Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/16619
Title: Return to Booloominbah, 2005: Forty years from Wright and Mary White via Booth Block, Botany, Physics and the World
Contributor(s): Perrott, Colin (author)
Publication Date: 2014
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/16619
Abstract: Many things change in a space of forty or fifty years, and some do not change at all. Those elements that have changed prompt wistful nostalgia. Did deep tradition fall at Wright College with the passing of the great oak tree? Was fashion sense dashed forever by the spectacle of rural scientists collecting with beer mugs affixed to the neck? Or indeed, did table napkins emerge as necessity after the demise of formal gowns at dinner? Actually, there were much deeper changes afoot in the 1960s. Emancipation, promoted so elegantly by Eric Baume, struck a permanent blow when the University allowed female residence south of the mighty Dumaresq. Even doubters had to believe that attitudes were malleable! Yet, we still feel today the flood and ebb of inspiration and ignorance, of charity and malice, wash back and forth around the globe as it has for ages past. When we were young, we lived in a young society beset by old values. Ours was a white Australia, but it was nevertheless unclear what 'white' meant: was it orange or green? Staunchly English or somewhat European? Aligned with Britain or with the USA? Opportunity had a glass ceiling that was pervasive for females and daunting for men who lacked pedigree. For the other, the original Australians, the ceiling was heavy and sombre; altogether opaque. I arrived at Wright College with purpose in mind: to acquire skills and set forth toward a different destiny. Science was my chosen field, having tasted the stimulation of new horizons at the first Summer Science School for Physics held at Sydney University in 1962. The teachers at that school were individuals who, in time, had a major impact on the exploration and understanding of space. My career is notable for success in commercial technology - I hold 26 US patent cases and many foreign equivalents - but it rests primarily on a lasting interest of mine in the dynamics of cultural difference and human interaction.
Publication Type: Book Chapter
Source of Publication: Came To New England, p. 195-200
Publisher: University of New England
Place of Publication: Armidale, Australia
ISBN: 9781921597596
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 130309 Learning Sciences
160809 Sociology of Education
130108 Technical, Further and Workplace Education
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 390203 Sociology of education
390308 Technical, further and workplace education
390409 Learning sciences
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 930401 Management and Leadership of Schools/Institutions
930203 Teaching and Instruction Technologies
950305 Conserving Natural Heritage
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 160204 Management, resources and leadership
160304 Teaching and instruction technologies
130404 Conserving natural heritage
HERDC Category Description: B1 Chapter in a Scholarly Book
Publisher/associated links: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/202986055
Editor: Editor(s): John S Ryan and Warren Newman
Appears in Collections:Book Chapter

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