27 Mar: Vol 25, #2 - UWA News staff magazine - The University of ...

UWAnews 

The University of Western Australia ESTABLISHED 1911 

27 MArCH 2006 Volume 25 Number 2 

Stats 

give 

cancer 

research 

the edge 

A UWA maths graduate who 

has never had any formal 

medical training is leading a 

study which could result in 

early detection of ovarian 

cancer. 

The methods used by Steven 

Skates, Assistant Professor of Medicine 

(Biostatistics) at Harvard Medical 

School, could also be used for early 

detection of mesothelioma. 

Both cancers are usually detected 

in late stages, when prognosis and 

survival rates are very poor. 

Professor Skates is a Raine 

Visiting Professor in the School of 

Medicine and Pharmacology, working 

with Professor Bruce Robinson on 

using biomarkers for early detection, 

which could lead to higher survival 

rates in both ovarian cancer and 

mesothelioma. 

“I was always interested in 

biology, although I had not studied it 

since high school,” Professor Skates 

said. “I also loved maths, but I wanted 

to do something with it, rather than 

just study it for its own sake. Statistics 

provided the perfect opportunity for 

me to use my maths in science and 

medical fi elds,” he said. 

After graduating from UWA, 

Professor Skates went to the 

University of Chicago to do a PhD in 

Assistant Professor Steven Skates: applying his 

statistical edge to mesothelioma research 

statistics. One of his supervisors left Chicago and went to Harvard and Professor 

Skates followed him. “A new position had just come up in the biostatistics group at 

Massachusetts Hospital, just made for me.” 

More than 20 years later, Professor Skates is still there (Massachusetts Hospital 

is one of Harvard Medical School’s fi ve teaching hospitals). One of his fi rst projects 

there was to work on statistical detection of ovarian cancer. 

“I suppose you could say it’s been my life’s work,” he said. “I have worked in 

other areas, but biomarkers and early detection of cancers, particularly ovarian, 

have been my focus for the past decade.” 

He explained that CA 125, a biomarker for ovarian cancer, was discovered in 

the late 1970s. “It was initially approved for monitoring the disease, but my fi rst 

research was to see if it could be used for detection. 

“ It seems that each woman has her own baseline level of this marker, which 

fl uctuates. When it goes signifi cantly above a certain level, it can indicate ovarian 

cancer.” 

When ovarian cancer is detected in its early stages, the 

five year survival rate is more than 90 per cent. When 

it is discovered in late stages (as 75 per cent of ovarian 

cancers are), that survival rate is less than 20 per cent. 

Continued on page 2

2 UWAnews 

Continued from page 1 

Stats give cancer 

research the edge 

“But the problem is, we might 

identify too many false positives, that 

is women with rising CA125 levels for 

reasons other than ovarian cancer. So 

more research is needed before we can 

say yes, this is the defi nitive test for the 

cancer. 

“In the fi ne tuning needed to fi nd 

the balance between identifying too 

many false positives and perfecting 

early detection, statistics can provide 

the edge.” 

Professor Skate is involved in a 

UK-funded 10-year study to determine 

if using biomarkers will decrease 

mortality. 

Meanwhile, the same statistical 

appro a c h c a n b e applied t o 

mesothelioma. Like ovarian cancer, it is 

usually not detected until a late stage 

in the cancer, up to 0 years after the 

patient has had contact with asbestos 

fi bres. 

“If it could be detected fi ve or ten 

years earlier, who knows, it might be 

treatable,” Professor Skate said. 

The UWA mesothelioma group 

hope to use a blood-based biomarker 

called mesothelin as an early indicator 

of the disease. Clinical Professor Bill 

Musk set up a Wittenoom cohort 20 

years ago when the mining town was 

closed. Professor Bruce Robinson sees 

many of the people in this cohort 

each year, taking a blood sample each 

time. Professor Skate said researchers 

could go back a decade or more and 

measure mesothelin levels in those 

blood samples, to see if it could be 

used as an effective marker. 

“Professor Robinson’s group is at 

the same stage, with mesothelioma 

detection, as we were with ovarian cancer, 

in the early 1990s. And they face the same 

challenge as our group does in getting the 

number of false positives for each true 

case identified as low as possible.” 


EDITOR/WRITER Lindy Brophy 

Tel: 6 26 Fax: 6 1192 

Email: lindy.brophy@uwa.edu.au 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Colin Campbell-Fraser 

Tel: 6 29 Fax: 6 1020 

Designed, typeset and printed by 

UniPrint, UWA 

UWAnews online: 

http://uwanews.publishing.uwa.edu.au/ 

Market research is 

a load of rubbish 

Summer School Market 

research students openly 

described their course as 

garbage. 

Sifting through rubbish was an 

unexpected and memorable project for 

them. 

As part of the course, PhD 

candidate Ken Yap and Associate 

Professor Jill Sweeney led an 

observation exercise where Marketing 

Research students collected six rubbish 

bags from homes in the Nedlands 

area. The students were asked to sift 

through the rubbish to identify the 

types of food and drink consumed, then 

make inferences about demographics 

and lifestyles of people living in those 

homes. 

Students were able to distinguish 

household composition, nationalities 

and lifestyles of different residents. 

A/Professor Sweeney said that 

observation research was an easy way 

to collect data, where actual behaviour 

was recorded rather than consumer’s 

intentions. 

“When actual behaviours are 

compared with consumer attitudes 

and intentions, this disparity often 

provides rich insight into consumer 

culture and how marketing 

infl uences it,” she said. 

Observation research methods 

like the use of scanner data, pantry 

audits, and garbageology – the study 

of garbage – are increasingly used in 

conjunction with consumer surveys. 

Decades ago, garbageology revealed 

to the Campbell’s Soup Company 

that blue collar neighbourhoods used 

more canned soup when compared 

with white collar neighbourhoods. 

Campbell’s used this fi nding to revise 

their marketing strategy. 

“The multi-methodology is an 

effective way for students to learn 

research. Rummaging through other 

people’s rubbish is just one of the 

methods used,” Ken Yap said. “But I 

hope I don’t get a call from the Ethics 

Committee about privacy issues – we 

may have just opened a whole can of 

worms”. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA • 27 MARCH 2006


 

SOS call 

from the sandplains 

Our native plants are in 

trouble and UWA is answering 

their call for help. 

A foundation to promote 

conservation of Australian native plants 

is being set up through the Office 

of Development, and the School of 

Plant Biology hosted a colloquium last 

week to enhance awareness of the 

significance of native plants. 

Convenor Professor Hans Lambers 

said that, in whichever direction you 

travel from Perth, you can see our 

native trees in decline. “To the south, 

it’s the Tuart population, to the east it’s 

the Wandoos, in Kings Park, we see the 

Banksias in trouble. 

“We can’t give a quick answer as 

to why they are in decline. That’s why 

we need the foundation to amass some 

research funds, so we can allocate post 

graduate students specific issues, and 

eventually get some answers to the 

questions,” Professor Lambers said. 

“A lot of people are passionate 

about native plants so it should not 

be too difficult to raise some money. 

We already have about half a million 

dollars, which cannot be accessed until 

it reaches a million, but we can use the 

interest to start our research,” he said. 

The Kwongan Colloquium was a 

forum on the native plants in the WA 

sandplains. “Kwongan is the Aboriginal 

word for the low heath you see when 

drive north of Perth, through the 

sandplains,” he explained. 

The one-day forum last week was 

followed by a one-day field trip to the 

Lesueur Botanical District, north of 

Perth, and it attracted a great range of 

people. 

They included representatives from 

Iluka Mining, who need to understand 

how to rehabilitate the sandplains 

when their mining operations are 

finished. There were also landowners 

with rare and endangered species on 

their land, waterwise gardeners from 

local councils and community groups, 

as well as plant and garden consultants 

and operators of plant nurseries which 

specialise in native plants. 

“There was some high level science 

presented at the colloquium, but it also 

catered for private gardeners,” said 

Professor Lambers, who addressed 

the forum on phosphorus toxicity in 

Proteas. Other speakers came from 

UWA and Kings Park and Botanic 

Garden 

The aim was to build stronger links 

between the Plant Biology and Kings 

Park with the conservation and mining 

industry. 

Some of the 

native plants that 

are under threat: 

eucalyptus 

lanepoolei; 

eucalyptus 

macrocarpa; 

banksia and 

hakea 


Vice-Chancellor’s 

column 

EB talks strengthen the 

case against regulation 

The latest round of enterprise 

bargaining at our University, 

the subject of a staff ballot 

this week reinforces the 

value of our inclusive and 

consultative approach to 

complex issues. 

It also highlights the danger in 

making generalisations about the 

industrial relations climate in the 

higher education sector. 

I thank all those staff who 

participated in the latest enterprise 

bargaining process – providing 

feedback or engaging in the 

discussions. 

There is no doubt that recently 

the Federal Government has tied a 

considerable amount of funding to 

adopting very particular, and in some 

cases peculiar, arrangements for 

industrial relations. 

Certainly on the industrial 

relations front, with decreased 

funding per student and increased 

requirements for accountability we 

have seen marked changes in staffing 

within universities. Student to staff 

ratios have increased substantially 

and academic staff are expected to 

take roles additional to teaching 

and research, associated with 

income generation and increased 

accountability. Meanwhile our staff 

are increasingly bogged down in 

compliance activities rather than the 

more meaningful work of supporting 

the academic endeavour. 

Disappointingly, the political 

response to some of these issues has 

been based on ‘myths’ surrounding 

employment within universities. I 

highlighted, and hopefully dispelled, 

some of these myths at a conference 

on higher education last week. One 

of the most prevalent myths is that 

universities are heavily unionised and 

unions have prevented staffing reforms. 

At our University less than 

30 per cent of staff hold union 

membership. In my view, the unions at 

our University have achieved desirable 


outcomes for their members 

while the University has achieved 

improvement in outcomes to meet 

the needs of our communities. 

After all, consistent with our 

mission, our highest priority is 

to recruit, develop and retain the 

highest quality staff. To this end we 

are placing considerable emphasis on 

providing flexible working options 

including university supported childcare, 

an improved career structure 

for academic staff and greater 

security of employment for staff 

employed on external research 

funding. And this is underpinned by a 

leadership framework that includes 

a renewed emphasis on performance 

management. Additionally we have 

not encouraged a large casual 

workforce, believing that we 

cannot expect commitment to the 

University if we do not provide 

commitment to our staff. 

In all this, enterprise bargaining 

can be seen as an exercise to 

maximise the achievement of shared 

institutional goals which will require 

being a model employer. 

That is not to say that everything 

is perfect: we need to increase the 

quality of leadership and management 

at all levels of the university; we 

need to improve the security of 

employment for research staff 

employed on external funding; and 

we need to streamline procedures 

for dealing with misconduct and 

unsatisfactory performance. 

Above all, we need to continue 

to try to convince the Government 

that the sector is more than capable 

of operating successfully without the 

stifling current layer of stringent and 

onerous regulation. 

Alan Robson 

Vice-Chancellor 

Art brightens 

(cyber) space 

An idea to brighten up the 

blank white walls of the 

Computer Science building 

has resulted in a retrospective 

exhibition for campus artist 

Len Zuks. 

Len (pictured with his sculpture, They 

Went Thaddaway) ) is an award-winning 

and prolific sculptor and painter. He 

also works as a tradesman in the 

Facilities Management maintenance 

workshop. 

The new school manager of 

Computer Science and Software 

Engineering, Jay Jay Jegathesan, asked 

Len if he would like to display some of 

his works long-term in the building, and 

Len took the opportunity of making 

some space in his home studio, where 

a lot of work has accumulated over the 

past decade. 

There are now eight paintings and 

six sculptures in the building and there 

may be more. The exhibition is called 

Serendipitous Signposts, as Len says his 

art centres on the ‘accidental discovery 

of ideas’. 

It will be launched by Head of 

School, Dr Nick Spadaccini on Friday 

April 7 at 3pm. Len will then talk about 

his works of art, which include some 

arresting welded metal sculptures and 

some large-scale textural paintings. 


UWAnews 5 

Data is valuable research link 

Professor D’Arcy Holman (far right) gathered together students of medicine and other health professions for the launch of the Centre of 

Excellence by former State Government Minister Dr Judy Edwards late last year. Each student is representing an area of the health system 

where the public has benefi ted already from research supported by the data system 

A local health data linkage system set up ten 

years ago is poised to become a database for 

health research around the world. 

The WA Data Linkage System was developed by a 

coalition of researchers and data managers from UWA, 

Curtin University of Technology, The Telethon Institute for 

Child Health Research and the WA Department of Health. 

The system has already provided the basis for research 

discoveries that have led to enormous community benefi ts 

through new understanding of many medical and surgical 

issues and procedures including deep vein thrombosis, 

improved surgical techniques, improved practices in hospital 

emergency departments, prevention of medication clashes in 

elderly people and physical illness among people with mental 

health conditions. 

Now, the WA Data Linkage System has become the 

Data Linkage Australia Centre of Excellence in Science and 

Innovation, with an injection late last year from the State 

Government of $2 million. 

Professor D’Arcy Holman, chief investigator for Data 

Linkage Australia and Professor of Population Health said that, 

with matching contributions from UWA, Curtin and others, 

the budget for the new Centre was $11 million for the next 

fi ve years. 

It is one of the most innovative health data linkage 

systems in the world and it’s unique information will now be 

available to researchers around the globe. 

More than 50 major health projects have made use of 

WA’s data linkage system since its beginnings in 1995. 

Professor Holman said one of the most important 

achievements of the data linkage system was its revolutionary 

method of stripping patient identifying information from the 

health data. 

“This means that the majority of health and medical 

research projects are now able to be done without the 

researchers having access to any identifying patient details,” 

Professor Holman said. 

“We are as proud of this achievement on patient privacy 

as we are of the contribution the system is making to the 

health of the community.” 

Professor Holman said that the science and technology 

economic sector in WA had already been boosted by the 

Data Linkage System. The out-of-State revenue fl owing into 

WA from research grants between 1995 and June 200 based 

on the use of the system was $5. million. 

The system links statistics about the health status and 

use of health services by the entire WA population, going 

back 5 years. The total historical population (almost four 

million people) can be researched for all major diseases, risk 

factors and outcomes of health care. It is one of only six such 

systems in the world, some say the best of them. 

A Premiers’ 

favourite 

One of the Arts Faculty’s resident authors, 

Gail Jones, has won more prizes for her latest 

novel, Sixty Lights. 

Associate Professor Jones, from the School of Social 

and Cultural Studies, won both the South Australian 

Premier’s Award for Literature and the Award for Fiction. 

This follows the WA Premier’s Book Award for the 

novel last year. 

Since Sixty Lights was published last year, A/Professor 

Jones has held two artist-in-residence positions: one for six 

weeks in an artists’ colony in the US and another, for 10 

weeks in France. So another award-winning novel is sure 

to be on the way. 



Lara’s 

Games 

Earth Science student Lara Carroll scooped a 

bronze medal in the pool in the Commonwealth 

Games. 

Lara (19) competed in the Women’s 200m and 400m 

Individual Medley. She finished with a bronze medal in the 

shorter race after leading in the final 50 metres, but results 

for her 400m race were not known before UWANews went 

to print. 

Science graduate and Olympic heptathlete Kylie Wheeler 

was expected to do well in her gruelling sport but her results 

too were not known as we went to print. 

The UWA Athletics Club also fielded two athletes who 

were not otherwise connected to UWA: Chris Troode, who 

was running a leg of the men’s 4x400m relay on the final day 

of competition; and pole vaulter Vicky Parnov, the 15-year-old 

niece of Western Australian champion pole vaulter Tatiana 

Gregoriava. 

Before she left for Melbourne, Lara Carroll told how ‘cutthroat’ 

the competition was just to get into the swim team. 

“You just couldn’t assume anything, but I had to decide 

last year if I was going to take a semester off study, so I took 

a gamble and withdrew from my courses, and trained six days 

a week to make it into the team,” she said. 

“I was lucky. Adam Lucas is another UWA student and 

a swimmer who competed at Athens. Adam came second in 

two events in the selection trials but his world ranking was 

not quite high enough. It’s so tough for people like him who 

train so hard,” she said. 

Lara, who started competitive swimming at the age of 

11 with a Fremantle club, was swimming for four-and-a-half 

hours a day, in two sessions, and doing three gym sessions a 

week, before she left for Melbourne. 

She said she was looking forward to resuming full-time 

study in second semester. 

Teachers 

go bush 

Life on a station, and the challenge of teaching 

children from kindergarten to Year 10 were eyeopeners 

for students from the Graduate School 

of Education’s field trip late last year. 

The school’s sixth annual trip to the Mid West region 

took 16 pre-service teachers to Meekatharra (School of the 

Air and District High School), Karalundie Aboriginal Education 

Centre, Mount Magnet DHS, Yuin Station, Mullewa DHS, and a 

handful of schools in Geraldton, including a residential college. 

Co-ordinated by Dr Wayne McGowan, Elaine Sharplin 

and Rod Kemp, the trip exposed students, who had already 

expressed an interest in rural education, to six days of 

different experiences, testing their flexibility and adaptability. 

For many, it was their first opportunity to engage with 

Indigenous children and the student teachers said it gave 

them confidence and enthusiasm. 

Recess at Meekatharra District High School 



 

Top portrait reflects 

a mirror finish 

They experienced the home tutoring side of Distance Education at Yuin 

Station, just north of Yalgoo, where they did some hands-on science activities with 

four children. 

At Mount Magnet, one student teacher with an interest in Special Education 

engaged in individual case management of a student. 

Visiting the residential college in Geraldton provided them with an 

understanding of the context for rural students who board away from home. 

“This hands-on experience has been the best education university has ever 

given me,” said one student teacher. Other comments included: “It felt like being 

thrown in at the deep end at times, but I found I can swim quite well” and “The 

trip has made me far more confident to consider rural teaching”. 

The field trip has been supported since its inception by the Mid West 

Education District and was also sponsored this time by the Chamber of Minerals 

and Energy. 

One of the Faculty of Education’s long term benefactors has recently died. 

Beatrice Silk originally donated $2,000 to the University in 1973 to provide 

scholarships for graduate studies in special education outside Australia. Her donation 

was to express her gratitude for scholarship assistance she had received as a student at 

UWA. 

The Beatrice Silk scholarship has been awarded to many GSE students and the 

School and Faculty express their gratitude for Miss Silk’s benevolence. 

Anne Barnetson’s self portrait 

would not have been accepted 

into the competition for the 

Archibald Prize. 

But it was short-listed for a prize 

worth nearly three times the Archibald 

purse, the Doug Moran National 

Portrait Exhibition, with a prize of 

$100,000, making it the richest portrait 

prize in the world. 

The winner was Melbourne artist 

Peter Wegner, a regular entrant in the 

Moran Exhibition, but Anne had the 

satisfaction of being chosen to exhibit 

along with the country’s best artists. 

While the Archibald is restricted 

to portraits of famous or at least 

well-known people, the Doug Moran 

exhibition will accept portraits of 

anybody, as long as they are good 

enough. Anne Barnetson is an Honours 

student in Visual Arts, supervised by 

Jon Tarry. Her works are usually very 

large scale paintings, but her selfportrait, 

done without any intention 

of entering it into a competition, is a 

small black and white acrylic and ink 

creation. 

“I tried to do it in complete 

honesty,” Anne said from the judging 

in Sydney ten days ago. “It looks a bit 

fierce but I guess it’s because I was 

concentrating on getting it right.” 

She said she had painted it at her 

desk, using a mirror, over about two 

weeks. 

Only 30 finalists are selected 

for the exhibition and Anne was the 

only entrant chosen from WA. The 

exhibition, including her self portrait, 

will tour the nation for a year. She 

said the portraits were outstanding 

and she was thrilled to be part of the 

exhibition. 

“It was fantastic to meet all the 

other artists and a real honour to be 

included in the exhibition with them.” 

Anne said she had never won an 

award for her art, but she had been 

chosen to exhibit her work as part 

of the Year 12 Perspectives exhibition 

at the WA Art Gallery, when she 

completed high school. 


Future 

leaders 

get a 

head start 


Inaugural Tunley scholarship winners 

Emma Buss and Michael McCulloch 

are congratulated by Emeritus Professor 

Tunley and the Vice-Chancellor. The other 

two winners, Emma Gilbert and Kathryn 

McKay were on a music camp and unable 

to attend the presentation. 

(Picture: Phillips & Father Photographers) 

The best and brightest of 

nearly 3,000 first year students 

were feted at Winthrop Hall 

earlier this month. 

The UWA-Fogarty Foundation 

Awards and Scholarships night 

rewarded 150 commencing students 

for their excellent academic results and 

their involvement in a range of activities 

including leadership, sport, music and 

service to others. 

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor 

Alan Robson, said the scholarships 

recognised those students who had 

gone one step further in the quest for 

excellence and also the families who 

had supported them. 

“We acknowledge that the 

leaders of tomorrow are the young 

people of today, and celebrate their 

achievements,” Professor Robson said. 

The scholarships include six Vice- 

Chancellor’s Awards of Distinction and 

nine UWA-Fogarty Foundation City 

and Regional Scholarships. Six of these 

were presented to city-based students 

and three to regional students 

who showed significant academic 

potential together with a strong 

sense of community involvement and 

responsibility. 

A UWA Excellence Award went 

to one student from every senior 

high school in the State. Each school 

has the opportunity of nominating a 

high achieving student who may not 

necessarily have met the required 

minium entry score, but is considered 

by the school most likely to achieve at 

tertiary studies. 

Four Group of Eight Equity and 

Merit Scholarships and 20 Diversity 

and Merit Awards were presented 

to outstanding students from diverse 

social and economic backgrounds. 

The inaugural Tunley Music 

Scholarships for four students starting 

an undergraduate music degree at 

UWA recognised Emeritus Professor 

David Tunley’s contribution and 

commitment to the University and to 

music. 

They are for $10,000 each year 

for the duration of a degree in music 

at UWA. 

The lucrative and highly-contested 

Fogarty Foundation City and Regional 

Scholarships cover all fees (including 

residential college for regional winners) 

with $1,000 for books and incidentals. 

They were won by Verity Long- 

Droppert, the 2005 dux of Shenton 

College and daughter of Associate 

Professor Jane Long, Dean of 

Undergraduate Studies; Aquinas College 

graduate Matthew Cowcher, whose 

brother Jeremy won an inaugural 

Fogarty Foundation Scholarship last 

year; Michelle McMullen, who is the 

only Fogarty scholar to study medicine 

this year; Katherine Dellar and Ryan 

Steed, who are both studying arts/law; 

and Harmony Clayton, who is studying 

science. 

The Regional awards went to David 

Scaife of Australind, Grey (Ian) Johnston 

of Gelorup and Rachel Paterson, from 

Busselton. 

Rachel has deferred her scholarship 

and will start at UWA in 2007. 

The prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s 

Awards of Distinction, with a oneoff 

prize of $5,000, went to Laura 

Wisniewski, Shaun Koo, Ciara Stapleton, 

Stuart Macdougall, Dustin Stuart and 

Madhu Bhamidipaty, who was runnerup 

for the Beazley Medal. 

Not always 



 

Webcorner 

University websites are frequently being created, refined, 

replaced and updated. When we hear of a new one, we 

will let you know. 

If you are launching a new website or changing an 

existing one, let us know (lindy.brophy@uwa.edu.au) and 

we will let our readers know too. 

The Library has a new website 

and online services ready for 

the new academic year. 

CygNET Online has been retired 

to make way for a new Library Web 

site, offering many new services. 

SuperSearch is a new way to 

discover and search infor-mation 

resources. SuperSearch replaces the 

Information Toolbox, and is an excellent 

place to begin your research. 

The majority of the Library’s online 

databases are “metasearchable”. This 

means that you are able to select up 

to ten resources to include in one 

simultaneous search. SuperSearch will 

gather the results and present them to 

you in a unified list, ranked according 

to relevance. 

SuperSearch does more than just 

search. You can: 

• Bookmark your favourite resources 

• Personalize your resource list into 

search sets 

• Save your favourite searches 

• Set up automatic searches with 

email alerts 

Find it @ UWA is another new 

service the Library has introduced that 

will take the guesswork out of locating 

the full text you need. 

Find it @ UWA utilises Open URL 

technology to build the bridge between 

a citation to an article and the article 

itself. 

The Find it @ UWA button 

appears beside an article’s citation. 

Clicking this button will display a menu 

smooth sailing for top students 

James McNamara, who has a combined Arts/Law degree, was 

offered a place at Oxford to pursue his literature passion, 

before he had completed his Law studies. 

But he didn’t have any luck attracting funding, so he returned to UWA (and 

Melbourne University) to finish his Law degree. 

He was then offered places at both Cambridge and Oxford, but the 

scholarship application process was again long and painful and he had almost 

given up when, two weeks before the beginning of first term last year, he was 

made a full Clarendon Scholar (Oxford’s scholarship for overseas students). 

His DPhil at Oxford concentrates on poetry and poetics. “I am examining the 

transfer from science to art and poetry of a concept explored by classical and 

Renaissance anatomists,” James said. 

His love of literature was fuelled by what he describes as “a brilliant Honours 

program” where he worked with Professor Chris Wortham, Dr Brenda Walker 

and Dr Kieran Dolin. 

During both his Arts and Law studies, James was heavily involved in the 

University Dramatic Society and spent many hours rehearsing and performing in 

the Dolphin Theatre. 

When he completes his DPhil at Oxford he intends to practise Law as a 

barrister for a few years. “But ultimately, I hope to work as a writer, producer and 

director in film and television,” he said. 

In the meantime, James is rowing for his college’s first VIII and planning to 

become involved in the Oxford drama scene later this year. 

with all of the options available to you 

for obtaining the full text. These options 

include a direct link to the full text if 

the library subscribes to it, a link to 

search the Library catalogue to check 

if we own the article in print form, 

or a link to the Library’s Document 

Delivery service if we don’t own it. You 

may even see a link to download the 

citation to your EndNote library. These 

are just some of the services on offer 

from the Find it @ UWA menu. 

The School of Computer 

S c i e n c e a n d S o f t w a r e 

Engineering has an intriguing 

new website called Awesome 

Animations. 

It displays a lot of the creations of 

the school’s staff and graduate students 

(see above). If you’d like to see their 

work, go to www.csee.uwa.edu.au/files/ 

index.php 

“We are using the website as a 

marketing tool, to expose to potential 

students the range of activities 

carried out by those involved in 

computer science and to enthuse 

young Australians to study the science 

subjects,” said Jay Jay Jegathesan, CCSE 

School Manager. “During school visits, I 

challenge students to someday submit 

an awesome animation to us, and 

the same challenge will be issued to 

students studying here.” 

The School thanks Ryan for the 

hard work he put into setting up 

the site and all the creators of the 

animations: Jason, Nick, Ajmal, Tzu Yen, 

Chih and their supervisors Amitava, 

Mohammed, Gordon, Robyn and Peter. 

If you have any awesome animations 

you would like to add to the site, please 

send them to webcontent@csse.uwa. 

edu.au 



First Chinese 

student exchange 

Dr Bruce Mackintosh welcomes new students Chen Lei and Chen Cheng, picture with 

Professor Qui Jizhen, who came to UWA to settle them in 

While UWA exchange students 

battle snowy conditions at 

Zhejiang University in China, 

two Chinese students from 

Zhejiang are learning to live 

with a late summer heat 

wave. 

The two students, Mr Chen Lei and 

Ms Chen Cheng, were among guests at 

an afternoon tea to welcome them 

along with Professor Qiu Jizhen, Senior 

Advisor to the International College of 

Zhejiang University and Ms Zhou Yan of 

the International College. 

Dr Bruce Mackintosh, Director of 

UWA’s International Centre, was on 

hand to welcome the visitors and to 

celebrate the flowering of a relationship 

between UWA and Zhejiang, the seeds 

of which were planted back in 1995. 

Dr Mackintosh said the links 

between the two institutions 

strengthened after a group from 

Zhejiang, led by Professor Qiu, who 

was then Director of the International 

College, visited UWA in 2001. It was 

further cemented following the 2004 

UWA science mission to China led 

by Professor George Stewart, Dean 

of the Faculty of Life and Physical 

Sciences, and Mr Ken Robertson, 

Associate Dean of the Business School 

Student Centre. 

In that same year, Dr Gary Sigley, 

a Lecturer in Chinese in Asian Studies, 

also visited Zhejiang and confirmed 

that it had a very good Chinese 

language program that would meet the 

needs of UWA students. Scholarships 

were then created to assure that 

student exchanges between the two 

universities could happen. 

“Today we’re delighted to have the 

first genuine exchange with a Chinese 

university,” said Professor Mackintosh. 

Professor Qiu responded, saying 

that the Chinese students were happy 

to be here and she was grateful that 

UWA was taking such good care of 

them. 

“The staff of the International 

College in my university are also 

looking after your students. We hope 

they will be happy and healthy and will 

have a good impression of China.” 

Zhejiang University is UWA’s 

partner in the newly-established 

Confucius Institute which aims to 

spread knowledge of China’s language 

and culture. 

Bright ideas at 

by Emma Lyons 

UWA is soon to hold its annual Perth Sun 

Fair that will see the Oak Lawn turned into 

a dynamic environment in which visitors can 

explore concepts of renewable energy and 

sustainable living. 

The vision of physicist Jonathon Thwaites of the 

Alternative Technology Association (ATA), it is the third fair of 

its kind and will run from 9am to 5 pm on Sunday April 9. 

The Minister for Government Enterprises, Eric Ripper 

MLA, approved a grant of $20,000 to the ATA for the fair. 

It is one of several projects undertaken by Mr 

Thwaites in the name of sustainable energy and 

its promotion. He has also installed a solar power 

station at UWA, he runs biodiesel workshops and 

has installed a solar power system to his home. 

“The Perth Sun Fair is the most ambitious of my 

projects. The intention is that it becomes a focus for the 

large diversity of sustainability groups and related businesses 

in Western Australia,” he said. 

The fair will host an eclectic mix of roaming theatre 

entertainment and trade displays, government and 

corporate initiatives, seminars, children’s craft activities and 

demonstrations of solar cooking. The idea of the fair is to 

bring people together to exchange awareness and knowledge 

about ways in which we can build towards preserving the 

planet and its ecosystems. 

For more information regarding any aspect of the fair, log 

onto www.sustainability.fm.uwa.edu.au or email inquiries to 

Leonie Wight at perthsunfair@globaldial.com . 


Tip for IWD 

Follow your 

mother’s advice 

“Roses are red 

Violets are blue 

But always paddle your own canoe” 


… wrote Gaye Mc Math’s mother 

in her daughter’s autograph book, when 

the Executive Director of Finance and 

Resources was a young girl. 

It was a philosophy that stuck with 

Ms McMath, who, on leaving school, 

took the ‘radical’ decision to leave her 

rural community and go to university 

in Melbourne, rather than stay home, 

stock her glory box and plan a wedding. 

Ms McMath (pictured) told the 

story of her working life to University 

staff gathered in the Tropical Grove 

to celebrate International Women’s 

Day. Each year a female staff member’s 

achievements are highlighted. 

Ms McMath told of her 23 years 

with BHP Billiton, after graduating 

with a Bachelor of Commerce from 

the University of Melbourne. She said 

she was the only female commercial 

trainee at the mining company, and very 

often the only woman at meetings and 

conferences. 

“But I loved going to work — I 

felt valued — although I think I overcompensated, 

for being a woman, by 

working too hard.” 

She moved to the higher education 

sector five years ago “because I could. 

I was financially secure, I wasn’t the 

sole breadwinner for my family, I could 

afford a 50 per cent drop in salary, 

and I liked the idea of working for a 

not-for-profit institution where social, 

environmental and cultural issues were 

important.” 

She said a gender-balanced 

workforce, a philosophy of work-life 

balance that was put into practice and 

greater flexibility were all changes 

in her working life that she has 

appreciated over the past two years at 

UWA. 

Ms McMath is an active member 

or director of 10 different boards 

and trusts while, at UWA, she takes 

responsibility for Human Resources, 

Financial Services, Facilities Management 

and Information Management Services. 

Not so paltry funding for 

chicken research in Turkey 

Working with poultry in 

Turkey might sound like 

courting disaster, but PhD student Ahmed Ali 

says he runs a greater risk of being injured by a 

‘crazy’ bus driver than contracting bird flu. 

“I know of several research labs in Turkey where they are 

working with chickens, and everything is fine,” Ahmed said. “I 

don’t think it should affect my work at all.” 

Ahmed, a graduate research student of Dr Ian Williams 

(Animal Biology), was phoned at home by the then Minister 

for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, just before Christmas, to 

tell him that he had won an Endeavour Award. 

These awards are to strengthen the links between the 

people of Turkey and Australia and symbolise the mutual 

significance of the Gallipoli experience to our national 

identities and histories. Endeavour Postgraduate Awards and 

Endeavour Research Fellowships go to Australians for study in 

Turkey and for students from Turkey to work in Australia. 

Ahmed’s family is originally from Turkey, but he migrated 

here from northern Iraq 10 years ago. He completed a 

Master of Science in 1998 and has been working as a graduate 

research assistant with the Rural Industries Research and 

Development Corporation. 

His PhD research is working towards commercialising 

an enzyme which will benefit the poultry industry of both 

countries. 

“It will replace the recently banned growth-promoting 

antibiotics for poultry. I looked around to find the company 

which could most cheaply produce the multi-enzyme 

preparation, and came up with a company in Turkey. It is 

much less expensive than companies in Europe like Roche in 

Switzerland,” Ahmed said. 

He will carry out invitro (laboratory) experiments at 

Ankara University, to test its efficiency. If it is successful, he 

will then do in vitro (with live birds) experiments at Cukurova 

University in Adana, in the south of Turkey. 

Ahmed plans to introduce the enzyme to lupins as feed 

for poultry, which will not only benefit the poultry industry 

but also the lupin industry. Western Australia is the biggest 

lupin grower in the world. 

Ahmed’s scholarship is for $40,000 and he expects to be 

working in Turkey for about nine months. “That is, if I survive 

the crazy bus drivers!” he said. 



Creating links to 

peace and justice … 

… or just to a new friend 

For the third consecutive year, 

Student Services’ Link Week has 

helped commencing students find their way, find 

a friend and find their self-confidence. 

It began with a festival on the Oak Lawn with a South 

American band, free barbecue and popcorn, a bouncy castle, 

information booths and the raffl e of a bicycle. 

A new activity this year was an Open Space forum, run by 

Anglican chaplain Michael Wood. 

Open Space is a self-organising process that is a simple 

and inclusive way to run a meeting for any number of people 

from a handful to more than a thousand. It was developed by 

US management consultant Harrison Owen about 20 years 

ago and has been used successfully all over the world. 

Rev Wood explained that Owen had observed native 

communities at a village meeting, where everybody sat in a 

circle and there was no hierarchy. 

“He also observed that the best discussions at 

conferences were around the coffee machine,” Rev Wood 

said, “and he wanted to optimise these principles into a 

process that would work for any meeting or discussion.” 

The idea is that a topic for discussion is set, but no 

agenda is drawn up. The people who come devise their 

own agenda by identifying which issue they feel passionate 

about. Participants join in whatever discussion they are most 

LEFT: Free food brought fi rst years in droves to 

the Oak Lawn for the Link Week festival 

TOP: Still kids at heart 

ABOVE: An Open Space discussion group 

interested in. They can move from one group to another. 

Some discussions may last only 10 minutes, others might go 

for an hour: there are no limits set. 

“It is a process that runs on the energy and commitment 

of those who care enough to show up,” Rev Wood said. His 

forum had the theme Link up for Peace and asked potential 

participants if they were interested in creating a positive 

agenda for peace and justice. 

“I was expecting some people would turn up simply 

because they had heard of Open Space and wanted to see 

it in action, while others would come because they were 

committed to peace and justice,” he said. 

Open Space creator, Harrison Owen said: “The art of 

the question lies in saying just enough to evoke attention 

while leaving suffi cient open space for the imagination to 

run wild.” 

Michael Wood has trained as an Open Space convenor and 

has run up to 25 groups. He said the Link Week forum had a 

good spirit and had laid some foundations for like-minded 

people (both staff and students) on campus. 



Grain partner sows 

scholarship seeds 

Institute of 

Advanced 

Studies 

Upcoming events 

TERRORISM 

Historical and 

contemporary 

perspectives 

CBH chairman Tony Chritch and Professor Robson sign the agreement 

by Trea Wiltshire 

UWA has long-standing links 

with industry across vital 

areas such as mining and 

agriculture that power the 

State’s economy . 

And those links are constantly 

being strengthened. At a recent 

ceremony that created a new UWAindustry 

partnership, Professor Alan 

Robson, an agricultural scientist before 

he assumed the helm of this researchintensive 

university, admitted to being 

particularly proud of the University’s 

strong links with agriculture. 

“We have a wonderful relationship 

with the grains industry in particular,” 

the Vice-Chancellor said. “At present, 

the University receives significant 

levels of funding from the Grains 

Research Development Corporation 

which has enabled us to do much 

valuable research with the agricultural 

community. 

“We want the university to 

continue developing partnerships with 

industry. Whereas once we sat waiting 

for the world to come to us, now we 

know it is up to us to get out there and 

develop these links.” 

The partnership being celebrated 

at the Vice-Chancellery in early 

February was with the CBH Group 

which has joined the University in 

offering nine academic scholarships for 

postgraduate students in the Faculty 

of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. 

Two honours and one PhD scholarship 

came into being with the signing of this 

agreement. 

The company’s Group Chairman, 

Mr Tony Critch, said that the creation 

of the scholarships would help CBH to 

achieve its goal of becoming Australia’s 

leading agribusiness. “This relationship 

with UWA gives us a head start in 

achieving this. The grain industry is 

dynamic but it works on thin margins. 

Today CBH stores about 40 per cent 

of Australia’s grain and operates four 

world class ports. We need to stay 

ahead of the game and to do that 

we need top quality research and 

development– and we know this 

partnership will deliver that to the 

company in the form of a highly skilled 

intellectual base for the future.” 

Professor Kadambot Siddique, 

head of UWA’s Centre for Legumes 

in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), 

said that in the last decade, Western 

Australia’s grain production had 

doubled. 

“At one stage we were saying: ‘If 

we could get up to 10 million tonnes, 

it would be great!’ Then we got to 

15 million and by 2025 it could be 

20 million. But we need scholarships 

like these to achieve that,” Professor 

Siddique said. 

“Already Australia faces a shortage 

of well trained scientists. We have an 

obligation to train a new generation 

of agricultural scientists and this 

partnership is a significant step in the 

right direction.” 

The Institute of Advanced Studies 

and the History Discipline at 

UWA present a series of ten 

public lectures attached to a new 

History Honours seminar. The 

series aims to present a context for 

contemporary terrorism by inviting 

lectures from scholars working 

on historical and contemporary 

terrorism movements. The lectures 

are open to all with an interest 

in political and social movements 

and their methodologies and 

repercussions. 

Wednesdays at 6pm at Geography 

Lecture theatre 1, UWA 

March 29 

Professor Richard Bosworth 

History, UWA 

1970s Terrorism: 

Italian Style 

April 5 

Dr Robert Gerwarth 

Oxford University 

White Revolutionaries: 

Paramilitary Violence and 

Terrorism in Interwar 

Central Europe 

April 12 

Dr Robert Gerwarth 

Oxford University 

“It’s better to burn a 

department store”: 

The Baader-Meinhoff Gang 

Enquiries: 

Institute of Advanced Studies 

on (08) 6488 1340 or 

ias@admin.uwa.edu.au; 

www.ias.uwa.edu.au 



RESEARCH 

grants & 

contracts 

AO Research 

Foundation 

(Switzerland) 

Dr Luis Filgueira, A/Prof R 

Zellweger, Anatomy and Human 

Biology, External: ‘Immune Reactivity 

A g a i n s t O r t h o p a e d i c M e t a l 

Implants’—$123,250 (2006-07) 

ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION OF 

AUSTRALIA 

Dr David Burgner, Paediatrics and 

Child Health: ‘Host Genetics and 

Kawasaki Disease’—$15,000 (2006) 

AUSTRALIAN FLORA 

FOUNDATION INC 

Dr Matthew Denton, Dr Megan 

Ryan, Plant Biology: ‘Harnessing 

Native Fabaceae for Agriculture 

- The Importance of Mycorrhizal 

Fungi’—$10,856 (2006-07) 

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH 

COUNCIL LINKAGE, 

AGRICULTURE WESTERN 

AUSTRALIA, 

A/Prof Martin Barbetti, Prof 

Krishnapilla Sivasithamparam, 

Plant Biology, Earth and Geographical 

Sciences: ‘Race Status, Resistance 

Mechanisms, and New Sources 

of Resistance to Phytophthora 

Clandestina, a Major Threat to 

Subterranean Clover Production’— 

$284,792 (2005-08) 

A/Prof Martin Barbetti, Mr 

Dennis Phillips, Prof Krishnapilla 

Sivasithamparam, Dr R Jones, 

Plant Biology, Centre for Legumes 

in Mediterrane1an Agriculture, Earth 

and Geographical Sciences, External: 

‘Detection and Control of Big-Vein 

Disease in Lettuce Seedlings Sold as 

Transplants from Vegetable Seedling 

Nurseries’—$135,396 (2005-08) 

Deadline for the 

next issue of 

UWAnews is 

Wednesday 

March 29 

This is published 

Monday April 10 

REDUNDANT EQUIPMENT 



AGRICULTURE WESTERN 

AUSTRALIA, COUNCIL 

OF GRAIN GROWERS 

ORGANISATION 

Prof Kadambot Siddique , 

A / P ro f Jo h n Ku o, D r T 

Khan, Centre for Legumes in 

Mediterranean Agriculture, Centre 

for Microscopy and Microanalysis, 

External: ‘Accelerating the Genetic 

Improvement of Grain Legumes for 

Australia by Developing Doubled 

Haploid Technology for Field Pea and 

Chickpea’—$625,378 (2005-09) 


COUNCIL LINKAGE,Biota 

Environmental Sciences 

Pty Ltd 

Dr Catherine Arrese, Prof 

Lynda Beazley, Dr N Hart, 

Prof D Hunt, Animal Biology, 

External: ‘Colour Vision in Birds: 

Consequences to Fatal Collisions 

with Wind Farms’—$119,790 (2005- 

08) 

AUSTRALIAN 

RESEARCH COUNCIL 

LINKAGE,Chemistry 

Centre,WA DEPARTMENT 

OF ENVIRONMENT 

M r Pe t e r Fr a n k l i n , P ro f 

J Spickett, Dr S Stick, Prof 

Nicholas De Klerk, Paediatrics and 

Child Health, External, UWA Centre 

for Child Health Research: ‘Domestic 

Air Quality: Towards the Setting of 

Guidelines’—$475,840 (2005-07) 



HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF 

WA, LEONORA GWALIA 

HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 

SHIRE OF LEONORA, STATE 

LIBRARY OF WA (J S Battye 

Library of WA History) 

Dr Pamela Sharpe, Dr P 

Bertola, Ms Criena Fitzgerald, 

Humanities, External: ‘Family and 

Working Life in the North Eastern 

Goldfields: A Social History of 

Gwalia and Leonora (WA) 1890- 

1990’—$323,349 (2005-08) 



Woodside Australian 

Energy 

Dr Conleth O’Loughlin, Prof 

Mark Randolph, Mr Paul 

Hefer, Centre for Offshore 

Foundation Systems, Civil and 

Resource Engineering, External: 

‘Deep Penetrating Anchors - A Cost 

Effective Anchoring Solution for 

Mooring Oil and Gas Facilities in 

Deep Water’—$157,444 (2005-08) 

CANCER COUNCIL OF WA 

Prof Peter Leedman, Prof 

George Yeoh, Prof John Olynyk, 

A/Prof Lawrence Abraham, 

Prof Svend Klinken, Dr Richard 

Lake, Prof Ursula Kees, Dr B 

Dix, Dr W Green, UWA Centre 

for Medical Research, External: 

‘Cellscreen Equipment Grant’— 

$222,675 (2005) 

Dr Nikolajs Zeps, Dr Adrian 

Charles, Surgery and Pathology, 

Paediatrics and Child Health: 

‘Purchase of a Digital Microscope 

for Virtual Microscopy Services in 

Cancer Research’—$280,000 (2006) 

A/Prof P Hart, Dr John Finlay- 

Jones, UWA Centre for Child 

Health Research, External, Paediatrics 

and Child Health: ‘Regulatory T Cells 

and Modulation by Ultraviolet B 

Radiation of both Type 1 and Type 

2 Immune Responses’—$55,000 

(2006-08) 

Dr Richard Lake, Prof Bruce 

R o b i n s o n , M e d i c i n e a n d 

Pharmacology: ‘Immunotherapy 

and Chemotherapy: A Practical 

Partnership the Treatment of 

Cancer’—$35,000 (2006-08) 

CHANNEL 7 TELETHON 

TRUST 

Prof Peter Le Souef, A/Prof J 

Goldblatt, Paediatrics and Child 

Health: ‘Genetic Determinants of 

Measles Vaccine Failure’—$47,889 

(2005) 

Charlies Alumni 

Dr Jean Chetkovich, Humanities: 

‘Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital 

History’—$95,000 (2006-07) 

CLIVE AND VERA 

RAMACIOTTI FOUNDATION 

Dr Jennifer Pillow, Women’s 

and Infants’ Health: ‘Influence of 

Ventilation Strategy and Lung Disease 

on Patterns of Air Distribution in the 

Preterm Lung’—$30,000 (2005) 

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN 

AFFAIRS AND TRADE: ACIAR 

Prof Clive Francis, Centre 

for Legumes in Mediterranean 

A g r i c u l t u re : ‘ P l a n t G e n e t i c 

Conservation Documentation and 

Utilisation in Central Asia and the 

Caucasus’—$49,650 (2004-06) 

Foster Care Association 

of WA 

A/Prof Michael Clare, Social and 

Cultural Studies: ‘The Impact of 

Fostering on the Children of Foster 

Carers’—$45,087 (2006) 

GlaxoSmithKline 

Prof Gerald Watts, Dr Gerard 

Chew, Prof Timothy Davis, Dr 

P Currie, Dr B Stuckey, Medicine 

and Pharmacology, External: ‘GSK 

Support Grant: Potential Mechanisms 

for the Effect of Central Adiposity on 

Early Diastolic Dysfunction in Type 2 

Diabetes’—$25,000 (2006-07) 

LAND AND WATER 

AUSTRALIA 

Dr Richard Silberstein, Centre 

for Plant Based Management of 

Dryland Salinity, External: ‘SGSL 

Salt and Water Movement from 

Saltland Pastures - Integrating the 

Information from the SGSL National 

Research Sites’—$90,133 (2005-06) 

MEAT AND LIVESTOCK 

AUSTRALIA (MLA) 

Prof Graeme Martin, Animal 

Biology: ‘LambMax Australia - 

Towards the Future of Australian 

Lamb Production’—$595,628 (2005- 

08) 

MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY 

ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 

Dr Manfred Beilharz, Biomedical, 

Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences: 

‘Peripheral Tolerance, Regulatory 

T Cells and Myoblast Transfer 

Therapy’—$300,000 (2005-08) 

NATIONAL HEART 

FOUNDATION 

Dr Chi (Dick) Chan, Prof Gerald 

Watts, A/Prof Peter Barrett, 

Medicine and Pharmacology: ‘A 

Pharmacogenomic Approach to 

Regulating Lipoprotein Metabolism in 

Obesity: Effect of Weight Reduction 

and Inhibition of Cholesterol 

Absorption’—$119,950 (2006-07) 

A/Prof Kevin Croft, Dr Jonathan 

Hodgson, Prof Ian Puddey, 

Medicine and Pharmacolog y: 

‘ A n t i a t h e r o g e n i c D i e t a r y 

Polyphenols’—$120,873 (2006-07) 

A/Prof Joseph Hung, Dr 

Elizabeth Davis, Prof Matthew 

Knuiman, Dr Peter Thompson, 

Medicine and Pharmacolog y, 

Population Health, Paediatrics and 

Child Health: ‘Adolescent Obesity, 

Metabolic Syndrome, Adiponectin 

and Cardiovascular Risk’—$121,495 

(2006-07) 

Dr Trevor Mori, Dr Anne Barden, 

Dr Peter Henry, A/Prof Kevin 

Croft, Medicine and Pharmacology: 

‘Novel Lipid Oxidation Products as 

Markers of In Vivo Oxidant Stress 

and Pathophysiological Mediators of 

Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular 

Disease’—$119,800 (2006-07) 

NHMRC TRAINING 

FELLOWSHIPS 

Dr D Ng, Biomedical, Biomolecular 

and Chemical Sciences, External: 

‘Characterising Intracellular 

Bids should be accepted by Monday April 10 with schools to have first option 

ITEM PRICE AGE COND SECTION CONTACT 

1 x PC PIV/1.6/256/20Gb/Rom/Zip $200 4 2 Economics Glenys Ext: 2920 

3x IBM Notebook A30 $300 3.5 2 Rural Clinical School dino.reinadi@uwa.edu.au or pauline.jackson@uwa.edu.au 

4x IBM Notebook A30 $400 3.5 2 Rural Clinical School dino.reinadi@uwa.edu.au or pauline.jackson@uwa.edu.au 

4x IBM Notebook A31 $450 3 2 Rural Clinical School dino.reinadi@uwa.edu.au or pauline.jackson@uwa.edu.au 

CONDITION refers to the general condition of item (1 = as new, 2 = good, 3 = serviceable, 4 = unserviceabe). AGE refers to the nearest year. 

Schools are reminded that all university equipment available for sale must be advertised in the UWAnews. Receipts should be PeopleSoft account coded 490 

(computing with barcode), 491 (non-computing with barcode) or 493 (items with no barcode). If equipment has an existing barcode please contact extension 

3618/2546 for details. 



RESEARCH 

grants & 

contracts 

Signalling Mechanism Involved in the 

Progression of Cardiac Hypertrophy 

and Failure: Involvement of JAK/STAT 

and MAPK Pathways’(2006-09) 

NHMRC: EQUIPMENT 

GRANTS 

Dr Mariapia Degli-Esposti, Dr 

Wallace Langdon, Prof Piroska 

Rakoczy, Prof Ian Constable, 

Dr Anthony Scalzo, Dr Marie 

Bogoyevitch, Dr Chooi-May 

Lai, Dr Christine Thien, Centre 

for Ophthalmology and Visual 

Science, Biomedical, Biomolecular 

and Chemical Sciences, Surgery and 

Pathology: ‘NHMRC Equipment 

Grant - Beckman Coulter Optima 

L-90K Ultracentrifuge and Rotors’— 

$138,450 (2005) 

Dr Karin Eidne, UWA Centre 

for Medical Research: ‘NHMRC - 

Equipment Grant - Victor Light Plate 

Reader with Injectors’—$36,200 (2005 

UWA RESEARCH GRANTS 

SCHEME 

Ms Margaret Giles, Centre for 

Labour Market Research: ‘Speed Limits 

or Speeding Targets: Driver Speed 

Compliance 2003’—$12,500 (2006) 

Mr Jason Berry, Human Movement 

and Exercise Science: ‘An Investigation 

into a Multi-Method Approach for 

the Assessment of Player’s Tactical 

Decision-Making Skill in a Team Invasion 

Sport’—$9,000 (2006) 

Dr Louise Winteringham, 

UWA Centre for Medical Research: 

‘Characterisation of the Novel 

Oncogene MLF1’—$9,000 (2006) 

STAFF ADS 

Classified advertising is free to 

all university staff. To place your 

advertisement, please email: 

staffads@uwa.edu.au 

FOR SALE 

COMPUTER: P3 866 MHZ, 20 gig 

drive, 256 MB memory. Includes 

antivirus program, office, Windows 

2000 etc. $150.00 Contact: Vicky Ext 

3904 

DAIHATSU TERIOS 2002, 4wd, 

Manual, Air, Power/T, Dual Air bag, 

CD player, Electric Mirrors, only 

62,000km. Under warranty until 2008, 

Excellent condition. If you need more 

information please call 0404041298 or 

after hours 93837424 

SCOOTER Vmoto Milan 50cc Red 

2006, brand new, never ridden, licensed 

for 6 months. Ccst $1,990 new. Sell 

$1,700. Also available brand new 

THH helmet $80. Contact Chris at: 

canitbe@cyllene.uwa.edu.au or Rey 

on: 9470 4776 (after 5pm). 

Simpson electric WALL OVEN. 

Simpson gas COOKTOOP. Omega 

retractable RANGEHOOD (this 

item brand new), all white. All 

in good condition and excellent 

working order. $300 ono. Contact 

Dianne on ext 3396 or dbettis@ 

science.uwa.edu.au 

STAFF ADS 

Antique CHINA CABINET, mahogany, 

glass door, full length mirror inside 

back. $400. Contact Dianne on ext 

3396 or dbettis@science.uwa.edu.au 

PAJERO 1989 V6 auto, b-bar, t-bar, s- 

steps, power steering, air conditioning, 

serviced, new timing belt, 226,000km. 

$5,000 ono. Contact Brian on 0439 

924 898. 

FOR RENT 

DUNSBOROUGH: Holiday beach 

house on large block opposite the 

beach. Fully fitted with all amenities for 

6 people. Large living areas including 

games room with full sized billiard 

table. Available for rental over Easter 

- minimum 3 nights. Contact Diana 

on 9293 3035 or rosebush@westnet. 

com.au 

MOSMAN PARK: 2 bedroom unit 

with large balcony in secure complex 

with under cover carpark and pool 

(unit includes fridge and microwave). 

Overlooking Rottnest Island, short 

walk to bus, train and beach. Easy to 

get to UWA, Perth and Freo. Prefer 

long term lease but will consider short 

term. Available from 1 May 2006. Email: 

Claudia.Hartig@uwa.edu.au or phone 

3531 

NEDLANDS: Large family house (4 

bedrooms, study, family room etc.), fully 

furnished. Available from 26th March 

to 12th July, 2006. Contact: David 

Andrich on 9360 2245 (w) 9386 7354 

(h). Please leave a message if no one 

answers. 

PERTH CITY: Brand spanking new 2 

double bedrooms 2 bathrooms top 

floor apartment is available April. The 

apartment is in a small complex with 

academics and professionals as your 

neighbours. Walk or take the free CAT 

bus to shops, restaurants, galleries, 

theatres, cinemas, parks. The apartment 

is fitted with intelligent wiring, security, 

ducted air conditioning, noise insulation 

features, dishwasher and clothes dryer, 

1 undercover secure car bay and plenty 

of storage! Contact Lea on: ltowler@ 

uwa.edu.au or 0412 670 332. 

Margaret River: Holiday rental 

property. Apartment 3 is a new and 

stylish apartment right in the centre of 

town with a beautiful rooftop outlook 

to the forest and a very relaxed, holiday 

feel. The Apartment is beautifully 

designed to take maximum advantage 

of the winter sun and is fully furnished. 

Two bedrooms, two bathrooms one 

with SPA, two balconies, all linen, coffee 

and tea provided. Call Danni on 0400 

731 365 

WANTED 

Soccer Players turning 35 or 

over, for 11-a-side Wembley Downs 

Veterans Team. Matches Sunday, 

training Wednesday at Butlers Reserve. 

Contact Michael Tobar Ext 3443 or 

mike@physics.uwa.edu.au 

ACCOMMODATION: Mature 

Danish postgraduate student 

(formerly teacher) and husband 

(retired) currently studying at Danish 

University of Education seeks furnished 

accommodation 2 bedrooms in quiet 

residential area close to UWA from 

July 2006 to February (possibly June 

2007). Rental max. $250/week. Contact 

sarah@sarahrobinson.dk 

UniPrint is UWA’s 

centre for quality 

COLOUR digital printing 

We can print on a wide range of stock, from paper 

to card weight. Prices to Faculties, Schools and 

Administration start at just 35c for an A4 colour print. 

Send us your pdf file and we will look after the rest. 

We can also design your document for you. 

Need a quick turn around 

Let us know. We will deliver 

within 24 hours if needed! 

NOTICES 

Contact Ray Horn on 6488 8790 

to discuss all your printing needs. 

Email uniprintjobs@admin.uwa.edu.au 

Website www.uniprint.uwa.edu.au 

Friends of The University of Western Australia Library 

Wednesday 5 April 2006 at 7:30pm 

A4 colour 

copies 

from 35c 

Library Meeting Room, Reid Library, The University of Western Australia 

Emeritus Professor David Tunley 

“Early Music-Broadcasting in Australia” 

This talk will trace the beginnings of radio in Australia and examine how, 

through first the Australian Broadcasting Company and then through the 

Australian Broadcasting Commission, music in our country entered a new 

and exciting phase. It will touch upon the development of studio orchestras, 

the encouragement of Australian composers and performers in the 1930s and 

describe some of the personalities who shared a vision of modern musical 

Australia that we enjoy today. 

About the Speaker 

Emeritus Professor David Tunley enjoys an international reputation primarily 

through his books and articles on French music from the 17th to the 19th 

century. However, his research and publications also include the field of 

Australian music and music education. Australian Composition in the Twentieth 

Century (OUP, 1980) to which he contributed and edited with Frank 

Callaway, remains the one book to cover this topic. He has just completed 

the typescript of a biography of the Australian pianist/composer/broadcaster 

William James from which he will draw his material for the above talk. 

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the 

Last Word 

Associate Professor Andrew Page and 

PhD student Elizabeth Newnham School of Psychology 

Our Apollo 13 … exploring collaboration 

In the film Apollo 13, the astronauts need 

to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere without 

exhausting the remaining electrical power. 

The solution requires NASA scientists to 

research ways to address the problems so the 

astronauts can return safely. As such, the film is 

a testimony to collaboration. 

In a similar way, leading universities continue to facilitate 

collaboration between themselves and key stakeholders on 

issues relevant to the wider community. In so doing, there 

is an explicit recognition that coordinated action between 

alliance partners can achieve what neither alone could attain. 

One such issue is the provision of effective mental health 

care. Apollo 13 represents one model whereby universities 

and industry can collaborate to generate new knowledge. 

The astronauts were the ones working on the job. They 

faced the problems and they needed the solution. The NASA 

researchers were given the problem and asked to find an 

effective solution. 

Analogous to the astronauts, the mental health care 

workers face the problems. Daily these clinical psychologists, 

psychiatrists, nurses, occupational therapists and other allied 

health workers confront the difficult task of effectively and 

efficiently treating people with mental health problems. 

Universities are analogous to the NASA scientists. 

University staff are not responsible for health care delivery, 

but they are charged with the responsibility of finding novel 

solutions when the call goes out: “Houston, we’ve got a 

problem”. Thus, collaboration between universities and the 

broader community can be mutually beneficial. 

An example of one such partnership is between me, 

Associate Professor Andrew Page in the School of Psychology 

and Perth Clinic, a private psychiatric facility in West Perth. 

Clinic staff describe issues they face in their work, and 

solutions are explored within the framework of the research 

team comprising clinic staff, academics, and postgraduate 

students. 

For instance, staff wondered if it was possible to identify 

potential treatment drop-outs sufficiently early to implement 

a remedial program. We researched the topic and found that 

drop-outs could be identified and implemented a program to 

try to address the issues. 

Second, Perth Clinic and its benchmarking hospitals 

were concerned about the stresses and strains borne by the 

supporters of inpatients, so we conducted an assessment 

of the extent of the burden with a view to better targeting 

resources to address the needs of supporters. 

Third, staff wondered when it would be best to time 

reviews of an inpatient’s stay in hospital. It was possible to 

identify ways to schedule reviews so that they were most 

efficient with respect to the treating psychiatrists’ scarce 

time. Finally, Perth Clinic was interested in ways to implement 

innovations in patient-focused research strategies to monitor 

the progress of patients both within the hospital and when 

discharged back in the community under the ongoing care of 

their psychiatrist. 

In collaboration, we have been able to identify areas 

where new treatment strategies may be needed. This 

collaboration has involved a link between academics and 

postgraduate students in the School of Psychology and clinic 

staff. These collaborations have not only benefited the hospital 

and its patients, since data have been used for continuous 

quality improvement, but they have been beneficial to the 

university, since outcomes have been published in peerreviewed 

journals and supported numerous postgraduate 

theses. 

For example, Elizabeth Newnham, enrolled in the Master 

(Clinical Psychology)/PhD program, is collaborating with 

graduates from this popular program now working at Perth 

Clinic. We are investigating the best ways to benchmark 

clinical outcomes and ways to use these data to inform 

clinical practice in a cycle of continuous quality improvement. 

In so doing, the bringing together of academic and hospital 

staff creates a culture of excitement about a more researchinformed 

and research-informing clinical practice. 

The culture is continuing to spread, with 

a team at King Edward Memorial Hospital 

implementing a similar program of investigation 

that involves postgraduate students in the Clinical 

Psychology training program at UWA. 

Thus, the mental health sector is in a strong 

position to continue to develop links with the 

tertiary educational sector and derive comparable 

benefits. The tertiary sector aims to generate new 

knowledge and can bring to bear the resources it 

has to achieve this end. 

Continued collaboration between hospitals 

and key staff within universities can serve to 

achieve outcomes that neither could have attained 

alone. 

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