News Archive

When Sir John Winthrop Hackett championed the establishment of this University, he endowed a chair considered vital for the State’s economy and “the prosperity and good of the people”.

The Hackett Professor of Agriculture was one of eight foundation chairs, and, as we celebrate the centenary, research from UWA’s Life and Agricultural Sciences has reaped benefits for farmers well beyond Australia. Now recognised internationally, the discipline is ranked 26th in the world.

A year after UWA was established in 1913, the Westralian Farmers Co-operative was established to service and merchandise the wheat and wool the State was already exporting. Today that one time co-operative has become one of Australia’s most successful conglomerate companies, Wesfarmers.

The leaders of these two organisations believe it is timely – as UWA celebrates and Wesfarmers prepares to mark its centenary – to come together in creating the Wesfarmers Chair in Australian History at UWA.

Local historians frequently claim that, too often, Western Australia’s history has been chronicled from the other side of the continent, so the creation of a Centenary Chair in Australian History at UWA has been hailed as an initiative that will overturn this ‘eastcentred’ perspective.

When the Chair was launched in March, Professor Len Collard, ARC Research Fellow at UWA, said it would guide fresh historical research, promoting academic and community interest in Australian history.

“A new Masters in Education (History) program at UWA is designed specifically for school teachers to ensure that WA history – with its unique regional character and culture – is showcased in the State’s education system,” Professor Collard said.

Wesfarmers’ CEO Richard Goyder hopes the new academic position will “provide an enormously important perspective to current economic, social and environmental debates”.

In 2009, UWA won a nationwide bid to establish the federallyfunded endowed Chair in Australian Literature. Adding to this pillar, UWA is now working towards the acquisition of a Chair in Australian Art that, like the Wesfarmers Chair in Australian History, will come together under the umbrella of a UWA Centre of Australian Studies. Dean of Arts, Professor Krishna Sen, says the creation of the Wesfarmers chair has significantly advanced the realisation of this long-term goal to embed the University as a national and international leader in Australian Studies.

Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder is our Newsmaker in this issue.