Minutes of the Christmas lunch meeting of the OAFS held on 15 December 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Cousens, Falvey, Kwong Lee Dow, Tjia and White.
2. Apologies. OAFs Beard, Hickey, Larkins, Leury, Taylor, Topp and Wood.
3. Minutes of the meeting on 17 November were accepted with no matters arising.
4. Response to Faculty Change Plan
We have received an email reply to our letter to the Vice-Chancellor that noted the two points raised, viz. the wording of the communication about Professor John Fazakerley’s departure from the University and the ongoing future of agricultural science in the revised faculty structure, which will be the subject of further consultation. It was agreed that the OAFs should continue to demonstrate their support for agriculture staff and their activities in the new faculty structure. To this end, it was agreed to invite the Dean of Science to lunch in the new year and also to have a follow-up lunch with Professor Giovanni Turchini, who will be the head of the new school to be formed by the amalgamation of the existing schools of Agriculture and Food and Forest and Ecosystems Sciences. The benefits of and opportunities for an overarching arrangement for teaching and research involving the University of Melbourne, La Trobe, Agribio and Agriculture Victoria were discussed and the concept was seen a worthy of advancement.
5. Matters Arising
OAF Falvey raised the question of new OAFs, suggesting that Professor John Fazakerley and Professor Tim Reeves would be ideal candidates. The secretary will write to invite them to join our Society. Warm thanks are extended to ‘Father Christmas’ for the OAFS Christmas cards and fridge magnets.
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Minutes of the meeting of the OAFS held on 17 November 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Falvey, Kwong Lee Dow, Taylor and White.
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Beard, Cousens, Hickey, Larkins, Tija and Wood.
3. Minutes of the meeting on 28 September were accepted with no matters arising.
4. Activities since last meeting
OAF Lee Dow had continued advising independent higher education providers. He reported the formation of an apolitical University Accord Panel that was to continue until the end of 2023, reviewing a number of problems perceived to exist in the Australian university system, such as how do the universities best serve the needs of the country and what should be their relationship with VET.
OAF Taylor related how some students that he is advising in Thailand had isolated a serious disease of citrus and had managed to send him samples that could be analysed in his Melbourne laboratory. He also spoke of his work in reviewing research papers for Q! journals.
OAF Falvey reported on the international PhD program at Thaksin University in Thailand and changing political agendas. He also advised of a suggestion that a Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria scholarship for Dookie campus was now on hold following dis-establishment of FVAS. Thirdly he reported on the recent TropAg, ACIAR and CGIAR meetings in Brisbane and Australia’s foreign affairs’ focus. Lastly, he noted that Adrian Egan’s wife Leslie had died; Adrian, who might be considered an absent OAF, had sent a link to the funeral.
OAF White reported that he had recently published an Opinion Article on ‘The Role of Agriculture in the Australian Government’s Emission Reduction Fund’ that summarized progress to date in reducing methane emissions from agriculture and the uptake of soil carbon sequestration projects. He noted the Chubb Review of the performance of the Emission Reduction Fund and the Clean Energy Regulator is due by year’s end.
5. Faculty Change Plan
The minutes will record that a letter was sent to the Vice-Chancellor, copy to the Provost and the Acting Dean of FVAS, on behalf of all the Fellows of our Society raising two issues about the University’s press release for the Faculty Change Plan, which might be said to have come into effect on 11 November, the last day of Professor John Fazakerley’s term as Dean.
6. Matters Arising Our next meeting will be the Christmas lunch to be held at 12 noon on 15 December in University House.
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Minutes of the meeting of the OAFS held on 28 September 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Beard, Kwong Lee Dow, Larkins, Taylor and White. Professor Giovanni Turchini, Head of the School of Agriculture and Food, also attended.
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Cousens, Falvey, Hickey, Tjia and Wood.
3. Minutes of the meeting on 25 August accepted with no matters arising.
4.Professor Turchini briefed the OAFs on his background before coming to the University of Melbourne. He has been very busy meeting all the staff of the School in the past few months. He outlined his plans for the future development of the School, in particular his encouragement of the various discipline groups to work together as closely as possible to foster a School identity. There was a wide-ranging discussion of recent trends in student numbers and of the need to market the opportunities for students to study the various courses on offer, or to be developed, in the School. Overall, Professor Turchini is very upbeat about the opportunities for the School to further enhance its reputation for teaching and research.
The foreshadowed grant of $11 million from the Victorian government, supported by $7 million from the University, towards providing improved accommodation at the Dookie campus will strengthen the School’s ability to offer programs in a rural environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students, domestic and international, and for others enrolled in specialized short courses.
5. Other business
There were no reports on the activities of individual OAFs since the last meeting, which can be held over until the next meeting.
OAF Larkins posed the question as to whether we would have a Christmas function this year, and what form it might take. It was suggested that partners might be invited on this occasion. Would OAFs please indicate their preferences for lunch or dinner and for partners to attend. On receipt of your replies, I shall make inquiries of University House.
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Minutes of the meeting of OAFs held on 25 August 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Kwong Lee Dow, Larkins, Taylor and White. The Dean Professor John Fazakerley also attended.
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Cousens, Tjia, Wood.
3. Report from the Dean
The Dean reported that the Faculty was doing well, especially with respect to research funding. Among the significant matters being considered is a possible commission from the government of the United Arab Emirates to establish a new university in that country, focusing on the veterinary and agricultural sciences.
Another significant initiative involves a grant of $11 million from the Victorian government, supported by $7 million from the University, towards providing new student accommodation at the Dookie campus. If this development comes to fruition, it will greatly assist in attracting more students to spend part of their course at Dookie. It was noted that Dookie is the host site of the Victorian Drought Hub, which has led to more staff being located there.
The latest survey of universities has shown that Melbourne has a low rating in terms of student satisfaction with teaching and other support, especially during the pandemic years. The new Provost is focused on improving the student experience and this should assist the faculty.
With respect to research, soil science is doing well with a bid for $20 million to investigate new methods of measuring soil carbon in the field.
4. Matters arising
There were no reports on the activities of individual OAFS since the last meeting. This will be held over until the next meeting.
The OAFS were most grateful to the Dean for hosting our lunch. OAF Beard is thanked for thoughtfully providing a delicious chocolate cake on the occasion of OAF White’s birthday. This was enjoyed by all present.
It was suggested that our next lunch guest should be the new head of the School of Agriculture and Food. The secretary will try to arrange a suitable date and this will then determine the date of our next meeting.
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Minutes of the meeting of OAFs held on 28 July 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Beard, Kwong Lee Dow, Tjia and White. OAF Larkins had another meeting to attend, but came to socialize beforehand.
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Falvey, Hickey, Taylor and Cousens.
3. Activities
OAF Beard has been involved in reviewing a department at VUT. She and Kevin are moving into an apartment, in preparation for which they are having do much sorting of ‘stuff’. With new owners having taken over the Sydney International School of Technology and Commerce, her appointment as a board member has been ‘terminated’.
OAF Lee Dow has recovered well from COVID, contracted after our last meeting. He continues with his commitments to the Australian Multicultural Foundation, the William Angliss Institute and advising on educational funding among government schools, Catholic and independent schools.
OAF Tija was congratulated on her appointment as CEO of VTAC. She will be based in Melbourne but will have quite a lot of interstate travel to do.
OAF White was invited to present at a workshop on soil carbon at the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in Adelaide. He has continued to write on the integrity of soil carbon credits under the Emission Reduction Fund, which is now under review.
4. Matters arising from the minutes. No comments were received on the suggestion that there should be a list compiled of birthdays for the OAFs. OAFS were also comfortable with lunching in the main dining room.
5. Other business. OAF Larkins reported that he had been successful in winning a grant of $375,000 from the State Government for improving the Yea Wetlands to attract and cater for more tourists. Congratulations Frank.
The Dean has agreed to host a lunch for the OAFS on 25 August in Uni House to update the OAFS on developments in the Faculty.
6. Date of next meeting. As stated above, the next meeting will be on 25 August with the Dean present.
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Minutes of the meeting of OAFs held on 22 June 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Kwong Lee Dow and White
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Hickey, Larkins, Taylor and Tjia.
3. Activities
OAF Lee Dow continues as a board member of the Australian Multicultural Foundation and the William Angliss Institute. He continues to advise on the distribution of educational funding among government schools, Catholic and independent schools.
OAF Falvey had a period of ‘batching’ while wife Simone was overseas. He has recently returned from a visit to Vietnam as a member of the ACIAR Commission.
OAF Beard is planning for a workshop on higher education to be held in mid-July. She continues to work with OAF Tija and Liz Baré on opinion pieces for CSHE and is intending to examine the representation of groups in the top organizations of universities.
OAF White has continued to write on the integrity of soil carbon credits under the Emission Reduction Fund. He will be reporting on this to a workshop at the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in Adelaide on 27 June.
4. Matters arising – none
5. Other business – OAF Falvey suggested that there should be a list compiled of birthdays for the OAFs.
We met initially in the quieter a la carte section of the dining room. However, there were only four present and the main dining room seemed to be quiet so we adjourned there. Perhaps OAFs might like to comment on their preferences.
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Minutes of the meeting of OAFs held on 11 May 2022 at University House
1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Falvey, Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow, Larkins, Taylor and White; by invitation Madeleine Woodruff and Thi Bao Anh Nguyen, student awardees of the Agriculture Fellows Travel Awards
2. Apologies. OAFs Beard, Cousens, Tjia and Wood.
3. Activities
OAF Larkins has written a CSHE paper comparing the relative drop in income in 2020-21 for universities with the percentage fall in staff numbers for that year. He had pre-recorded a segment on this topic for The Drum program on ABC TV. He gave a zoom presentation to the Australian Mathematics Society on research performance in universities in the past 10 years. He continues as a member of Uni House committee of management.
OAF Lee Dow continues as a board member of the Australian Multicultural Foundation. He is also on the board of the William Angliss Institute. He continues to advise on the distribution of educational funding among government schools, catholic schools and independent schools.
OAF Falvey has recently returned from a visit to Europe, mainly France and Germany, noting that European cities had taken advantage of pandemic lockdowns to much improve their infrastructures. He continues his work on the ACIAR Commission.
OAF Barlow has had a busy time this autumn managing disease in his vineyard. He has also been busy with his work on the NSW Independent Planning Commission, especially with applications to extend coal mines in the Hunter Valley, and for ‘greenfield’ mines.
OAF Taylor delivered a webinar for the World Vegetable Centre in Taiwan and another webinar on biosecurity for Kasetsart University in Thailand. He is vice-president on the committee of management for University House.
OAF Hickey has spent time with family in Perth and continues with house repairs at home in Geelong.
OAF White has continued with his analysis of the integrity of soil carbon credits under the Emission Reduction Fund. His paper reviewing the performance of the ERF since 2014 has been published in Soil Systems.
4. Matters arising – none
5. Other business – Madeleine Woodruff and Bao Anh Nguyen (both pictured with OAFs) gave brief summaries of how they will be using their travel awards. The OAFS wished them well in their future careers.
[Note by the Secretary. In conversation with OAF Hickey after the meeting, we agreed that the background noise in the dining room, especially from the relocated coffee machine, made hearing difficult for some of the OAFS (especially me). It is therefore suggested that we meet in the quieter a la carte section of the dining room in future. The prices look comparable to the main dining room. This is available from Wednesday to Friday only. Unless anyone objects, I shall arrange this for our next meeting.]
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Minutes of the meeting of OAFs held on 23 March 2022 at Uni House
1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Larkins, Kwong lee Dow and White
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Cousens, Davidson, Hickey, Leury, Taylor, Tjia, Topp and Wood.
3. Activities
OAF Larkins has recently been in Ballina for three weeks where his townhouse was flooded, but not as badly as some. Apart from dealing with that problem, he has continued to analyse university finances and staff cuts during the pandemic. Reliable data for 2021 will not be available until the middle of 2022, when the situation can be analysed further. His work on environmental matters with the Yea Wetlands centre continues, with plenty of grant money available.
OAF Lee Dow will be attending the launch of the Museum of Chinese-Australian History on Saturday. One of the themes concerns the influence of indigenous culture on immigrants to Australia. He is also involved in the debates about educational standards in government versus non-government supported schools.
OAF Falvey is involved with the mid-term review of the ACIAR’s 10-year plan. His work with the local hospital board continues, though he is yet to meet many of the other board members in person. He is due to leave soon for Europe.
OAF Beard has been busy with the Board of the Sydney International School of Technology and Commerce. The school has excellent students and is performing very well. She has also been helping Liz Baré with her work for Australian Film, TV and Radio.
OAF White has continued with his analysis of the integrity of soil carbon credits under the Emission Reduction Fund. However, the problems with Australian Carbon Credit Units are much broader than that – watch this space. He is also involved in scientific workshops with the Australian Wine Research Institute.
4. Matters arising – none
5. Other business
The Faculty office has told us that the recipients for the Agriculture Fellows Travel Awards in 2022 are the graduate students Madeleine Woodruff and Thi Bao Anh Nguyen. Madeleine plans to present at UFAW International conference in Edinburgh, visit Dr Rebecca Doyle and The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education.
Thi Bao Anh Nguyen plans to present his research outcomes about soil biology and microbial ecology to the 18th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology. They shall be invited to our next meeting once I obtain their email addresses (curiously not on their application forms).
OAF Falvey remembered that it was the 8th anniversary of the founding of the OAFS and he generously provided a cake to mark the occasion (see the photo). Thank you Lindsay.
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Notes from a gathering of the Society of OAFs held at OAF Larkins’s home in Yea
13 February 2022
1. Present. OAF Barlow, OAF Beard, OAF Falvey and Simone, OAF Hickey and Susanne, OAF Larkins and Valerie, OAF Tjia and Steve, OAF Topp and OAF White and Annette.
2. Apologies. OAFs Cousens, Davidson, Kwong Lee Dow, Leury, Taylor and Wood.
3. Activities
The OAFs are extremely grateful to OAF Larkins and his wife Valerie, ably assisted by daughter and son-in-law, for hosting this gathering, the first such meeting to be held since the inception of the Society in 2014. May there be many more.
A glorious day started with a visit to the Yea Wetlands centre at 11 am. There we were very competently given a guided tour by Dr Geoff Leslie, the chair of the Management Committee for the Wetlands.
Geoff explained some of the history of the Wetlands, identified many of the plant and animal species found there, and outlined some of the plans they had for further developing the Wetlands, which are a popular destination for locals and tourists. The Wetlands are entirely managed by a team of volunteers. The plan of the Wetlands walks and the main water features is shown in the map below.
At 12.30 we all adjourned to the Larkins home at 129 High Street where a magnificent BBQ lunch was provided, supplemented by some excellent wines of the Baddaginnie label provided by OAF Barlow. At the lunch OAF Falvey presented OAF Larkins with his unique OAF BBQ apron, to be worn with pride to mark the occasion. Thank you Lindsay.
Several OAFs and their partners contributed salads and desserts to augment the lunch. OAF Tija was outstanding in producing a large, rich trifle and delicious fruit salad.
Geoff Leslie joined us at lunch and was warmly thanked for his contribution to the success of the outing.
Replete with good food and wine, the gathering of OAFs broke up around 3 pm.
4. Next meeting
Society of Old Agriculture Fellows (OAFS) 