Issue 7 Winter 2007

w w w.vu.edu.au

FIVE COMMITMENTS
LOGISTICS OUT WEST
DESALINATING WATER

ARTISTS’ NIRVANA
 12
As Melbourne looks towards its driest year on record, groundbreaking
water desalination research is taking place at VU’s Werribee Campus.
CONTENTS
4 VC welcome
The Vice-Chancellor writes about
the progress of the Making VU
project that will establish VU as a
unique education provider for the
21st century.
16 Kyinandoo
(smart) arts
Staffed almost entirely by
Indigenous Australians, VU’s new
Indigenous studies degree offers
graduates the flexibility of a wide
range of careers.
26 Building their future
Department of Building and
Construction apprentices displayed
their skills by building a two-
bedroom home at the 2007 HIA
Home Ideas Show.
2
4 In brief
A $1.8m teaching award, a
Fulbright scholarship and new
scholarships are just three of the in
brief stories in this issue.
18 Short message –
tall cost?
The Communications Law Centre
launches a campaign to help
mobile phone users weave their
way through the legal tangle of
costly contracts.
28 New racism
Professor Hurriyet Babacan argues
that there is a silence surrounding
racism in Australia, and that its
victims need more support.
8 Five bold
commitments
VU is strongly positioned for the
future with a vision to meet the
educational needs of tomorrow’s
workforce.
19 Top of the world
Student Kim Thorne’s work
placement on the Rialto Tower
Observation Deck has turned into
a full-time job as tourism
co-ordinator.
30 Emu: grilled or
prescribed?
Research is proving that the emu is
a source of hope for the more than
two million Australians suffering
from psoriasis and eczema.
11 Lord of the city
Melbourne’s Lord Mayor has
been presented with an honorary
doctorate for his exceptional
community service.
20 Artists’ nirvana
VU’s new purpose-built $5.6
million visual arts, design and
multimedia facility in the centre
of Melbourne is a hit with both
teachers and students.
31 VU books
French philosopher Alain Badiou
and one of Australia’s most
influential Catholic priests are
among the topics of new books by
VU authors.

26
12 Fresh water
solutions
As Melbourne looks towards
its driest year on record, VU
is undertaking research to
dramatically increase the efficiency
of desalinating water.
22 China synergy
Offshore MBA graduate Che
Yumei now oversees contracts
worth A$2.4 billion for China’s
giant Shenhua Energy Company.
18
©istockphoto.com/Sorcha
14 Queen of swing
Victoria amateur golf champion
Stacey Keating is relying on her
VU studies to set her up for a
professional golfing career.
23 Subbing in the
fast lane
Diploma in Professional Writing
and Editing graduate Jane Watkins
now edits a raft of newspapers
for media heavyweight, Fairfax
Community Newspapers.
30
15 A judge of VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
character CONNECTIONS
Chancellor Justice Frank Vincent PUBLISHER
was awarded an AO in this Marketing and Communications Dept.
Victoria University, Australia
year’s Queen’s Honour Roll for his
PO Box 14428
services to law and social justice.
Melbourne VIC 8001, Australia
© Victoria University
CRICOS Provider No. 00124K
24 Logistics city CONTACT US
Phil Kofoed – Managing Editor
A VU academic believes a PHONE +61 3 9919 4956
Logistics City in Melbourne’s EMAIL publications@vu.edu.au
west would ensure Australia’s www.vu.edu.au
competitiveness and long-term
This publication is printed on recycled paper.
position in the Asia-Pacific.
PHOTOS
Sharon Walker
Tim Burgess
Paul Phillipson
Yannick Thoraval
Phil Kofoed
istockphoto.com
COVER PHOTO
VU Diploma of Arts (Visual Art) student,
Sandra Diele. Photo: Tim Burgess
3
 VC WELCOME

Welcome to the Winter 2007 issue of Connections.

2007 has been a very exciting year for VU. Our Making VU A New School of Thought vision and its
five commitments are already changing the University. Our TAFE sector has been restructured as two
faculties of Vocational Education and a Further Education sector (which includes VU College); we are in
the process of establishing 12 roundtables with industry to further develop our courses; and next year,
one quarter of our students (more than 10,000) will undertake part of their learning in the workplace or
community.
It will take 3–5 years to work through the transformation of every course, and develop strong industry
and community partnerships.
I have invited all VU staff to offer their ideas to breathe life into the Making VU project. We want to
involve everybody in a discussion to take the project forward and establish a distinctive, international
university – a first choice university – by our centenary in 2016. What better marker for Making VU A
New School of Thought?
I am very excited about this journey we are taking together. In this issue of Connections you can read
how the Making VU project started and how it is developing.
You can also read how VU’s Institute for Sustainability and Innovation is leading a research cluster that is
STUDENTS
working towards ensuring that desalination plants remain viable options well into the future. The research
is bringing together some of Australia’s leading scientists and institutions to work on groundbreaking
CHOOSE VU
The 2007 VTAC (Victorian Tertiary
membrane distillation technology.
Admissions Centre) student preference
There is a profile on VU’s Chancellor, The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent QC AO, whose services to law and
figures were good news for VU.
social justice were recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List with an Order of Australia.
Dr Pieter Nagel, the director of VU’s Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, has piloted Student preferences rank universities
a proposal to transform Melbourne’s west into Australia’s logistics capital. He is gathering support for according to where a student would
his vision, which he believes will meet the economic and employment challenges of the region’s rapidly prefer to study their course.
growing population.
In June, the University honoured Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, John So, with a Doctor of the University, In students’ first three preferences, VU
honoris causa, in honour of his exceptional community service and the work he has done to improve the had the highest gain of all Victorian
life of international students since arriving in Melbourne in the 1960s. universities with a total of 14,192, an
There is also a story on VU’s new Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo) program. I’m certain that its unique increase of 11.5 per cent over 2006.
delivery and scope of career options will encourage many more Indigenous Australians to participate in
“We are happy with the level of
tertiary education.
preferences in this year’s round, and
These and the many other stories in this issue celebrate just some of the University’s recent achievements.
are confident of being able to meet our
Enjoy!
target loads in both higher education
and TAFE,” said Senior Deputy Vice-
Professor Elizabeth Harman
Chancellor (Education Programs),
Vice-Chancellor and President
Professor John McCallum.
August 2007
Higher education preferences
were up by 4.7 per cent for all
Victorian universities. Set against this
background, VU had an excellent result.

VU also picked up a large number of

students’ Change of Preferences (when
unsuccessful in the first round of offers),
particularly in higher education, which
was more than double last year’s rate.

“This tremendous result clearly shows

that the wider community is responding
to the high quality of courses and
teaching available at Victoria
University,” Professor McCallum said.

Left to right: Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Harman with Dr Diana Natalicio, President of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). UTEP has been successful in
developing an access agenda for its local, poor Hispanic communities, at the same time building a strong and widely acclaimed research agenda.
Dr Natalicio visited VU in July to present a series of public lectures and a community forum.

4
 The wider
community is
responding to
the high quality
of courses and
teaching available
at Victoria
University.
CAREER
CHANGE
Twenty-one teachers were the first to
graduate from VU in June as part of the
Victorian Government Career Change
Program.
The graduates were from the first intake
of the program, which encourages
trades people and professionals with
backgrounds in mathematics, science,
information technology and languages
to undertake a career change and
redeploy their skills into the classroom.
A broad range of professionals have
been attracted to the classroom,
including musicians, a police officer,
a mining engineer, a female mechanic,
an accountant and an opal miner
turned computer-electronics graduate.
“The new graduates are teaching such
subjects as music, hospitality, agriculture
and horticulture,” says VU education
lecturer Rodney Moore. “Their valuable
experience, skills and energy will
help meet the demand for teachers in
regional areas where there are teacher
shortages.”
The graduates are now teaching at
schools across Victoria, including
in Robinvale, Horsham, Orbost,
Murrayville, Yarram and Wangaratta.
Professionals
attracted to the
Career Change
Program include
musicians, a police
officer, a mining
engineer, a
female mechanic
and an opal
miner.
GARDEN
FOR ALL
VU has donated a 14 x 48 metre block
of land in Albert Street, Footscray, for
a community garden. Students aged
16 to 55 in VU’s Certificates I, II and
III in General Education for Adults are
developing the sustainable garden as
a unit of the Land Management and
Horticulture training package.
The large-scale horticulture project is a
pathway to employment as it enables
the students to learn workplace skills
while participating in a real workplace
situation. Students develop skills in
teamwork, planning and organising,
communicating ideas and information,
problem solving and using technology.
The project includes sustainable
gardening practices such as being
water wise, crop rotation and recycling
garden waste. Students will also
undertake work experience by actively
participating in a Landcare Australia
project in the local area.
As the community garden grows,
various other groups in the community
will become involved and help look
after the garden.
The large-scale
horticulture
IN BRIEF
project is a
pathway to
employment.
Federal Minister
for Education,
Science and
Training,
Julie Bishop,
congratulates
Vice-Chancellor
Professor
Elizabeth
Harman on VU
receiving the
$1.8 million
grant.
VU’S JUST
REWARD
VU has been granted $1.8 million
in the 2007 round of the Learning
and Teaching Performance Fund
in the category of Humanities, Arts
and Education. The Fund rewards
excellence in learning and teaching for
undergraduate students.
“This award endorses what we strive
for in terms of providing excellence in
education in both higher and vocational
education,” said VU Vice-Chancellor
Professor Elizabeth Harman.
The award comes on the back of VU
students winning a number of national
and state awards, including Mark
Van Den Oever receiving a Prime
Minister’s Award for Skills Excellence in
Vocational Technical Education, as well
as the Australian Vocational Student
Prize, and student Kevin Baker being
named 2006 Australian Apprentice of
the Year.
“These awards clearly demonstrate
that it is possible for a dual sector
university to be superb in both higher
and vocational education, and to be
successful across disciplines from trades
to humanities,” Professor Harman said.
5
IN BRIEF
WATER
MODEL
VU and Western Water have signed
a Memorandum of Understanding to
develop innovative research programs
and demonstration sites for water
conservation. A key element of the
agreement is the development of a
whole-of-campus model for water
conservation at VU’s Sunbury Campus.
The MOU will establish demonstration
sites to promote innovative uses of
recycled water; investigate effective
promotion of alternative water supplies,
such as recycled water, stormwater
and greywater; and mentor students
in research projects relating to water,
wastewater, recycled water and
biosolids management.
It will also identify training and
development opportunities for both
organisations, and promote the
development of water specific short
courses to meet the needs of the fast
evolving water industry.
VU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education
Programs) John McCallum said VU
is committed to investigating how to
promote the use of alternative water
supplies, and has demonstrated a
commitment to water-related research
and education.
6
Western Water’s
CEO, John
Wilkinson, and
VU Senior Deputy
Vice-Chancellor
(Education
Programs) John
McCallum sign the
watershed MOU.
MARITIME
MOOTERS
VU’s moot court at the Law School in
Queen Street was the battleground for
the 8th Annual International Maritime
Arbitration Moot Competition. Held in
June, the competition was co-hosted by
VU and Murdoch University.
Seventeen teams of law students
represented countries from around the
world, including for the first time, a team
from mainland China. Students mooted
maritime problems before members of
the legal profession and the maritime
industry. VU’s Dr Bruno Zeller was one
of the adjudicators.
VU’s team was the highest ranked
leading up to the grand final, but
came a close second after pitting their
skills against a team from the winning
Universitas Indonesia.
The Grand Final was held in the
Federal Court in Melbourne before
the Hon. Justice J Allsop; Ron Salter,
consultant in maritime law to law firm,
DLA Phillips Fox; and David Martin-
Clark, a London arbitrator and barrister
who flew to Australia for the moot.
International
maritime
arbitration moot
competition
adjudicator, VU’s
Dr Bruno Zeller.
The generosity of
two philanthropic
foundations
enabled VU
to offer 13
additional
scholarships in
2007.
SCHOLARLY
SUPPORT
VU was able to offer 13 additional
scholarships in 2007 to students whose
ability to continue their education was
constrained by financial circumstances,
thanks to the generosity of two
philanthropic foundations.
The Bennelong Foundation gave
$48,000 to establish the Transition
Scholarships Program. It gives Victorian
secondary school students the
opportunity to access further studies
in TAFE or higher education. In 2007,
four scholarships were made available,
worth $4000 each year for three years
– three in higher education and one in
TAFE
The Invergowrie Foundation provided
nine scholarships for girls and women.
In 2007, the Foundation offered three
higher education scholarships of $3000
a year for three years, and six TAFE
scholarships of $1500 a year for two
years.
Students seeking scholarship
opportunities are encouraged to contact
the VU Scholarships Office on
03 9919 5568 or visit the VU website
at www.vu.edu.au/scholarships

GOOD
SIGN
VU’s Sign Industry Department has
garnered support from three major
players in the global sign and lighting
industry.
OSRAM, one of the world’s three largest
manufacturers of light sources and
electronic control gear, are donating
$16,000 worth of their latest LED lighting
technology. This technology will become
the industry standard, and VU will be the
first training provider in Australia to have
the technology.
High-tech company Avery Dennison
and graphics giant WACOM have also
pledged to support VU by supplying
materials, teaching and technical
support to assist signwriting staff.
“Over the past few years, VU’s sign
training has steadily gained a reputation
among industry professionals as being
the best in the country,” says VU
sign industry program manager John
Craddock.
Last year, VU’s Sign Industry Training
program won the 2006 Gold National
Award for Industry Training and
Development – for the second year in
a row.
VU’s sign
training has
steadily gained
a reputation
among industry
professionals as
being the best in
the country.
IN THE
SWIM
VU’s Adapted Aquatics program won
the Resusci Anne Outstanding Aquatic
Programming Award at the 2007
Victorian Aquatic and Recreation
Awards.
The program informs students in
a ‘learning in the workplace and
community’ context how to teach
children with an intellectual disability
how to swim.
Students in the Human Movement,
Exercise Science, Physical Education
or Sports Administration courses teach
a group of clients from Croxton Park
Special School each week.
The program is unique in providing
students a real learning opportunity,
whilst simultaneously providing a quality
program for clients in an enjoyable and
safe environment.
“This is an important industry award,”
said Professor Terry Roberts, head of
VU’s School of Human Movement,
Recreation and Performing Arts. “It
recognises special programs or events
that enhance community involvement.”
VU lecturer Loretta Konjarski developed
the Adapted Aquatics program.
VU lecturer
Loretta Konjarski
IN BRIEF
developed the
Adapted Aquatics
program.
Multimedia
teacher Mark
O’Rourke,
awarded a
prestigious
2007 Fulbright
Professional
Scholarship.
NOT JUST
A GAME
VU multimedia teacher Mark O’Rourke
has been awarded a prestigious 2007
Fulbright Professional Scholarship in
Vocational and Technical Education.
He is off to the Institute of Creative
Technologies (ICT) at the University
of Southern California to research
game-based multimedia teaching and
learning tools.
ICT works with the entertainment,
games and training industries
researching interactive virtual worlds as
a medium for experiential learning.
“My research interest is in the design
of multi-user games as learning tools,
where learners engage in virtual
role-playing and problem solving
scenarios,” O’Rourke says. ”Multi-user
computer games are currently seen
almost exclusively as playthings, while
their potential as effective tools with
which to engage learners remains
largely undeveloped.”
He says this new approach to learning
should prove particularly effective for
delivering vocational training to groups
who have low literacy skills due to non-
English speaking backgrounds or other
socio-cultural factors.
7
 FIVE BOLD
COMMITMENTS
YANNICK THORAVAL
If a nineteenth-century surgical nurse suddenly appeared
in modern-day Australia, he’d have a tough time setting
up a viable practice. His methods would be outmoded,
his skills unreliable – in fact, his entire understanding of
the industry would be woefully inadequate.
Although a ludicrous scenario, the parable demonstrates
how education and skills training must keep pace with
developments in a particular industry.
In that spirit, Victoria University is facing the future
head-on with a comprehensive transformation of its
course design that responds to shifting economic and
employment trends that are reshaping the educational
needs of tomorrow’s workforce. With its Five
Commitments (see box), VU is equipping its graduates
with the professional and interpersonal skills to not
only find employment, but also manage a career in an
increasingly competitive global labour market.
VU’s Commitments put students in the ‘driver’s seat’
of their education. Students will have more options to
design their qualifications around their career goals,
their studies will be more informed by the practical
realities of the workplace and at least a quarter of
every student’s education will be spent doing on-the-job
training. Industries will participate directly in the design
and instruction of VU courses, and the University will
also increase its engagement with Melbourne’s western
region to reinforce the vital connection between life and
learning.
8
Australia’s changing educational landscape is an
important context for this change. In July 2006, Julie
Bishop, federal Minister for Education, Science and
Training, called for tertiary institutions to embrace greater
diversity, a directive aimed at improving Australia’s
capacity for responding to an increasingly competitive
worldwide education market.
“Our universities must create new knowledge, support
innovation and become more competitive,” wrote minister
Bishop, adding that greater diversity between Australia’s
education providers would not only attract students from
within the country but also from overseas.
VU’s Commitments respond to the global demands for
new jobs and persistent labour shortages in Australia and
Asia – countries where the pace of change is predicted
to continue into the next decade.
VU’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman invited
100 leaders from across the breadth of the University’s
study areas to a ‘think tank’ meeting to identify where
VU would fit within the new educational landscape
and to consider the Five Commitments. The ideas
have subsequently been further developed following
consultations with groups across the University.
The Five Commitments give credence to the University’s
motto: ‘A New School of Thought’, because VU is
prepared to challenge conventional thinking by reshaping
its own approach to education and curricula.
 FIVE COMMITMENTS

The Five Commitments

• COLLABORATION: to focus on 12 industry and community clusters in which VU has strong
education and research capabilities and align them more effectively with future needs, with input
from roundtables chaired by prominent industry and community leaders.
• CAREER: to make at least 25% learning in the workplace and community a universal feature of
VU courses.
• CHOICES: to provide students with the ability to customise their learning experience around
course choice and learning support to best meet their current needs and future demands.
• CONNECTED: to reshape VU vocational and workplace education for the greater benefit of
students and for connecting enterprises with the workforce development services they require to
upskill and reskill their existing workers.
• COMMUNITY: to resource three initiatives for a better life in Melbourne’s western suburbs and
to share this knowledge with other communities in Australia or overseas that may face similar
challenges.

The Commitments also offer an alternative vision of
tertiary education. For Professor Brian King, program
director for the ‘Making VU’ project, which is overseeing
the implementation of the Commitments, the University’s
new direction is part of a ‘bottom up’, rather than a ‘top
down’, approach to tertiary education where the student
experience is considered to be central to graduation
outcomes.
“What we’re really talking about here is a paradigm
shift,” says King. “VU is about empowering students
through their learning without taking away the University’s
responsibility to guide them along the way and engage
continuously with industry and the community.”
Commencing in 2008, the University will begin offering
imaginative new course combinations and opportunities
for students to sample the breadth of study options
across both vocational and higher education sectors.
Personalised learning packages will help students tailor
the structure of their qualifications to help them realise
their individual educational objectives.
But VU also recognises that learning is as much about
what happens outside the classroom as inside it.
For example, programs such as the Business Integrated
Learning Program already offer VU business students
opportunities to assist in the preparation and operation
of a variety of events, such as community sports and
corporate functions. Past students have worked on high-
profile events such as the Big Day Out and Melbourne’s
Commonwealth Games in 2006. The program offers
students practical, hands-on experiences that can transfer
to the workplace.
“We noticed some industries were complaining about
universities producing graduates with few practical
skills,” says Professor John McCallum, Senior Deputy
Vice-Chancellor, Education Programs. “VU has always
been known for its practical approach to education; the
Five Commitments expand on our tradition of producing
graduates who are work ready.”
More than half of vocational (TAFE) and higher education
courses at VU already have workplace learning
components. Expanding workplace learning will enable
VU courses to strike a better balance between the
practical and theoretical aspects of effective tertiary
education.
“We’re moving in an important direction,” says
McCallum. ”If you look at how medicine is taught,
students are supplied with the latest theoretical
knowledge and encouraged to apply it in practical,
realistic ways. That’s the model that should inform where
we’re going.”
The twenty-five per cent work-integrated learning
component is a bold promise, and one that will make
VU the first University in Australia to make workplace and
community learning a universal feature across all of its
courses.

9
 VU international
students on
Orientation
Day. All VU
students will
have more
options
to better
design their
qualifications
in the
increasingly
competitive
global labour
market.

To deliver on this promise, the University is talking to
the very industries and businesses where VU graduates
will seek employment. The University is in the process
of establishing 12 industry roundtables, made up
of representatives from various industries, from small
businesses situated in Melbourne’s west to national and
international firms.
As part of an ongoing dialogue between the University
and the wider business community, roundtables will meet
formally twice a year to establish the most constructive
directions for teaching, research and work experience at VU.
Industry leaders are enthusiastic about their working
relationship with VU.
“The world of business is becoming more dynamic and
competitive,” says Wayne Kayler-Thomson, Executive
General Manager of the Victorian Employers Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. “A closer relationship
between employers, educators and students will ensure
that employment choices involve less risk by ensuring the
quality and content of education, particularly including
workplace experience, will be more relevant to the needs
of globally exposed business and industry.”
VU students are also looking forward to seeing the Five
Commitments in action.
“The Victoria University Student Union [VUSU] is very
excited about working closely with the University in
regards to the Making VU project,” says VUSU general
secretary, Lauren Fernando.
“The Five Commitments bring the University forward into
the future, addressing quality of education in a practical
and innovative fashion. VUSU is particularly interested
in the customised learning packages, which will equip
students with the skills and education they need to be as
work ready as possible before they graduate.”
Greater community engagement is another defining
feature of the Five Commitments. Melbourne’s western
suburbs are still among the most economically
10
disadvantaged and educationally disenfranchised in the
city. With unemployment figures at 7.5%, the highest in
Melbourne and nearly twice the national average, VU
recognises it has a social responsibility to improve quality
of life for residents of Melbourne’s western region.
The University has already undertaken a number of
community projects towards that end. As the major
provider of health education and training in the
region, the University has made community health and
wellbeing a key priority. The region’s health services
are overstretched compared to the rest of Melbourne
and diabetes in particular is having a major impact.
Brimbank and Hobson’s Bay have the highest incidence
of type 2 diabetes in the Melbourne metropolitan region,
well above the Melbourne average. The University is
working with a network of health, community and industry
partners in the West, as well as the three major diabetes
organisations , to establish the Australian Community
Centre for Diabetes (ACCD). The ACCD will be based at
VU’s St Albans Campus and will be a hub for a range of
services delivered across the region.
The AFL’s Western Bulldogs, the Victorian Government
and VU have also combined resources to develop a
sports precinct linking VU’s Footscray Park Campus, the
Whitten Oval and the proposed Maribyrnong Secondary
Sports School. About $80 million in new facilities will
come on stream in the next few years to make the
precinct a powerhouse of sports education, research and
performance unique to Australia.
These projects model the type of community initiatives that
VU will continue to pursue.
“I’m really enthusiastic about where we’re going,” says
King. “I don’t think any other university in Australia is
attempting anything like this. VU is the only university
with a roughly equal number of higher education and
vocational students, so we have a means of responding
to the labour market on a global scale, a capacity to
respond to international trends.”
www.vu.edu.au
 HONORARY DOCTORATE

LORD OF
THE CITY
YANNICK THORAVAL

To passers-by, the clamour inside the Melbourne

Convention Centre must have sounded more like a
footy match than a graduation ceremony. Applause
spontaneously erupted before Victoria University’s Vice-
Chancellor could finish introducing Melbourne’s celebrity
mayor, John So.

At the University’s graduation ceremonies in June, VU

presented the lord mayor with the degree of Doctor of the
University, honoris causa, (a Latin term meaning, ‘for the
sake of the honour’).

The award recognised John So’s exceptional

achievements and community service, especially his
substantial contribution to making the City of Melbourne
an attractive destination for international students.
During his term as lord mayor, John So has initiated
research into how international students interact with
Melbourne with a view to maximising the positive
experience international students have while in the city.
So has been committed to improving life for Melbourne’s
international students since coming here from Hong
Kong to study in the 1960s. While at the University
of Melbourne, he became involved in student politics,
establishing the Overseas and Chinese Students
Association and campaigning against the White Australia
Policy.
So has also focused on building the reputation of
Melbourne’s leading universities. He was the first lord
mayor to convene a Vic-Chancellor’s forum, through
which Melbourne’s universities inform Melbourne City
Council’s strategic planning.
Hailing Melbourne as an education capital, So’s respect
for education was made clear as he accepted his
honorary VU degree.
“To see Melbourne rapidly emerge as one of the world’s
top education [providers] attracting students from right
around the world has been the greatest reward of my
term in office,” he said.
“I firmly believe that Melbourne’s future success rests
upon our ability to further our position as a global centre
for knowledge. From knowledge comes ideas, and the
commercialisation of ideas will be a key driver for growth
in this city.”
Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, John So, honoured with a Doctor of the University
for his services to the community and international students. Photo courtesy
of Melbourne City Council.
The mayor also spoke directly to VU graduates, extolling
the virtues of education.
“The knowledge you have gained here in Melbourne is
the key that will unlock the door to your future.
“That knowledge will provide a foundation for your
success. On behalf of the City of Melbourne, I wish to
thank all of you for the effort you have made to achieve
graduation. Thank you for being part of our rapid
development as a knowledge city. You are upholding
this city’s proud reputation as a centre for knowledge
and learning. With new horizons come wonderful
opportunities. I wish you well as you seek them.”
John So is one of Melbourne’s longest serving councillors.
He was first elected to the Melbourne City Council in
1991 and was re-elected twice as councillor before
being voted lord mayor in 2001. He was subsequently
re-elected in 2004 and is Melbourne’s longest serving
mayor.
Melburnians have heartily embraced him. Not many of
the city’s mayors can claim to have a music record made
in their honour or their name emblazoned on a T-shirt
exclaiming, ‘John So – he’s our bro’. He is recognised as
the man who gave life and personality to the successful
staging of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games
and as a person who connects with all people, young
and old.

11

FRESH WATER
SOLUTIONS
YANNICK THORAVAL.
In 1965, science fiction author Frank Herbert wrote of
a distant planet bereft of water where desert nomads
wear high-tech suits that recycle sweat and other bodily
secretions to make drinking water.
We may be far from realising the dystopian vision
Herbert wrote about in his popular novel, Dune, but
parallels between the fictional planet, Arrakis, and Earth
have drawn closer than the author probably imagined.
Today, water is the word on everybody’s lips. In Australia,
drought has become a national obsession with climate
change a hot-button issue in national politics.
Locally, Melbourne is looking towards its driest year on
record. The Victorian Government response has been
to announce the building of Australia’s largest seawater
desalination plant to ensure security of supply. As
the Australian continent becomes drier and the water
demands of an increasing population grow, other states
are also turning to desalination to ensure their own water
supplies do not run out.
12
Groundbreaking research is taking place at Victoria
University’s Werribee Campus that is working towards
ensuring that desalination plants remain viable options
for well into the future. VU will lead a new Advanced
Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment Research
Cluster that will work to improve membrane design to
dramatically increase the efficiency of desalinating water.
The research cluster brings together some of Australia’s
leading scientists and institutions, with the goal of placing
Australia at the forefront of membrane development for
recycled water.
Professor Stephen Gray (pictured) is the director of VU’s
Institute for Sustainability and Innovation, where the
research will be undertaken.
“Membrane treatment is now the treatment process of
choice for water recycling and desalination, and the use
of membrane processes is escalating because of the
need to desalinate and recycle water in order to secure
supplies,” Gray says.
To give a better understanding of what the membrane
looks like and how it works, Professor Gray often uses the
analogy of a rolled-up newspaper.
“Imagine the membrane as a tube of rolled-up
newspaper,” he says. “The tube goes into a pressure
vessel where water is pumped in. It passes through the
membrane as if water were dropping through the rolled-
up pages of newspaper to the central middle tube.”
He says the research will further improve membrane
design to dramatically increase efficiency, and reduce
the financial and environmental costs of producing
desalinated water. “It will mean that in the future,
desalinated and recycled water can provide Australians
with safe alternative water supply options – which are
essential when the rains don’t come.”
VU’s research activity within the cluster project will focus
on membrane distillation. “Membrane distillation is taking
the process of desalination in a whole new direction,”
Gray says.
He says membrane distillation is an emerging technology
that differs from other membrane technologies. “Instead
of using reverse osmosis, where water is passed at very
high pressure through membranes to remove the salt,
in membrane distillation, the water is heated, and the
vapour from the water is passed through the membranes.”
Increased energy efficiency is one of the main
advantages of the new technology.
“The process can use waste energy,” says Gray. “So
it has real potential to reduce the costs of desalinating
water. It uses what we call low-grade heat – temperatures
of 60 to 80 degrees Celsius. This means that we could
use solar power or industrial waste heat.”
Led by VU, the cluster includes the University of NSW,
Monash University, the University of Melbourne, RMIT
University, Curtin University of Technology, the University
of Queensland, Deakin University and Murdoch
University. The cluster underlines the importance of
collaboration in the fight against climate change.

©istockphoto.com/Elhenyo
The research has largely been made possible through
CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.
A total of $8.6 million will be invested over three years
– $3.7 million has been contributed through the Federal
Government’s funding of the National Research Flagship
Collaboration Fund. While the research outcomes may
not be available in time to be included in the new
desalination plants being built in Australia, the outcomes
may be included when membranes are replaced in future
upgrades to the plants.
While large-scale research projects are an important
part of addressing the future of the country’s drought
preparedness, VU is also committed to implementing
day-to-day solutions for Melbourne’s current water crisis.
This includes a number of initiatives to save water on its
campuses and in the western suburbs.
VU’s environment project officer Rachael Keefe,
who manages the University’s various environmental
sustainability programs, says VU’s commitment to water
conservation is comprehensive and one of continued
innovation.
“We’re constantly looking for new ways of saving and
recycling water,” says Keefe.
Earlier this year, VU received a $45,000 federal grant
towards a $100,000 project that will enable harvested
rainwater to be used to flush toilets and operate washing
machines at VU’s Sunbury Hall student accommodation
facility. With the residence capable of housing 160
students, the addition of two 45,000 litre tanks will save
800,000 litres of water each year.
Among several water conservation plans is the possibility
of harvesting rainwater for the indoor swimming pool at
Footscray Park Campus, which could save the Campus
38,000 litres of water each week.
At Werribee Campus, an 80,000-litre rainwater tank has
already been installed under the main courtyard to collect
runoff from an adjacent building. Also at Werribee, VU’s
agreement with City West Water and Wyndham Council
to use Class A water (the highest level of treated water)
SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION
Opposite page: Professor Stephen Gray, director of VU’s Institute for
Sustainability and Innovation.
The research cluster underlines the importance of collaboration in the
fight against climate change.
on the athletics track and rugby fields will save an
estimated 50,000 litres each year.
“Our commitment to recycling should be total,”
says Keefe. “It’s not just about reusing paper and
cardboard anymore. We’re after a holistic approach
to environmental conservation – from large-scale
water initiatives to campaigns that encourage staff to
turn off their computers before leaving work. Every
bit helps.”
In that spirit, VU recently announced that all paper
sold by the University Stores and the University’s
stationery supplier, contain a minimum of 80 per
cent recycled content. This makes VU the first
Australian university to mandate the use of recycled
content paper. Using recycled paper in the
University’s day-to-day operations will significantly
reduce the impact VU has on the environment.
Environmental conservation also provides
opportunities for student learning at the University.
VU has various projects in place that encourage
students to do problem based learning exercises
on environmental issues. For example, engineering
students recently conducted mini energy audits on
the University’s power consumption while marketing
students looked at ways of reducing litter on
campus.
VU courses, such as Environmental Management
and Environmental Engineering, help students
develop an understanding of contemporary
environmental issues and explore their solutions.
For Keefe, the future is one of continued innovation.
“We’re starting to see an increase in people’s
concern about the environment,” she says. “Kids
who are in primary schools now even receive
environmental education. So I think we’ll see great
things from them in the future.”
Hopefully, desolate, barren worlds will continue to
be the stuff of science fiction novels and not become
the view from our kitchen windows.
13
 APPLIED SCIENCE Futura Light 13.5pt, aligned right. 100% Black.

QUEEN OF
FUTURA EXTRA
SWING
BOLD CONDENSED
STACKED, JUSTIFIED TYPE
Body Copy: Futura Light 8.5pt/12pt, 8pt space stars such as Karrie Webb and Laura Davies, Keating’s
YANNICK
after paragraph, THORAVAL
aligned left. 100% Black. tournament result was a fair measure of her potential
in the sport. Her performance was the latest in a list of
Pull-Out
Golf has come Copy: Futura
a long way from oldLight
men in daggy achievements, including winning the Victorian Amateur
trousers. The modern game is a prime-time spectacle, Golf Championship in July 2006.
13.5pt/18.5pt, +20 tracking,
complete with glamorous superstars vying for huge cash
Keating hails from the small Victorian community of
10pt
prizes andspace
lucrative after paragraph,
sponsorship deals.
Lismore where, at the age of 12, the family farm doubled
aligned
One name toleft.
watch Type colour
in the coming years to match
of the sport is as a driving range.
Victoria University student Stacey Keating, who is studying
feature headline colourway. “I practiced in the paddock because it was too far to go
the Golf Program in the Bachelor of Applied Science.
anywhere else,” says Keating.
In February this year, the 20-year-old amateur beat stiff
Her backyard practising range has today been replaced
competition to win a place in the Women’s Australian
by a comprehensive approach to the sport. The Golf
Open tournament, held at Royal Sydney Golf Club.
program is designed for golfers who want to turn pro or
The newcomer performed well in the tournament, pursue careers in coaching. It is the only program of its
finishing 86th. Playing alongside international golf kind in the world.

Like most accomplished athletes, Keating owes much of

her success to a rigorous training schedule that starts with
VU student and
golf champion, an hour-long run at 5:30 am, followed by two hours of
Stacey Keating. golf – all before classes commence for the day. After a
day’s studying, Keating plays a few holes of golf before
hitting the gym.

Asked what motivates her on a cold, rainy pre-dawn

morning, she says, “I know I can keep getting better.”

Jane Mclennan, Head of Sport and Recreation at VU,

says: “Stacey’s not someone who’s willing to be second
best.”

The young athlete’s drive and ambition is about to be

tested: Keating recently left Australia to tour with the
British Amateur competition in the United Kingdom, where
Futura Condensed she will play in St Andrews, Barkshire, Leeds and on
Bold & Medium Pleasington Island. With some of the world’s best amateur
7pt/8pt, 7pt space
golfers expected at the tournament, Keating will have her
after paragraph,
aligned left, 3mm work cut out for her.
inset. Reverses white
out of background. With continued success on and off the course, Stacey
Caption box colour Keating aims to turn professional in a few years and
to match feature break into the European pro-tour circuit. If she keeps
headline colourway.
improving at her current rate, there’s only one thing to say
to European tour organisers: FOUR!

14

A JUDGE OF
CHARACTER
ALEXANDRA ROGINSKI
When asked about his community service positions,
Victoria University’s Chancellor says that there are “not
so many at the present”. But to outsiders, the resume
of The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent AO QC must seem
monumental.
In addition to his lasting contributions to the Supreme
Court of Victoria, which began in 1985 and continue
today with a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeal,
Justice Vincent’s legal career takes in service at the grass-
roots of criminal justice.
Thanks in part to his work with several Aboriginal legal
aid services, and as chair of the Victorian Adult Parole
Board, he has developed an unswerving belief in the
power of education to overcome disadvantage.
“I am strongly of the view, as I believe that most people
who think at all deeply about this would be, that the
community is far better served in every respect if we
can provide the educational opportunity for people right
across the social spectrum,” he says.
Born in 1937 as the son of a Port Melbourne wharfie,
Justice Vincent considers himself lucky to have been part
of a family that fostered his learning and supported him
through his legal studies at the University of Melbourne.
It’s an unlikely pathway to the judiciary that has left him
with an affinity for the western suburbs.
“I was born in Port Melbourne and my wife, of course, is
a western suburbs girl,” he says. “She went to Sunshine
High. I’ve been associated with the west for years
and years, and of course for me, the west is not a
geographical concept – I grew up in a waterfront suburb.
When I was going to university – after we lived in Camp
Pell [a former World War II army camp] for a while – we
were out at a housing commission house in Glenroy.
I went out with a girl from Braybrook. That’s been the kind
of identification that I’ve had.”
Now committed to extending his good fortune to others,
the Chancellor recently helped establish the Visy Cares
Youth Hub in Sunshine. The Hub opened late last year
with VU as a partner. It is a one-stop shop for youth
services, providing young people with access to a range
of innovative and practical support services, including
employment, arts, education, health and legal.
In 2004, he was appointed patron of Western Chances,
an organisation that provides scholarships to talented
young people from Melbourne’s western suburbs. He also
assists the Xanana Vocational Education Trust, which is
helping to create a self-sustaining vocational education
system for Timor-Leste, and holds a position on the board
of the Court Network, an organisation providing support
PROFILE
VU Chancellor The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent AO QC.
to people affected by the court system, such as witnesses
and family members.
The meetings and reading generated by all of these
commitments place high demands on the Chancellor’s
time, leaving him to guard holidays “jealously”. He admits
that sometimes his energy lags, but stands by one secret
to success.
“Every day on which I do not have a meeting, I go
to the gym,” he says. “So that can be five, six times a
week ... I’ve been doing that for years. And that has
been immensely important. I became heavily involved in
running and gym work when I was a defence barrister
appearing in heavy trials. The way in which I handled
the pressure was that, at the end of the day, instead of
going to the pub, I would go to the gym.”
In January this year, Justice Vincent received the Order
of Australia for his services to law and social justice. In
typically modest fashion, he deflects praise by pointing to
the work of other recipients honoured on the day.
“I think these things are given in inverse order,” he says.
“I went to the ceremony and I listened to the citations
with respect to the various awards. And there were some
people who were receiving what was, in terms of the
hierarchy of awards, the lowest award. These were, for
the most part, people who had spent 40 or 50 years in
basic community work ... these are the people that really
count.”
Although keeping in perspective the honour of receiving
the award, Justice Vincent says that “nobody objects in
their own mind” to such recognition.
In the four months between receiving the letter that
notified him of his consideration for the award, and
actually receiving the honour, he found himself stealthily
scrutinising the AO insignia worn by a fellow member of
the VU council at a graduation ceremony.
The verdict? “It looked pretty good.”
The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent AO QC was formally
installed as the third Chancellor of Victoria University in
June 2001.
15
 KYINANDOO (SMART) ARTS
BRETT QUINE
Like most regions of Australia, the recorded histories of
Indigenous Australians to the west of Melbourne suffered
as Europeans settled in their land. The culture and
livelihood of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung tribes of
the Kulin Nation was decimated through suspect land
deals, disease and forced displacement, and rich hunting
grounds disappeared before an industrial and urban
behemoth.
Victoria University has a long history of support for
the local Indigenous community. Every major event
at the University, as a matter of policy, starts with an
acknowledgement of the land’s traditional owners.
VU’s Moondani Balluk Academic Unit (preceded by the
Koori Development and Support Unit) was established
in February 2006. Staffed almost entirely by Indigenous
Australians, it is actively associated with other Indigenous
networks and support agencies in the fast-growing
Aboriginal population of Melbourne’s west.
Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, adjacent to
Victoria University’s Footscray Park Campus, helps to
redress injustice towards Indigenous Australians through its
Aboriginal Program. It works closely with local Aborigines
and their leaders – at the Western Suburbs Indigenous
Gathering Place, Maribyrnong, and among VU lecturers
themselves – to research, document and present their
heritage and history.
16
The Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit
commenced delivery of its Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo)
program in February this year. The Kyinandoo (meaning
“clever” in the Wurundjeri language) program is
specifically aimed at Indigenous students and replaces
VU’s earlier Bachelor of Education (Nyerna Studies)
program.
The Kyinandoo course is unique in its delivery and its
scope of practical career options. Core subjects include
local and global Indigenous communities’ history, and
Indigenous culture, politics and leadership. Students can
choose to study electives from other schools and faculties
across VU.
Fourteen students have enrolled in the first year of the
course; 11 of them are Indigenous. Graduates of the
program will be able to work in leadership positions
in Indigenous communities and businesses, as well as
advisory positions in government and non-government
agencies.
Moondani Balluk Director, Associate Professor Mark
Minchinton, says VU recognised there were critical
shortfalls in Indigenous tertiary education. He expects
course enrolments to double next year.
“Education is crucial to addressing Indigenous
disadvantage and health issues,” Minchinton says.
“But the process of getting Indigenous people into post-
secondary education is going to be a long and slow
one. Units like Moondani Balluk have an enormous role

to play in being responsive to Indigenous communities,
government and academia. Our Indigenous staff are very
pleased that the University is committed to the Unit.”
Mark’s Indigenous ancestry (he is descended from the
Wardandi people, south of Perth) gives him a better
understanding of Indigenous issues than most academics.
He says VU academics found there was a need for a
course where Indigenous students felt a strong level of
personal and cultural safety, security and comfort in the
unfamiliar tertiary environment.
“Our course offers that sense of security, which we help
to provide with Indigenous lecturers. Once students learn
to deal with the university environment, they are more
likely to go on and do other degrees.”
The Kyinandoo course students are possibly the most
content and close-knit student group at VU. Two of them
– Mia Stanford and Kevin Moore – even learned they
were related, with a mutual great-grandfather. “We all
really love each other,” says Stanford.
Fellow student Kaz Sutherland agrees: “We are all
really good mates and we really look after each other.”
Laughing, she says, “Some say we’ll all end up getting
sick of each other.”
Lecturers are held in high regard – their own Indigenous
backgrounds a source of great pride they impart to
students. “The lecturers are all really passionate about
their roots, and it makes a difference – it makes them
stand out,” Sutherland says. “They absolutely rock
– they’re fantastic.”
Indigenous VU Services Coordinator and guest lecturer
and member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and
Opposite page: Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo) students (l–r at rear) Kaz Sutherland, Kevin Moore, Mia Stanford and (front) Tracey Youngjay stand on a ground mural at the
Living Museum of the West in Maribyrnong.
Above: An early 19th Century black and white ink sketch of Aboriginal life on the Maribyrnong River.
INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Human Rights Commission, Karen Jackson, says no other
Indigenous Bachelor of Arts program in Australia provides
the same career options.
“We know it’s the only course of its kind in Victoria,”
Jackson says. ““We’re not sure if it’s the first of its kind in
Australia, but that would be most likely. Our program is
different in that respect because it offers flexibility. The
course replaces VU’s Bachelor of Education – Nyerna
Studies, which VU offered from 1998 to 2006. Students
were dropping out because they didn’t have options to
pursue their career aspirations through that course.”
Jackson was also appointed a member of the new
Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council last year. At
important VU events, she is often asked to deliver the
official acknowledgement of “the Elders, families and
forebears of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung tribes of
the Kulin Nation who were the custodians of University
land for many centuries.”
The acknowledgement says the land was a place
of “age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and
renewal” for the Kulin Nation people. The description is
supported by local literature, such as John Lack’s,
A History of Footscray, 1991, which states: “Koori men
stalked game, and women and children collected food
and fished along the river junction, estuaries, swamps and
lagoons.”
In a move towards a better understanding of the history
of the Kulin Nation, the Moondani Balluk Indigenous
Academic Unit has applied for a research grant to further
investigate the Aboriginal history of Melbourne’s western
suburbs.
Photo courtesy of the Living Museum of the West.
17
 RESEARCH
Not all young
people need to
learn the hard
way about the
downsides of
the burgeoning
telecommunications
industry.
SHORT MESSAGE – TALL COST?
ALEXANDRA ROGINSKI
It starts innocently enough, a group of teenage girls watching
TV when an advertisement flashes onto the screen offering
love-life horoscopes sent by SMS.
Like most of their peers, the girls all keep their mobile phones
handy and, urged on by the group, one of them decides
to text the number on the screen to receive what she thinks
is a one-off astrological reading. In the excitement, none of
the girls notice the tiny writing at the bottom of the screen
declaring that this is in fact a subscription service.
The girl receives her message, and then a few more that
week. It all seems harmless until her phone credit starts
rapidly disappearing.
Confused, she finally logs onto the service’s website, and is
shocked to find the true price of a psychic reading in the fine
print – more than $5 per message, plus a subscription fee.
Su Robertson is acting director and principal solicitor with
Melbourne’s Communications Law Centre, a non-profit public
interest research centre specialising in media, communications
and online law and policy, and affiliated with Victoria
University’s School of Law.
“Young people are often tech savvy, but they’re not life
savvy in the way of finance,” says Robertson. “So their tech-
knowledge will instruct the way they want to use something,
but they won’t necessarily be super savvy about the
relationship that they’re creating with whoever they’re paying
to get this service from.
“In the case of telecommunications contracts, they are often
complicated, less likely to be read by many consumers, but
also less likely to be applied by a young consumer in the
instance where they’re trying to fight for their rights.”
Along with seniors and people at an economic, cultural or
intellectual disadvantage, young people are considered
among the groups most vulnerable to telecommunications
traps, and often end up paying exorbitant prices for a service
they could access cheaply elsewhere.
18
Last year, the CLC launched Fairtel, a campaign targeting
vulnerable consumers with easy-to-read information about
how to get a fair go with mobile, internet and telephone
services. Along with a series of bold brochures sent out to
community organisations, Fairtel has a website advising on
issues such as the legalities of signing a contract for your
relative or friend, who to call if you can’t pay your bills, and
identifying the best phone, internet or phone-card provider for
your needs.
While creating exciting new communications choices such
as voice-over-internet options, the exponential development
of new technologies also means telecommunications is
a breeding ground for legal grey areas. The industry is
managed through a tangle of legislation, industry codes and
consultative frameworks, with much of it self-regulated.
Horoscope subscriptions fall into the category of Mobile
Premium Services, which begin with the number 19 and
charge a high rate for texting – usually 55 cents upwards
per message. The Australian Communications and Media
Authority has flagged problems with these services, with
much of their attention focused on keeping minors protected
from adult material.
But many of the pitfalls also relate to the lack of clarity
about what the consumer is subscribing to, and while
there is a formal complaints process available through the
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, whether young
people (the common targets) would actually pursue this
channel is another issue. Robertson says they might not know
about this option and may also feel silly and prefer to wear
the cost rather than taking legal action.
“The reality is that with $15, even $20, right up to probably
about $50, the young person will go ‘oh, ripped off’ and not
do anything about it,” says Robertson.
“I think they become less vulnerable at a point when they
realise that they can actually go to a contract and look for
some of the answers they might need,” Robertson says.
Visit the Fairtel site at: http://www.fairtel.org.au/

Kim Thorne has
demonstrated
just how
beneficial the
practical year
can be for an
undergraduate
trying to
shore up an
employment
advantage.
ALEXANDRA ROGINSKI
Travelling at seven metres a second, it’s only a 38-
second elevator trip up the Rialto Tower’s 55 floors
to the Melbourne Observation Deck. But securing a
full-time position at the top of the tallest office building
in the southern hemisphere and one of Australia’s loftiest
landmarks took Victoria University student Kim Thorne a
little longer.
For Thorne, who completed her Bachelor of Business
(Tourism Management) degree in June, the colourful
journey to her plumb role as tourism co-ordinator for the
deck – also known as Melbourne 360 – took a number
of years.
After emigrating with her family from South Africa as a
teenager, the decision to choose tourism came naturally.
“When I was younger, we had a different holiday in a
different part of the world every year,” Thorne says. “I
was one-year-old when I flew in my first aeroplane, and
I’ve been to America a couple of times, been to Europe
a couple of times. I actually came to Australia twice
before we emigrated. And living in Africa, we did a lot
of travel there as well. So definitely, it’s a big part of my
life to travel and experience different cultures and different
societies.”
Thorne has just completed a year of paid work
experience working atop the Rialto. The job met the year-
long Work Integrated Learning component of her degree,
a prerequisite for graduation from the Faculty of Business
and Law, which puts the theories of book-based studies
into practice. She has now been offered the job full time.
The soaring 253-metre high Observation Deck in
Melbourne’s CBD, includes a café and bar, a theatrette,
a 150-seat function room, souvenir shop, and two
outdoor viewing balconies as well as a giddy 360-
degree view from behind glass.
WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING
TOP OF THE
WORLD
Since starting at the deck in July last year, the 23-year-old
has tackled tasks such as planning events, co-ordinating
membership for the loyalty club, and representing the
deck to government organisations such as Tourism
Alliance Victoria. Last October, she flew to Toronto for a
meeting of the elite World Federation of Great Towers
– a peak-body, so to speak, for 26 tourist-friendly towers
around the world.
“Mail-merging was completely unknown to me until
I came into the job,” Thorne says. “And then there’s
that interaction with people. Walking into a room with
500 people and being sent off to introduce yourself to
everyone is quite daunting the first time you do it, but after
a while you can do it quite easily.”
After finishing high school in 2001, Thorne tackled a
year-and-a-half of a science degree, worked as an event
planner, and finally signed up for a new direction with
VU. “I went to their open day and they were really helpful
in helping me decide which course I wanted to do,” she
says.
VU’s Faculty of Business and Law prepares students for
their year in the field by introducing them to potential
employers and by hosting workshops and industry expos.
But when it comes to actually snaring the jobs, Barry
Broons, manager at VU’s Centre for Work Integrated
Learning, says it’s up to the students.
“It isn’t a placement service,” Broons says. “We don’t
put people in roles. They have to be competitive in
that position and hopefully we have prepared them
adequately to be able to present themselves to be
successful in that process.”
Now that Thorne has completed her studies, she has
been asked to continue in her role as the Observation
Deck’s tourism co-ordinator. Her on-the-job, sharp
learning curve demonstrates just how beneficial the
practical year can be for an undergraduate trying to
shore up an employment advantage. She obviously
suffers no workplace vertigo.
When asked about the best parts of her sky-high job, she
doesn’t even need to pause for thought.
“Meeting people from around the world,” she
says. “About 60 per cent of our visitors are actually
internationals and about 30 per cent are interstaters,
so we have a really big traveller and backpacker
market, and a big family market as well. There’s always
something different.”
Trivia: Opened in 1986, the Rialto Tower is the third
highest reinforced concrete building in the world. It has
38 lifts, 95 kilometres of lift cables, 1.8 hectares of glass
windows and 70 kilometres of fire sprinkler piping.
19
 CREATIVE ARTS
ARTISTS’
NIRVANA
BRETT QUINE
Victoria University’s former Department of Visual Arts,
Design and Multimedia moved into new facilities at
City Flinders Campus in mid 2006.
After the closure of VU’s City South Melbourne Campus,
student graphic and visual artists, video producers
and game developers stepped out of the shadows of
Melbourne’s Southbank precinct and onto the sunlit 16,
17 and 18th glass-walled levels of the city high-rise.
With national award-winning results achieved by
multimedia students within months of taking up the new
residence, the $5 million investment is already paying
dividends. The new premises were officially opened by
Andre Haermeyer, Victorian Minister for Manufacturing
and Export, Financial Services and Small Business, last
October.
Following the restructure of VU TAFE, the disciplines
within the former Department of Visual Arts, Design
and Multimedia now fall under the School of Creative
Industries. As head of the school, John Barmby oversees
the program areas of Graphic Design, Multimedia
and Visual Art, as well as Performance, Music, and
Professional Writing and Editing. He says the new space
was purpose-built, and being surrounded by industry
designers and galleries will be of real benefit to the
School’s 350 students.
20
The facility is made up of individual artist’s studios,
classrooms, computer design laboratories and digital
video production facilities. Broad city views encompass
each floor level and a large public gallery showcases the
students’ work.
Multimedia teacher Alan Morgans said the former South
Melbourne Campus location lacked specialist studio
facilities.
“The South Melbourne building was very old and we
had to shoot video in the hallways and corridors,” says
Morgans. “I’m glad we moved here, the facilities are
great. It looks great and it’s a great environment. I think it
helps us attract students.”
Visual arts student Sandra Diele now works in a space
at the northeast corner of the building that includes two
floor-to-ceiling glass walls. “I stay here until quite late
sometimes,” Diele says. “It’s really beautiful to just be here
at night, really nice.”
John Barmby says a key benefit of the facility is its
accessibility. “The students have their own keys and can
come in any time up to 10pm to do their work, even on
the weekends. It’s fairly relaxed. We had an industry
adviser visit earlier this year and he said: ‘If I were a
student, I’d fail so I could come back next year!’”
The City Flinders facility is used to deliver professional
courses in visual arts, design and multimedia – at
certificate, diploma and advanced diploma levels, with
pathways into higher education. The multimedia program
teaches students skills in game design and development,
 The $5 million
City Flinders
Campus facility
is home to
professional
courses in visual
arts, design and
multimedia.
Opposite page:
student, Sandra
Diele, in an artist’s
studio; left: video
production; below:
a public gallery.

digital video production, web design and development, Music and multimedia lecturer Stefan Schutt won the
2-D design, interactive media, 3-D animation and ‘2006 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Programs which
electronic art. Enhance the Student Experience’ for instigating a
cross-sectoral learning program called the ‘Hybrid
It was no small achievement that VU TAFE multimedia
Initiative’. The program supports collaborative activities
students occupied all five finalist positions in the Best
and innovative training strategies via industry partners
Tertiary Multimedia category of the prestigious 2006
and specialist workshops. Projects such as a migrant
Australian Teachers Of Multimedia (ATOM) awards, and
information DVD and a $261,000 VicHealth grant for
constituted four of five finalists in the Tertiary Interactive
computer game development enhance the students’
Game category. A win in both categories by VU
experience and employment prospects.
graduate Nino Aniceto cemented his reputation, and that
of the department, as being among the best in Australia. Under the Hybrid Initiative, a team from the former
Department of Visual Arts, Design and Multimedia were
VU TAFE students have won the Best Student Developed
heralded for their creative use of new technology in
Content category for the last two years of the Australian
education. The efforts of the seven-member team were
Interactive Media Industry Association (AIM) Awards.
acknowledged with the ‘2006 Vice-Chancellor’s Peak
This year VU has all three finalists in the Best Tertiary
Award for Excellence in TAFE Teaching and Learning’.
Multimedia category of this year’s ATOM awards.
Professional Writing and Editing lecturer Susanna
The new facility is complemented by a $6.5 million
Bryceson says her students had crossed into the areas
technology-rich learning centre at St Albans Campus. The
of podcasts, web pages, multimedia and Radio VU, an
various disciplines within the School of Creative Industries
intranet-based virtual station originally developed as a
have different campus bases, with writers at
final-year project by one of the multimedia program’s
St Albans, performers at Footscray Nicholson and
international students.
musicians at Sunbury. Program managers meet regularly
to discuss progress and collaborations. “In Professional Writing we have screen and script
writing, but now we are able to work more closely with
“We encourage collaboration between program areas
other artists,” Bryceson says. “We can produce a text but
and even schools and sectors,” Barmby says. “The staff
we need a vehicle to get that text out. Similarly, Radio VU
we have are very passionate people and quite excited
is now using our writing students in a collaborative effort
about the opportunities we have.”
and it all fits in with workplace learning as well.”
21
 ALUMNI
(HELLO) CHINA
CHINA
SYNERGY
YANNICK THORAVAL
China’s runaway economy and inexhaustible labour
force has financial analysts predicting the country as the
economic juggernaut of the twenty-first century.
Industrial growth has been part of China’s success and
Victoria University is helping to shape the country’s
future industrial leaders. Just ask VU Master of Business
Administration graduate Che Yumei, manager of
procurement for Shenhua Energy Company Limited
(CSEC) in Beijing, the second-largest publicly-listed coal
company in the world.
As manager of procurement, Yumei is responsible for
overseeing hundreds of contract negotiations, worth an
estimated A$2.4 billion.
In 2006, Yumei completed her MBA through Jiaotong
University in Beijing, one of VU’s partnership institutions
in China. She says her VU studies have held her in good
stead working in China’s high-stakes energy sector.
Chinese MBA graduate Che Yumei.
22
“The studies I did at VU met the requirements of my job
very well,” she says. “For example, we were asked to
finish our final essay by teamwork, which was different
from our previous experience of working as individuals.
This required the team to co-operate fully with one
another, with each team member doing that portion of
the work at which he or she was best. The team members
learned to use their skills and to co-operate to make the
team as strong as it could be. This type of team building
is very useful in my present position.”
The 18-month full-time program is equivalent to VU’s
Australian MBA, but assignments and lectures are tailored
to a local Chinese context, which helped Yumei apply
her study to China’s industrial sector.
Yumei sees collaboration and sustainable development
as important aspects of continued growth in China’s
energy sector and is quick to point out the collegial spirit
with which her company is pursuing environmentally
sustainable initiatives.
“CSEC is working hard at land reclamation and
reforestation projects aimed at protecting the environment.
In addition, CSEC works to protect the environment by
minimizing the discharge of waste water and solids from
its various operations.
“Even as CSEC grows larger, the company strives to be
a good member of society by way of supporting the
disadvantaged within our society by donating generously
to the education of children and in many other ways.”
Admitting about 100 students per year since 1999,
VU’s MBA program in Beijing has been listed as one
of the top ten foreign MBA’s offered in China. It is the
only Australian MBA in China with central Ministry of
Education approval.
Yumei is active in VU’s China Alumni Network (Beijing).
For information on VU’s extensive Alumni community
network, professional development and industry/business
link opportunities, visit VU’s Alumni Relations website
www.vu.edu.au/students/alumni or
email alumni@vu.edu.au

SUBBING IN
THE FAST LANE
JIM BUCKELL
Many students opt for vocational education (TAFE)
over university (higher degrees). Some are attracted
by the lower fees; others enjoy the hands-on practical
instruction. Jane Watkins is one who took the TAFE route
after discovering that a higher education degree was too
theoretical for her liking.
After leaving school, Jane enrolled in a media studies
degree at La Trobe University, but found it overly academic.
She left the course after first year and took some time off
to reset her priorities, during which she discovered Victoria
University’s Diploma of Writing and Editing.
Two years later, as a TAFE graduate, she has never
looked back. After completing her diploma at the end
of last year, she found a job as a sub-editor at Fairfax
Community Newspapers, based at Dandenong, where
she subs on a raft of suburban mastheads, including, The
Dandenong Journal, The Footscray Mail and The Sunshine
Advocate.
Jane, now 21, also helps runs a small independent
publishing house, A New Leaf Media, with some of
her young work colleagues. In their spare time they
publish festival guides and programs for groups such
as the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Melbourne
International Film Festival.
“The diploma course is highly practical, you do a lot of
writing,” says Jane, who revelled in the real-life nature of
the assignments, prepared and assessed by professional
writers and editors.
“It is basically writing, workshopping and improving and
polishing what you’ve done,” she says. “It was far better
preparation for the work I’m now doing than the university
course, because the diploma is basically a mock-up of
the real world.”
ALUMNI
She took classes in fiction and non-fiction writing, as well
as editing, which included the design basics that she puts
to use in her lay-out work as a sub-editor.
“As editors, we published a book each year, which
comprised the best writing from students in the course,”
she says. “The workshopping you do in writing subjects
also prepares you well for editing tasks.”
However, the pace of working on relatively small
suburban weekly newspapers, where reporters cover a
lot of ground each week, was an eye-opener.
“Our reporters work a lot harder than many journalists on
daily newspapers because they have to write so many
stories. So a lot of the sub-editor’s work is rewriting copy.”
There are also the myriad hurdles of newspaper life to
straddle: pictures that are too small to hold up a page
(quick search for another); not enough copy (get the
reporter to file four extra paragraphs); and ads that drop
out at the last minute (last-gasp redraw).
Although these kinds of difficulties are not easy to
replicate in the classroom, Jane believes that the course
is a great introduction to a writer’s or editor’s life.
“Essentially it’s what you make of it,” she says. “I believe
that you get out of what you put in, and that’s certainly
the case with this course.
“One of the best things is that the teachers are prepared
to be flexible. There were occasions when I was late
with an assignment because we were on a production
deadline and working round the clock with one of our
festival guides. They would say. ‘No worries, the work
you are doing is important. Go for it!’ You can’t ask for
more than that.”
VU began offering the Diploma of Writing and Editing
in 1993. Since then, hundreds of students have enrolled
in the course, from school leavers looking to carve out a
writing career to mature-aged professionals looking for a
career change or just to develop their writing skills.
“We aim to create versatile writers, editors and publishers,”
says Susanna Bryceson, who teaches the program at
VU’s St Albans Campus. “Students gain the confidence
and ability to tackle an array of professional situations,
from writing children’s books and poetry to journalism and
corporate communications. The jobs that our graduates get
after finishing the program reflects that diversity.”
Jane Watkins now subs on a raft of
suburban mastheads, including The
Dandenong Journal, The Footscray Mail
and The Sunshine Advocate.
23
 LOGISTICS

LOGISTICS CITY
BRETT QUINE

Dr Pieter Nagel wants to transform Melbourne’s west

into a ‘National Logistics City’ to leverage its strategic
position at the heart of 70 per cent of the nation’s
economic activity. According to Dr Nagel, a global
logistics expert, Melbourne’s western region will face
huge challenges to provide employment and sustained
economic development for its burgeoning population
without immediate strategic intervention.

As director of Victoria University’s Institute for Logistics

and Supply Chain Management (ILSCM), Dr Nagel has
piloted a proposal that aims to add value to the existing
logistics network of Melbourne’s west by $2.4 billion a
year while creating business and employment growth to
match that of its spiralling population.

“Looking at it from a logistics point of view, we are sitting

in the middle of Australia’s trade hub,” Dr Nagel says.
“We see a Logistics City as a critical element in ensuring
Australia’s competitiveness and its long-term position in the
Asia-Pacific, and on the global logistics ladder. It’s one of
the fundamental building blocks for our future.”

24

The ILSCM has completed the first phase of research,
engaging with the community; local, state and federal
Government; and key industry representatives. Continuing
research on a National Logistics City will investigate a
broad range of critical aspects of the proposal, including
modelling employment demand, the creation of ‘virtual’
connectivity through ITS framework, examining current
planning and infrastructure anomalies, and proffering
solutions on how to best untangle policy conflicts to
transform the region into a finely tuned and integrated
supply chain logistics capital.
“If these critical issues are not addressed within the next
five to eight years the capacity for sustainable economic
growth for the region will be lost,” Dr Nagel says. “Some
opportunities have already been missed through a lack
of integrated and consolidated strategy, and due to
functional planning undertaken on a project by project
basis.”
He says the key requirements to support the National
Logistics City are “connectivity, proximity, capability,
capacity, efficiency, sustainability, and confidence”.
Providing a functional framework to implement these
requirements using the latest technology will deliver
increased efficiency, increased profits, and reduced
traffic congestion and carbon emissions on the region’s
already heavily used roads. Realising this vision, however,
requires new planning policy, strong political will and
more solid evidence to support the implementation of this
strategy.
“Footscray has an enormous potential role to play as a
business services hub for the National Logistics City,”
Dr Nagel says. “Footscray is home to two of our largest
VU campuses and adjacent to the Port of Melbourne.
My view is that there is great strategic potential for VU,
the Port of Melbourne and Maribyrnong City Council to
collaborate towards the redevelopment of Footscray as a
key element in this whole mix.”
Released in February this year, the ILSCM proposal
was developed in consultation with a wide range of
stakeholders, including six local councils and the Western
Transport Alliance.
Opposite page: VU’s Dr Pieter
Nagel. Left: “Footscray has
an enormous potential role
to play as a business services
hub for the National Logistics
City.” – Dr Nagel.
Major government reports, such as the State
Government’s planning blueprint, ‘Melbourne 2030’,
were cited, and 1200 western Melbourne businesses
and 200 residents were surveyed. Dr Nagel says
projections indicate that the outer west will have more
than a quarter of Melbourne’s population growth over
the next 25 years. But that the current industrial and
manufacturing structure of the region is unlikely to provide
employment growth that is any way on par.
Dr Nagel is working to establish a National Logistics City
Reference Group, comprising key government, business
and community advisers, to further develop the proposal.
“What we are doing now is scoping the technologies
that would be required and exploring funding options to
facilitate the next phases of the research,” Dr Nagel says.
The National Logistics City proposal will be further
developed at a workshop jointly hosted by the
Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional
Development – the State Government’s lead agency
for economic and regional development – and ILSCM
in early August. A joint government and industry visit
to renowned logistics cities, Dubai and Shanghai, is
planned for early 2008.
At the Australian Financial Review Higher Education
Summit last April, VU Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth
Harman said the work done by the ILSCM on the
National Logistics City has developed economic and
social knowledge relevant both to Melbourne’s west and
the rest of the world in the context of a rapidly changing
global knowledge economy.
“As an enabler of other industries, distribution and
logistics is an increasingly important source of competitive
advantage for firms, and local and national economies,”
Professor Harman said. “ICTs [Information and
Communication Technologies] are now playing a central
role in industry, with e-commerce, e-business solutions and
digital delivery having a substantial impact on transport
businesses and warehousing and storage.”
http://ilscm.vu.edu.au/
25
 BUILDING
THEIR FUTURE
BRETT QUINE
Every year another 200 student apprentices enter the
building trade via Victoria University, the vast majority
graduating with a high standard of job readiness.
This year, for the first time, VU’s Department of Building
and Construction apprentices put on a public display of
their skills in carpentry, joinery and bricklaying for visitors
to the 2007 HIA Home Ideas Show at the Melbourne
Exhibition and Convention Centre in April. Visitors could
see for themselves just how skillful the apprentices were,
reflecting a bright future for Victoria’s building industry.
The apprentice ‘chippies’ worked on a small two-
bedroom weatherboard transportable home, measuring
four by 12 metres square. They completed the decking
before commencing the exterior cladding.
According to department head, Alan Hill, apprentices
build up to 10 of the small transportable homes over
the course of a year. With the benefit of their large
workspace at Newport campus, the students get to build
26
26
the real thing from scratch. The houses are privately sold
to offset the cost of production.
“We’re not out to make a profit,” Hill says. “It’s about the
experience that we can give our students. When we train
apprentices, they’re job ready and productive from day
one.”
Most apprentices are teen males, but ages can vary
up to 55 for those who felt they missed something by
way of hammer-bruised hands and splinters earlier in
life. On graduating, they are invariably offered full-time
jobs. There is a waiting list of about a year for employers
who want a student that has completed VU’s pre-
apprenticeship course, which gives basic trade skills to
those wanting to start an apprenticeship with a builder.
Carpentry teacher Greg Radville says trade apprentices
attend classes part-time over three years, while the
16-week pre-apprenticeship course (the equivalent of two
years of trade school study) can be taken full or part time.
“The apprentices have to do the lot,” Radville says
with some pride as he speaks of their mission to build
transportable homes. “They have to start from the board

joists and just follow it all the way through – so if they
make a mistake they’ve got to live with it,” he says.
An article in the Herald Sun newspaper noted that the
apprentices’ HIA Home Ideas Show ‘construction in
action’ showcased how VU’s Newport Campus was
“doing its bit” to ease the state’s building skills crisis, while
local press also praised the effort. VU sponsored the
display, together with the Housing Industry Association
(HIA) and employer Henley Homes.
Carpentry teacher Barry Peart is another of Newport’s
qualified chippies, happy to pass on his skills in a setting
where the class products are sold rather than scrapped or
trashed and rebuilt.
“The beauty of it for apprentices who come to Victoria
University is that they get the advantage of being able to
build a full-size transportable home,” Peart says. “It sets a
solid foundation for a career in the construction industry.”
Department of Building and
Construction apprentices
at work on a two-bedroom
weatherboard transportable
home at VU’s Newport
Campus.
BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION
Final (third) year apprentice Daniel Patti says he has his
secondary school wood technology teacher to thank for
coming to VU. Daniel says he would have left school
before finishing his VCE if he had not been told about
the VET (Vocational Education and Training) in Schools
program, that could be done as an alternative to regular
subjects.
“My teacher said, ‘Look, we’ve got this program running,
it gives you this qualification and this sort of experience,”
Patti says. “I thought it was a great idea – I might as well
get my VCE and get a pre-apprenticeship under my belt
at the same time.”
VU participates in the VET in Schools scheme by sharing
in the delivery of training when the student’s school does
not have the registration or resources for a particular
qualification.
Victoria University has been training apprentices in
building and construction since 1916.
27
 OPINION
NEW RACISM
HURRIYET BABACAN
One of the research projects I have undertaken over the
last two years is on the nature and extent of racism in
Australia. Sociologically, I know there are no such things
as races of people – science has proved that our genetic
make up is 99.99 per cent the same. Yet, in reality, the
construction of race continues and affects many people in
significant ways.
Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of new forms
of racism. Some are explicit and overt, and others more
subtle. We are at a critical point in our society in terms of
cultural diversity, and addressing issues of racism should
be at the forefront of our considerations.
Yet there is silence on this topic, and only a small handful
of researchers across our universities are examining it.
I keep asking myself: Where is Australia going? Why
is there a lack of acceptance of people from different
cultures in such a multicultural society? How can my
research and academic work contribute to making a
positive social change?
My niece is a university student and recently she had
a horrifying experience. As she was about to enter the
grounds of her university, a car full of young men pulled
up near her on the footpath and the driver put his head
out the window. She thought he was going to ask her for
directions. All of a sudden, he grabbed her by the collar
and put his foot on the accelerator. As she was dragged
along, he yelled racial abuse: “Get back to your own
country”, “Stop taking our jobs” and “F... blackie”. Then
he let go of her. Fortunately, she was not seriously injured.
28
In my research I had come across hundreds of these
types of overt racist incidents. However, the emotional
reaction is very different when it happens to a member of
your family.
How can we support victims of racism in a practical
way? On a personal level, as in my niece’s case, we
can calm them down, help them overcome their fear
of walking in the street, tell them of the unlikelihood of
another similar incident occurring and encourage them
to be confident when tackling other elements of their life.
On a more general level, we can raise awareness in the
public sphere about the occurrence of racism as a means
of helping to stop it from happening. But where do we
begin? In the university? With the government? In the
neighbourhood?
My research identifies new forms of racism for which
we are unprepared as a nation and as a society. The
concept of race has expanded. There is evidence of
discrimination and prejudice occurring on the basis
of difference in culture and religion and not strictly on
biological differences.
Since the events of September 11, and the London and
Bali bombings, racial violence and discrimination has
increased against Muslim communities in Australia. This
is referred to as Islamphobia. There is considerable
evidence in Australia that fear and hatred of Muslims has
increased.
Citizenship rights are the civil, political and social rights of
individuals living within a nation state. Increasingly, there
are differentiated rights of individuals in Australia.
New forms of institutional racisms are hidden and subtle,
and divide people based on strict criteria linked to
definitions of immigration categories. These are driven by
philosophies that determine who are deserving and who
are not deserving of rights, and who belong and who do
not belong within the nation. Over the last decade we
have witnessed increasingly diminishing rights of certain

groups of people – those who were once considered ‘at
risk’ or disadvantaged individuals or communities who
needed to be supported and included, are now seen as
‘a risk’ to Australia. These include refugees and asylum
seekers.
There is currently a unilateral debate on what constitutes
Australian values. This is occurring without sufficient
public participation. There is an attempt to construct
an Australian identity in a particular way. Indigenous
Australians are invisible in these debates and Australian
history is portrayed as mainly white. For example, the
creation of an Australian identity based on images such
as Simpson and his donkey build a particular image
– mainly white and masculine – of what it means to
be Australian. This is a highly homogenous image and
excludes many sectors of the Australian population.
In my research and policy advocacy work it has been
difficult to engage key stakeholders in discussions
about racism. Racism is a confronting topic and I find
that people prefer to avoid it – whether they are in
government, the community or other walks of life. There
may be reasons for this, but the end result is that there is
often a silence, a denial of racism. This partially explains
why there are no specialist support services for victims of
racial abuse.
We have victim-centered support services in many areas
of abuse, such as child-centered child protection services,
survivor-centered domestic and family violence services,
and so on. But there is a huge gap in victim-centred
services for people who experience racism. Although
there are legislative bodies that work against racism, and
to whom racism victims can complain, these processes
are highly legalistic and many people do not have the
confidence or skills to make a complaint. In many cases
the evidence needed to bring about action is highly
legalistic and technical.
Opposite page:
Professor Hurriyet
Babacan.
Left: Footscray
Mall: “We need to
realise that Australia
is home to many
people of culturally
diverse backgrounds
who cannot ‘go back’
– some are 3rd
and 4th generation
Australians.”
– Professor Babacan.
What evidence does my niece have to go to such a
body? She does not know the perpetrators, nor does
she have their car registration number. All she has is her
word.
Anti-discrimination and human rights bodies are the first
to admit the problems faced by victims in the complaints
processes. Research indicates that a lack of validation
of victims’ experiences further compounds their trauma,
adding to their feeling of oppression.
Racist rednecks may be few, but non-racists can
inadvertently be racist too. The silence of the majority can
give tacit support to the acts of the few. This silence or
denial of racism is actually a form of racism.
My research indicates that there are two sides to our
society – the tolerant and accepting, and the intolerant
and racist. But it is not that simple. People who are
accepting of some groups can be unaccepting of
others, and behaviour can be situational. Small acts
of indifference can be equally hurtful as acts of racist
violence. The complexity of racism makes it all the more
difficult to address.
We live in a pluralist society. This means three things.
First, we need to respect each other’s identities and
value our differences. Second, we need to find ways to
understand and relate to each other. Third, we need to
realise that Australia is home to many people of culturally
diverse backgrounds who cannot ‘go back’ – some are
3rd and 4th generation Australians.
We need to be more vigilant against racism – in both
its direct and indirect forms, and in its individual and
institutional manifestations. We need to work for our
common good.
Professor Hurriyet Babacan is Professor of Social and
Cultural Development at VU’s Institute for Community,
Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA).
29

OSTEOPATHY
Photo courtesy of Emu Spirit
EMU: GRILLED OR PRESCRIBED?
YANNICK THORAVAL
To many people the Australian emu looks like a dumb
and graceless bird, a gangly, prehistoric creature most
likely to be seen in a zoo or lying next to a glass of
shiraz – this outback ‘delicacy’ is gaining favour in posh
European and Malaysian restaurants.
But for Dr Jim Kiatos, a medical doctor and naturopath,
who works as a lecturer at Victoria University’s
Osteopathy Unit at VU’s City Flinders Campus, the
scraggly bird offers a source of hope for the 12 per
cent of Australians who suffer from psoriasis or eczema
– genetic skin conditions that cause flaky, irritated skin
and open sores.
Dr Kiatos has been working on a study exploring the
potential applications of emu oil for treating these chronic
skin conditions. The research was co-produced by
two of his students (now graduated), Dr Rebecca Hay
and Dr Laura Richardson, who studied the effect of the
oil on psoriasis and eczema patients as part of their
postgraduate research in osteopathy at VU.
“We were looking for a less toxic alternative to the
drugs people were using to treat their condition,” says Dr
Kiatos.
Conventional medical treatments for psoriasis and
eczema usually involve multi-drug regimes, which can
have dangerous side effects and, in some cases, carry
potentially life-threatening health risks.
Emu oil looked to be a promising alternative. Australian
Aborigines have used emu oil to treat various pains,
skin ailments and burns for thousands of years.
Commercial versions of the oil became available in
the last few decades as physicians and naturopaths
began recommending emu oil as a treatment for various
inflammatory conditions, including rheumatism, joint pain
and arthritis.
In Australia today, commercial emu farms annually
contribute an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars to the
national economy. While meat exports count for roughly
half the emu’s commercial value, the bird’s subcutaneous
fat is the cash crop for emu farmers.
30
“We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that serious treatments can only be found
in the form of pharmaceutical drugs, but some of the best cures are right under
our noses.” – Dr Jim Kiatos.
To extract the fat, emus are transported to an abattoir
for processing where the birds are electrocuted, hung,
plucked, skinned and their fat layer stripped off. The
extracted emu fat is filtered to remove all proteins and
bacteria, and the remaining oil is then packaged as
oral capsules or for topical application, and exported
worldwide.
Despite the widespread use of emu oil, hard evidence
supporting its medicinal value is scarce.
“There was not a lot of research on emu oil to fall back
on,” says Dr Kiatos. “The idea of the study was to
investigate the validity of the anecdotal evidence that emu
oil worked.”
The initial results of the research are encouraging. “From
the study, we saw that patients were less dependant on
their usual medication, implying that emu oil was having
the desired effect,” says Dr Kiatos.
While it will not cure chronic eczema or psoriasis, emu
oil – which has no known side effects – can help reduce
a patient’s reliance on toxic medications, helping them
better manage their condition.
The preliminary results of the VU study indicate further
research is needed on the medicinal properties and
potential applications of emu oil to treat other ailments.
The study may also influence the public perception of
natural remedies, which many consider the domain of
charlatans and crackpots.
“People are often incredulous about the effectiveness
of natural remedies and animal products,” says Dr
Kiatos. “We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that
serious treatments can only be found in the form of
pharmaceutical drugs, but some of the best cures are right
under our noses.”
Dr Kiatos believes that emu oil may yet prove to be a
treatment for other inflammatory and chronic conditions,
notably diabetes.

NEW
BOOKS
VU FACTS
HISTORY
Founded in 1916 as
Footscray Technical School
and established as Victoria
University in 1990.
STUDENT POPULATION
Current student population:
more than 44,700 enrolled
students
International students:
more than 8500
Postgraduate students:
more than 4600
The Praxis of Alain Badiou
Edited by Paul Ashton, A.J. Bartlett
and Justin Clemens
Published by re.press
Badiou has been acclaimed
as one of France’s greatest
living philosophers. The essays
collected here confront the four
great headings that Badiou
identified as essential to our
humanity: science, love, art and
politics.
Connect + Converge – Australian
Media and Communications Law
By Scott Beattie and Elizabeth Beal
Published by Oxford University Press,
Melbourne
This work examines the practical
issues that arise from the regulation
of media and communications.
It is designed for students and
professionals in fields such as
journalism, media, publishing and
law.
CAMPUSES AND SITES
City Flinders
City King
City Queen (site)
Footscray Nicholson
Footscray Park
Newport
Melton
St Albans
Sunbury
Sunshine
Werribee
Feasts & Seasons of John F. Kelly
By Robert Pascoe
Published by Allen & Unwin
The life of one of the most
influential Australian Catholic
priests of the twentieth century.
John F. Kelly was a leader in
bringing the Vatican II church to
life in Australia. This penetrating
biography shows the man
behind the achievement and
how he grew into his destiny.
Understanding and Managing
Tourism
By John I Richardson and Martin Fluker
Published by Pearson Hospitality Press
This text is designed for higher
education students undertaking
tourism studies. It defines,
discusses and gives real-world
examples of the most important
issues that future tourism industry
professionals need to understand
and effectively manage.
FACULTIES NUMBER OF COURSES
Arts, Education and Human 746 higher education and
Development TAFE courses
Business and Law GENERAL ENQUIRIES
Health, Engineering and PHONE +61 3 9919 4000
Science
INTERNATIONAL
STUDENT ENQUIRIES
Workforce Development
Victoria University
Technical and Trades International
Innovation
PHONE +61 3 9919 1164
and VU College EMAIL international@vu.edu.au
VU Books
Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!)
By Sherryl Clark
Published by Penguin Books.
All the girls want to be style
queens – except Dawn. But
as everything in her life starts
to change, she learns that not
having all the answers isn’t such
a bad thing after all. This verse
novel is about a girl who finds
that nothing can be made to
stay the same forever.
The Slave
By Pauline Montagna
Published by Vanity Press
Aurelia Rubbini, the only child
of a rich merchant in fourteenth
century Italy, has been raised
to be a dutiful daughter, wife
and mother, but she longs for
something more. Then one
day, her father brings home an
Asian slave boy who reshapes
Aurelia’s destiny.
POSTAL ADDRESS
Victoria University
PO Box 14428
Melbourne VIC 8001
WEB
www.vu.edu.au
31
VU ART

ARTIST/STUDENT: Doris Seguna

COURSE: Diploma of Arts (Visual Art)
TITLE: Bourke Street
DATE: 2006
MEDIA: Oil collage on canvas

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