to poverty.

The dying moments of their 78-day 5,600 kilometre odyssey co-incided with the announcement that the Business School’s Centre for Social Impact was launching a new Graduate Certificate in Social Impact.

The new course, offered from Semester 1 next year, will focus on new social enterprises, including microfinance. The centre’s convenor, Elena Douglas, was one of the welcome party for the cyclists, all graduates from business school in Canada.

Geoff Dittricht, the leader of the cycling team, said that microfinance was the most sustainable method for alleviating poverty in the world once and for all.

“But in my three years of business school, I never heard it mentioned once,” he said.

The journey, which the cyclists called Macro for Micro, raised funds for Opportunity International Australia (OIA), which currently helps more than 2.3 million people in India, Indonesia and the Philippines with microloans. Loans as small as $100 can help families to establish and grow a small business. Each successful business feeds a family, employs more people and eventually helps to empower a whole community.

Macro for Micro raised $30,000 for OIA. The cyclists chose Australia for their journey simply for the better weather. While they found the mountains of New South Wales a physical challenge, they said the Nullarbor presented them with a mental challenge they had not expected.

“Now we know we can do anything,” said cyclist Vivian Leung. The team was keen to keep their aims, rather than their physical accomplishments, to the fore. “Yes, we cycled across the biggest country in the world, but we did it to provide the tools to end the poverty cycle,” they said.

The Graduate Certificate in Social Impact will target people working in not-for-profit organisations, social enterprise, government and public affairs. It is designed to assist executives and community leaders in all these areas with the tools to build sustainable communities.

Scholarships and discounts for the not-for-profit sector will be available for students.

A national Centre for Social Impact was established in 2007. UWA joined the business schools of the University of New South Wales, University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology in the Centre last year.

Its mission is to create beneficial social impact in Australia through teaching, research, measurement and the promotion of debate.

Long ride (and new course) help stop the poverty cycle

Geoff Dittricht, Vivian Leung, Isabella Borowiec and Stu McCrory are welcomed to UWA at the end of their ride by Elena Douglas from the Centre for Social Impact

“In some cultures, men will not shake hands with women, so I don’t offer my hand unless I’m certain that it will not offend.”

Kim has a ‘bible’ called Kiss Bow Shake Hands and learns a lot from cultural websites for business travellers. “I have also learned a lot from the Confucius Institute,” she said.

She speaks a few words of Chinese and Japanese and says that visitors really appreciate hearing “good morning” in their own language. “Sometimes pronunciations can be tricky. For example, the name Li has three different pronunciations. I have just learned to listen carefully or, when unsure, use the fall-back and call people by their title, President or Vice-Chancellor.”

Kim keeps in mind a story she read about a long and delicately-managed deal that went awry at the last moment because of cultural differences.

“As both parties were waiting for the papers to sign, the conversation became relaxed. The Chinese visitor inquired about the Australian host’s family and was told that his aged mother was still living independently and that her family was proud of her.

“The deal immediately fell through as the Chinese businessman felt that he could not do business with somebody who would treat his mother so badly!”

The welcoming face of the University

Accompanying a Vice President of Guangzhou University as she has a ride on Kim’s tricycle

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia10

How many chefs can tell you that sticky rice is deficient in the gene for granule-bound starch synthase? Or that germinating bean sprouts are busy converting fat to sugar through the glyoxylate cycle?

Itsara Pracharoenwattana can.

Until February, he was a molecular biologist with a PhD from Edinburgh University, working with Winthrop Professor Steve Smith in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

Now he applies his biochemistry to the kitchen of his Thai restaurant, Itsara, in Stirling Highway, a short walk from the Crawley campus.

Itsara has always been a great cook of his native Thai food. While studying in the UK, he worked in many Thai restaurants. “Some were very good, some were very bad, and I learnt a lot,” he said. “I did a lot of catering for friends and people were always saying I should open a restaurant but my plan was to be an academic and I thought about it for a very long time before I made the decision to leave the labs and move into the kitchen full-time.”

Once he had made the decision, Itsara took two years to find the right location. His is not a ‘cheap and cheerful’ café but a high-end restaurant with as much attention to the detail of décor as to the beauty and freshness of his food.

“Want a job in my lab?

… and in the kitchenItsara in the restaurant …

Can you cook?”

“I grow a lot of my own vegetables and herbs, especially the ones that are hard to get in Perth. One day I would like to have a glasshouse to grow all my own ingredients all year round,” Itsara said.

“I thought I worked under pressure in the lab, but there is much more in the kitchen. You have to get it right the first time, within a tight time frame and keep everybody happy.

“In the lab, if you don’t get something right the first time, you can do it again. And you don’t have to worry about how everybody is feeling.”

Professor Smith has praise for both Itsara’s vocations: “When postdocs invite the lab around for dinner, generally expectations are not high,” he said. “Usually a barbie is on the menu.

“From the outset Itsara was special. A lab night out at his apartment was the greatest treat imaginable. He would produce the most delicious banquets comprising many courses. He would have spent hours sourcing the best authentic ingredients and taking great pride in cooking them beautifully. I don’t know of anyone not amazed at his fantastic creations.

“The skills that made Itsara a highly successful scientist are the same skills that make him an outstanding cook and restaurateur. His attention to detail, willingness to spend hours at the kitchen (as he did at the lab) bench mean that his food is exemplary.”

Professor Smith said Itsara’s experiments were carried out with the same care and attention to detail that he applies to his cooking.

“His results in the lab were always clear and convincing. This helped him to achieve success and international recognition for his research.

“I now will ask all future students and job applicants if they can cook!”

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The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 11

“Shade, silence and stillness during daytime, and glimpses of starry night skies are feelings many people will share about Somerville Auditorium.

“As a student in the 50s I found it a wonderful place to learn lines for plays; I could mutter, and even declaim, in solitude. It was an attractive spot for rehearsals and less trouble than booking the common room, the boatshed or a lecture room!

“I heard the ABC Orchestra conducted by Krips and Goossens there; watched Judith Anderson’s dramatic Medea; a lively Beggars’ Opera, with some of my lecturers in the cast, and saw films unlike those at the usual ‘pictures’, for they were Perth’s first ‘foreign language’ seasons. True, one had to be clever about arranging cushions to avoid cramps behind the knees and the numb bum associated with seating at this open-air adventure, but before any Perth theatres were air-conditioned, Somerville evenings were gifts of freedom. Just as well too, as many in the audience smoked and the scent of Sobranies wafted abroad.

“The place, however, had been familiar to me years before. As a child I saw Hansel and Gretel there and attended wonderful professional dance recitals. I have little memory of what I’d now find lacking in staging, but clear recollections of the verve of Ballet Rambert’s Sara Lusita, glamorous Shivaram and Janiki, introduced by tall Louise Lightfoot, which I thought a fabulous name for a dancer, and the contemporary dance work of Beth Dean. Such events were followed by community folk dances on the floodlit lawns of Whitfeld Court where your

Scenes of SomervilleJoan Pope, children’s and theatre educator, has chosen the Somerville Auditorium as the University treasure she would like to see immortalised in the hundred best treasures, to be published for our centenary.

Just on 50 years ago, a little theatre opened on the Crawley campus, where the Guild Village Café now stands.

The original Dolphin Theatre was launched with a University Revue production, Foolscap.

More than a dozen different groups used the venue, including the Undergraduates’ Dramatic Society and the French and German clubs. With the little theatre wilting from its continual use, a new Dolphin Theatre was built opposite the Octagon Theatre. It opened in 1976.

Some of the self-described ‘survivors’ of the original

partner might be a friendly grown-up attending the Summer School, or even a Professor!

“Hooray for the foresight of Dr Somerville who organised the tree planting back in 1927, and hooray for Professor Alexander and John Birman who organised those first recitals in 1945!”

Mono print of Marcus Beilby’s painting, Before the Main Event. By kind permission of the artist

Dolphin are planning a reunion on Wednesday June 30, 50 years to the day since the opening.

It will be held at the Guild Village Café from 4.30 to 7pm. Drinks and food will be on sale. Afterwards, guests are invited to a GRADS performance of Edgar Metcalfe’s new play With Friends like These at the ‘new’ Dolphin, from 7.30pm.

Organiser Joan Pope is hoping to see the survivors as well as current members of the groups that perform in the Dolphin. The group will be setting up in the café from 3.30pm on June 30 if you can bring along any memorabilia. Parking should be easy as it will be student vacation.

Please let Karen at UWA Guild Administration know if you will attend (6488 2296).

Everybody has their own favourite treasures of UWA and you are encouraged to suggest them to the Centenary committee.

Go to http://www.culturalprecinct.uwa.edu.au/nominate-a-treasure/_nocache

Old Dolphin days

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia12

A children’s book written by a final year Health Science student is a new weapon in the fight against scabies in Indigenous communities in the north west.

Billy and the Magical Boab Tree (A Fight with a Nasty Mite) was the result of a practicum placement at Wounds West last year for student Courtney Hodder.

Associate Professor Colleen Fisher from the School of Population Health said Courtney had incorporated football and boab trees into her book, after focus groups with children in the Kimberley had identified what would appeal to them.

The book was illustrated by children from Cable Beach Primary School, where Courtney’s sister, Annette, is a teacher.

Scabies is a rash that affects up to 50 per cent of children in the north west. Wounds West project director, Dr Jenny Prentice, said if was left untreated, it would become infected and could lead to rheumatic fever or renal disease.

“It’s a serious problem but it has a stigma attached to it, because it’s the result of poor living conditions,” Dr Prentice said. “We hope that this book will remove the stigma and encourage children and their parents to seek treatment.” An initial print run of 5,000 copies of Billy and the Magical Boab Tree, which has an accompanying CD, were distributed to primary school children, their school libraries and public health clinics in the Kimberley early this year. It tells the simple story of Billy, whose team mates notice he has a rash on his arm and is sent home. The magical boab tree explains scabies to him and he is treated and cured in time for the big game.

Practical outcome of a practicum placement

The day after mourning their friend and colleague Janet King, staff from the School of Earth and Environment celebrated her at one of Australia’s Biggest Morning Teas.

After a funeral service that was packed with tearful UWA staff, the morning tea the next day, which raised an impressive $1,086.20 for cancer research, lifted their spirits and they were eager to talk about Janet.

“She was our academic administrator,” said Professor Annette George. “She was a very important support person for us – huge – and she will be very hard to replace.”

Professor Myra Keep said Janet had died just a month shy of her 60th birthday and her 40th wedding anniversary. “She was great to have around. She was mad about cats and crazy about shoes. And she showed such initiative in her work.”

Janet was on the staff at UWA for 23 years, starting in soil science, then moving to the new School in the restructure of the faculties in 2004.

Big morning tea a positive focus for colleagues

Helen Nash, Cindi Dunjey and Campbell McCuaig at the morning tea

A reprint of 6,000 copies has just been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, the State Department of Commerce and WA Country Health Services.

“It will be distributed in areas of high risk in the north west,” Dr Prentice said.

“Courtney’s practicum was outstanding and we hope to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of her book at the end of the school year,” she said. “It has been entered for the Premier’s Book Awards.”

Courtney is now studying for a Diploma in Education.

Her colleagues said she had her first brush with cancer in 1973 and that something in her initial treatment had triggered further cancers. But she lived cheerfully with her illness and kept working until she finally retired shortly before she died on May 17.

“We were all keen to raise as much as we could for cancer research after losing Janet,” said Assistant Professor Cindi Dunjey. Professor T. Campbell McCuaig, from the Centre for Exploration Targeting, provided a lavish morning tea which was also enjoyed by staff from other areas.

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 13

The arts program at UWA doesn’t go into hibernation when the Perth International Arts Festival finishes in March.

UWA’s Cultural Precinct ensures that theatre, visual arts, workshops and lectures remain a vibrant part of the Crawley campus over the colder months.

WINTERarts brings together a program of events both on- and off-campus in the first week of July. The program will run alongside the City of Perth Winter Arts Season, to create a sparkling creative week for all Perth residents.

Pier Leach, from the Cultural Precinct, said that, in its inaugural year, WINTERarts at UWA will not initiate a big new program but rather will focus on drawing together and promoting the performances and exhibitions already in place.

Several concerts are planned for the week: an organ recital by Annette Goerke in Winthrop Hall as part of the School of Music’s Keyed up! program; two lunchtime percussion concerts in the Callaway Auditorium; a night of Persian magic; and an evening of German baroque chamber music, also at the Callaway.

Annette Goerke will play works by Frankc, Mulet, Alain and Messiaen at her 5pm performance on Sunday July 4. UWA percussionists, including Kaylie Melville, Thea Rossen and Joel Bass, will pack a punch with their short free lunchtime performances of pieces from around the world. And Persian quanun player Vahideh Eisaei offers a rare opportunity to hear the beautiful and unique sounds of his zither-like instrument, accompanied by percussion.

Baroque chamber music, long the speciality of UWA musicians, will be performed on traditional instruments in the Callaway Auditorium. Music by Handel, Bach and Telemann will be directed by leading German baroque specialist Georg Corall.

African music workshops will be run by the School of Music during WINTERarts.

You, the audience, will be invited to help create the music in two African rhythms percussion workshops. You don’t need any previous experience to use the drums and marimbas and experience the magic of African rhythm as well as the dance beats of the Brazilian samba and the chimes of the Balinese gamelan.

With Friends Like These: A Comedy of Bad Manners will be at the Dolphin Theatre. It is a GRADS production, written and directed by Edgar Metcalfe.

Two exhibitions at the Cullity Gallery, on the Nedlands campus, will highlight the work of Architecture and Landscape students and first year Visual Arts students’ projects. The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery features local contemporary artist Brian Blanchflower.

Two lectures, one from the University’s ground-breaking science-arts group SymbioticA, and the annual lecture of the UWA Historical Society (The Roots of Diplomacy by graduate and former senior diplomat, Sue Boyd) will be part of the WINTERarts week.

The Cultural Precinct will join with UWA Extension to present a talk from children’s author Frané Lessac about creating books that cross boundaries; an historic stroll through the UWA campus with heritage architect Ron Bodycoat; a two-day singing course aimed at people who think they can’t sing, from UWA’s champion of community singing, Professor Jane Davidson; presentations on Aboriginal art, culture and the rediscovered children’s art of Carrolup; and writing workshops that concentrate on various forms of non-fiction.

For more information on WINTERarts, go to www.culturalprecinct.uwa.edu.au/winterarts

The brightest week of winter

Winterarts promotes a wide range of

experiences from an African drumming

workshop to a Sunday afternoon organ

recital in Winthrop Hall

UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia14

Whatever you need to print, UniPrint can print it. From a newsletter to an annual report. A brochure to a flyer.

What’s more, we can also design it, create quality artwork and see the whole job through from start to finish.

See UniPrint too for all your copying and binding needs. UniPrint is your printer on campus.

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Every spring, about 30 Year 10 students from Shenton College try the working life at UWA.

WorkUWA is an important part of the Learning Links program and competition between the students for places here is usually fierce.

Narelle Palmer co-ordinates the two weeks of work experience and is hoping for more staff to join the program this year.

“There are some areas and individuals who are fantastic and always take students,” she said. “Annie Macnab in the Library, Lance Maschmedt in Physics, the University Club and the Oral Health Centre of WA are all regulars and they do a great job with the students.

“But we need more variety. A lot of students are keen on working in areas of science or medicine and, apart from dentistry, we don’t have many offers from staff in these areas.

This working life – can you share yours?

Elizabeth Oliver in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences supervised Ella Burke last year

“So I’m asking staff who haven’t been involved with WorkUWA before or who haven’t taken part for a few years to put up their hands and offer to take a student for a week.”

Staff are supported by Narelle and Karen Stewart from UniStart (Diversity and Transition) in Student Services.

They will put out a call, via an all-staff email, in a fortnight for staff to offer a place. “We then advertise the position online and the students must apply online, just as they would for an ordinary job.

“We try to match the students’ interests with the available placements, but it’s not always possible if we don’t have placements from the areas they want.”

The students are brought onto the campus for a day in which they are briefed about UWA and about work experience specifically and what is expected of them. They must then

Applications are now open for the new Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching. Responding to national and international trends in quality teaching, the Graduate School of Education has introduced this course to assist tertiary educators working in higher education.

Course enquiries can be made to: Assistant Professor Mark Pegrum 6488 3985 mark.pegrum@uwa.edu.au

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Achieve teaching skillsthat meet the needs of our future students

complete an on-line health and safety certificate before they start ‘work’.

Work experience takes place from September 6 to 10 and 13 to 17.

After the program, the students return to UWA for a morning tea, during which they receive a certificate and have the opportunity to thank their supervisors.

“Work experience can be a life-changing experience for some students,” Narelle said. “One boy from Shenton spent a week with Facilities Management and ended up picking up an apprenticeship with them.”

UWA NEWS classified

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 15

NEW STAFF

Please welcome the following new staff who joined the University between 23 April and 31 May 2010.

Merrilee Albatis, Associate Manager, LibraryResearch Assistant Professor Frank Baughman, Research Assistant Professor, PsychologyProfessor David Caddy, Professor, School of Earth and EnvironmentWendy Carter, Administrative Officer, School of Earth and EnvironmentBryan Chan, Field Officer, Facilities Management – Security and ParkingAlina Dmitrieva, Graduate Research Assistant, UWA Business SchoolMalcolm Edwards, Field Officer, Facilities Management – Security and ParkingLaura Fagan, Research Associate, Animal BiologyProfessor Neil Foley, Professor, School of Earth and EnvironmentResearch Associate Professor Kristin Hulvey, Research Associate Professor, Plant BiologyJodie Hurd, Project Officer, Student ServicesResearch Assistant Professor Julia Inglis, Research Assistant Professor, Medicine and PharmacologyAugustine Kang Bacale, Marketing Assistant, Natural and Agricultural SciencesNatarsha Kingsep, Senior Research Officer, Psychiatry and Clinical NeurosciencesHarry Kneen, Technician (Workshop), Engineering, Computing and MathematicsLee Me Lai, Accounts Officer, Venues ManagementAlexia Langley, IT Support Officer, Information Technology Services Helen Langley, Regional Marketing Manager, International CentreLynsey McCrank, Technician (Animal House), Animal Care ServicesChristine Mitchell, Research Assistant, Medicine and PharmacologyGlenn Morrison, Systems Administrator, Information Technology ServicesKeren Muthsam, Technician (Animal House), Animal Care ServicesMichelle Newcombe, Administrative Assistant, Risk ManagementMia Pearce, Administrative Officer, Anatomy and Human BiologyRoya Radpour, Dental Clinic Assistant, Oral Health Centre of WAKim Riley, Technician (Animal House), Animal Care ServicesKiaya Skipworth, Administrative Assistant, Research ServicesBelinda Sykes, Administrative Assistant, Student ServicesLinda Thomas, Administrative Assistant, PsychologyWanda Warlik, Prospective Students Adviser, Student ServicesCatherine Wilson, Research Midwife, Womens and Infants HealthLorraine Wyse, Graduate Research Assistant, Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

NOTICES

AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN (WA) INCEducation Trust 2010 ScholarshipsThe trust offers FIVE scholarships to women in 2010, which will be awarded on the grounds of academic distinction.AFUW (WA) Open ScholarshipUp to $5,000

Jill Bradshaw AFUW (WA) ScholarshipUp to $3,500Mary Walters AFUW (WA) ScholarshipUp to $3,000These three are open to women enrolled for a higher degree by research in any disciplineMary and Elsie Stevens AFUW (WA) ScholarshipUp to $3,000 Open to women enrolled in a higher degree by research in mathematics or scienceJoyce Riley AFUW (WA) ScholarshipUp to $3,000Open to women enrolled in a higher degree by research or coursework in the humanities or social sciencesApplication forms on the website http://members.westnet.com.au/afuwwaOr you can email afuwwa@westnet.com or call 9386 3570Applications close noon on Friday July 30 2010

REDUNDANT EQUIPMENT

HP C6180 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER: prints, scans, copies, faxes, built-in WiFi. Age: 3 years. Condition: good. Price: $100 ono. Section: Computer Science and Software Engineering. Contact: Associate Professor Lyndon While – Ext 2720

RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS

Grants awarded 17–29 May 2010

ACERGY AUSTRALIA PTY LTDAssociate Professor Susan Gourvenec, Professor Mark Randolph, Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems: ‘Mudmat Design under General Multi Dimensional Loading’ — $114,400 (2010)Professor David White, Professor Mark Randolph, Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems: ‘Friction on Carbonate Soils for Axial Pipe Soil Interaction and Other Subsea Infrastructure’ — $121,027 (2010)Professor Mark Randolph, Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems: ‘Effect of Suction Pile Respudding on Pile Capacity’ — $7,200 (2010)

ANTARCTIC CLIMATE AND ECOSYSTEMS CO-OPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE ACE CRCMr Ivan Haigh, Winthrop Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi, School of Environmental Systems Engineering: ‘Sea Level Exceedence Probabilities for Australia’ — $63,000 (2010)

FUGRO GEOCONSULTING LIMITEDProfessor David White, Associate Professor Christophe Gaudin, Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems: ‘BP Block 31SE Angola Centrifuge Modelling of Pipe Soil Interaction’ — $172,500 (2010)

LLOYDS REGISTER EDUCATIONAL TRUSTWinthrop Professor Mark Cassidy, Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems: ‘The Lloyds Register Educational Trust Chair in Offshore Foundation Systems and Research Centre of Excellence’ — $2,075,000 (2010-14)

SHELL DEVELOPMENT AUSTRALIA PTY LTDProfessor Annette George, Professor David Haig, School of Earth and Environment: ‘Depossitional History of the Permian Kennedy Group Merlinleigh Sub Basin Western Australia - Outcrop Analogue for Suiliclastic Petroleum Reservoirs’ — $56,943 (2010-12)

UNIVERSITY POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPSDr Youssef Belkhadir, ARC Centre for Plant Energy Biology, University of North Carolina: ‘Using Genome Wide Association GWA Mapping to Identify Causes of Variation in Plant Energy Systems’Dr Brett Hirsch, School of Humanities, School of Social and Cultural Studies: ‘Early Modern English Drama - Texts Patterns and Electronic Editions’Dr Simon Grabowsky, School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences: ‘Seeing Chemical Reactions - Electron Pairing and Energetics along Reaction Pathways from High Resolution X Ray Diffraction Data’

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTAAssociate Professor Jason Antenucci, Centre for Water Research: ‘The Global Great Lakes Data Analysis Synthesis and Modelling Project’ — $61,096 (2010-12)

WA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD (DAFWA)Dr Neil Coles, ARWA Centre for Ecohydrology: ‘Better Rural Fertiliser Management to Improve the Health of Coastal Waterways’ — $13,500 (2010)Dr Neil Coles, ARWA Centre for Ecohydrology: ‘Affect of Landscapes on Pest and Beneficial Invertebrates on Broadcare Cropping Systems’ — $5,330 (2010)

WA DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES EX FRDCProfessor Gary Kendrick, Dr Kris Waddington, Associate Professor Kimberly Van Niel, Vice-Chancellory, School of Earth and Environment, School of Plant Biology, Centre for Marine Futures: ‘Assessing the Ecological Impact of the Western Rock Lobster Fishery in Fished and for the Unfished Areas’ — $150,000 (2010)

STAFF ADS

Classified advertising is free to staff. Email: staffads@uwa.edu.au

FOR SALECAR. Expressions of interest invited. Vehicle available mid July. Registered till September 2010. 2006 Mazda Maxx 2.0L Manual 5 door Hatch. Copper Red. Excellent condition. Log Book. Fully maintained. One owner. 56,000 kms. Fifth dimension car tint, paint, fabric protection. Electronic rust prevention. 6CD stacker. Full size spare wheel. Price $16,500 negotiable. Absolutely no hail damage. Contact : 6488 2958 (after 21 June 2010) or email: peter.handford@uwa.edu.au

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UWA NEWS 14 June 2010 The University of Western Australia16

the last word …

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EDITOR/WRITER: Lindy Brophy, Public Affairs Tel: 6488 2436 Fax: 6488 1020 Email: lindy.brophy@uwa.edu.au

Hackett Foundation Building, M360

Director of Public Affairs: Doug Durack Tel: 6488 2806 Fax: 6488 1020

Designed and printed by UniPrint, UWA

UWAnews online: http://uwanews.publishing.uwa.edu.au/

UWA NEWS

Andrew Whitehouse, Adjunct Research FellowTelethon Institute for Child Health ResearchAnd co-author, with his twin brother Ben, of Out of the Frying Pan

It started with a phone call.

I blinked myself awake and shuffled out of bed. Walking towards the phone, I peered out into the drizzly English morning through the crack in the curtains. In a fit of bravery, I had moved to the University of Oxford to take up a postdoctoral position in the Department of Experimental Psychology. Two long, cold, dark winters later (are there any summers in the UK?) and I had been promoted to Fellowship of University College, the oldest college in Oxford, founded in 1249 by a bunch of enterprising monks.

Among the many people I had sadly farewelled two years previous were a girlfriend, a twin brother and two parents who were feasting on the fruits of their well-earned empty nest. My girlfriend, soon wife, made the move to Oxford not long after me, while my parents settled into semi-retirement with a five-year contract with the European Commission that would “require” them to live in Strasbourg, one of the most beautiful cities in France, for half of the year. Dedicated son that I was, I made sure to visit them as often as I could.

That left my brother, a Child Protection worker living in outback Western Australia. We were close; as close as you tend to be after sleeping five metres apart for most of our lives. We kept in close contact, mainly through phone calls. After sharing so much for the previous 20 or so years (a uterus, a car, two houses), we were now living such different lives.

I would spend my days discussing and writing about big ideas, then pop on my academic gown and digest my thoughts with a four-course meal (with corresponding wine, of course!) served by butlers. He would work in 45ºC heat, uncover horrendous incidents of abuse, try his best to do the right thing, and, in the process, be on the receiving end of vitriol that comes about when people feel that their very existence is challenged. The differences between our lives were stark and funny (more so for me than him, I imagine), but it brought into both of our consciousnesses the colossal differences that can arise along the path of growing up.

I picked up the phone.

There was no hello. All I heard was: “Mate, I’ve got an idea.”

And that was it. The next three years of our lives would be very different. His idea, he told me, was that we should find a whole lot of young people from around Australia and ask them to write about a ‘formative’ experience from their upbringing. An experience they felt had helped them grow up. The more different the young people, the better. It would be like a handbook for young people around Australia; it would let them know that what they’re experiencing isn’t strange or different;

The story of a journey

Andrew Whitehouse (right) with twin brother Ben

that they’re not alone. “Surely, somebody would want to publish that,” he said.

Like most, we were flat out with our ‘proper’ jobs: me, with researching the cognitive, neural and genetic origins of developmental disorders, supervising students, and living the obligatory grind of ‘publish, publish publish’; him, with the domestic violence and child abuse that was shockingly endemic in those parts of the world, all the while trying to keep afloat himself. Taking on another thing, however noble, was exhausting just to think about. But, we decided, we were doers. We didn’t want to die wondering.

I tapped out a book proposal, while my brother started recruiting authors. Before we knew it, the book had been bought by Finch Publishing, and we were receiving stories of extraordinary quality from young Australians everywhere. They were funny, they were sad, they were embarrassing – which, in our minds, explained growing up perfectly.

It was bloody hard work – there’s no beating around the bush on that one. I would come home after long days of participant testing and data crunching, and get stuck into editing the work of women or men who had spilled their hearts onto a word document. But the book gave us an outlet outside of science (in my case) and child protection (in his), to pursue something else that we felt was meaningful. Something that we felt, beyond our work and families, could make a real difference.

Fast-forward three years, and a move back to Perth for both of us, and our book is now on shelves (wedged between the autobiographies of Jana Wendt and Roberta Williams). The journey – or, at least, this journey – is now over. It’s said that everybody has a story to tell. I’ve been inspired by those that have been told to me, and feel privileged to be able to share them with the world.