Well that was the Great Gig in the Sky - as Pink Floyd put it when they performed at the Space Ball run by Willy McCarthy back in 1978, in the upstairs ref. Well, that's what it seemed like through the blue haze.
Thanks to Don Church for spinning around and taking these images for posterity.
Tamsin Solomon (Clarke), Maria Dwyer, Tony Fitzgerald, Audrey Mills, Wayne Briscoe, Peter Mann
If you got this far, you have a client waiting so get back to work! In summary:
The Weekend of the 21st July 2019 was the opportunity for the 40th year reunion of those graduates of 1978/9 of the Law Faculty of University of Tasmania to get together and celebrate such things as perseverance, perspicacity, achievement and survival. We hadn't realised that in such elapsed time a large share of our lives had been used up. There were over 30 of the 43 graduates able to reunite and share a Friday afternoon at the faculty, lunch at the Staff Club, and a Reunion dinner at the Astor Grill.
The trigger for my memory was a photo hanging on my office wall, of the students, taken shortly after their last exam in November 1978, and just before we were 'shouted' lunch by the National Bank's University manager, at the Wrest Point Casino. This annual final year celebration lunch was a precursor to our exit into society, and a training ground for learned behaviour under trying conditions.
A year ago (June 2018) I picked the names of those I could remember from the photo, searched the internet for their address, and emailed them a consultative paper on joining in on a reunion, which I promoted for mid 2019.
As was mentioned in the speech by Leigh Sealy SC at the dinner, "we wanted to ask xxx[another former student] to arrange the reunion because we hoped he would, but he declined, and we asked Phillip Kimber because we hoped he would decline, but he agreed"! And so it came to be that I progressed the reunion.
The gathering was not about any one individual, but rather about a sense that we had all been very privileged. In many respects, we were surrounded by exceptionally talented and energetic people. Faculty staff, tutors, later to become professors - and including in their number; Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, John Blackwood, Don Chalmers, Her Excellency Kate Warner, Ken Mackey, Michael Stokes, Michael Tate, Max Atkinson, the great gentleman Michael Scott, Prof Derek Roebuck.
From that year of students, spread throughout Australia, and some back to Island States and other continental countries, we were blessed with opportunity to hone our legal skills and take some of the responsibility for affairs of people and state.
We reflected, at the reunion, on the absence, due to death, of a not insignificant number of our cohort: Brian Dutton, Graham McCabe, Tina Twivey, Dennis McCormack, Libby James. Also, the fragility of life and the expectancy that our number will be less at the 50th reunion in 2029.
Extending over 3 days (ending with brunch at Seagrass restaurant on Sunday 21st July) the mood was festive and reflective, concerned and generous. Genuine concern for the health and personal circumstances of people, in many instances, who had not rekindled friendship for 20, 30 or 40 years.
There is a cohesive bond between past students/graduates of our University. The people as individuals themselves hold the bond, their time together in some intensity over 3 or 4 years, decades ago, having forged it.
We were grateful to hear from the Vice Chancellor Rufus Black about his Council's and his plans for the University, from the Deputy Chancellor Harvey Gibson of his overview of developments and opportunities, and from Dean Tim McCormack of his work in trying times with the Uni Law Library washed away - and the resourcefulness and positive attitude of students and faculty during this last year.
We were left with the clear knowledge our Law Faculty is vibrant and set on a course for another 100 years at least of providing education to enable our citizens the opportunity to contribute to their society. We are grateful for the courtesy and welcoming the present Law School faculty and University administration provided.
Phil Kimber - Years of 1975-78/9
