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Long-serving Minister of Education in New South Wales David Drummond quoted Premier William Holman in the beginning of his book 'A University is Born'. Holman stated in 1923 that "before you can hope to have decentralisation you must first teach the teachers." Dating back to 1788, a self-evident truth was that if something existed in Sydney that was good enough for all New South Wales. This applied to the major cultural infrastructure including the university sector. Country students could be sent to Sydney for university if not going direct to prestigious institutions like Oxford, Cambridge or Edinburgh. The desire of country people to construct local facilities and avoid travel to Sydney was something most Sydneysiders could not understand. In a sense, the urban population and their voting power were Holman's teachers. Given this environment, it would take a concerted political movement to start a university in a rural location. |
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