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SWINOPSIS a review of technology and sociology
published by the students' representative council swinburne senior technical college
melbourne
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SWINOPSIS66 Swinopsis is produced on behalf of 1,000 men and
women, aged in the late teens and early twenties, w h o
arc studying full-time at Swinburne for
professional diplomas.
Swinburne is a big place — virtually a city in its o w n
right. In addition to the 1,000 full-time diploma students, there are several thousand other men and w o m e n studying the same subjects in Swinburne's evening classes and part-time day classes. (And, in
blocks adjoining the diploma school, w e have Swinburne's trade school and its secondary school).
Swinburne's growth is accelerating with the growth of metropolitan Melbourne. Multi-storey buildings
are n o w being designed for Swinburne to cope with Melbourne's population explosion and to cope with
the Affluent Society's increasing demand for
professional practitioners — i.e., technologists, applied chemists, graphic designers, and business administrators.
What sort of Melbourne will Swinburne undergraduates see from the tenth floor in A.D. 2000?Will it still
be like the photograph of our cover? Will the rest
of Melbourne look like the photograph on pages 2 & 3 ?
The theme of Swinopsis '66 is "Our Urban Environment." The first eight articles open up some of
the most important urban problems. The solutions
are up to you — between n o w and A.D. 2000.
1
' * * •
W M V ». if T
Tfl i • i
i ^ j
2
SWINOPSIS
4
6
8
1 1
1 4
16
1 8
20
The Metropolitan Monster
Suburbia in Australia
Does Breathing Cause Lung Cancer?
Help! Police
The Hum of the Affluence Machine
The Multi-storeyed Chookhouse
Your Stomach—the Inside Story
All the Same
Author
Laurie Waddington
Ron McGrath
John Scott
Ric Harding
Peter Monsbourgh
David Husband
Abe Chalef
Richard Lowe
Graphics
John Boucher
Ken Senior
Charles Benjafield
Roger Cayzer
Ken Senior
Robin Wilks
Charles Benjafield
Loraine Johns
21
24
26
27
30
32
33
34
36
Its Your Funeral
The Sociological Significance of Electricity
Two Poems
A Peep Into the Past
The Changing Face of Melbourne Town
: „ An Unforgetable Character
Yarra Bank on Sunday Afternoon
Away from it All
Fair Spleez
Russell Bevers
David Husband
Rosemary Rider
Robyn Campbell
Duncan McGregor
Regina Karps
Suzanne Mills
Neil Heinz
John Mcintosh
Loraine Johns
Roger Cayzer
Lauren Moore
Lauren Moore
Loraine Johns
Rodney Heath
Rodney Heath
37 All Slobs Fables Charles Benjafield/Ken Senior Charles Benjafield
Poem Elizabeth Honey
Lauren Moore ¥ urray ie6 6
F. Tylee
Joten Boucher
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the metropolitan
monster
In 1900 only ten cities in the world had
populations of more than one million.
Today there exist 106 such cities. By the
year 2000, nearly 4000 million people will
have saturated the world's cities. Cities have abandoned their old pattern of
gradual expansion; today they explode —
an explosion of people, of wealth, of
knowledge and skills, and of human
energy.
The "drift to the city" first became really
noticeable about a century ago at the
time of the English Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution meant organ
ised production and mechanical transport.
With the rise of the factory system and
subsequent mass production, people
tended to congregate in centralised work
places and so towns began to develop
everywhere. The advent of the cheap
newspaper through power-operated
pressed (and the advent of electricity)
re-established communications and a
social environment for the people. In the
city, goods and services could be ex
changed cheaply and conveniently. Hence
the city gradually became the dominant
pattern of living.
This huge influx of population was not
without its problems, however. A s cities
arose from towns, there was rarely any
planning for residences, roads and
facilities. The lack of planning meant
water contamination, bad sanitation and
slums.
Henry Ford once said, " W e shall solve
the city problem by leaving the city"—
and promptly provided the means to do
so. Unfortunately for mankind, the motor
car could return and it did. The problem
of traffic congestion is very real in a city
the size of Melbourne. Cars are increasing
faster than people. For every baby born
in Melbourne, there are two or more new
cars registered. Although the population
has expanded rapidly, motor vehicle
4
growth in Australia may be described as
astounding, doubling itself in the last ten
years. O n the conservative basis of 400 cars per thousand of population, there
will be two million cars garaged in the Melbourne metropolitan area by the end
of the century — and one big traffic jam.
Already, Melbourne people are travelling
more than their parents did — and are
forced to by the sheer size of the metro
politan area. Melbourne is typical as an expanding city in that it has been swift
in its absorption of the rural areas around
it. It has cut up many pleasant apple orchards, swallowed market gardens by
the score, rooted out natural growths, and covered wide areas with brick and
and bitumen. The Melbourne metro
politan area is expected to double in size
by 1990; by then its borders will encom
pass today's so-called country towns of
Werribee, Sunbury, Wallan, Healesville
and Portsea, these merely becoming
outer suburbs in a huge metropolis.
Planning experts forecast that by the year
2000 the coast of Australia from Adelaide through Melbourne and Sydney to
Brisbane and beyond will be almost entirely urban development.
Urbanisation creates many problems:
traffic congestion, noise, air pollution,
crime and lack of recreational facilities.
The bigger the cities, the bigger are the
problems. The next century will result in
urban populations so gigantic that they may feasibly spread like some noxious
weed to occupy all the inhabitable
regions on earth. Unless man can remake his cities by the end of this century in
time for the full effects of the population boom, city life will become intolerable.
Our existing urban problems are due
largely to the lack of co-operation be
tween trained personnel. Architects and engineers seldom if ever meet public
administrators and sociologists studying
metropolitan settlements to share their
problems and experience. These talents should be pooled in the new science of
town planning.
Man is the master of his own fate, and so we must learn to live with the urban
explosion. W e must decide what we want our immense cities to be like and begin planning to achieve this. Unless new policies, insights and directions are
found, the city may become (with the
single exception of absolute nuclear war) the worst disaster to overcome the
human race.B
laurie waddington
5
suburbia in australia ron mcgrath
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In the early days of Australian cities, most of the population
lived in and about the city area, usually within easy walking distance of their jobs. The cities grew and with the development
of better transport, i.e. trains, the population extended outward
in long tentacles of habitation, following main roads and tracks.
The gold rush and the lure of the "new land" brought many
migrants to our shores, boosting the population further. The
individualistic nature of these early settlers drove them to
building separate home units, shunning the crowded tenements
of their old country. Their building habits have formed the basis
of modern Australian suburbia.
Australian suburbia is a dull sprawling mass of individual
homes, well set apart from each other. This home forms the centre of family life. Families tend to keep to themselves,
regarding their plot of ground as being completely autonomous.
The younger people venture out but the parents prefer to
remain at home and keep company with the television set.
Television could be blamed to a small extent for this "stay at
home" attitude but the Australian family has always tended to keep to itself. The neighbours are regarded with indifference
and treated more as a supply of extra sugar than a source of
close friendship. Many inmates of suburbia have only nodding
acquaintances with neighbours and, not uncommonly, do not
know their names. Conversation with known neighbours is limited to the weather and to the current status of their
particular football team. Football in Melbourne is the one thing
which breaks the monotony of suburban life.
The largeness of suburbia seems to draw people further into
their homes. During the early history of a district, people would
band together, form committees and generally help one another.
A s the district expands, the ties break between them and they turn inwards around their radio, now television, becoming less
sociable all the time. This reluctance of the suburban dwellers
to separate themselves from their easy-chairs has been one of the factors contributing to the unhappy state of "live" theatre in
Australia, shown recently by the closure of the Sydney and
Melbourne Tivoli theatres.
Because of the sprawl and low population densities, many
amenities, such as sewerage and good roads in new areas,
must be postponed to the distant future. The high cost of
providing such amenities, distributed over a low population, is
a major drawback of urban living. Early districts made provision
and provided for parklands, for the relaxation of the local
inhabitants; the more recent suburbs have tended to neglect
this.
Lands are mercilessly cleared of any natural growth, leaving a flat plain more suitable for an airfield than a living area. The
skyline is broken only by sombre-grey light-poles and various
shaped television antennae. All trees have been bulldozed
down by the heartless estate agent; then the estates have been
subdivided up into square blocks (being cheapest and easiest
to survey) without any regard to the presence of dangerous cross-roads or any overall plan. Rows of almost identical cream-
brick houses are built along rows of almost identical streets,
the gardens filled with similar plants and shrubs. The monotony tends to be broken by a brightly painted letter- or telephone-box.
The sameness of the architecture reflects the sameness of the
people. Australians form one great single class and all tend to
conform to its ideas.
Suburban life centres quietly around the home, not in the city
as it does in great cities like N e w York and Tokyo. These foreign cities remain alive and vibrant twenty-four hours a day because of the fact that a large number of people live in the
centre of the city, in apartment buildings and tenements. Also,
efficient public transport such as underground railways make access to the city fairly easy. With a city population and better
transport, Melbourne could again become the gay city which it
was in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Commercial life of the city is being sapped by the new suburban shopping developments, such as Chadstone and Forest Hills
in Melbourne and Roselands in Sydney. Large chain-stores are
also opening up branches in the new areas. Services provided by these new stores keep the housewife district-bound, robbing
the city shops of her patronage. The drift away from city shop
ping may well cause the city one day to become one big office block, the only shops providing the needs of lunch-hour
workers. The "cutting off" of the city from the suburbs causes
people to lose interest in the city and its problems. This apathy may also extend to matters concerning the country as a whole.
Melbourne suburbs are continually creeping outwards each year, biting deeper into the green-belt and covering rich lands
with population. Recently, however, there have been some
indications that people are moving back to the inner suburbs. Many reasons could be given for this return: the expense of
travelling long distances to jobs, insufficient amenities provided by outer suburbs and dullness of life there. Old people who
find maintenance of a large house and garden a tiring move back towards the city. Flats and compact groups of "home
units" are becoming increasingly popular. Blocks of suburban
homes are being demolished to make way for flats, providing for the demand. This can be seen happening to a great extent
in Glen Iris.
Many of Melbourne's growing pains could be cured by intelli
gent town planning. Planned suburbs and satellite towns have
been designed and built overseas with great success. The
planning of a maximum population, with all its requirements,
can mean a more enjoyable life. Detouring of main highways
away from living areas . . . shops and schools within easy
walking distance of homes . . . landscaping and protection of
local beauty spots . .. and a fostering of community spirit. . .
These are some of the key ideas of town planning.•
does breathing cause lung cancer?
(Ife
s 'Si
t
8
Throughout the world, city authorities
are becoming concerned about air pol
lution. The fact is that 20th century urban-
industrial civilization has a tendency to
contaminate its own breathing-space.
The contamination comes from the
chinneys and incinerators of our factories
and homes, and from the exhaust pipes
of our trucks, buses and cars. It consists chiefly of dust, ash, smoke, sulphur
dioxide, and petrol hydrocarbons. Such
substances are suspected of causing
damage to people's property and to people's health.
At present the worst cases of air pollution are outside Australia. In Los Angeles
the problem of "smog" has become so
acute that automobiles in that city are now required to have smog-abatement
devices fitted. A press report from Tokyo
early this year stated that traffic policemen
at Tokyo's busy intersections would soon need to wear oxygen inhalers. In
Cincihatti (U.S.A.) and Toronto (Canada) as well as giving the usual temperatures, humidity and general weather information,
the radio stations also give a daily soiling
index — a number which indicates the
comparative extent to which washing hung out to dry is likely to be soiled by
the atmosphere.
Both London and Los Angeles have
experienced lasting periods of high level
air pollution which have caused many
deaths, and are claimed to have reduced
the life expectancy of thousands. During
such periods of smog, which may last
for more than a week, traffic moves at a crawl, people collapse in the streets in
danger of suffocating, and no-one
breathes freely.
Actually, one must be careful to under
stand the meaning of the coined word
"smog". It suggests a combination of
smoke and fog. This, however, is not
always present when the word is used to
describe a state of air pollution. In
Denver, Colorado, people refer to air
pollution as "smaze". This word probably
describes the conditions which are generally present better than the word
"smog".
What, then, is air pollution? Once, all
we could suffer from was coal smoke, which gives fallout consisting mainly of
soot, ash, sulphur dioxide, oxides of
nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. The coal
smoke could, at worst, be mixed with fog to form true smog. Nowadays, however,
the chemical mixture is far more potent.
The liquid and gaseous fuels burned
today are putting solids, liquids, and
gases into the atmosphere. Organic
gases and vapours such as methane, acetylene, aldehydes, phenols, ketones,
ammonia, and various alcohols may be released. These are products of com
bustion, but also a significant amount of air pollution stems from direct evapora
tion and escape of these fuels.
Once in the atmosphere, these substances can react together, often aided by sun
light, to form new substances of un
known composition. Man knows surprisingly little about air pollution, and
much more research on the subject is urgently needed. Los Angeles, probably the worst affected city in the world, has
its problems not only because of its large number of automobiles and factor
ies, but also because of certain charac
teristics of its location. The city suffers from a phenomenon known as
"temperature inversion".
Temperature inversion needs: weak
winds to distribute impurities but not
disperse them, forming a low warm layer of air at about 95°F; cool sea air at
about 75°F to provide a cool layer above
the impure layer to act as a "lid"; warm
dry air aloft (at about 85°F). If sunlight
is present as is usual, it causes reactions which produce various injurious sub
stances, including ozone.
The problem of air pollution is so bad in
Los Angeles that the city has banned
back-yard incinerators. Likewise Detroit
and Pittsburg. These cities, too, have
stopped the burning of rubbish on open
rubbish dumps, making it necessary to
instal elaborate and expensive public
incinerators well away from the main city
area, and designed to create minimum pollution. Los Angeles was forced to
discontinue open dump burning as early
as 1948. A n alert is given to citizens
when the ozone level reaches one part
per two million parts of air and they are are required to reduce their output of
polluting agents as much as possible while the danger remains.
Research on the contents of photo-
chemically polluted air has shown that it usually contains cancer-producing
agents — known as carcinogens. These
are possibly the greatest threat to our
health in polluted air. Thus the simple,
unconscious act of breathing can be harmful: in Birmingham (Alabama)
breathing the city's air is claimed to be as likely to cause cancer as smoking two
packets of cigarettes per day in fresh air.
It has been suggested that the major carcinogen in the air is a substance
called Benzpyrene — in very fine solid particle form, fine enough to pass through
any filter. It is produced under certain
conditions often present during the com
bustion of petrol and diesel fuels in the cylinders of internal combustion engines.
If this proves correct, we may be faced
with a serious problem involving everyone who breathes, and everyone who
operates an internal combustion engine
— a problem, in fact, symptomatic of our way of life.
So far, the air pollution problem has not
affected Australian cities to any great
extent. Nevertheless we have not escaped
entirely, and naturally air pollution here is
on the increase. Evidence of plant damage
is already apparent in Sydney, according
9
to Sydney University scientists. New
castle, too, with its large industries, is a
likely candidate for future air pollution.
A n important point is that Sydney has
meteorological conditions similar to
those causing temperature inversion in
Los Angeles. It was found that photo
chemical smog became a problem in Los
Angeles when cars on the roads num
bered one million. It is estimated that
Sydney will have this number by 1980. It
can be seen, then, that although Austral
ian cities are unaffected so far, we are
not many years from being forced to face
the problem.
Melbourne has isolated instances of air
pollution, even though the problem is
not yet general. Housewives in Oakleigh
and Northcote have complained that their
washing, while hanging out to dry, is
being attacked by the contents of the
atmosphere. The cause was found to be
sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide from
nearby oil-burning brick works during
damp cold weather. Black coal, used
previously, had produced soot, but it had
not eaten holes in the drying clothes. At
present, Melbourne's ratio of less than
one thousand vehicles per square mile
is not sufficient to produce air pollution.
However, it seems that increases above
this figure quickly make the possibility
of growing pollution very real.
If we allow air pollution to advance un
inhibited, we will be failing to learn by
the mistakes of others, and will be com
mitting ourselves and posterity to an
unpleasant fate. W e will be courting ill
health through slow poisoning together
with damage to our property. The stone
work of our buildings may crumble as
has already been the experience with the
sandstone of St. Paul's Cathedral,
Melbourne. This deterioration is said to
have been caused mainly by the im
purities of our city air, and has cost many
thousands of dollars to rectify.
W e can also expect our beautiful trees
and gardens to suffer. One classic
Australian example of damage to vege
tation has already been seen in Queens-
town, Tasmania. At the turn of the
century, the hills for miles around
Queenstown were completely bared of
all vegetation of any kind by sulphurous
wastes from the original smelters of the
Mount Lyell copper mines. Those hills
are still bare today, even though the
smelters no longer emit the sulphur
gases.
Impurities in the air can also be res
ponsible for making deposits on elec
trical transmission line insulators,
causing power failures due to flash-
overs. Metal parts of structures and
machines can quickly corrode. W e should
definitely do everything possible to avoid
the problems of air pollution already
being experienced in so many places.
Victoria's Health Department has a Clean
Air section comprising about four
fulltime personnel. Many American cities
have departments, staffed by up to 20
fulltime people. It seems that more
trained researchers are needed here.
The latest development has been the
inception of the Clean Air Committee of
Australasia, formed in Sydney. The
Committee is to promote scientific
discussion on the subject, co-operate
with other such committees overseas,
and study the Australian problem. Let
us hope these men can find it possible
to lead the way towards the development
of preventive measures.
W e have progressed a long way since the
days before motor cars. If, however, we
find that the more w e progress, the more
unpleasant it becomes to live in our
cities, then can w e say we have ad
vanced? If, in addition to shortages of
food, water, and certain minerals, w e
should find that w e are short of air fit
for breathing, then life would be in
tolerable, and many would say that our
progress had been in vain. Let us leave
a better legacy than this to those who
follow. •
John scott
10
HELP;
POLICE ; H
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Policeman shot down; burning of woman not murder; thieves
rob shire office; T V to guard riot convicts; watchman fires shot at man; arrest after shooting; five die before firing squad.
These are just a few headlines selected at random from one
copy of a Melbourne daily newspaper.
Where are we heading? In the United States of America, one of the most technically advanced countries in today's world,
some one is being murdered every fifty-eight minutes, raped every thirty-eight minutes, robbed every six minutes, burgled every thirty-nine seconds, having his car stolen every minute,
and undergoing a beating every four minutes. Fortunately, Australians live at a slower pace than Americans. However, Australia's population is increasing, our cities are expanding and we are becoming more affluent. W e have changed from the
forty-eight hour week to the forty hour week, and now we all have extra leisure time. To own a motor car it takes only a few
dollars deposti and a small payment every month. (Then again, there are some who prefer to get their cars by other means!)
But, with everything expanding the way it is, how much thought is given to law enforcement? It is a known fact that our police
forces do not increase in proportion to our population. Unless steps are taken to maintain our police forces at their required strength, crime cannot be efficiently curtailed.
To obtain the latest Victorian statistics, I recently had an interview with Inspector W . D. Crowley, Secretary of the
Victorian Police Association. He emphasised that Victoria has
a great shortage of policemen. Compared with the other
Australian states, Victoria has the highest population pei square mile, yet we have the poorest ratio of police to
population with a figure of one policeman to every 706 citizens,
New South Wales has one policeman to every 670 citizens,
Queensland has one policeman to 588 and South Australia has
one policeman to 690. These figures may not impress you until
you consider that Victoria has 35.6 people per square mile compared to New South Wales which has only 13.2 people
per square mile and Queensland which has the greatest ratio
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of police to population contains 2.4 people per square mile.
Searching a little deeper into the facts, we find Victoria has a
total of 4474 policemen, of which 3581 are stationed in the
metropolitan area. This leaves the amazingly small total of 393 to maintain law and order throughout Victoria's country areas.
Australians are a growing community, striving to better our living conditions. In many families both parents work, to enable
their family to continue at today's high standard of living. This can
lead to a child being neglected. He or she searches for company and many of the other things grown-up people can
have. A s long as one looks eighteen years old today, there no
problems in purchasing alcohol. Alcohol leads to high spirits and big ideas. No teenager likes to stay in the one place for
long; there might be a dance over the other side of Melbourne.
How do we get there? Cars are easy enough to get; there are so many around, and some people leave their cars unlocked.
A s time goes by juvenile delinquency increases; thousands of destructive, petty crimas can cause one police force a lot of
headaches.
On our highly populated streets and highways, motorists seem
to lose respect for life and they move with such speed from
place to place disregarding the ever increasing road fatalities.
The United States of America has a population of 189 million
people, and 83 million cars; Victoria has 3,100,000 people, and
only 1,100,000 cars. Yet the U.S.A. had 49,000 road deaths in the year preceeding 1st March, 1965, in a country where there is
one policeman to every 525 people. In Victoria we had 937 road
deaths during the same period where we have one policeman
per 710 people. You might say, "What is there to complain about? Our figures are not too bad. W e are not losing fifty
thousand people a year." But, comparing the above figures we find that Victoria has 30 road deaths per 100,000 people and the
U.S.A. has only 25.1 per 100,000 people. Also we have 85 road
deaths per 100,000 cars and the U.S.A. has only 59 per 100,000
cars. One must consider that in Australia we live at a slower
pace than the U.S.A.; therefore the remarkable disparity in the
above ratios becomes even more significant.
Victoria's police force is endeavouring to decrease this tragic
annual road death toll, but this can only be done by constant
patrolling of our highways, as was proved in 1961-62 on a
128-mile stretch on the H u m e Highway from Wodonga to Seymour. From July 16, 1961, to May 5, 1962, with three police
on special patrol on this stretch, there were 305 accidents and
36 fatalities. Over the same period of 1962-63, seven police
patrolled the route. There were 251 accidents and 21 fatalities.
This is only one example, but it goes to prove that the more
police we have patrolling our highways the better off we are
as Victoria averages on the road 31,000 accidents a year
resulting in 19,000 casualties. Yet, Victoriahas the poorest ratio of official police cars per police than any othe state in Australia.
W e have only 550 official police cars, compared with 1490 in
N.S.W., and Victoria's police cars are used in the metropolitan
area only. In the country areas police are paid an allowance to
use their own cars, but this means they are on the road only
while the policeman is on duty, and this is approximately eight
hours a day, so most country areas are without a police car for
two-thirds of each day.
The government is not spending anywhere near as much as it
should be spending on our police force. More policemen must
be recruited. At present we recruit 100 to 150 annually and yet we still do not reach the required number ant) it has been this
way for the past five or six years. At present Victoria is 180 under authorised strength, but Victorian Premier Sir Henry
Bolte has ordered the Victorian Police Force to recruit an extra
500; therefore at present our police force is 681 men under
authorised strength.
Writing in the Sydney magazine "Nation", an ex-member of the N.S.W. police force recently stated: "The citizens of N.S.W. have a physically fit, well-trained, well equipped, experienced,
honest and sympathetic body of men to protect them. These men are comparatively well paid and clothed. They are critically under-manned, over-worked, frustrated and fast losing ground
to the bad driver, petty thief and the young hoodlum." The
writer also states that in his opinion the N.S.W. Police Force is two thousand men short. He states this about N.S.W. which
has more policemen per population, less people per square mile and more police cars per police than Victoria, so how
hopeless the position must look to a member of the Victorian Police Force. A suggestion has been put forward to reduce the
specified height of policemen to five feet eight inches and even though this has been the required height for a member of the British Police Force, which number twenty-two thousand and is
one of the most efficient in the world, for the past thirty years, both the Government and the Chief Commissioner of Police have rejected the suggestion. Meanwhile crime increases, and
police statistics show that for 1964 tnere were 88,151 crimes committed in Victoria. Only 33,321 were solved. And yet this
forty-three per cent of unsolved crimes is considered satis
factory by world standards.
In Victoria today, many businesses are located in areas which are not frequently visited by police. Such businesses have
turned to the private company guard or night watchman, and invest approximately fifty dollars a week to hire one of these guards. At present over one thousand private guards are
working in Victoria. This suggests part of the answer to our problem. If income tax was increased moderately and we were
assured of being efficiently protected twenty-four hours a day,
it would be worth the small increase in tax. You might feel you
pay enough taxes already, but during the year 1964-65 the Victorian Police Force cost the State $18,656,462 which is only
11.5 cents per head per week. Now surely this is not a great
deal to pay for complete protection. If taxes were increased, the
Victorian Government could afford to build the Victorian
Police Force to what is required by our ever expanding way of
life. It could assure us a safe community. • ric harding
i»i^l3M*Maii*|SI«11
the hum of the affluence machine peter monsbourgh
The affluent society of the twentieth
century is becoming very noisy.
In the early nineteenth century (before
the invention of railways and the spread
of factories), the loudest noise experi
enced by a normal person was ordinary
conversation which has a noise level of
about 60 decibels. (The decibel is a unit
of pressure.) In the past thirty years this
figure has increased to over 100 decibels.
The threshhold of pain (that is, the level
at which the ears start to hurt) is 130
decibels. Many of the noises experienced
today are approaching this level of pain.
To give an idea of the value of the decibel
scale, here are a few common noises
experienced daily, with their correspond
ing noise levels in decibels:—
Threshhold of hearing 0
Rustle of leaves 10
Office noises 63
Ordinary conversation (at 3 ft.) 65
Busy street traffic 68
Hammer blows on steel plate 114
Melbourne tram 119
Experiments show that a noise of 160
decibels is enough to kill small animals,
such as rats and mice. This same noise
level on humans causes permanent
deafness. In America the problem of
harmful noise has become so acute in
certain instances that people living close
to large airports are requested to have yearly hearing tests.
A s the Affluent Society's productivity
rises, so does its noise output. Industry,
commerce, travel and entertainment are
parts of the machine, which, of necessity,
grow as the result of increased productivity.
Take travel, for example. Students at
Swinburne know that it is not the external industrial noise that is most disturbing
in certain Swinburne buildings, but the
noise of road traffic and trains. Likewise at home. In Mont Albert, I have too often
been awakened at the dead of night by
some individual tearing round the streets
in a sports car.
Noise levels can be decreased by a
number of methods. Noises can be
superficially "eliminated" by educating
people to accept them. Sometimes a
noise nuisance is the result of the nervous
tension of some over-stressed individual
getting the better of him, and he uses the
noise as a means of blaming something
for his present condition. Sometimes the
noise nuisance can cause a chain reac
tion among a group of residents who
make each other listen to the particular
noise which they would normally never
hear. By suitable mediation between the
residents complaining and noise maker
involved, the nuisance can be eliminated
but probably only temporarily.
Another way of noise elimination is to
insulate buildings against noise. But this
leaves the outside noise just as it was,
and therefore does not really achieve much.
Another more sensible approach is to
move residences and other noise-affected
institutions away from noise sources by proper town planning, i.e., zoning areas
specifically industrial and specifically
14
residential. Although this may eliminate industrial noise, there is still the problem
of noise from public and private transport. Much work is being done overseas on
the design of quiet trams and trains, with rubber wheels or with motors
encased in rubber. It would not be im
possible to reduce the noise made by a
tram or train to something approaching
the noise of a well-maintained motor car.
There is tremendous scope for engineers designing quiet machinery, quiet trains
and quiet trams. Much work is being done
in Melbourne to reduce industrial noise by the proper design of machinery.
This still leaves the problem of motor-car
noises. It is impossible to silence a road
vehicle absolutely, because even the tyres rolling on the road surface make a
considerable noise. Every person should
be made to fit a silencer to a vehicle which will quieten the engine down to a
legally specified level. This is done to a
limited degree now, but it is not policed
well enough. Also more research could
be done into the design of quieter tyres
and road surfaces.
The "larger" contributors of noise have
been discussed, but what of the lawn
mowers at eight o'clock on Sunday
morning, chain saws in the country, neighbours with loud radio sets, back yard work-sheds, model aeroplanes — to name only a few of the obvious ex
amples? The reduction of these nuisances
is up to the people concerned by the
application of the municipal laws which are set down to deal with such
problems.
"But," says someone, "what's the use of
eliminating noise anyway? W h y not just
let everything go on like it has for the
past 50 years. It does not seem to be doing any harm." These may be valid
questions to someone who merely takes
a cursory glance at the problem. But this increase in the noise of the affluence
machine does have effects which are
harmful and which do necessitate some
action.
Let's look firstly at the physical effects. In
America the largest outlay by the insur
ance companies for personal injury during working hours is injury resulting
directly from exposure to high noise level in factories. Noise impairs production;
it causes loss of concentration among
students and office workers, increase of
nervous tension and loss of sleep.
There are economic effects as well. Land values drop in the vicinity of railways,
airports, and busy roads.
But what of the effects, perhaps not ob
vious at first, of the noise produced by
the affluence machine in homes where peace and privacy is robbed by the incessant jingle of radio and TV. And (perhaps even more devastating) the brain
washing of advertising which frustrates people, enslaved to hire purchase con
tracts? Remember too, the effects of destroying peace and quiet in places of
scenic beauty such as public gardens, or
the seaside, or the mountain resorts, by
the continual invasion of the transistor radio with races and Top Forty turned to full volume. Are we growing into a race
of morons who are controlled by the
slick disc jockeys, and so on, whose role
is to keep the affluence machine at full
production? W e seem to have lost the art of being quiet and still and letting ourselves appreciate what is around us
in life and the natural world.
Are we going to let ourselves become
slaves to the affluence machine or are w e going to become the masters of it? •
15
the multi-storeyed chookhouse david husband
Do you call Sunday "Chicken Day"? Or
perhaps you ladies have tried the amazing
"seven-day egg diet". Well, I wonder just
how many of you have thought seriously
about how chickens and eggs get from
the farm to you. Last year, during the
term holidays, I was offered the unique
opportunity of an inside job at a Melbourne chicken-processing firm.
(You certainly couldn't get any closer to
the insides of a chicken than I did.) But
as I watched the chickens go merrily past,
I decided that I would dig a little deeper
into modern poultry-farming. I could not
know then how amazing and even dis
gusting the facts I discovered would be.
The factory in which I laboured was
approximately the same size as our
Swinburne Library. Each day before dawn,
six thousand birds are picked up from
the "growing farms" and brought in for
the kill. At 7 o'clock the line is set in
motion and the chickens, unaware of
their plight, are hung on specially-
designed hooks with wings flapping and
heads down. Four minutes later the
"killer", the most skilled person in the
factory, cuts their throats in such a way
to ensure free bleeding. Three minutes
later the first dead chicken emerges from
the blood tunnel and enters the scalding
tank. After scalding for five minutes in
this antiseptic bath, chickens enter the
plucking machines. T w o minutes later
they emerge "naked". In the next ten
minutes they are gutted, vacuum-cleaned,
beheaded and finally tossed into a
chilling tank. The chickens are then
weighed, sorted and placed in the deep
freezer. So in approximately twenty-five
minutes a live, kicking chicken is con
verted into a still, lifeless hunk of white
meat,
It is now that I feel I should introduce you
to the term "intensive farming". This
term is applied to the modern approach
to animal husbandry, and an explanation
in the words of an expert is as follows:
"Rapid turnover, high density stocking, a
high degree of mechanization, a low
labour requirement, and efficient con
version of food into saleable products
are the five essentials for a system of
animal production to be called intensive".
This is just some of the startling infor
mation contained in Ruth Harrison's book
"Animal Machines", in which the author
gives a vivid account of intensive rearing of livestock in Britain. You may well
inquire what has caused the introduction of this method. W e are told by producers
that the needs of suburbia (the topic we
are looking at in detail in this magazine)
demand these rapid mass production
techniques. But it is for you to decide
whether the ends justify the means I will
now describe.
In recent years, broilers or frozen
chickens have become cheap and con
sequently popular. In an earlier para
graph I described the operation of a typical
Australian "broiler" factory, and Ruth
Harrison describes an English counter
part. But firstly she describes the rearing
of the birds. Day-old chicks are trans
ferred from the hatcheries to the inten
sive units. Eight or ten thousand of these
chicks are installed at a time into the chookhouse which gives the impression
of a long, wide dark tunnel, the floor of
which is covered with chickens. For the
first two weeks the chicks are raised at a
constant temperature of 90 degrees F in
continuous bright light. They are encour
aged to eat and therefore grow quickly.
After two weeks the lights change to amber, and go on and off every two hours
round the clock. The birds thus contin
ually eat, drink and sleep for the next four
weeks. The birds are then getting large
enough to feel over-crowded and the amber lights are replaced with dull
red ones to prevent fighting. So for the
16
next four weeks they remain like this,
just putting on weight. Then the ten-
week-old chickens are delivered for processing. (I have little experience of
the Australian breeding and rearing methods but do know that here only
batches of one thousand are grown.)
The killing, cleaning and plucking process
described by Ruth Harrison in Britain
was much the same as the one I observed
in Melbourne except that in Britain less care was taken with the birds and a much
higher production-rate enforced (20,000
a day). In the British examples, no blood
tunnel was provided, and the doomed
birds had to pass their dying colleagues
who were pouring blood all over the
floor and even perhaps flopping blood
over the in-coming birds. The killing of the birds in this manner was heavily
criticized in Britain. It was shown that many of the birds went into the scalding
tank alive! Several ideas were suggested
to ensure that the birds died unconscious.
Animal psychologists claimed that live
birds would realise their plight and
become terrified and therefore hard to
clean and pluck. Gassing, the first of the ideas, was too expensive for industry,
and the other, an electric stunning device,
although at first impractical, was finally
modified to suit the requirements. But a veterinary inspector showed that many
birds retained eye reflex, and further
research is to be carried out to prove
that eye reflex is not associated with consciousness. (In my experience in
Melbourne, every bird was dead on emerging from the blood tunnel, although stunners were not used.)
There is another side to poultry farming
— that of egg production. In this case, treatment of the chickens is in fact a lot
worse. Today, layers are referred to as
"battery birds", and a modern battery
house could be three storeys high and could accommodate 100,000 layers. Can
you imagine row upon row of wire cages, each packed with four hens so that each
hen can just move her head? Each hen
is de-beaked. Each wears blinkers, so
that she thinks she is alone. In front of the layer a conveyor belt carries food,
and occasionally she moves her head
down and has a pellet. Water is run adjacent to the food conveyor. Droppings
fall through the wire-bottomed cage and are carried away on yet another conveyor.
The bottom of the enclosure is also
sloped gradually; the eggs roll down the
slope, and are carried away on another
conveyor to the packing section. Each
bird lays approximately 250 eggs a year and has a life expactancy of one year — a year in which head movement is the
only possible physical freedom.
So now you know the truth. Gone are the
pastoral scenes in which animals wandered through green fields, and chickens
scratched for their food in their own peculiar way. N o w these poor animals
live out their dreary existence in a dim
shed, unable to move. But these artificial environments are not healthy for the
animals or the public. Disease sweeps
through the "animal factories", and only continual administration of antibiotic drugs keeps any survivors alive. The meat and
eggs produced in intensive animal farming is of very poor quality, and the application
of antibiotics is also a potential danger.
The most important question, however,
is whether these extreme methods are justifiable. Surely humans, being living
things, must have respect for life itself.
W h e n we subject animals to these
terrible conditions, we are robbing them
of the sacred right w e treasure — free
dom. The intensive farming methods are
inhuman and cruel. W e must allow these
animals a decent existence, a respectable
existence, and thereby regain some of
our own lost self-respect. •
17
the inside story The growth of the big city is having an interesting effect on the human stomach. Because of the increasing number of urban mouths to be fed (and because of problems of transport and
storage), our food now has to undergo an increasing amount of processing. Our food is becoming loaded more and more with
chemicals — s u c h as dyes, emulsiflers, stabilizers and preser
vatives. These additives make the food look and taste as though it were fresh, natural and health-giving — even when it isn't.
Let us take for example a hypothetical Sunday dinner. The menu runs something like this: Fruit juice;
Roast Beef with Gravy; Mashed Potatoes (processed);
Peas (canned);
Tossed Salad with dressing;
Bread and Rolls with butter;
Apple pie with ice-cream;
Coffee with milk.
18
A s a chemistry student, I would expect these foods to contain the following;
FRUIT JUICE: Benzoic acid (a chemical preservative); dimethyl polysiloxane (anti-foaming agent); D.D.T. and related
compounds; parathion or other for of potent phosphorous nerve gas pesticide; saccharin (chemical sweetener).
ROAST BEEF: D.D.T. and related compounds, methoxychlor,
chlordane, heptachlor, toxaphene, lindane, benzene hexa-
chloride, aldrin, dieldrin and other pesticides, particularly in the
fatty portions; stilbestrol (an artificial sex hormone); aureo-mycin (an antibiotic).
GRAVY: D.D.T. and other pesticides as were in the meat;
antibiotics; products formed from the interaction of the chlorine dioxide bleach used in the flour and the flour nutrients.
MASHED POTATOES: Pesticides such as dieldrin, heptachlor, chlordane, thylene dibromide; coal tar dye, sulphur preservatives.
PEAS: Magnesium chloride (colour retainers); magnesium carbonate (alkalizer); D.D.T., parathion, methoxychlor and molathion.
TOSSED SALAD AND DRESSING: Sodium alginate (stabilizer);
monoisopropyl citrate (anti-oxidant to prevent fat deterioration); D.D.T. and related compounds.
BREAD AND ROLLS: Products of bleach interaction in flour;
diglycerides and polyoxyethylene (softeners); ditertiarybutyl, para-cresol (anti-oxidant); nitrated flour or coal tar dye (to give the products a suggestion of yellowness, as though due to egg
yolks and butter), vitamin fortifiers (to replace nutrients lost in milling); D.D.T. and related compounds.
BUTTER: Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (anti-oxidant); oxidation products resulting from interaction of hydrogen peroxide
(bleach); magnesium oxide (neutralizer); diacetyl (artificial aromatic agent); D.D.T. and related compounds.
PICKLES: Aluminium sulphate (firming agent); sodium nitrate (texturizer); emulsiflers to dispense flavour.
APPLE PIE: Butylated hydroxyanisole (anti-oxidant in lard);
chemical agents in flour and butter and margarine; sodium
o-pheylyphenate (preservative); several, if not all, of the possible insecticides and pesticides.
ICE-CREAM: Carboxymethylcellulose (stabilizer); mono and
diglycerides (emulsiflers); artificial flavours; coal tar dyes; antibiotics; D.D.T. and related compounds.
Impressive, isn't it? I bet that you had never thought of food in
such terms. The obvious question you might be thinking is:
"What do these compounds do to us?".
The answer is that scientists hardly know. They perform tests
on laboratory animals such as mice, rats and dogs, but the results differ from species to species. A chemical agent which
affects dogs adversely may not even be detected in the tissues of a rat — a n d vice versa. So scientists only hope that, if the
animals don't die, the compound may not be toxic to humans.
There have also been cases of substances which are shown to be dangerous after years of use. A n example is Agene, which
was used to bleach flour and gives it that "pure" fresh colour.
It was not until 1946 that a chemist showed that Agene con
verted a minor constituent in flour into a highly toxic substance which induced fits in animals and possibly humans. With this
evidence before them, the companies concerned turned a "blind eye" to it and continued to use Agene for ten years more.
Another case is of two related compounds, Coumarin from Tonka beans and Woodruff which had been used for flavouring
sweets for literally hundreds of years. It was not until 1958 that it was proved to be toxic as it caused internal haemorrhage, and damaged the kidneys and liver.
Yet another case concerns Nitrate and Nitrite, which are still used in meat preservation. It is well known to the people
concerned that these compounds react with the haemoglobin in the blood and reduce its capacity to carry oxygen. Thus if a
person eats four ounces of processed meat, he only ingests two hundred parts per million of Sodium Nitrite, but this forms
from one to five per cent methemoglobin (the substance formed on haemoglobin reacting with the nitrite ion.). This is
really not much to a healthy individual who exercises regularly, but a sedentary person who smokes fifteen cigarettes a day
and eats four ounces of processed meat strains his heart to such an extent, that a heart ailment could be just around the corner.
The cases of offending chemicals are too numerous to list in this short article.
Another problem relating to chemical additions is that these compounds mask the original quality of the product. H o w can
you tell if the meat from the can or the fruit from the can is of good quality? The crux of the matter is: how can there be
sufficient control of the industries concerned, to stop harmful compounds being added to food and to maintain the use of the highest quality raw materials?
Legislation by the government might be the answer. But since
the government obtains so much money from these companies, it does not take as much notice as it should. Take cigarettes,
for example. It is well known that they have a detrimental effect
on humans. The government has been playing about with the idea of banning this advertising, but has done nothing. Cigarettes are an important source of indirect taxation!
The only solution, in my opinion, is to make the public aware
of just what it is that they are eating. Thus they could boycott
a product and force the companies to change this method of processing. In other words, it is up to you. If you care only
about the taste and appeal of a food, well good luck to you;
but if you want to stay healthy, be more conscious of what you are eating. •
abe chalef
Many intelligent people today are genuinely worried because
they feel that the world is being levelled out to one colour — a
packaged, universal grey. They point out, for example, that
recent developments in building materials and in air condition
ing mean that people can live in the same type of apartment in
Holland or Burma, thus threatening us with a terrible standard
isation and uniformity in townscape. The desperate cry of
"Preserve our National Heritage" is heard when someone is
confronted by a shiny block of glass and steel.
But let's look at the problem from another viewpoint. Does
"preserving one's national heritage" mean that the Dutch must
live in Renaissance buildings crumbling into the dykes, or that
the Burmese must continue to live in the utter squalor of rotting
bamboo for the rest of civilised time? Certainly some relics
from the past must be saved so that coming generations can
see what life was like in the past, but must these future gene
rations be forced to live in the past themselves because all
relics have been "saved" and there is nowhere to live?
As for the question — "Is all townscape a universal grey?" — nothing could be further from the point unfortunately. In the
past, living was standardised in countries—that is, all buildings
were, more or less, in one style. Eighteenth century England
was growing up with clasically proportioned crescents and
avenues of terraces. But today there are so many styles of
"contemporary" architecture, or variations of it, that everything
is screaming at everything else.
Australia, perhaps, is the best example of this architectural
anarchy because we, with the Americans, have the largest
proportion of our population living in suburbs. Nearly every
body has his own home, which is his castle, and his castle
must be just "that much" different to the one owned by Baron Jones next door.
W h e n the old mansion of "Nareeb" in Kooyong road, Toorak,
was demolished, and the gardens nicely subdivided for sale, it
was hoped that some sort of unified plan would be used for
the design of the houses. But no — the three new houses now
gracing the front of the estate are completely different in style,
all taken from previous centuries, and, are packed so tightly
that they are politely yelling obscenities at each other's
Italianate balustrades, Colonial-Georgian columns and mul-
lioned windows.
Le Corbusier, a Swiss architect, in 1922 designed "garden cities" which almost allowed for uniformity in living. This man
has, perhaps, been the most important influence on town and
city planning in recent decades. He criticised the structures of
our stone deserts (cities) for their inadaptability. Traffic jams
waste our time. The "placing of functions" (commerce, indus
try, administration, dwellings) is haphazard and wasteful. The
placing of buildings along "corridor streets" is unhealthy
because of traffic noises and fumes and lack of sun and
vegetation. The dimensions of the buildings are insufficient.
Le Corbusier says that even in N e w York the skyscrapers are
timid and that N e w York is a spectacular catastrophe.
The Le Corbusier has two types of plans — t h e "linear
industrial city" and the "radio-concentric city".
The linear industrial city is a place of "transformations"
established along the routes for the passage of goods. It is
divided into parallel belts which include (on one side of a
turnpike reserved for motor vehicles) factories in green areas
and roads for the passage of goods, and (on the other side,
isolated by a green curtain) the dwelling sector.
The radio-concentric city is a place of exchanges which groups
the functions of "leadership, administration, commerce,
handicrafts, and thinking". It is built vertically, so that it brings
together, as much as possible, the different sector of indi
vidualized activity: business city, civic centre and dwelling
zones.
In the "villas superposees", Corbusier extended spatial quality
to the outdoors as well as the interiors of his apartments by
providind his two-storey livingroom with a two-storey garden
terrace. Here is a wonderful concept of urban living — the idea
that a private "garden-in-the-sky" can be provided for every
family even in a so-called tower-apartment unit.
Another idea was the "roof garden" plan. A s opposed to the
punched-out private garden next to each apartment, the roof
garden was conceived as a communal space, a kind of elevated
piazza for the use of inhabitants of the building. The buildings
were raised high off the ground on stilts to allow lawns and
gardens to grow, and perfect freedom for pedestrians. Auto
mobile traffic was planned for elevated highways. The
architectural pattern in this "radiant city" of 1930-6 was
geometric, but the pattern of pedestrian paths and landscaping
was very free.
The Prahran council is erecting blocks of flats on stilts like this but there is no vegetation or landscaping.
Not enough regard is given to landscaping today. Suburbs
bite great chunks of greenery out of existence and that which
is left or replace is trimmed diligently to elbow height.
Would it be better perhaps if townscapes were a universal grey
instead of red, salmon pink, purple-grey, blue, creme and
chocolate? Uniformity would possibly be really the best if enough consideration were given to greenery — a n d this does not mean a row of poplars in pebble-pots. •
20
it's your funeral russell bevers
Can you afford to die? This question may
seem irrelevant to you at present but it is one you may well ask yourself as you
approach the twilight of your years, for if
trends continue your funeral could be
the most expensive purchase you will
ever have to make.
Death and its associated ceremonies have never been common talking points,
but much attention has been drawn to
the subject recently by Jessica Mitford's
book, "The American W a y of Death", which has caused a stir in the United
States. Miss Mitford exposes what in her
eyes is a racket on the part of
American funeral parlours and a contradiction to American morals.
In her foreword, the author states that
she has concentrated on average American funeral practices rather than
on unusual religious rites and uncommon or very expensive funerals. She
believes that, because of the very nature
of funerals, the public has been tricked into thinking that the expensive funeral is
part of the American way of life. One mortician's journal proclaims: "Today's
funeral procedures are founded in
American tradition . . ." If this is so, says
Miss Mitford, where is the plain pine box
and the family burial plot on the hill? American morticians have the public at
their mercy, for people seldom use
common-sense bargaining when purchasing the services of a funeral
director. Emotion clouds people's
judgement and, because they want the best for the deceased loved one, they are
led into paying fantastic sums to the
funeral organisations.
The mortician uses all the tricks of
persuasive selling and he has many up his sleeve. To summarise the author's
findings, let us examine the arrangements
21
for the burial of the typical American —
Mr. John Doe. The family of the deceased,
having chosen a "reputable" mortician,
are asked firstly to select a suitable casket. This could be likened to buying
a car, for each casket is classified as a
model and given a name —"French
provincial"; "Transition" (futuristic
model); "Valley Forge" (patriotic model),
etc. The author quotes a typical sales
patter —
". . . The Monaco, a Duraseal metal unit
by the Merit Company of Chicago, with
sea mist polished finish, interior richly
lined in 600 Aqua Supreme Cherry
Velvet, magnificently quilted and shirred
with matching jumbo bolster and
coverlet.. ." This model could be purchased for not much more than the
cost of a round-trip flight to Monte Carlo.
Even the less sophisticated models would
cost more than $100.
There are other details to be arranged for
Mr. Doe — embalming and the selection
of clothing for the deceased are only two
of the mortician's self-imposed duties. W h y the attention to beautifying the
corpse? Because the family are expected
to pay their lasts respects before the open coffin as it rests in the mortician's
"Slumber Room". The mortician's
believe that the mourning heart can be
healed by the sight of the serene coun
tenance of the deceased, so Mr. Doe
must look his best. The embalmer,
restorative artist and cosmetician set to
work to make him look better than he did
when he was alive. They give him rosy
cheeks and a radiant complexion; they
patch, fill and smooth; replace any
missing limbs, a nose here, an ear there,
and finally dress him in a smart pin
striped suit with accessories, including
shoes ("Fit-a-Fut Oxford Shoes which
come in calf, tan or oxblood with lace or
goring back, and soft cushioned soles").
The ladies, says the author are supplied
with fashionable streetwear garments or
negligees from leading garment manu
facturers.
The funeral director calls a staff con
ference to see that every staff-member
knows his duties for the coming
religious ceremony; he notifies pall
bearers, clergymen, organist and soloist,
provides transport for these people and
arranges and lists all flowers sent by
relatives and friends. The mortician
prefers the service to be held Jn his own
chapel, as it is more convenient and
allows him to show off his beautifully
appointed "Funeral Home". After the
service, the mourners and friends file past the casket for a last glimpse of the
earthly remains of Mr. Doe. The family
is never asked whether they want an
open casket ceremony; it is taken for
granted. In over 90 per cent of all
American funerals, this is a feature.
Miss Mitford quotes the case of an
English w o m a n who while in America
attended the funeral of an old friend and
was quite horrified when she found she
was obliged to file past the open casket.
The woman exclaimed later: "There and
then I decided that I could never face
another American funeral — even dead".
N o w we move from the chapel to the
graveside, and Mr. Doe who has been
resting on the "Classic Beauty Ultra
Metal Casket Bier" is transferred by a
"Porto Lift" hydraulic device to the
"Glide Easy Casket Carriage" and thus
to the Cadillac Funeral Coach which is
either lavender, cream or light green
(never black). At the graveside Mr. Doe
is lowered into his brick and metal vault
with the aid of a patented mechanical
lowering device. Untouched by human
hand, Mr. Doe has been laid to rest.
"After the home and the car, the funeral
is now the third biggest item in the
budgetof American Life," says Miss
Mitford. Is it any wonder? According to
a government estimate, Americans spent
$1.6 billion on funerals in 1960 (a new
national and world record). Averaged out
over the number of deaths in the United
States, this would amount to $942 for the funeral of every man, w o m a n and child.
And this is only a partial figure, because
there are many other industries, allied
with the morticians, who have hopped on
the funeral band-wagon—florists, 22
newspapers, and a relative newcomer,
the memorial garden cemetries, to mention only a few.
The modern cemetery industry rates
second only to the funeral parlours as a
money-making venture. Begun by a few far-sighted financiers, the modern
cemetery sells its burial plots to indi
viduals or whole families on an instalment basis. Gravestones and paths are done
away with; now one sees acre upon acre of sweeping lawn, punctuated only
by small marker plates set into the
ground. Thus the modern cemeteries can
boast "the world's largest lawnmowers".
A newer development still is the 5 or 6
storey mausoleum where one can reserve space for the whole family. Cremation, although it is very popular today, is no
cheaper than normal internment and the memorial cemeteries fear no opposition.
Will this monster continue to expand and
thrive at the expense of the American people? Miss Mitford relates how many
modern funeral trends are beginning to appear in England. They may even begin
to appear in Australia. However, there are moves being made towards funeral
reform in the United States: memorial societies and individual states are
attempting to fix prices and establish a uniform cost code; funerals paid for by
the government have been suggested. The clergy could show great influence in these reforms but have remained silent
because they say there are not set doctrines within the church stipulating
costs and modes of funerals.
We in Australia seem to slavishly copy
all modern Americanisms; one can only hope that we never encourage the
practices of American morticians.
Jessica Mitford concludes her book by
saying:
"Whether the narrow passageway to the
unknown, which everybody must cross,
will continue to be as cluttered and as
expensive to traverse, as it is today,
depends in the last analysis entirely on
those travellers who have not yet reached
it". So you see — it's Y O U R funeral. •
THE SOCIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ELECTRICITY
W
* * i
M r t r . r t
During the past hundred years, all the
various fields in which instruction is
offered at Swinburne have had a remark
able influence on society. But without
decrying the wonderful efforts of art,
commerce and the other engineering
professions, I believe that electrical
technology has had perhaps a more
wide effect.
Towards the end of the 19th century there
was an obvious need for some prime
mover which was easy to create and
which required no special knowledge for
its application and operation. At this time
gas engines were used to operate lathes,
drills and other forms of heavy equipment
in factories. The more prosperous farms
probably used paraffin oil engines to
operate ohaff cutters and circular saws
(those not so fortunate used good old-
fashioned manual labour). So although
some form of mechanization was avail
able, it was costly to install, unreliable, and required complicated maintenance
regularly.
Therefore when electricity was introduced
in a commercial state — i.e., one
generating station supplying power to a
vast area surrounding it — this enabled
the complete mechanization of industry
and the home. This was because electri
city had certain unique advantages. It
was relatively cheap, easy to transmit
from one point to another; transformation
and other methods enabled different
amounts of power to be drawn from one
line; and finally it was very easy to use —
just plug in and switch on.
Electric motors could efficiently drive
both large and small loads, whilst
electric lighting provided universal
illumination, all at increasingly low
prices.
In considering the influence of electricity
in the home, let us first see what a typical
Australian home was like in the middle
of the 19th century. The parlour or
lounge was placed in the front and
behind this were the bedrooms and drawing room. You think I've forgotten the
kitchen? Well, that was usually put with
the fairies: right down at the bottom of
the garden. W h o could blame them
putting it there when we remember that
24
then the kitchen was a hot, smelly and
greasy place? The stove, usually wood
fuel, belted uncomfortable heat and lots
of smoke. Ironing was done here too,
because you had to heat the heavy cast
iron weapon on the "puffing billy" stove.
A vastly different proposition to that of
today's kitchens!
The introduction of small electric motors
in about 1930 led to the invention of
washing machines, vacuum cleaners,
scrubber polishers, food mixers and
such — all designed to lessen the load
on housewives. By using the heating
effect of electricity, inventors provided
electric stoves, irons, toasters and many
other gadgets, all of which contributed
to making the kitchen what it is today.
Electric cooking is clean and easily
controllable thermostatically. So now
the kitchen is an integral part of every
home. Indirectly this has helped women
to become more important. No longer are
they banished to a run down back; for
now they are present at all times, an important member of the family.
*
""
•*r
•iffe r» , '<
The latest invention of course, television,
provides us with hours of endless
enjoyment, or so w e are told. Many people feel the T V set should be thrown to the
fairies.
Now we can see the impact electrical
technology has had on society. But this
is understandable. A n engineer is defined, among other things, as one who controls, maintains and improves upon
society's environment. W e must, as
future engineers or as practitioners in any chosen profession, ensure that the
good work started by our predecessors
is continued.
Electricity has had a tremendous impact
not only on the home but also on the
factory. It is hard to picture a factory of
the 19th century or even early 20th century.
Firstly you must realize that only one or
two steam or gas engines were used to
drive all the machinery in the factory.
So because of the large losses characteristic of transmitting actual mechanical
energy, all the machines had to be
placed very close together. All the energy
and resulting rotation must be trans
mitted through pulleys, gears and shafting. A large percentage of the work was
done by hand, due to the difficulty of
applying this limited source of energy.
Electricity changed all this. Factories
today are cleaner, safer and quieter. Because electricity can be sent along
wires and cables under floors and in
ceilings and walls, it has been possible to eliminate the oily, dangerous and noise line-shafting and belt-drives.
Obviously cables are much more flexible
than mechanical linkages, and therefore we now have portable appliances. These can be applied in many ways to relieve
the heavy burden of manual labour.
Control is much safer and easier when
you realize simple off/on switches can be
used for each machine's independent
motor, whereas in the past, hand-
operated clutches and such had to be
used. Machines no longer have to be
cramped together because of physical
linkages, and so the modern factories of
today are one-storey buildings, spacious
and clean. This results in much healthier
conditions for factory workers, and
economical savings for owners and employers. The time saved because of
these advantages enables us to have shorter working hours. You yourself can
probably think of many more similar improvements and advantages due directly or indirectly to the availability
of cheap electrical energy.
What about the present? Today's age is
one of automation, and this has been made possible through electricity.
Already we have seen the introduction
of skilled engineers and unskilled
operators with the result that w o m e n can
be employed, thereby increasing a nation's
work force considerably. W e know of
heavy factories completely operated by
a central computer. The future therefore is boundless.
The central force of this industrial progress is the change from manpower
to electrical power. Suffice to say that
in 1900 less than 5 per cent of factory power was electrical and now in 1966
over 90 per cent electrical power. And
that is a conservative estimate. •
david husband
25
r Silence Then
A leaf stirs.
The stillness is shattered
By its soft scraping
Upon the earth.
Wildly
The wind is rising,
Growing stronger,
Colder,
As grey clouds
Whirl to its mounting fury.
A man
Looks up.
He is dwarfed, Weak,
Easily destructible
And weak.
The wind tugs his hair.
He feels Its icy touch
Fill his lungs.
It is part of him.
Weak Easily destructible
And weak?
He breathes faster, Throws back his head,
Joins nature's exalted fury
And his weakness is scattered by its power.
He is strong Strong and free.
His strength Is the strength Of the wind. Strong Unity
Strength augmenting limitlessly To surmount all barriers —
Except the barrier of separation.
Weak, easily destructible
And weak.
A man sits Sheltered
In warm silence.
Chilled only by an
Anguished remembrance Of his now lost strength.
strong unity
two poems fry rosemary rider
out of the darkness into light
I ran south
All other ways
I had run
Seeking freedom from myself; And in this the last
Felt it was sure — Yet found it not.
I heard the voice Of another being;
An evil black voice
Calling me —
Calling m e down
To be with myself
For evermore. Alone, for evermore!
I wept,
I despaired,
I knew not what to do.
This evil voice grew, And only when
It reached the
Height of its furious passion
Heard I a still, tranquil voice, 'Look up,
Look up, m y weak and weary friend. Find your escape in me.'
The compassion of this voice
Was more compelling in its calm
Than the strength and fury of the voice of darkness. And as I slowly looked up,
And reached up,
And was surrounded bv glorious dav JO J
Such as I had never beheld, I heard a far-off distant moan;
And crashing thunder Told of the fury And Anger
Which Flashed from the
Depths of the darkness.
26
a peep into the past robyn Campbell
"Vf *^*!^*iaa^a»
ijpnt
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1
SBHWHBKF'*'"'' '""'-;'; ;* '•
In 1909 Swinburne Technical College was founded. What was life like for that first generation of Swinburnians? In order to
find out, I recently made arrangements at the State Library to examine some 1909 newspaper files.
Well, 1909, it seems, was a pretty good year. Peace and pros
perity were everywhere. "The Cowboy's Sweetheart" was
playing at the Moonee Ponds Town Hall, and a good set of
false teeth cost only 1 to 2 guineas. The Great War was not to come for five years, any type of political unrest was far away
in Europe, the Mother Country "reigned Supreme under Good
King Edward", and the British Empire was bigger and stronger
than ever.
But the people of 1909 did have some problems, including
juvenile delinquents. In an article headlined "Pitfalls of Youth",
the Melbourne Argus said, "At a quarterly Methodist meeting
in the Swan Hill district, sympathy was expressed with the
promise of the Premier to introduce legislation for the
suppression of youthful vice in Victoria." (They were talking
about our grand-parents.)
Another article dealt with a group of teenage boys who
removed the caps from the wheels of carriages parked outside
a church meeting. W h e n the carriages were driven away, the
wheels flew off, throwing the drivers and passengers onto the road. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt. And George Reilly,
age 15, was charged with causing grevious bodily harm to another boy, in attacking him with a knife.
In another encounter with the law, a Miss Hill, a passenger on
the liner Philadelphia, was detained by a group of port officials who tried to have her certified insane because she, a woman,
had dared to smoke on the promenade deck of the boat. They
were convinced she must have been mad, because not only had
she herself smoked, but she has also horrified the other
passengers by offering cigarettes to them. Another w o m a n
was arrested by port officials that year for a more serious offence —smuggling. They discovered she was carrying
fifty-four tins of opium in a specially built petticoat. But how on earth did they find it?
The cost of living in 1909, compared with that of today was very
low. A five-roomed brick house with stable, in Toorak, could be
bought for £455; a city hotel for £1650; and the price asked for
a forty-acre farm within the suburban area (complete with
house, outbuildings, implements and stock) was £1850.
Furnishings were just as cheap. A bath cost £1, a double bed
£1/15/0, a wardrobe £4, a dining-room suite £7/10/0 and a
27
billiard table £50. A gramophone, the latest type, used in all
the best 1909 discotheques and guaranteed to play up to four
minutes, was 75/-.
Clothing, too, was low priced. Men's suits, personally fitted, and
tailored to order, were priced from 42/- to 70/-, shoes from 9/11
to 15/6. A shirt cost from 2/11 and hats from 5/6. A woman's
ensemble could be bought for 12/6; and exclusive Paris gowns
for 10 guineas. Shoes were 10/6 to 30/-, a muslin blouse 2/11,
stockings from 1/6, cotton gloves 1/-, and a bargain corset 2/11.
As a special offer, Buckleys were giving, free, to all their
customers a good luck swastika, lucky symbol for hundreds of
years. Adolf was then 20, a student in Vienna.
But we must remember that, although the prices of goods were
low, so were wages. A master carpenter's wage was 25/- to
30/- per week plus keep; an apprentice's wage was 8/- to 10/-.
Most other skilled workers and office workers received about
the same amount; unskilled workers, such as labourers, much
less. A cook received 17/6 to 30/- per week; a house-maid 10/-to 15/- and a waitress or barmaid 13/-. W o m e n who did washing
or cleaning were paid 3/- per day. The hours were much longer
than those of today and the work a lot harder without modern
labour-saving devices.
There were no night-clubs, mod dances or television in those
days, but there was nevertheless plenty to see and plenty to
do. There was a revival of the Merry Widow at His Majesty's
Theatre; Miss Athmore Grey performed Salome's Dance
nightly at the Opera-house; Brennan's National Vaudeville
Entertainers were at the Gaiety. There was usually a perilous
balloon ascent to be watched; Wirth's circus was at Princes
Bridge and "The Girl Behind the Counter" was causing a
sensation at Theatre Royal. Hoyts were presenting "Mine at
Last, A Beautiful Love Story", and the Presbyterians were
conducting a "social purity campaign". Dame Nellie Melba was
on a triumphant tour of Australia, almost the same as Joan
Sutherland's recent tour. Her biography was printed in the
Argus, complete with photographs; every move she made was
reported, and tickets to the concert sold at a guinea each.
The very latest books were: "David Hill, Missionary and Saint";
"Travels in Upper Egypt"; "The Sister Crusoes"; "The Bar-B
Boys", or "The Young Cow-punchers"; and "This Day's Madness".
Several women's committees and church groups were protesting that literature was becoming immoral and would surely have a bad effect on young people.
The Melbourne Cup was then, as it is now, a big event. One
hundred thousand spectators were there and the book-makers
28
handled a record number of bets. It was reported to be a "splendidly run race", won by Prince Foote but only narrowly.
The weather was fine and pleasant with a light south-easterly
wind, so the elite of Melbourne's society appeared in the most fashionable clothes. Colours in vogue that year were lavender,
lichen green, light reseda, Parma pink and of course white, in fashionable fabrics such as muslin, silk, crepe de chine, coliennes and crepons.
The football situation in 1909 was very similar to today's. The
Victorian Football League was criticized for general inefficiency
and some people complained that the game was becoming too
rough. One Richmond player was banned for life for kicking (another player), and several others were disqualified for up to ten matches for striking, elbowing and kicking.
Sailing was in the news. After a drowning when a yacht sank,
the court noted that all boats should be made to carry enough life-jackets for all passengers. (This was not made law until the
1960's.).
O n December 8th that year, Young and Jackson's Hotel
lodged a claim for a late licence extending trade from 11.30 to 12 midnight. They testified that this was their busiest half-hour
and 11.29 their busiest minute. A n 11.30 swill?
Yes, all in all, 1909 was a pretty good year. •
the changing face of melbourne town
In this age of skyscrapers and triple-
fronted cream-brick veneers, it is
fascinating to look back at the evolution
of Melbourne's public and domestic architecture.
W h e n Melbourne was settled in 1835,
our first architectural style was the bark
hut, designed not for looks but merely
for shelter. A s the town devloped, more
thought was given to architectural
design. At this time the style known as
"Old Colonial Architecture" had reached
its peak in popularity around Sydney and
in Tasmania, and some of our earliest
permanent buildings followed this style,
especially hotels and homesteads. This
style (adopted from the English
Georgian) was very plain and sym
metrical, with wide verandahs on at least
one side and sometimes on all sides.
A n example of this is C o m o House, South Yarra.
About 1837 Melbourne was laid out by
Robert Hoddle who used the universally
known open-grid pattern developed by
Roman soldiers of old. He made
streets 99 feet wide running in both
directions, which has since been proved
an excellent design, convenient and safe
for all kinds of traffic. These wide streets
with plenty of parks gave Melbourne a
boost in making it a gracious city to live
in and promoted good architectural designs.
30
The next building style to take over in
Australia was the "Gothic Revival".
This style was built in stone mainly, and consisted of imitation battlements
and towers in a smaller scale, previously
in fashion for castles and so on in the
Gothic period in England. A n example of
this style would be the older part of
Melbourne University— between Wilson
Hall and the Old Arts Building. This
style also invaded private houses. A beautifully preserved example of this is
"The Hawthorns" (built about 1850) in Creswick Street, Hawthorn, which is one
of the historic homes of Melbourne. Its
walls are rocky, dark rubble bluestone,
against which fretwork of the face-boards makes striking contrast. The
Gothic Revival lasted until about 1880, and in Melbourne this style was used
frequently in the facades of terrace blocks and in Collins Street, from Queen Street to King Street.
With the discovery of gold in the 1850's
the architectural styles changed drastically. Melbourne became rich in terms of
money, people, goods and ideas. Previous early-colonial tastes disappeared to be
replaced by a style called the "Gold Style". This style could be called a rich,
plump classic revival. The newly rich
people wanted their homes, clubs and offices designed on the lines of the old Greek and Roman houses; big and
luxurious with plenty of thick columns and porticos being used. Victoria was
just celebrating its separation from
N.S.W. at this time and, as a result, the best examples of this style can be seen
in Government buildings of the period,
Toorak House, Parliament House, the Treasury and the Mint; further examples
are the Melbourne Club and Melbourne
Church of England Grammar School.
When the "Gold Rush" came to an end
Melbourne grew more crowded, land
increased in value and the allotment
sizes diminished.
These new, more compact town houses
were deeper than they were wide, with a
passage down the centre, rooms each
side, and a short veranday across the front sheltering the front door. About
1855 it became fashionable for one of the
two front rooms to be thrust forward
some eight feet to make a deliberately
unbalanced facade, with a shortened
verandah. This style was the beginning of a standard Australian house design
which is still the basis of most suburban
houses after more than a hundred years.
A further example of this style of house is the one in which I live in Myrtle Street,
Hawthorn. Our house is one of a set of four, all built about 1872, according to
papers found in the ceiling recently. The houses are in groups of two separated
by a lane, and they follow exactly the
above mentioned style except that behind
the four front rooms is a double storeyed section containing a dining room and a
kitchen-laundry on the ground floor and
three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. These houses were built without garages
and had an outdoor toilet, a universal
design when these houses were built.
Between 1860 and 1885 Melbourne was fairly compact, its size being limited by a
lack of transport and by the distance a
man could be expected to travel to work. This resulted in the development of the
terrace to house workers close to their
jobs. Each unit of a terrace averaged some fifteen feet in width, and was two
or three rooms deep and two or, on rare
occasions, three storeys high. A cramped passage and stairway edged past the
rooms on one side and led eventually
to a tiny yard at the back. There was also
a two or three-storey verandah at the front and a lot of cast iron ornamental
designs on the verandah at the front, sides and surrounding the guttering. It was generally found that the poor workers
lived in these terraced houses and the richers workers lived in the previously mentioned suburban style houses.
However, as transport improved, we see
less use being made of terraced houses.
More and more workers moved to the
outer suburbs and built their own homes. In the 1880's we were again drawn to use
new styles of architecture when the skyscraper was invented in America. This was helped by the development of
structural steel and a safe lift. These
buildings in Australia usually climbed to
four floors, but the Australia Building on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Flinders
Street (built in 1886) climbed to twelve storeys and for a while was the tallest
building in the world, being one hundred
and fifty feet high. But even so the building was in the main supported by
its bluestone and granite walls, not the
steel framework. Following the erection
of this building, the city council put a height limit of one hundred and thirty-
two feet on buildings in Melbourne, a
by-law which lasted sixty years. Another important architectural style in
public buildings was the "Functional",
which was very popular around the ^SO-
SO period. This style is best represented by hospitals such as the Mercy, the
Royal Melbourne and Prince Henry's.
They represent light, efficiency, cleanliness and a slightly impersonal touch.
This style was derived mainly from the
new cubist modern art styles of the time and was helped by the use of pre-stressed concrete and steel in buildings.
This brings us up to recent times where
no overall pattern of architectural style
seems predominantly fashionable. Public buildings show an efficient but light and
airy aspect and are painstakingly made to look different from each other, thus
encouraging creative originality. Factories
haven't changed much, being made to be
as efficient as possible while still limiting
costs. But, office blocks although extremely functional have attained a lofty,
delicate look which to my mind is very pleasing to the eye; this was helped by the lifting of the one hundred and thirty-two foot building height limit in 1956.
On the housing side, between 1920 and
1960 there has been a number of changes
in housing styles which I will enumerate to you but which due to the length of
this article I will have to leave to the reader's interest to find out more about
about them. The first was an American import in 1920 called the Californian
Bungalow style which was a type of small cottage; the next was the Spanish
Mission Style which appeared in the late 1920's, this style used a lot of arches and
emphasised shade. In the late 1930's the Modernistic and the Tudor Revival styles
ran in competition with each other, and these were followed about 1945 by the Contemporary style, which resulted in
the classical "Basic Suburban" style being bent into innumerable different
shapes from which it never recovered.
This style still exists today with some
minor changes.
In the future it is envisaged that building
styles will retain the current creative
originality, and, with the development of new materials, gadgets, prefabrication
and son on, we should see some
stikingly unfamiliar designs: for example
the Myer Music Bowl and the Cultural Centre. However, the basic shape of
things to come for the ordinary man
will not alter so very much within the
next few years. •
31
N
an unf orgetable character
Near the entrance to Swinburne's Art
School there is a plaque informing
posterity that this building was designed
half a century ago by Robert Haddon. A very interesting man, Mr. Haddon.
Born in 1886 in England, Haddon was
trained as an architect in London and at
the adventurous age of twenty-five came
to Australia. He must have been an
extremely busy man, a Fellow of every
Institute, a tireless worker on councils,
examining boards and committees.
The Australian architectural historian
Robin Boyd describes Haddon's influence
on Victoria's architecture as "subtle"—
and rightly so, as any blatant influence
would have proved disastrous. But
Haddon's ideas had more strength than
expected — being head of the architecture department at Melbourne Technical
College, his theories infiltrated the minds of several generations of students,
something not to be overlooked.
He was an idealist: "It is at the source
we need educating, the development of
the soul, the creative instinct . . ." And
a perfectionist: "Seek truth. Be true to
your materials. Study mass. Let nature
do all she can with her sunlight and
Shadows. Know the unfailing value of a
plain surface. Never be afraid of sim
plicity". (From "Some Thoughts of
Architectural Design", 1903.)
Indeed, simplicity was the keynote of the
new architectural movement. In Europe,
Violent reaction to the ornamentation of
the 19th century resulted in a deviation
to plain walls and wide open spaces.
The emphasis was on Functionalism. By
1912 the principles of functionalism were
well-established. It was then that Haddon
made his debut and gave Melbourne its
first tastes of functionalism.
A s Boyd states of Haddon, "His touch
was unmistakable." Haddon's facades are
severe; his windows have no archi
traves, come in all shapes and sizes —
looking as though cut from walls of raw
dough. Here was an inkling of an almost
"crude simplicity" while the rest of
Melbourne sat submerged in the over-
ornamental Queen Anne style.
His god was simplicity, he believed only
in the occasional "explosion of fancy".
His own decorative motif consisted of
pendulous strips of bronze and terra cotta usually supporting a head.
A fine example is Fourth Victoria House
in Collins Street. Commissioned to give
it a face-lift, he scraped off the entire
top surface, replacing it with white
cement and two enormous lions' heads
dribbling strips of terra cotta down the
centre. Actually Haddon was a great
believer in using Australian motifs, but
he had to admit that a koala's head
would never have done what a lion's head
did for a financial institution! (Probably
just as well!) The Fourth Victoria still
stands, so does the facade, but with a
new touch: the lions' heads are gone;
only the terra cotta dribbles remain.
After all Melbourne's architecture cannot
afford to be too original . . . !
Speaking of originality, another of his
works was the Swinburne Art School,
Again one notes the extreme simplicity,
the "cut-out" windows, the blank walls.
Severity to the point of ugliness but still
clever. The walls nearest the railway line
consist of tiny insignificant windows, the
walls are thick and sound does not
penetrate easily. Neither does the sun. Ornamentation is limited to a few
porthole-type shapes along the top of
the building, and the checkered beams
32
over the larger windows facing the quad
rangle. However, Haddon was working
in a day when "simplicity" was a new
word to architecture, and, like a "new
fad", it was taken to extremes — to the
point of being severe and unattractive.
What really fascinated Haddon (besides
dribbling terra-cotta lions) was water-
colour work. He opened practice as an
architectural consultant, preparing per
spective views of plans for various
buildings. He eventually designed facades
for office buildings, churches, factories
and houses. Thus many of the plans may
not be his; the facades certainly are.
He was first and foremost an idealist — and, seeking an ideal image, demanded
perfection. Maybe he sounds a little
inhuman, but in 1910 an item appeared in
the newspapers that may prove differ
ently. Haddon issued a writ against a
clergyman alleging that he "caused to be
rung in the church, and particularly on
Sundays, a bell, which makes a loud
jarring sound or noise, and greatly
interrupts, disturbs and annoys the
plaintiffs . . ." Haddon did not stop at
this — indeed he sought five pounds
damages. "The harsh, jarring, annoying
sound of the bell makes my life insuffer
able. It wakes m e up in the morning,
distracts m e at my work and makes m e
irritable and bad tempered." While
Haddon complained, the vicar laughed —
laughed so loud he lost the case, paid
his five pounds and never rang his bell again!
This was courage; after all how many of
us would have the gumption to complain
publicly about a noisy bell? •
regina karps
yarrabank on Sunday afternoon
Wolf-whistles emanated from the assembled crowd as the striking figure, clad in a ridiculously tassled black robe which
streamed voluminously in his wake, strode arrogantly through both fallen leaves and sniggering onlookers with an equal air
of authority. This was the much talked about "Queenie"—an
obvious name when one noted the marked effeminacy present
in both his gestures and speech—a man with curly blond hair, very obviously bleached, a baby pink complexion and
women's pale blue spectacles.
He was decidedly one of the favourites with the regular hecklers
because as soon as he could be seen striding towards the
crowds, a small knot of people gathered around his chosen mound. In vain, Arnold Paine, another speaker and Queenie's arch-enemy, blew on his whistle and screamed insults at his
enemy, who, with his nose in the air, snorted at the common
little man ranting and raving from the gutter.
Then it began. Queenie started off with his usual ambit about
the Government hood-winking the down-trodden working-class.
Then out came his banner for the recognition of Red China.
This was the opening for a shower of abuse from the good-natured crowd, all pressing eagerly around the mound and
uttering asides. Several of the experienced hecklers had their
own "audience" of admirers, all of w h o m listened eagerly for
the gems of witticism which their leaders might produce.
These hecklers however, are men well versed in the art of
heckling, as nothing is uttered which could backfire and be
used to make fun of them in turn. All jibes and sarcasm roll off
Queenie like water off a duck's back, and he continues with a
"Now", emphasized with a wave of the hand. This word is his
suzanne mills
usual start to a statement, and is used to jolt the proletariat out
of its apathy. Holding aloft his bible (the Melbourne Truth) Queenie proceeds to point out the faults of the present-day
Government.
Nothing is sacred here, everything is attacked —the Church, the State, communism, the con-merchant, capitalism, and every other form of "ism".
With Queenie going strong from one mound, and Arnold
(anti-communist) screeching from another mound, pande
monium reigns supreme. Above all, there is a carnival atmosphere. It's an unusual world: even the speakers are only
semi-serious; everybody is out for a pleasant afternoon, from
the students to the hardened hecklers. With this air of semi-
seriousness and gaiety intermingled, little tangible practical
good can be derived from the lectures given by the speakers.
The Yarra Bank could perhaps be divided into three distinct factions — t h e speakers, the hecklers, and the on-lookers. Of these, possibly the most important element would be the
hecklers. Without the hecklers, the Yarra Bank would be
reduced to a boring series of lectures by speakers who knew
little or nothing about their subject, or to tirades by people who
knew a tremendous amount about their subject, but could not
present it in a crowd-pleasing manner. The hecklers are the
means by which the speakers are reduced (or raised) to the
level of the crowd and by which their powers of self-restraint
and the public oratory are determined. The hecklers enable
everyone to join in the fun, and make the Yarra Bank for what
it is — a half-hearted, but humorous exercise in democracy. •
away from it all Have you, dear suburbanite, ever tasted
Tea Towel Pudding? Or Fricasse of
Lizard? No? Well, read on.
During Swinburne vacations, I have the
option of temporary employment in the
forest assessment section of the Victorian
Forests Commission, with the possibility
of taking a friend if an extra position is
available. Last summer, accompanied by fellow-Swinburnian Peter Salisbury, I was
assigned to a tent camp about 45 miles
from Bright on the rugged and remote
Tea Tree Range.
The function of the camp was to assess
the suitability, for logging operations, of
virgin stands of Alpine Ash and
Woolybut. The camp personnel comprised
four young professional foresters and
four chainmen. Our role as chainmen
was to assist the foresters in locating
and measuring sample plots of Woolybut,
and, with compass and chain, to traverse
newly-made jeep tracks for mapping
purposes. Being civil engineering
students, Peter and I appreciated the
experience in elementary land surveying.
The first week was spent in setting up the
camp. Although it was mid-summer, the
camp's altitude (4,500 ft.) rendered
necessary the construction of a fireplace
and chimney for warmth in the main
tent, as well as the fireplace which
enclosed the cooking stove in the kitchen
tent. The chimneys and fireplaces were
made from scrap iron, saplings and rocks.
In building the camp, the leader decided
that any members possessing any special
training or ability should not waste their
talents; even so, Peter and I failed to see
the connection between training as civil
engineers and digging the pit for the
camp latrine.
A mess secretary (appointed by the
leader on the volunteer principle of
"Right, you're it") would make a list of
stores needed, and would buy some in
Bright of a weekend. If he miscalculated,
the men went hungry by Friday.
W e took turns at being cook for the day.
It was an adventure to sit down at
mealtimes, wondering what the cook that
day had found in the recipe book and
attempted to make. The specialty of one
member was "Tea Towel" Pudding. The
34
pudding was wrapped in an unwashed
teatowel. It tasted of nothing else. "That's how it said to do it in the recipe
book" was his plaintive defence.
The camp harboured several eccentrics.
First comes "Bugs", the mad enty-
mologist. This character possessed the most amazing talent for spotting, then
leaping forward and grabbing, all sorts
of insects, moths and butterflies,-to add to his collection. W e would be sitting at
the table eating our evening meal, when
in the middle of a sentence, "Bugs"
would leap from his seat, sending food
and crockery flying and dash outside to
catch some moth or insect whose
silhouette had appeared on the tent wall.
Next comes Eli, the fanatical walker, who,
every weekend, would disappear, trying to set new records in travelling from one
mountain peak to the next. It was
rumoured in the camp that at one stage
he took to hiking with a rucksack topped
up with bricks, so that he wouldn't be carrying too light a load, and therefore
cheating.
At weekends Peter and I hiked down to
the various rivers which flow southwards
from the Tea Tree Range. Usually by
Friday there was little food left in the camp, so on these hikes we had to
employ rifle and fishing-rod to help
alleviate our food shortage. Luckily there
was no lack of trout in the rivers and rabbits on some of the river flats, and
these made excellent eating.
Having read somewhere that goannas
and other large lizards taste like chicken,
I stalked and shot a 3 foot long Eastern Water Dragon, a large lizard living along
the river banks. Fricasse of lizard was
found to be quite an acceptable dish when hunger adds sauce to the meal and
one overcomes inbuilt prejudices against
eating reptiles.
W h e n the time came to head back to
civilization, Peter and I agreed that one month in the High Country in summer
was long enough, and that the wages
were only just adequate when balanced against the remoteness, the bush-fly
problem, and the lack of amenities. Suburbia does have some advantages. •
neil heinz
35
The trammy's lot is not entirely a happy
one. Believe me. I've been a trammy.
It all began after my Swinburne exams in 1964.1 found it difficult to obtain a vacation
job. Feeling somewhat uneasy, I finally
wandered into Tramways House. They
were short of staff. Hey presto! They
welcomed me, signed m e up, issued m e
with a little parcel of odds and ends
(including something about H o w to be a
Good Conductor), fitted me with a
uniform and sent m e off to the Training
School.
I spent two days at the Training School,
then three days on a tram with another
conductor to get the "feel" of things.
(Have you ever stood in a moving tram
with "no hands"?) After another day at
the Training School for revision, I was
on my own.
A conny usually works for one week with a particular driver over a particular route
which is listed on a "table"—the table
being a list of destinations and of
departure times from each terminus for
the day's work. E.g., Depot 5.30 —
Burwood 5.42 —City 6.30, etc. You
usually work for eight hours a day,
through all weathers, either commencing
in the early morning (about 5-6 a.m.) or
finishing late at night (11 p.m. to 1 a.m.)
depending on the shift worked and
usually six days a week (due to the staff
shortage).
W h e n arriving for work, you have 10
minutes to prepare your kit and fill in the paper work (which is quite extensive)
and be out in front of the Depot waiting
for your tram. N o w you're ready to meet
the charming public who charge onto your tram in ever increasing numbers
as the trip proceeds. This first day is
fair spleez
412404 /
"hell" for the new trammy and the
public alike, with tickets torn off in
correctly (there is a definite art in this) and
punched in the wrong place, and much
arguing over who didn't get the right
change. Fortunately this doesn't last long
as you settle in rather quickly (or go
neurotic trying).
Most people are obliging when tendering
their fare but there are always some who
are reluctant to part with their money or
have only a ten-dollar bill and look up at
you with a stupid grin and say rather
pathetically, "That's all the change I've
got". Then you may be unfortunate to
encounter those arrogant young ladies,
who ignore you altogether and will not
offer up a fare unless you challenge
them sharply, after which you are liable
to have the fare thrust at you together
with a ferocious glare.
A s the tram gradually edges its way
towards the city terminus the conny's
job becomes something of a nightmare
as the crowd increases. He cannot move
about in the tram, let alone collect fares,
and he is still expected to ring the bell to
set the tram in motion again when every
body is safely aboard. It is no wonder that
some people shout abuse as the tram
moves on when they are hanging onto
the outside rail or while still standing on
the road — but what is the conny to do
when he cannot see the doorways or
anyone boarding?
Finally, as the tram reaches its destina
tion, the conny is almost pushed out of
the tram by a great surging mass that
makes for the nearest exit and spills out
onto the roadway in a most determined
manner. You have just long enough time
to recover from this ordeal, run to the
front of the tram and pull down the
electric pole, change the tram's destina
tion sign and hurry back inside to collect
fares from another load of abusive
monsters. So ends one peak-hour trip.
The driver's lot is also far from a bundle
of joy. He has to cope with the reckless
stream of motorists who come at the
tram in all directions. Indeed, there are
so many near misses each day that it is
a wonder that trammy and tram make it
safely back to the Depot after day's
work. Occasionally some motorists are
unlucky. After a collision with a tram, a
car is a "write-off". S o m e car passengers have met their death when colliding with
twenty-two tons of dead weight — t h e
weight of a loaded tram. Many a driver
has lost his nerve and has had to give
the job away because of the strain and
responsibility connected with driving.
Here I would like to give my views on
Melbourne' trams. I consider our present
tramcars antiquated — some have been
on the road since the 1920's — and
inadequate for present-day expectations
of comfort. Yet I believe that a tramways
system is essential for a modern
metropolis. I look forward to the new-
look tramcars that are promised for
Melbourne in the late 1960's.
After reading this, you might not fancy
the tramways as vacation employment.
However, I've found it to be a worthwhile
experience. For an unmarried student,
the pay is reasonable — about $40 —
and with a little overtime it was not
difficult to raise this to over $50 a week.
Furthermore, I've learned much about
Melbourne — a n d about human nature.
I shall be doing it again — next vacation. •
John m c intosh
36
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Back stage, just caught by the footlight's glare, I notice there
his wife.
Wistfully she smiles, although she knows she is his love,
this instrument, this music, is his life.
For wrapped in the sound, his eyes half closed, head bent,
he feels alone
O n a stage in front of hundreds — nought matters but the lilt,
the clarity, the tone.
Caressing fingers fill the dark with sadness singing
soft and low, The feelings of an inmost soul voiced through six strings,
but then, w h o is to know
W h e n the m o o d will change and fingers quick and free will play a melody, more like a whim,
And his foot set tapping makes you wonder does he play on it, or it on him?
The instrument he holds is Spanish made,
much older than the hand that plucks the strings, Its mellow tone a master's heritage, has sung for
peasant children and for kings.
Rich and deep black velvet notes can banish time and care and place, and spin a trance
That fascinates by sound, by minuets, or fiery flashes of
a gypsy dance.
It is as if the instrument — a lovely magic box,
and of the world, all people, there is only he W h o knows the way to bring the still to life, to coax it wide,
the way to turn the key.
38
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45
Lights, Camera, Action
Swinburne has this year become the first technological institute in Australia to establish an Art Diploma course for future creative personnel in the film and television industries.
As from 1966, students entering the third year of Swinburne's four-year post-Leaving Art Diploma course may elect to spend their third and fourth years in either the already-existing advertising-design stream or in the new film- T V stream.
The lecturer in charge of the first batch of students attempting Film and T V this year year is Mr. Brian Robinson. H e gives the following reasons for Swinburne's action in launching the new course:—
"The magic of the cinema is that it engages both heart and mind as though it were life itself. As an entertainment medium it has now been partially eclipsed by its gargantuan child, television. Together they have profoundly influenced and still influence the civilized world. The production of film and television is an art form of recent origin; a 20th Century phenomenon, its potential is not yet fully grasped.
"Australia entered film making early and in triumph. "Soldiers of the Cross" 1898, made in Melbourne by J. H. Perry for the Salvation Army, was the World's first narrative film.
"The Australian silent film industry boomed. By 1928 some twenty feature films per year were being produced. Then, in the economic chaos of "the depression", the industry collapsed. Though some thirty-five years have passed since then the industry shows no sign of recovery for in the interim Australia has acquired the easy habit of importing its films, together with much of its culture. Our national identity, so marked and virile in our erstwhile film industry, is being insidiously effaced by an alien image, predominantly American.
"What remains of film making in Australia on the production of T V
commercials (usually proficiently made) and documentary-style films (too often a prosaic salute to heavy industry). in addition the lunatic fringe remains resolutely active producing, despite a lack of training and finance, films which, if nothing else, testify to an abiding faith in the medium.
" National pride and self awareness arise to a great extent from a nation's film industry. It does not require a Hitler to recognise it as awesome propaganda potential. That such an industry should be virtually non-existent in Australia is consistent with the insular and anti-intellectual attitude pervasive of our nation.
"When TV, after an exhaustive period of appraisal, was introduced into this country in 1956, no training course for the requisite creative personnel existed. This preposterous situation has now existed for ten years! True, the odd technician's course covered aspects of mechanical control. But the creative team, in whose collective fancy the end substance of this multi-million dollar industry takes form, had no such recourse — short of going overseas. One need therefore no longer wonder at the unseen quality of Australian T V productions.
"It is with the above considerations in mind that the Swinburne Technical College has, as of this year, taken a step unique in Australian education, namely, the introduction of a Diploma of Art course in Film and Television.
"A pilot group of students is currently committed to the new course. It is hoped that they and those who follow them will, when eventually employed in film production houses, advertising agencies and, of course, the television stations, help re-establish the Australian film industry and lift local T V and film production standards to equal the world's best. They will find they have selected a most rewarding area of study.
"What they must contemplate is not only an art form but, in one sense, a catalyst of all the arts. It is an area in which versatile genius could find endless satisfaction. W e wish them every success." •
Flashback
In a recently-published history of Melbourne—John Batman's Village by Agnes Paton Bell — there is a respectful mention of the name Swinburne. On pages 144-5, Mrs. Bell writes:—
"In the late nineteenth century (1887), the ever increasing industrialization of Melbourne led to the foundation of the Working Men's College (Melbourne Technical College, now Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). It was a fee-paying college, but it was substantially assisted by Government grants.
The college was already overcrowded far beyond its capacity. While politicians wrangled over what was to be done a public-spirited engineer of imagination founded and administered the Eastern Suburbs Technical College which now bears his name, the Swinburne Technical college.
"George Swinburne, descendant of a famous Northumberland family noted for its engineering giftedness, came to Melbourne as a young man. He knew many famous engineering firms in England and on the Continent, and had himself been an apprenticed engineer. Knowing the workers of many countries, his opinion of the Australian
worker was: 'A remarkable worker, intelligent and resourceful, with wonderful skill and initiative: the idea that he was lazy was a libel, but he did not take to routine work and required to be interested. If his work presented a series of difficult problems he was all attention and intelligence; at a crisis he was magnificent; at repetition work he was inclined to slack'.
"Swinburne was intensely interested in electricity, and with a thorough knowledge of the German language he was able to assist wholeheartedly the German engineers brought out to advise on the brown coal schemes. He was one of the four Commissioners appointed
48
to the Electricity Commission. The chairmanship of the Commission was in the masterly hands of the noted Sir John Monash who, among his many qualifications, was also an engineer.
"Had the technical knowledge required for the project not already been developing, Melbourne industrialists and families of today would not be enjoying such extensive benefits of electricity. With all such ground work already under way and, after World War I, with thousands of returned soldiers requiring work, the scene was set for changing the railways to electric traction.
"By 1919, the first electric train ran from
Flinders Street Station to Essendon, where a celebration was held before the train returned through Flinders Street Station to Sandring-ham. By 1932, the magnificent achievement of one hundred and fifty route miles of Melbourne railways were worked by electric traction, and in the following year, the spectacular success of transmitting electric energy from Tallourn to Melbourne sent a thrill of pride and wonder through the community.
"All this imaginative construction work at last awakened parents as well as educationists to the situation that more technical education was required. Swinburne had already
adversely criticized parents for their lack of interest in the education of their children. Although he had founded a technical college, he was most appreciative of general education as distinct from technical education, and was an advocate of the new Education Bill to reorganize the schools. The main change came in a new emphasis on secondary (as distinct from primary) education and on an appreciation of literature and art. The Swinburne Technical College maintained a special interest in art."
(In the Swinburne Technical College Library, Mrs. Bell's book is kept on one of the over-size shelves — "f" 994.5.) •
49
Library au Go-Go
Swinburne Senior Technical College this year has doubled the size of its library building, confirming its position as one of the most progressive educational libraries in Victoria outside the universities.
The extension has been achieved by taking over a large adjoining room, which was formerly used as a gymnasium and which is now being used as a reading room annexe.
Total library floor space has now been increased from 3,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet, and seating accommodation from 74 readers to 146 readers.
Swinburne's library is in its twenty-first year of operation.
It is a general reference and lending library available for the assistance of staff and students in all full-time and part-time courses from 8.45 to 8.30 p.m. from Mondays to Fridays. There is a bookstock of 23,000 volumes, comprising books and periodicals relating directly to all teaching programmes in the college, and also covering fiction, hobbies and almost all subjects of general interest outside the college curriculum. During a three months' survey in 1965 the maximum number of students in the library at any one time was 103 and the average number was 33. During this same period 5,500 books were let out on loan. There is a staff of eight. Total expenditure on the on the library for the last financial year was approximately $19,000, which is about 2 per cent of general college expenditure.
The composition of the bookstock illustrates how far Swinburne has moved towards the idea now prevalent in Great Britain and other countries that technical education should be "nearer to a liberal education with science and its applications as the core and inspiration". The scope of Swinburne's bookstock, ranging from 001 to 999 in the Dewey classification, is a reflection of the attempted synthesis of liberal and technical educations.
The Head of Swinburne's Library (Mrs. J. Harley, B.Sc, Dip.Ed.) says: "Knowledge in all fields is now increasing at such a bewildering rate that new methods of teaching are being developed to cope with this situation. It is being realised that there must be less emphasis on imparting facts, which may very soon become outdated, and much more emphasis on teaching the techniques of keeping abreast with new knowledge. The most efficient and economical
method of teaching these techniques is through the provision of good libraries and adequate staff qualified to guide and instruct the students in their use, so that they learn to develop initiative and resourcefulness, and to appreciate how much they can learn for themselves. In this way it is hoped to develop the library into the information centre and background support of all teaching programmes.
"With Swinburne's affiliation with the Institute of Colleges, there is to be a further development of liberal studies, and a greater emphasis on individual study and reading at complex levels for which additional professional guidance in library use will be required. Also, research will be undertaken to an increasing degree. H o w is our library service equipped to meet this situation? It seems that we have the right kind of equipment but not nearly enough of it.
"Sir John Jungworth, in his Report on Library Services in Victoria, stated that there will need to be a drastic improvement in the library facilities of senior technical colleges to meet the increased demands which will be made on them.
"How drastic are the improvements required? Guided by English experience, it seems necessary to think in terms of a book-stock of 100,000 volumes and staff of 15 to 20, of whom 8 or 9 will be fully professional. Also, since the readers have every right to expect to read under conditions that are as attractive as those in the best universities, there will have to be considerable expenditure on accommodation.
"Experience in England has shown that expenditure on the college library service, once it has been brought up to the required standard, should be from 4 to 5 per cent of general college expenditure. If the library allocation is less than this, then the effectiveness of all other expenditure is adversely affected.
"A library service developed in the first place to serve the needs of the college can, with relatively little extra expenditure to provide the necessary staff, be developed into an information service for industries in the vicinity of the college. This would seem to be an economical and effective method of doing something to lessen the present costly delays in the application of new scientific and technical knowledge to industrial practice." •
Swinburne's changing population
Swinburne diploma courses are attracting an increasing number of students from high schools and independent schools. More than half of of our entrants now come from such schools. Simultaneously, we are gaining more and more entrants who have already studied for matriculation. Obviously, it will not be long before all our diploma faculties will be demanding matriculation (or equivalent Junior Technical School qualifications) as a pre-requisite.
Swinburne is doing its best to meet the Affluent Society's demand for more tertiary education for more people.
This year Swinburne's faculties of Engineering and Applied Chemistry have remodelled their diploma courses to cater more fully for entrants who have already passed in matriculation subjects. Applicants who have Leaving passes in English and in four other subjects will still be admitted to the first year of the four-year diploma courses. However, the curriculum of the first year at Swinburne has been revised, so that it is now similar to that followed by "scientific" students in Form VI at secondary schools — chiefly mathematics, chemistry, physics, social studies and Matriculation English expression. The more specialised subjects — such as engineering thermodynamics and applied mechanics — have now been postponed until second year. Students who come from high schools and independent schools (and who have Matriculation passes in calculus and applied mathematics, physics, chemistry and English expression), will be admitted to Swinburne's second year. In future such students may complete their diploma in three years.
One of the biggest "population bulges" at Swinburne in 1966 is in the C o m m e r c e Faculty. To cope with an increased first-year intake, several classrooms were remodelled to form a large Commerce Lecture Theatre.
Another new development this year is a course is television and film production in Swinburne's Art Faculty.
Plans are now being made to establish a Diploma of Liberal Arts at technical colleges in the near future. This diploma course would include such subjects as languages, politics, economics, sociology, philosophy and psychology.
Scholarships For the second year in succession, Kew
City Council has awarded two scholarships worth $100 each to assist young local people who are receiving their tertiary education at Swinburne.
The awards for 1966 were presented by the Mayor (Cr. A. G. Grace) at an assembly of Swinburne's 900 diploma
52
students in Hawthorn Town Hall on March 29.
This year's winners are: Douglas Sheehan and George Wengier. In line with the current trend, both Douglas and George matriculated from secondary schools before commencing their Swinburne diploma courses.
Douglas, aged 19 and a half years, cane to Swinburne from Carey Grammar in February 1965, and commenced the second year of Swinburne's Diploma of Applied Chemistry. He performed outstandingly in the 1965 annual examinations, and in Physical Chemistry I his mark was 92 per cent.
George Wengier, aged 20 and a half years, spent one year at the Pharmacy College and then commenced the Diploma of Commerce course in 1965. George, who was bom in Russia, came to Australia in 1952. This year George was awarded a Commonwealth Advanced Education Scholarship.
Anonymous Donor An anonymous donor has given $200 to
help needy diploma students at Swinburne Senior Technical College.
The donation was made to Swinburne's Student Aid Fund, which was established early in 1965 to help students whose studies might be adversely affected by financial difficulties.
The chairman of the fund committee (Mr. R. D. McCullen) says: "This donation comes as a complete surprise. The letter was posted at a suburban post office. "Since we announced the fund 12 months
ago, we have received several smaller donations from the public. Some members of the college staff have arranged to have a few cents paid into the fund from their fortnightly salary cheques.
" The Student Aid Fund is necessary because Swinburne has 900 students doing diploma courses and because these courses extend for three years or more beyond matriculation level. Some students have won scholarships but there are others who are not quite in the race for scholarships and who need and deserve financial help."
The Publishing Department
Swinburne is fortunate in having its own Publishing Department. The main object of the Publishing Department is to serve staff and students of the College, at the same time being as nearly as is possible self-supporting.
The department was established in 1952 to produce class notes for sale to students and to prepare class and laboratory sheets for instructional purposes. At this time it was staffed by one typist and a junior, the equipment consisting of a typewriter and a duplicating machine.
The rapid growth of the department is reflected in the cash sales, which grossed $1200 in the first year of existence and rose to $36,000 in 1965.
In order to meet the increasing and varied demands made upon it, the staff has been increased to twelve, and more efficient and versatile equipment has been installed, including electric typewriters, photo-copying equipment for production of transparencies for overhead projection and a Xerox for normal copying work, an offset printing machine, duplicators, collating machine and electric stapler.
In addition to meeting the demands of the College, the department supplies publications to virtually every technical, high and registered school in the State; hundreds of individual students write or phone for items. The despatch department, priding itself on disposal of orders as soon as possible after receipt, works at full stretch.
Further to its purely publishing commitments, the department handles a considerable proportion of work from the administrative side of the College, including preparation of all internal examination papers. It should also be borne in mind that a considerable amount of the work carried out, whether duplicated, offset-printed or Xerox-copied, is issued to students free of charge as an aid to study — or to instructors as a teaching aid.
SRC Report Looking back on the activities and work
done by the Swinburne Students' Representative Council during the past year we find it hard to stifle a sense of pride and satisfaction. The S.R.C. has played an active part in organizing and controlling student policies and activities both within and outside this college. Our representatives on the V.A.S. T. have played important roles in suggesting and formulating ideas and policies to be adopted by all Victorian Senior Technical institutions.
This year we pledged our support for the aims of the "Workout" planned by the N.U.A. U.S. The resulting organization of activities for the day and the student participation from Swinburne received high commendation and gratitude from all bodies in the venture.
The S.R.C. is particularly proud of the interest and participation that was fostered for Open Day at the College this year. The work done by students helped to gain considerable publicity for the College and has set a pattern to be followed in future years.
This year has seen many changes in the varied student ventures at Swinburne. Clubs and societies have continued to expand, and new clubs have been established and supported with grants from the S.R.C. New names include the Car Club, Surfing
Fraternity and Rifle Club. Encouragement from the S.R.C. has resulted in the expansion of the Christian Fellowship, the formation of Jazz and Folk Groups within the College and an increase in student social and sporting activities. A Talent Promotion Quest was organized for the entertainment groups within the College. Dances, lunchtime and evening films have been increased and several car and surf rallies have been held. To cater for the increased number of clubs within the College; the S.R.C. has acqyuired a house near the College which is currently being used as club rooms for the Electrical Society, Engineering Students' Society, Overseas Students' Society, Car Club and Surfing Fraternity.
Annual College functions have met with increasing success. The Activities Committee of the S.R.C. was responsible for organizing the M o o m b a Float, Annual Car Rally, Open Day activities, the Miss Swinburne Quest and numerous other student participation. The M o o m b a Float — "Bells of St. Swinnians" — fostered a great deal of student interest and received rewarding commendations and praise. This year the Miss Swinburne Quest again resulted in a substantial donation to charity from the College and overwhelming publicity for the College.
W e have seen many improvements within the College this year. A remarkable and thoroughly commendable change has taken place in the student newspaper "Contagious". A broadminded and talented "Contagious" staff have been able to produce a newspaper that can rank with any other student publication in the State. In a similar vein, which must be described as completely successful, we look back on the S.R.C. Annual Revue. A n efficient committee, talented producer, cast, and stage crew combined to gain enthusiastic commendation from critics and wholehearted support and applause from capacity audiences.
Sport within Swinburne has taken further strides in the path of success this year. The S.R.C. has increased the proportion of money spent on sport this year and has also increased the range of sports available. W e can look forward to even further improvements next year.
During this year we have been responsible for the planning of the proposed student rooms and facilities to be built on to the cafetria at the end of this year. These new facilities (including club rooms, common room, S.R.C. offices, games rooms and showers) will be ready for use at the beginning of the new year.
With these new fscilities at hand, with past experience as a guide and with the wholehearted support and enthusiasm of the student body, we are sure that the S.R.C.
will continue to grow and in its many ventures, reap the rewards of successes that far surpass those that have made this the outstanding year that it has been.
G R A E M E MOORE, S.R.C. President.
SCS Report The main object of the Swinburne
Chemistry Society this year has been to raise $200 to set up a Trust for the J. H. Ness Memorial Award. The award is being made to the best Organic Chemistry II student of the year. Films have been organised to aid the fund.
During the year several excursions to industrial chemical plants have been held, giving students an insight into industrial conditions.
This year's Chemistry Society representative in the Miss Swinburne Contest is Rosalind Cook, a 2nd year Biochemistry student.
CLIVE LYNN S.C.S. Secretary.
SESS Report In the 12 months ending in June 1966,
the Swinburne Engineering Students' Society was very active.
Twenty-one feature films and five educational films were screened.
Excursions were run under S.E.S.S. subsidy to Morwell-Yalloum-Hazelwood, Altona Petrochemical Plant and the Victorian Railways. Four lunch hour lectures were given by
guest speakers from the Board of Works, Cummins Diesels Australia and Mr. Tylee and Dr. Molyneux.
The S.E.S.S. Report was drafted and published. A reply has been received from Mr. Bloomfield, the Minister for Eductation and in it he has requested a more detailed report about a specific part part of the first report. This has been drafted and will be sent to Mr. Bloomfield and his subcommittee on tertiary education after consultation between the S.E.S.S. executive and the College Administration.
The sum of $130 was raised by members ofS.E.S.S. and their helpers for the 1965 Miss Swinburne contest, the profits of which went to Community Aid Abroad. This was another win for the engineers, being the largest sum raised for this worthy cause.
Donations were made to the library and the scholarship committee, and although these were only relatively small sums, it is hoped that in the future the S.E.S.S. will be able to make more donations of greater signifiance to these two committees.
A donation was also made to the Electronics Society (approx. $40) just after it was formed last year.
Arrangements were made to supply the College with a Rolls Rqyce Derwent engine for the Engineering Thermodynamics Lab. to be paid for by S.E.S.S. also paying the cost of transporting the engine to the College. Negotations broke down, however when it was learnt that it would be at least a year before any use at all would
be made of the engine. In spite of this setback, the committee is continueing investigation of the possibilities of obtaining other articles of use to the Eng. Therm. Lab.
A dinner dance was held and was a great success. As a result it has been decided to make it an annual affair. There were also seven or eight Friday night dances during the year.
The Committee did some work for the S.R.C. to help the Student Workout held early in 1966. For the immediate future the S.E.S.S. has many activities organised including lectures films, dances, excusions and other activities such as the formation ofweightlifting and judo clubs within the college.
With increased co-operation between the S.R.C. and S.E.S.S., it will be possible to cater for nearly all students' needs and requests, which are coming in at an ever increasing rate. This will only be possible however, if these two groups have the full support of the student body.
A good indication of the extent of S.E.S.S. activity is the fact that $2,300 has passed through the books in the past 12 months. It is hoped that this sum will be increased during the next twelve months, indicating even greater activity of the S.E.S.S.
JOHN W. OSBORNE, S.E.S.S. President.
OSA Report Africa, Ceylon, Fiji, Hong Kong,
India, Malaysia, Nauru, New Guinea, Singapore and Thailand — these are the countries where the overseas students of Swinburne Technical College come from.
About 80 per cent, of these students undertaking full-time studies are from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
The one hundred and ten students are fairly evenly distributed amongst the several faculties of the College but with a slightly higher percentage favouring courses in Civil and Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. One student, only, has enrolled for Art.
All overseas students of the College are members of the Overseas Students' Association, with Mr. K. L. Goodman (Lecturer in Humanities) as the Honorary Advisor. The following are the office bearers for 1966:
Chairman: Vice-Chairman : Secretary: Assistant Secretary : Treasurer : Social Organiser: Sports Organiser: Representatives from: Chemistry: Civil Engineering: Commerce: Electrical Engineering
John Chan Janet Yap Connie Koh
Joseph Mak Francis Wong
Yogam Nallathamby Johnny Kok
Chan Ah Sin Martin Thien
Ronald Lee Cheah Cheng Hin
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Activities for the year consist of a Freshers' Welcome Luncheon, several dances, film nights and the Annual Dinner Dance which is to be held in August. Badminton is quite popular amongst the students.
This year, and for the first time, the Association has a Miss O.S.A. to take part in the Miss Swinburne Contest. She is Miss Victorine Lim of Singapore who is in the first year of the Diploma of Art.
During August of last year, the Hawthorn Rotary Club very kindly invited the overseas students to a snow trip to Lake Mountain.
Several students spent a few week-ends and part of their school holidays at the homes of the members of the Warragul Rotary Club. The warm hospitality of their hosts and families must be particularly heart-warming to the students who are so far away from their homes. Many more invitations of this kind are being extended to the members.
It will come as surprise to students and staff that Mrs. Winter, who is in charge of the Pottery Department, is due to retire on October 10th.
Still extraordinarily youthful and energetic Mrs. Winter has been at this College from her earliest years as a pupil in the Girls Junior School up till now, a long and happy association.
We wish her many more years of happiness in retirement, but of course, as an outstanding teacher dedicated to her craft, it is probably going to be just as active as ever.
Prize Awards Art 1st year Bevers, russet 2nd year Gerrard, andrew 3rd year Murray, david 4th year Reynolds, patricia Chemistry 1st year Dromey, robert geqffrey 2nd year Wilson, ivanjohn 3rd year Boulton, ronald william 4th year Grosvenor, robert spencer Chemical Engineering 1st year Fisher, alanjames 2nd year Lu, cheafatt 3rd year no award 4th year Kong, king joe 5th year Palmer, robin brian Commerce 1st year McGregor, duncan thomas
Wengier, george 2nd year Armstrong, Warwick james 3rd year Little, alison Commercial Certificate
Carlson, high therese Diploma Commercial Practice 1st year Luscombe, mar garet jean 2nd year Hedges, Judith isabel Engineering — Civil 1st year Roy, graham frank 2nd year no award 3rd year Both, graeme 4thyear Arbuthnot, neil james Engineering — Electrical 1st year Wood, peter james 2nd year Husband, david william 3rd year Bolden, ross james 4th year Coles, John richard Engineering — Mechanical 1st year Wilson, ian david 2nd year no award 3rd year Campbell, archibald bryan 4thyear Womersley, robert francis Engineering — Production 1st session sandwich course:
Price, zenneth charles 2nd session sandwich course :
Clough, russel james 3rd session sandwich course :
0 'Brien, richard John Special Prizes Engineering Drawing Prize
Womersley, robert francis Humanities
Wilson, peter Maths.
Womersley, robert francis Physics
W u , zuan chuan John Social Science Prize —
A. F. Tylee Prize Gerrard, andrew
J. H. Ness Memorial Prize Boulton, ron
Kew City Council Scholarships Sheehan, douglas lindsay Wengier, george
Certificate Awards Certificates in Art:
Allen, peter stuart Barton, marilla frames Basset, peter anthony Boswell, margaret jill
Crabb, dianne claire Dow, robert james Gerrard, andrew norman Golding, John douglas Harmon, June marie Jackson, graeme anthony Kennedy, lee thomas Mawson, peter John
McPherson, joy esmae Padgham margaret-anne Parkes, vivienne isabel Quinn, Jonathan craig
Stephens, diane margaret Stevenson, jill elizabeth
Thompson, helen claire Villani, Suzanne Wallis, bruce alan
Wilson, penelope anne
Certificates in Building Construction:
Hamilton, robert leslie Jenkins, rees John Kulilowski, william
Spencer, allan edward
Certificates — Building Technician :
Adkin, leonard Ashton, dharrol ottaway
James, phillip edward
Certificates — Municipal Building
Surveyors
Chapman, ian david
Certificates in Accountancy:
A ntonie, francis james Ash, ronald bruce andrew Bishop, John richard Chugg, norman harold
Collins, matthew donovan Cuddon graham edward Davidson, keith anthony Deayton, peter John Faulkner, Winifred
Foster, james henry robert Goodson, dale kathryn
Grein, rolf erich
Grierson, frederick gary Harris, donald edward
Harrison, graeme albert Harvey, geqffrey myles Hume, james thomas andrew Hutchison, james alfred Kerr, donald william Maasdijk, bernardjan Moloney, james anthony Morris, harry malcolm
Murphy, victor Northeast, edwin russell 0 'Neil, gregory John 001 TEIK SUN Paterson, peter reid Payne, russell gordon Power, allan hawkins Reynolds, Judith lorraine Self, david John
Smith, lawrence raymond Smith, norman woodrow
Snelling, anthony John Stanton, Kenneth Boyd
Taylor, francis orwell
Todman, matthew John
Tully, brain raymond Vincent, jack raymond Wagstaff, anthony John
Willersdorf, david geqffrey
Young, alan alexander
Certificates — Commercial :
Carlson, leigh therese stormont
Davies, Judith lavinia
LO SHIN TING
Certificates in Supervision:
Bowley, alfred hobden Dean, graham allan Dowries, trevor vernon Edwards, ronald John Fisher, Stanley robert Hunter, geqffrey donald
Jackson, ronald russel Johnson, ian geoffrey Kleeberg, alan francis Lindsay, Warwick myron
Moloney, vincent 0 'Connor, harry
Paterson, peter reid Plow, graeme raymond Quick, norman charles
Rigg, peter telford Southward, alexander
Stevens, lorry robert Westaway, peter cecil
Certificates in Civil Engineering:
Arnell, william scott Bower, jack edwin Clark, fredrick thomas
Coath, Jeffrey francis
De La Rue, John russell
Goodman, John leslie
Las Gourgues, John Stanislaus Nijhuis, tjeerd
Palmer, charles maxwell Peake, kenneth george
Simopoulos, con
Certificates in Electrical Engineering :
Rash, alan robert
Thomas, leonard robert
Certificates — Electrical Technician :
Green ronald william
Certificates in Mechanical Engineering:
Butler, waiter Stanley
Dungey, kevin thomas Gibson, hugh
Jansen, Marius Neagle, john robert
0 'Connor, michael anthony
Phillips, leslie james
Certificates — Mechanical Technicians :
Cerda-Pavia, barrie Joseph
Hancock, john laurence
Hudson, albert mansfield
Certificates in Production Engineering:
York, john
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Certificates — Production Technicians:
Adams, robert fulton
Allen, philip michael
Bakker, gregory john
Birch, alan david Brain, peter william
Edmonds, dive arthur
Olver, raymond gregory
Diplomas Diplomas in Art:
Advertising Art:
Gardiner, ian david
Garrett, kay lesley
Hince john david
Leech judy dale
Marks, rae merit
Robinson peter alfred
Illustration:
Wallis, patrick william
Pottery:
Griffin, ronald james
Diplomas in Applied Chemistry:
Alston, michael john
Appleton, desmond thomas
Buhner, ian james
Day, robert james
Elmore michael john
Hopwood, john Joseph
Kepert, peter ross
Kerr, william arthur
Larson, perry John
Lyons, daryl Keith
Morley, john daryl
McKirdy, archibald John
Owen, david cleaves
Rivett, donald edward
Tan Ping Sing
Walter, richard ian
Wernert, gregory thomas
Williams, victor albert
Wisel, david
Wong Sik Hoi
Wong Yen Yee
Wreford, higel glen michael
Diplomas in Chemical Engineering:
Kerr, william arthur
McKirdy, archibald john
Shaw, robert valentine
Tan Ping Sing
Wong Sik hoi
Diplomas in Commerce:
Chanyingyue
Ching gay sooi
Cuddon, graham edward
Faulkner, winifred
Goodson. dale kathryn
Hutchinson, james alfred
Jordan, peter ross
Lau ah see
Ooi teik sun
Paterson, peter reid
Tan gim hawa
Yeo gim wah
Diplomas in Civil Engineering:
Amiridis, achilles
Asche, neils georg
Blake, maxwell
Bloy, arthur john
Ceims, jubdis paul
Chapman, david george
de Carteret, john alfred
Donelly, noel maxwell
Duncan, charles wilson
Gray, john sherwood
Isherwood, john Clifford
James, anthony george Steele
Khung ching choo
Lloyd, ross edward
Merlin, john barry Morgan, james ivor
Orme, garry albert
Shaik, ad-wahed a.
Spencer, graham kenneth
Stack, lucien Joseph
Toh wengfook
Verwoert, dirk hendrick
Whitelegg, keith
Wilson, peter george
Wong ska hin
Woods, peter philip
Diplomas in Electrical Engineering:
Chin kui siong
Flanigan, gary richard
Ford, lynton cooper
Friberg, bruce robert
Headberry, michael john
Higgins, peter james
Laing, ronald charles
Medley, geqfirey raymond
Macdonald, alan donald
Ryall, david Stanley
Sloss,john Mckenzie
Smith, lindsay ian
Wingate, michael
Diplomas in Mechanical Engineering:
Allen, robert charles
Atherton, Stephen ronald
Austin, raymond george
Barnfather, elliot edward
Berryman, thomas preston
Bibby, david victor
Buley, malcolm david
Byrne, gregory james
Cameron, maxwell james
Campbell, david george
Can, bruce cockburn
Chan ping lam
Chaundy, howard george
Fricke, fergus raymond
Grosvenor, alan
Heisler, paul
Hunt, ian arthur
Kerr, george rodger
Maan, adriaan philip
Marshall, Lloyd fredrick
Morgan, garth alan
Morion, john rodney
Parker, raymond george
Respini, russell fredrick
Taylor, alan reginald
Teo teong choon
Tozer, geqffrey charles
Webber, bruce Stanley
Womersley, robert francis
Youl, john middleton
Post Diplomas in Heating, Ventilating :
Moore, leslie allan
Diplomas in Production Engineering:
Crosling, ronald edward
Hamilton, neil william
Post Diplomas in Industrial Management:
Hall, kelvin douglas
Russo, Gaetano
Fredrick William Green Prize:
Coles, john richard
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Authors Russel Bevers, aged 19, from Caulfteld Grammar School, is doing second year Art. R o b y n Campbell, 19, matriculated at Springvale High School with an honour and three passes,, and is now doing second year Art Diploma. Abe Chalef, 20, from Elwood High School, is doing fourth year Diploma of Applied Chemistry. Ric Harding, aged 20, from Box Hill Technical School, is studying for a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering. Neil Heinze, 21, formerly in sixth-form at Lilydale High School, is now doing fourth year Diploma of Civil Engineering. The companion he refers to in his article is Peter Salisbury, 20, formerly a sixth-former at Box Hill High School, now doing fourth year Civil Engineering. Elizabeth Honey, 19, matriculated at Morongo Presbyterian Girls' College, Geelong, in 1965, with an honour in Modern History and three other passes. She was admitted this year to Swinburne's Art School at second year level, and takes an active interest in student life. David Husband, aged 20, from Burwood Junior Technical School, is studying for the Diploma of Engineering. He has two articles in this issue, including one on " The Sociological Significance of Electricity". He participates enthusiastically in many student activities. In short, he is rather a livewire. Connie K o h , 21, from Singapore, secretary of the Swinburne Overseas Student' Association, studied for matriculation at McLeod High School, and is now doing second year Diploma of Commercial Practice. Clive Lynn, 18, who wrote the report on the Chemistry Students' Society in this issue, came from Box Hill Technical School. He is doing third year Diploma of Applied Chemistry, and is being financed by a Technical Teaching Studentship. Richard Lowe, 21, formerly a sixth-former at Wesley College, is now doing second year Art Diploma. Regina Karps, 20, matriculated from Karingal High School, with honours in English Literature as well as two other passes. She is now doing second year Art Diploma. Ronald McGrath, aged 19, from Jordanville Junior Technical School, is now studying for the Diploma of Electrical Engineering. Duncan McGregor, 18 years, was formerly at the Swinburne Boys' Secondary School, and is now in the second year of the Commerce Commerce Diploma course. Early this
year he was awarded a scholarship by the Stock Exchange of Melbourne. John Mcintosh, 20, from Jordanville Junior Technical School, is doing fourth year Diploma of Applied Chemistry. He has taken an active interest in S.R.C. Annual Revue and in the student newspaper "Contagious". Suzanne Mills, 18, from Burwood High School, is doing second year Diploma of Art. Peter Monsbourgh, aged 20, matriculated at Carey Baptist Grammar School, is now studying for a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering. While engaged in research for his article on noise. ("The Hum of the Affluence Machine"), he received valuable assistance by interviewing Mr. Carr, ofCarr and Wilkinson, of Burwood Road, Hawthorn. This is a firm of consulting and research engineers, specialising in accoustics, vibration and air diffusion. Graeme Moore, 21, who wrote the report on the Students' Representative Council in this issue, is completing a Diploma in Electrical Engineering. He came herefrom Muroa High School, and now boards at the Melbourne Y.M.C.A. John Osborne, 22 years, who wrote the report on the Swinburne Engineering Students' Soiiety in this issue, came from Burwood High School, and is completing his Diploma of Mechanical Engineering. Rosemary Rider, 19, matriculated in 1965 at St. Michael's Church of England Girls' Gramar School, St. Kilda, with an nonour in English Literature and three other passes. Her studies at Leaving level had included two sciences and two mathematics. She is now doing second year Art at Swinburne. John Scott, aged 20, was in sixth form at Scotch College, and is now studying for an Engineering Diploma. Laurie Waddington, an adult student, began his Electrical Engineering Diploma Course by part-time study and became a full-time student this year.
Acknowledge ments The Swinburne Students' Representative Council extends special thanks to the following members of staff for their co-operation in producing Swinopsis'66: * M r . B. Barrett (Lecturer in the Humanities Department) who provided inspiration and assistance for the students who wrote the articles. * M r . R. Francis (Lecturer in the Art School) who provided encouragement and advice for the illustrators.
For the typing of manuscripts, we are indebted to: Miss V. Thompson of the Commerce School; to Miss E. Alderslade and Mrs. J. Forbes of the office staff; and to Miss Thonpson's commercial practice students.
Art Director David Murray, aged 23, gained his secondary education at Melbourne High School, and is now doing fourth year Diploma of Art. In the production o/'Swinopsis '66, his job was to plan the overall layout of the journal, and to co-ordinate his team of fellow art students who illustrated the individual pages. He holds an Education Department studentship.
Photography David Murray, Lauren M o o r e
Cover Design David Murray The cover photograph was taken from the roof of the art school looking north towards Kew.
Printing Ennis & Willis Pty. Ltd.
Illustrators (Thefollowing illustrators are students in the Art School.) Charles Benjafield, 19years, attended Box Hill and Swinburne Junior Technical Schools before comming to the Swinburne diploma school. John Boucher, 19 years, came from Blackburn Junior Technical School. He was in charge of the layout and illustration of "Swinburne 66" section in this issue. Roger Cayzer, 20 years, came from Croydon High School. He has been involved in the production of the Swinburne diploma students' newspaper, "Contagious". Rodney Fitchett Heath, 20 years, came from Carey Baptist Grammar School. Lorraine Johns, 19, attended the Swinburne girls' secondary school before comming to the diploma school, and is a studentship holder. Lauren Moore, 19yean, came from Preston Girls' High School, and is a studentship holder. Her ambition is to get "just one beautiful litho print". This year she designed the poster and brochure to publicise Victoria's Education Week, and these were widely displayed throughout Victoria. Kendall Senior, 20 years, came from Balwyn High School, and is a studentship holder. Robin Wilks, 19, attended Ruyton Girls' School, Kew. She has taken an active part in the production of the Swinburne diploma students' newspaper, "Contagious".
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tribute
Mr. A. F. Tylee, who died recently during his seventeenth
year as Director of Swinburne, was a man of wide interests.
A civil engineer by profession, he was equally interested in
the physical sciences, the social sciences and the arts.
He travelled extensively throughout Australia, and wrote
articles on Australian history and geography for many
newspapers and journals. He was closely in touch with
developments in Australian educational administration, both
tertiary and sub-tertiary, and had written articles on education
and taken part in educational conferences. Not long before
his death he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian College of
Education, a body of leading educationists. At Swinburne,
he was a unifying influence in the college, and was concerned
to foster the development of all branches of learning.
When Social Science was introduced into technical diploma
courses several years ago, Mr. Tylee established the
"A. F. Tylee Prize in Social Science." which he donated
annually to the best student in social science classes. At the time
of his death he was giving thought to the possible establishment
of a full-length Diploma of Humanities (or Liberal Arts)
at the College. Mr. Tylee was also interested in the fine arts,
and he frequently spent an afternoon painting in a studio at our
Art School. It was there that he posed a couple years ago for
a portrait by Mr. A. Moore, of the Art School staff.
Mr. Moore's painting of Mr. Tylee is reproduced on this page.
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