LEONARD SABOL, OBELISK, STAINLESS STEEL, 180CM X 120CM X 80CM, 2008

T H E P O W E R O F A N I D E A

Unprecedented growth followed a 1970s development boom on the Sunshine Coast, one of the state’s most popular tourist

destinations (then famous for its Big Pineapple, now for Australia Zoo). In the 30 years between 1986 and this year, its

population trebled from about 118,000 to more than 330,000 people, perched along the beautiful strip of beach, bush and

mountains between Caloundra and Noosa. By the early 1990s, it still did not have a university. This was anathema to the

visionaries in its midst. How did this coastal community reinvent its future to focus on education as a vocation?

PAUL THOMAS knew the figures didn’t add up from the moment he took the temporary job of planning a new university on the Sunshine Coast in 1994. Staff hired: zero. Students enrolled: zero. Buildings on campus: zero. Little money and even less time.

But the soon-to-be University of the Sunshine Coast was never about numbers. It was about people – the people who had fought for it for 20 years, the people about to make it happen, the people dedicated to its growth, and the people who would benefit from its success.

Professor Thomas became so captivated by the institution’s potential that he stayed as its first leader for the next 16 years. “I fell in love with the place,” he recalled. “I started as planning president in March 1994 and I left as one of Australia’s longest-standing vice-chancellors in 2010.”

This year, on the 20th anniversary of its first student intake, USC is still powered by its people. Many early employees remain familiar faces on campus, working in teaching, research and engagement alongside graduates who sought careers where they studied, in their hometown. Other staff and students have brought experience from across Australia and the globe. (See ‘Burning ambitions’ and ‘Graduating by degrees’) People from the wider community embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of its Innovation Centre, the artistic culture of its gallery, the Olympic standards of its sports facilities, the services of its health clinics and the benefits of partnerships in areas from simulation technology to genetics to sustainability.

The University’s main Sippy Downs campus has more than 1,000 staff (including 870 full-time equivalent), 12,600 students, 120 degrees and 23 buildings on its 100-hectare flora and fauna reserve. It has a $200 million annual budget, a place in history and all the time in the world. Even its annual open day has turned into

an ‘Imaginarium’ celebration that drew more than 8,000 people to

campus last August.

So how did the numbers add up in those early days?

‘University a milestone’ was the headline on an editorial that ran in

local newspaper the Sunshine Coast Daily on 26 April 1996, exactly

two months after the first 524 students walked into the two low-rise

buildings on campus. It read:

“Today’s official opening of the Sunshine Coast University is

a milestone in the development of the Sunshine Coast. It is

difficult to imagine that there has been a more important or

such a potentially beneficial project ever undertaken in our

region. More than 300 people will attend today’s ceremony at

which Governor Leneen Forde will declare the university open

for business ... The university aspires to become a major

national focus of academic and educational advancement. And

it will. Of that there is no doubt. But many Sunshine Coasters

will benefit simply by its proximity.”

The editorial pointed to the community already mushrooming around

the campus at Sippy Downs and to expert predictions of a $1.4 billion

injection into the regional economy over 15 years. It concluded:

“That is why the university was so worth fighting for over the

last 20 years – and why we should all be so delighted that it is

now a reality.”

The region had only officially united as the ‘Sunshine Coast’ 30 years

earlier, though it had long been promoted as such by real estate

agents. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the original three shires

voting to adopt the name, which then took effect in August 1967.

Located about 90 kilometres north of the Queensland capital of

Brisbane, it included 60 kilometres of coastline between Caloundra

and Noosa linked by sandy beaches, bushland and cliffs, extending

west along rivers and creeks to the Glass House Mountains, leafy

hinterland towns and rural properties.

THE

POWEROF AN IDEA

THE APPROVED SITE: LOW-LYING, FORMER SUGAR CANE LAND AT SIPPY DOWNS8 9

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The borders varied over the years, according to local government

boundary realignments and communities – and conflicts – of

interest. (USC’s first master plan in 1995 proved prophetic when

it specified a wider geographic area, from Caboolture to Kilcoy to

Gympie, as the region to be served by the university.) Small business

dominated and surf life saving clubs proliferated. Interstate migrants,

retirees, families and holidaymakers sought out the warm climate

and year-round outdoors lifestyle.

Peter Owen, who was editor-in-chief of the Daily from 1990 to 2004,

said the battle for higher education on the Coast started well before

he arrived. “Residents had been beating the drum since the ’80s

and earlier,” he said. “The local economy was suffering because of

its reliance on tourism, retail and construction, and declining rural

industries. If you had kids on the Coast, you generally had to send

them away to do tertiary study, in Brisbane or Toowoomba or Sydney

maybe, and the chances were they wouldn’t come back. There was

this awareness that a university would help the region become

more sophisticated in its development; that a university would be

a catalyst for all kinds of things, not just in education but socially,

environmentally, economically, culturally.”

One of the prominent campaigners was Alison Barry-Jones (then

Kerr), a voluntary community activist since the 1970s whose zeal

for educational and regional advancement fuelled her political

lobbying and seven years in public office (including a term as mayor

of Maroochy Shire from 2000). The influential Sunshine Coast

University Association she formed and chaired from 1986 to 1994

helped concentrate public awareness on the issue, sent delegations

and submissions to government and was involved in early planning.

She still has an original Daily newsagents’ poster declaring in

capitals: COAST UNI PETITION.

Even today, as she renews efforts to secure an arts, entertainment and convention centre for the region, Ms Barry-Jones recalls with pride and angst each victory and setback in site selection, government approvals and funding on the path towards gaining an independent university. “You’re in a lonely place as a visionary because people sometimes can’t see what you see, but now here we are,” she said. “The University is manifest, and it is delivering exactly the vision that I perceived back then.”

An abbreviated history was noted in the first annual report of the Sunshine Coast University College in 1994, alongside a photograph of Queensland Education Minister Pat Comben “turning the sod” at a public launch that September to mark the start of site works.

“The establishment of a higher education facility on the Sunshine Coast was first mooted in 1973 but a subsequent Commonwealth Government embargo on new higher education institutions – which lasted until 1984 – delayed any real development of the proposal until late in the 1980s,” it stated.

The proposal was reopened in 1986, included public submissions on the need for the facility and evaluation of potential sites, and earned Commonwealth support between 1988 and 1990.

“In 1989 the search for a site for the new university concluded with the selection of a 100-hectare site at Tanawha (now Sippy Downs), south of Buderim ... The population living within 30-45 minutes driving time of the site is around 400,000.”

Driving around the Sunshine Coast in those days was a legion of local residents, from all walks of life, destined to forge strong connections with the new university. Noela Burton was working at a charity for people with disabilities and had no inkling that she would not only become the administrative backbone of USC’s senior executive but also just pip her daughter Paige as the first in their family to get a degree.

PAT COMBEN IAN KENNEDY PETER OWEN

RESIDENTS HAD BEEN BEATING THE DRUM SINCE THE ’80S AND EARLIER.

Phot

o: C

ade

Moo

dy /

APN

IAN KENNEDY AND PAUL THOMAS ALISON BARRY-JONES BILL FREEMAN

THE BIG PINEAPPLE

“It’s 18 years at USC for me in 2016,” Ms Burton recalled, “and I love

the work. But it’s been more about the amazing people I’ve met and

worked with along the way.” Those people ranged from the late Arija

Austin, art aficionado and USC benefactor, to British comedian and

TV star Bill Bailey, awarded an honorary doctorate in 2015 for his

contribution to environmental awareness. (See ‘Burning ambitions’)

Jocelyn and Vic Walker were running their well-known family

business on the Bruce Highway – twin Mobil service stations

nicknamed Moby Vic’s by motorists since the late 1970s – and

putting their children Wendy and Drew through local schools. In the

year that Vic Walker died of cancer, USC enrolled its first students

and Jocelyn Walker accepted an invitation to join the inaugural

University Foundation board.

“I’m still on the board,” she smiled in 2015. “I felt instantly that

this was going to be one of the fastest growing institutions on the

Coast, and that has proved itself, and also one of the finest in the

country, and I believe that has happened.” She has since honoured

her husband’s community spirit with an annual scholarship for

first-year USC students who graduated from nearby Immanuel

Lutheran College, where their children attended. (Paving the way:

see ‘Graduating by degrees’)

Rod Forrester, managing director of one of the Coast’s biggest

property companies, FKP, was already such a firm believer in

educational choices and jobs for locals that he built a private school

in the late ’80s. “I’m a developer and a builder and I know how to make

things happen,” he said. “I bought an orange orchard at Buderim, got

the approvals and approached the church. In 1990 Matthew Flinders

Anglican College started and my three kids graduated from there.”

USC could not come fast enough for Mr Forrester and his wife Jan,

who watched all three children move permanently to Brisbane to

study their preferred degrees. “I joined the board of the University

and its capital works committee in the year it opened,” said

Mr Forrester, who in 1998 became Deputy Chancellor. The couple

would also prove integral to fundraising campaigns.

Surveyor Bill Freeman was busy launching his dream of a new,

master-planned town for the Coast, to be situated on a large parcel

of old cattle-grazing land he had bought in the ’70s at Sippy Downs.

“I saw the site and had a vision that you could put a city here,” he

recalled. “And I was laughed at.”

By 1993, the area was rezoned for major residential, commercial

and educational development and Mr Freeman’s vision morphed

into a university town as he went on to work extensively with USC

management and facilities staff on water, sewerage and other

infrastructure provision. “It was a bit of an adventure,” he said of

the challenges encountered. He built the first house in Chancellor

Park, an estate now housing thousands of residents around the USC

campus, and negotiated with the government and churches for two

school sites that are now Chancellor State College and Siena Catholic

College. Both opened in 1997.

John Lockhart, the first principal of Chancellor State College as an

expanded prep to Year 12 school in 2004, was another trailblazer

who established close partnerships with the adjoining university,

particularly in areas of technology and innovation, to benefit school

students for years to come. He even refused to build a fence between

the campuses. “I said, ‘This is a community resource, let’s not build

any artificial barriers’,” recalled John, who attended last year’s USC

graduation ceremony to see his daughter Bronte receive her nursing

science degree. (See ‘Voices for the next generation’)

Julianne Bernhagen, who was raised on the family farm at Bli Bli

before graduating from nearby Nambour State High School in the

PAUL CLARK, PAUL THOMAS, STEVE IRWIN AND TERRI IRWIN SIGN A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY AND AUSTRALIA ZOO

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mid-1980s, was working at Queensland University of Technology in

Brisbane when she heard about the new university coming to her

hometown. At that time in the early 1990s, she was commuting by

train for a couple of hours each day to her full-time human resources

job at QUT.

Ms Bernhagen soon knew all the USC staff very well – she helped

recruit its planning team and soon joined the institution as inaugural

HR Manager. “It was tremendous to imagine that people in my

community would have access to higher education without leaving

home,” she said. She was also delighted to be the first USC general

staff member elected to its council. In 2015, Ms Bernhagen was back

working with the USC executive, managing high-level projects such

as the new Clinical Trials Centre, the Thompson Institute for mind

and neuroscience research, and the expansion of its SouthBank

campus in Brisbane. “It’s a dream job,” she said. “The team here has

worked tirelessly to achieve amazing outcomes and growth during

quite often challenging political and financial circumstances.”

QUT was a critical factor in the then-named Sunshine Coast University

College getting off the ground. The hard-won Commonwealth

Government support was conditional on the new development

being effectively parented by an established university, and QUT

stepped in. Emeritus Professor Dennis Gibson, a British-educated

academic who was QUT Vice-Chancellor for 21 years until 2003,

recalled its “small contribution” as a simple decision that followed

its provision of higher education courses at Nambour since 1989

through the Brisbane College of Advanced Education, with which

QUT amalgamated.

QUT soon seconded its enthusiastic Associate Dean of Education

to the job of planning president of the new university, about 90

kilometres north of Brisbane. Professor Paul Thomas, a Welsh

miner’s son-turned-academic known for his eloquence and

enterprising nature, had been in head positions at QUT’s Kelvin

Grove campus for 15 years.

“We knew he would represent the new university well, with his

management experience and academic background,” said Professor

Gibson, who was later a member of the panel that selected

Professor Thomas from 40 highly-qualified global applicants to fill

the inaugural vice-chancellor’s position in 1996.

Professor Thomas had heard first-hand the pleas of Sunshine Coast

people for their own university, in his interactions with the parents

of students attending first-year business and education courses

at Nambour. “I wanted to do something different so I decided to

give it a go,” he said. “People I knew were divided about it. Some

warned I’d be going backwards in my career because it was high-

risk and based on 20 years of promises. There was no guarantee

I’d get the kinds of monies needed, or attract staff to a new place

called a university college. A minority, however, said it would be

an interesting opportunity that I could probably make work. That’s

the view I held personally. It was too good to miss.” (See ‘Burning

ambitions’ and ‘Building the future of education’)

Professor Gibson, now retired from a seven-year role as Chancellor

of RMIT University in Melbourne, said QUT’s affiliation with the

Sunshine Coast had served a good purpose. “USC has been a

great success and that reflects well on all those who were the

founders,” he said. “It has a very strong regional role and is a good

player on the national and international scenes. It’s an economic

powerhouse for the region and the region has been very supportive

of the University.

“When I visited a few years ago, I thought the greenfield campus

had developed beautifully. USC has come a long way in 20 years

and is well placed for the future, in a part of Australia that is growing

fast in terms of economy and population and is attractive to people

from overseas. There’s a lot of competition in higher education but

the Sunshine Coast can take advantage of some powerful strategies

and really go for them and build reputation. Again, that will be driven

by its people.”

In 1994, the multitude of issues and weight of community

expectation tempered the excitement for Professor Thomas. “It was

a huge task to get everything done from scratch for an opening in

1996,” he said. “I had 18 or so months to put in place all the academic

programs and develop the empty campus so we had buildings to put

the students in.” He was soon joined by a small group of employees

and consultants (January 1996 records showed 48 staff on the

payroll) and by the first University Council, headed by pre-eminent

Queensland Supreme Court judge Tony Fitzgerald AC.

Professor Thomas said even the council seemed startled by his

budget for operations in 1994: “It was $649,000. That’s peanuts.

How could it possibly cover hiring new staff – including myself –

for a university due to open in 18 months?” The amount rose to

$2 million the following year, with the Commonwealth also providing

$9.7 million for capital development across 1994 and 1995.

One of many savvy decisions was early expenditure on a campus

master plan by Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp Architects, a Canberra-

based company that had designed Australia’s new Parliament House

in the 1980s. Its guidance over the next two decades put the USC

campus on the international map as a multiple award-winner in

environmentally sustainable and innovative design. (See ‘Building

the future of education’)

It was tremendous to imagine that people in my community would have access to higher education without leaving home.

JULI ANNE BERNH AGEN

Gaining Tony Fitzgerald QC as the inaugural chancellor (1994-98) was a coup for an institution that had yet to carve a reputation. The president of the Queensland Court of Appeal was a highly respected household name after his ‘Fitzgerald Inquiry’, a commission into top-level crime and misconduct that sent police and ministers to jail in Queensland in the late 1980s and was credited with a change of state government.

“It was a high-profile appointment because Tony Fitzgerald was one of the most significant and influential Queenslanders of the time,” said Professor Thomas. “I went to talk with him and he was receptive and we progressed.” Professor Thomas said the chancellor guided with a firm hand in tumultuous times and wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions about high-risk strategies.

The role was welcomed by Justice Fitzgerald, who grew up in a seaside town halfway between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane and holidayed often on the Coast. Now retired near Noosa, he said the University’s growth over 20 years was impressive. “It has been a major step in the Coast’s educational and cultural evolution,” he said, recalling Paul Thomas as “very committed and extremely energetic”.

When Justice Fitzgerald announced Professor Thomas as vice-chancellor in a January 1996 press release, he said the council was fortunate to secure the academic’s managerial and business acumen: “During his appointment as planning president, Professor Thomas maintained a powerful vision for the Sunshine Coast University College and accomplished immense tasks.” In later USC publications, Justice Fitzgerald described as “exciting and intensely challenging” his five years as chancellor, noting the unprecedented short timelines and limited resources for academic development, policy formulation and physical planning.

From the start, the University had a charm that drew in highly competent, far-sighted people from very different backgrounds and with very different personalities. The chancellor’s role, for example, was served by a judge, a meatworks boss and a priest. Ian Kennedy AO and John Dobson OAM were two regional leaders whose involvement in the University in the 1990s led both of them to decade-long stints as its chancellor.

Grazier and business owner Mr Kennedy, who took his beef-processing company in nearby Kilcoy from a one-million-pound business to $350 million in gross annual sales 40 years later, was the first deputy chancellor and second chancellor (from 1998 to 2007). “The thing I was most proud of was the culture – our people,” he recalled last year. “The people were so important to the success; the hours they put in and their enthusiasm to go beyond the call of duty.” (See ‘Burning ambitions’)

Mr Dobson, a Catholic parish priest in Caloundra with a love of philosophy and dedication to community work, was appointed to the council in 1998 after seeing the first

TONY FITZGERALD AC

IAN KENNEDY AO12 13

T H E P O W E R O F A N I D E A

about 100,000 and a succession of mayors: Bob King (1994-1997), Don Culley (1997-2000) and Alison Barry-Jones (2000-2004). Its support for the new institution was clear – as early as 1986, under Mayor Fred Murray, the council had passed a resolution to examine options for a university. Amid rivalry with neighbours also seeking such a facility, Maroochy was celebrating in 1989 when the Queensland Government announced it had designated the Sippy Downs site.

Ken Hicks, who was Maroochy Council chair of finance and councillor for the Sippy Downs area until 1991, remembered advocating for a university site that was central to the Coast’s population. “Noosa and Caloundra both wanted it, or it could have been on the old Nambour quarry,” said the former surveyor and town planner who went on to deal closely with USC as chair of Sunshine Coast TAFE Council for 12 years.

Mr Hicks said he was delighted with the University’s success in keeping students on the Coast and becoming one of the area’s biggest employers. “It has great teaching staff and is receptive to new ideas. This is not a stuffy university.” When he received an honorary senior fellowship in 2014 for championing the region, he said he was honoured to follow in the footsteps of Terri Irwin, owner of nearby Australia Zoo. (The late Steve Irwin and his wife Terri became USC honorary senior fellows in 2000 and 2007 respectively. Mr Hicks remains a director of Wildlife Warriors Worldwide and continues to chair the steering committee that protected the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York.)

But a Maroochy Council decision in the mid-1990s caused a crisis for Professor Thomas when it imposed headworks (infrastructure) charges on the new university. “We had so little money when we

started and they charged us $401,000 for 1996, even though other councils waived headworks fees for universities because they knew the value of a university to their region,” Professor Thomas said. “It actually threatened our opening but we managed to navigate it.” While he remembered acrimonious meetings with the council, the university college’s annual report of 1996 recorded the outcome diplomatically: “In late 1996, following extensive discussions, the council resolved to levy no further headworks charges on the University.”

While the vice-chancellor was focused on practicalities, he was also pushing for a speedy legislative change that he believed was crucial to its future. “We needed all the support we could get to rid ourselves of that awful ‘college’ name,” he said. “It was meaningless, insulting and counter to any kind of future development. I argued that unless we were a ‘university’ we simply weren’t going to succeed. We wanted high-calibre staff to be attracted to the teaching and research environment of a university. A university college was a dated way of dealing with things and felt like a second-class institution. Well, I wouldn’t have a bar of that.”

His task was far from easy in a climate of big-swinging elections, electoral boundary reviews and the delineation of federal and state responsibilities. “I dealt with six ministers across a span of three years,” Professor Thomas said. In 1994, the Australian Labor Party was in power at both state and federal levels. Paul Keating was prime minister and Wayne Goss was Queensland premier. By 1996, when the university college opened, both Queensland and Australia voted in Coalition governments. John Howard became prime minister and Rob Borbidge was Queensland premier.

The Sunshine Coast, with its agricultural roots, was traditionally conservative. Long-serving MPs included Alex Somlyay (Fairfax,

SUNSHINE COAST UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FIRST COUNCIL

Above: Sunshine Coast University College First Council. Back row: Miss Fiona Campbell, Professor Nell Arnold, Mr John Nelson, Mr Paul Corcoran (Secretary to Council), Miss Margaret Henson (Secretariat). Middle row: Mr Lindsay Clare, Ms Vivien Griffin, Mr Geoff Greene, Ms Gaynor Austen, Ms Jill Morris, Dr Ian Lynagh. Front row: Ms Santina Cook, Mr Ian Kennedy (Deputy Chancellor), Hon. Justice G.E. Fitzgerald (Chancellor), Professor Paul Thomas (Vice Chancellor), Mr Richard Austin.

STEVE IRWIN RECEIVES AN HONORARY DOCTORATE

STEVE IRWIN AND PAUL THOMAS

buildings go up on campus. A funny thing happened on his way to retirement in 2007 – he became Chancellor instead. His term finishes in 2017.

“I have no doubt this will become one of the leading universities in Australia, for a whole lot of reasons,” he predicted. The reasons included the thousands of students – and one guide dog – who shook the Chancellor’s hand as they crossed the stage at annual USC graduation ceremonies.

Mr Dobson, who gained unique insight into the decision-making of both of USC’s vice-chancellors, Professor Thomas until 2010 and Professor Greg Hill until now, also cited the constructive relationship between the council and executive as a key factor in the University’s success. “What did we do right? We got the right people in the right place at the right time. And we got the right person in the vice-chancellor’s chair – twice.” (See ‘Burning ambitions’)

That chair was a bit rickety when Professor Thomas first arrived on the Sunshine Coast in 1994. “At first I was driving up from Brisbane, working out of my car and staying in motels,” he said. “I was using a phone and a Camry borrowed from QUT and kept all my files in the boot of the car. When I got an office in Maroochydore (15 kilometres from the site), Judy Jakeman came up as my secretary and Margaret Henson started in administration, looking after the new council.

“I did hundreds of talks with community groups and was overwhelmed by the level of interest and support. I spoke with every club that would have me – Rotary, Lions, Zonta, U3A, all of them – at places from bowls clubs to the Super Bee tourist attraction. (The University of the Third Age would become USC’s first ‘tenant’ in a close partnership that continues today – see ‘Voices for the next generation’) They all hoped I could make this work but they were reasonably pessimistic because it had been talked about for so long and the land had been designated for a while. Some were worried there weren’t enough jobs to support university graduates here.”

Boosting jobs and education in the region were certainly foremost concerns of politicians of every party and level of government in the 1990s. The Sunshine Coast had about 40 elected representatives at any one time – local mayors and councillors in Maroochy, Caloundra and Noosa shires and Members of Parliament across state and federal electorates. The region was discussed as the largest in Queensland not served by its own university, with higher than average unemployment rates and one of the country’s fastest growing populations. Professor Thomas consulted with politicians directly, noted their comments in the media, watched them address Parliament sittings in Brisbane and visited ministers in the national capital, Canberra.

The problems were myriad. The embryonic Sippy Downs (sometimes nicknamed Skippy Downs due to the eastern grey kangaroos that still frequent the USC site) was part of Maroochy Shire, which then had a population of

JUDY JAKEMAN SETS UP OFFICE IN OCEAN STREET

IAN KENNEDY AND PAUL THOMAS

WHAT DID WE DO RIGHT? WE GOT THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. AND WE GOT THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE VICE-CHANCELLOR’S CHAIR – TWICE.

JOHN DOBSON

OCEAN STREET PREMISES, MAROOCHYDORE

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1990-2013 and regional development minister under John Howard), Joan Sheldon (Landsborough and Caloundra, 1990-2004 and deputy premier under Rob Borbidge), Peter Slipper (Fisher, 1984-87 and 1993-2013, and parliamentary secretary under John Howard) and Fiona Simpson (Maroochydore, 1992-current). Peter Wellington (Nicklin, 1998-current) was an Independent who had twice held the balance of power in Queensland and tipped it in favour of Labor.

This bit hard for Professor Thomas, reinforcing the magnitude of the challenge ahead. How could he tell Coast people their new institution could

not even try for full status until perhaps 2006?

premier and treasurer. “I argued then that the Coast’s growing

population and economic input into our State meant the college

deserved university status,” recalled Ms Sheldon, who later became

an Adjunct Professor in USC’s School of Business.

Fiona Simpson’s interest extended back to the goals of her father

Gordon Simpson, a former Sunshine Coast state MP who told

Parliament in 1975: “It is also our aim to achieve government

involvement in the establishment of a technical college, an

agricultural college and a university in our electorate.”)

Bob Quinn, who was education minister in the Coalition government

from 1996 to 1998 – the first student years of the new Sunshine

Coast institution – recalled the “forthright and candid” lobbying he

received from local MPs, community leaders and members of the

university college in the 1990s.

“I knew the move was on for it to be a fully fledged university as

quickly as possible,” said Mr Quinn, a former teacher and Gold

Coast politician who most recently chaired the Queensland Schools

Planning Commission. “However, there was a process they had to go

through to satisfy everyone that the depth and breadth of courses

being offered were of a standard that met the requirements of a

university. Just changing the title in the Act wouldn’t guarantee the

automatic reputation of the university. So I started the process.”

He had told Parliament during the 1994 Bill discussion that “peer

approval ought to be the sole criteria” for a university qualifying for

full status within 10 years.

Another issue was that tertiary education legislation was controlled

by the State but finances were controlled by the Commonwealth.

“The two had to work hand in hand,” Mr Quinn recalled. “There was

no use Queensland changing the legislation without going through

the proper process if the Commonwealth didn’t recognise it and

fund it. People might not have understood, but that was the reality.

From a minister’s point of view, I had to make sure nothing went

wrong, the institution proceeded, and was supported at all levels.”

David Kemp, who became federal education minister in the Howard

government in 1997, recalled visiting the Sunshine Coast, being

shown the university site by Fairfax MP Alex Somlyay and meeting

with Paul Thomas and community members “who indicated their

strong support for a full university”.

Dr Kemp, who retired in 2004, gained an honorary doctorate from USC

in 2006, and is now chair of the Scotch College Council in Melbourne,

said: “Considerable effort had been put into developing the case and

an impressive vision was laid before me. The proportion of younger

people going on to higher education was well below the national

average and the Sunshine Coast showed the typical unemployment

and social issues accompanying lower levels of knowledge and skills.

“The proponents made the case that without a full university,

there would not be the institutional support for lifting the levels

of education in the area, with consequent damage to individual

opportunities and to the capacity to attract the industries required

for employment. A university would transform the opportunities and

the culture of the Sunshine Coast.”

Both Mr Somlyay and Mr Slipper, MPs for the neighbouring federal

electorates of Fairfax and Fisher respectively, recalled working to

overturn adverse bureaucratic recommendations amid the intense

fight for independence for the Sunshine Coast’s own university.

Citing the path to success via federal education ministers Simon

Crean (1993-6), Amanda Vanstone (1996-97) and David Kemp, Mr

Somlyay recalled a particularly fruitful meeting with Ms Vanstone.

Mr Slipper said Dr Kemp was “a minister who didn’t merely rubber

stamp recommendations”, well recognised by the University with

an honorary doctorate. Professor Thomas certainly appreciated the

persistence of the region’s politicians and recalled Ms Sheldon, Mr

Somlyay and Mr Slipper among the “pivotal influences”.

Finally, triumph. After several years of relentless negotiations at

the highest political and bureaucratic levels, the University of the

Sunshine Coast Bill was passed in November 1998 and took effect

at the start of 1999. The review by a top panel including Professor

Ian Chubb AC – now Australia’s Chief Scientist, then one of the

nation’s leading vice-chancellors – “found we had the calibre to

become a university”, according to a proud and relieved Professor

Thomas. “My impression was the panel thought we’d made much

more progress than they’d anticipated.”

As Professor Chubb’s career soared, he retained links with

USC, including returning to Sippy Downs in 2011 to launch its

Collaborative Research Networks, a $5.4 million program to advance

the University’s research profile and performance. When Professor

Chubb received a USC honorary doctorate in 2014, he said, “I’ve

never forgotten the passion, the ambition, the commitment, the long

meetings and visits we had in Canberra about why it was important

for this part of Australia to have a university of its own ... Those

people who lobbied would think their job is well done.”

USC’S FIRST GRADUATION CEREMONY, HELD IN A TENT IN 1999

According to Professor Thomas, timing was everything. The

community expected its new university to become independent

sooner rather than later. A Sunshine Coast Daily front-page article

in June 1993 quoted the QUT Vice-Chancellor’s hopes that the

planned institution would be independent within three to four

years of opening in 1996. Professor Gibson told the paper: “Once

it’s of critical mass (about 2,000 students, dependent on federal

funding), I think we can cut the umbilical cord and it should be a

standalone university.”

Even today, Professor Gibson recalls the QUT sentiment. “There

was a strong feeling that because the Sunshine Coast was so

far away and had its own definite community, it should have an

autonomous university serving that region,” he said. “I believed that

local management and governance for an institution with big growth

potential was essential.”

But the trajectory was not clear-cut. When Mr Comben, the Labor

Education Minister, stood in State Parliament on 14 April 1994

and brought in the Bill for an Act to establish the Sunshine Coast

University College, he said it was long overdue for the region and

explained the QUT affiliation:

“This arrangement offers the new institution a high level

of control of its own affairs, and the freedom to develop its

mission and directions in step with the needs of the region,

while at the same time satisfying the Commonwealth

requirements for the continued involvement of an established

institution ... The Commonwealth will not agree to fund new

developments which aspire to independent university status

in the short to medium term ... The legislation provides for

a review of the university college’s status and its affiliation

with (QUT) as soon as possible after 10 years from the

commencement of the Act.” (Hansard)

In the Commonwealth’s higher education funding report for the

1992-94 triennium, a section on new campus developments across

Australia stated:

“In view of the significant resource implications, particularly capital

funding, of new campus developments, the Commonwealth is

concerned that other options including alternative methods of

delivery, such as the use of technology, are explored before it will

commit substantial funding to a new campus.”

It listed principles for the support of new campuses, such as “the need to establish that the demand is sufficient to maintain a campus of viable size in the longer term,” and concluded: “If the Commonwealth is confident that all avenues have been explored and new campuses are being developed in accord with the above principles, it will, in a limited number of cases, support their development.”

And the Queensland Government’s Sunshine Coast University

College Bill 1994 contained these explanatory notes:

“The Bill specifies the affiliation arrangements between the

University College and the Queensland University of Technology

and provides for a review of the affiliation arrangements and

the status of the University College as soon as possible after

10 years from the commencement of the legislation ... A higher

education institution cannot be established as a university

in Queensland unless it is established under an Act of the

Queensland Parliament. In the interim phase of its development

as a university, the institution will operate under the legislation

as a University College affiliated with the Queensland University

of Technology, until such time as it attains full university status.”

This bit hard for Professor Thomas, reinforcing the magnitude of the

challenge ahead. How could he tell Coast people their new institution

could not even try for full status until perhaps 2006? “If that had

happened, we wouldn’t be celebrating our 20th anniversary today,”

he said. “That’s why I led the charge to confront higher education

policy at Commonwealth and state levels.”

In State Parliament two weeks later, the Bill was backed by the

Coalition Opposition but debated for three and a half hours in a

session that both enlightened and entertained (and ended with

reference to the work, humour and sleepwear of Paul Thomas, still

sitting in the public gallery). With the university site in the state

electorate of Mooloolah and bordering the Caloundra electorate,

respective Coalition MPs Bruce Laming (1992-2001) and Joan

Sheldon were vocal in their criticism of the possible 10-year time

frame. Mr Laming referred to “confusion in the House” and tried

to amend the minimum to five years, but Mr Comben suggested it

could be changed in future if “true need” was demonstrated.

(Mr Laming’s eagerness for the planned university, as outlined in his

1992 maiden speech to State Parliament, came from experience.

“All three of my children had left the Coast for further education in

Brisbane,” he recalled last year, “so I knew the advantages this would

bring for local families.”

Ms Sheldon, who was president of the Caloundra Chamber of

Commerce and Industry when she started advocating for such

an educational facility, was guest speaker at the Sunshine Coast

University College’s first Open Day in 1996 when she was deputy

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An email sent by Professor Thomas to all staff and students on Thursday 19 November, 1998, at 8.44am, “Subject: good news”, recorded the joy. “WE’VE DONE IT!” it read. “Congratulations to everyone on a brilliant team effort. Last night the historic legislation passed through the Queensland State Parliament at 11.30pm without a hitch, and with support across the political spectrum. We have a new Act and officially, from 1 January 1999, we shall be the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC).” By then, Dean Wells was the state minister for education.

Looking back, Professor Thomas credited Dr Kemp as the ministerial “breakthrough” who was “brave enough to take us on merit”. Dr Kemp described his role as “principally to take the decision that the Commonwealth government would support the transformation of the university college to a full university, and would fund it accordingly.” Dr Kemp added: “I would not have taken this decision had I not been convinced that there were those who could provide the leadership necessary to secure success. I was pleased to see the University quickly develop a role in the community’s growth through its focus on innovation and accessibility. It has been able to offer to its students a life-changing on-campus experience parallel to that of long-established institutions.”

Bob Quinn also was pleased with the outcome. “(USC) obviously passed the process with flying colours, its legislation was changed, its name was changed and I’m delighted to see it kick on from strength to strength.”

In a nice coincidence, 1999 was the year the institution held its inaugural graduation ceremony, so the first 132 graduands were able to receive testamurs from Australia’s newest, standalone university. (See ‘Burning ambitions’ and ‘Graduating by degrees’) Justice Fitzgerald, who was that year one of four people awarded USC’s first honorary doctorates (along with Professor Gibson, Sir Zelman Cowen and Dr Arthur Harrold), also later spoke of the importance of losing the college moniker and gaining “unequivocal” university status.

For people who know the USC of 2016 and wonder what all the fuss was about, Professor Thomas is blunt. “I think getting our name changed to University and dropping the word ‘college’ was the single greatest achievement of my 17 years leading the institution. That original term confused everyone – the community, the students, the staff, employers. Without that name change at that time, we would have languished. We wouldn’t have been able to celebrate 20 years of success because we wouldn’t have gained the high-calibre staff, the best students or the world-class facilities.”

So how did he celebrate? Photographic evidence of the milestone was included in the 10-year anniversary book. It showed the beaming Vice-Chancellor, staff and politicians in hard hats, watching a bulldozer remove the blue wall bearing the SCUC logo. “I deliberately made that structure temporary so it could be knocked down,” Professor Thomas said. “We hardly spent any money on it.”

Kneeling next to him on the overturned wall was Rebecca Grisman (formerly McGucken), hired from QUT in 1994 as the new Sunshine Coast institution’s first marketing manager. “That was a great day,” she recalled. “We really enjoyed knocking down that wall and I still have a little souvenir piece that Mark Bradley gave me. Having full university status felt so powerful, with new freedom and new horizons.” Ms Grisman developed the first USC brand and logo, ‘same species, different breed’ with graphic designer Kate Collins, established its fundraising office and created its first subjects in communications. “I remember handing out T-shirts that read ‘always first’ to the first intake of students at O-week and it still makes me proud when I sometimes see people wearing them. I always thought this university would succeed. There was so much planning behind every aspect and the community supported us.”

Now running her own marketing communications agency, Campaign Group, and heavily involved in regional charities, Ms Grisman still funds an annual USC student bursary and attends every graduation ceremony. (see ‘Graduating by degrees’) ■

“I deliberately made that structure temporary so it could be knocked down,” Professor Thomas said. “We hardly spent any money on it.”

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‘It’s disgraceful an area like this doesn’t have a university’Alison Barry-Jones has never been one to mince words. In a 1992 article in national newspaper The Australian, next to a photograph of her talking to senior bureaucrats on the bare USC site about the need for funding, she declared: “It’s disgraceful that an area like this doesn’t already have a university. All the people are for it, all the politicians are for it, and it’ll be a great economic boost for the region. I feel like I’ve been in labour for over 12 years and I’m about to give birth.”

A few years earlier, interviewed on Sunshine Television (Seven) news after the State Government bought a parcel of land for the uni that was smaller than expected, she said: “It doesn’t stop us pushing because the need is here, we’ll keep going regardless.” In a subsequent bulletin warning of a “tertiary education slum”, the camera captured her motivation: “I believe if we do nothing we’ll be very lucky to get the university within 10 years,” she said. “We’ll start getting a reputation for second-rate education and these days we can’t afford to entertain that.”

In 2016, Alison remains ardent about the university she fought for. Her dedication to bringing adult education options to the Coast is revealed in folders of paperwork including news clippings dating back decades, high-level correspondence and support for her OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) in 1994 for her contribution to education. Among the letters for another Citizen Award nomination was Professor Thomas commending her hard work, single-minded conviction and belief in the University’s value to the community. She became one of the University’s first honorary senior fellows in 1999.

Alison recounts discussions with ministers and bureaucrats, particularly during the eight years she chaired the Sunshine Coast University Association, which had a membership of professionals and academics including Dr Mel McMichael (retired from Charles Sturt University) and, for a time, Sir Clem Renouf. (See ‘Helping make dreams happen’)

A favourite moment was her association’s deputation to Parliament House in Brisbane in 1988, which presented a united front. “Alongside our members were representatives from six shires and cities of our wider region. The Queensland Government had given us $150,000 to advertise for submissions from these areas on land options and to commence planning.” She later flew to Canberra to present the case, and felt rewarded when federal higher education adviser George Zuber accepted an invitation to take a helicopter flight over the Coast sites, prior to a funding announcement.

(Dr McMichael, who was deputy chairman of the association, also recalled its intense work. “I had just experienced the transition of colleges of higher education to the status of university, and had considerable experience in dealing with the Commonwealth Department of Education,” he said. “The association developed quantitative information demonstrating the large numbers of students leaving the Sunshine Coast to obtain a university education, the projected increase in these numbers, and the financial benefits that would accompany the establishment of a university on the Coast.”)

Alison, a mother with a keen eye on her children’s future, says her motivation was simple. “I always had a passion for education and community infrastructure. I was pushing for the university since 1979, when I was told it’s the last thing on earth we needed here because we didn’t even have TAFE colleges. That’s when we started adult education night courses in Nambour.”

Her support continued when she was elected to Maroochy Shire Council (1997-2004), which contributed funding to USC’s international-standard athletics track and Innovation Centre. “Back then the Coast was fragmented, and I think the University was one of the first binding pieces of grand infrastructure that everyone took pride in, and ownership of. It has been a nucleus of inspiration for the community and has showcased to the world excellence in teaching education. It’s creating its own ecosystem, is highly respected and has great economic value to this area, apart from its cultural impact. Professors Paul Thomas and Greg Hill have done a wonderful job and I hope it continues to flourish and be a world landmark for quality education and research.”

Alison even completed USC’s Tertiary Preparation Pathway (TPP) program, and family members have studied and taught at the institution. “I live near Noosa so I went to USC’s Noosa annexe to study my courses and I loved it. I’ll probably come back, once I’ve got this arts and exhibition centre going ...”

ALISON BARRY-JONES

‘The pace of its development really has delivered what we hoped’Coast builder and developer Rod Forrester always believed in smart enterprise and regional progress. In the early 1990s he was running national top-200 publicly listed company FKP while chairing the board of a new school he helped found at Buderim, Matthew Flinders Anglican College. In 1996, he stepped down from the school board to focus on a promising new university college nearby, joining the council and capital works committee. He served as USC’s deputy chancellor for four years until 2002, when he launched another prosperous company, ARIA Property International, with son Tim. The Forresters’ donations helped fund facilities such as the Health and Sports Centre and they continue annual scholarships for high-achieving business students. In 2016, Rod and his wife Jan mark two decades of digging deep for USC:

“I saw a real need for it. It was the next phase of growth for the Coast,” he recalls. “Our three children went to Brisbane to achieve university degrees that weren’t available here. I worked with Paul Thomas and (USC facilities manager) Mark Bradley in strategic planning at such a pace that we were developing a new building at least every 18 months. Mark did a fantastic job and we engaged architects and builders to deliver things on time and on budget.

“It was rewarding. Paul was an entrepreneur and that’s what drove it. We were always going for more funding to provide more infrastructure. The first big fundraiser was half a million dollars for the art gallery, with the involvement of (former Queensland Art Gallery chair and USC Council member) Dick Austin and his wife Arija, and nothing like that had been achieved locally before. (See ‘Building the future of education’)

“When Paul kicked off USC’s Innovation Centre (in 2001) to generate startup businesses, I thought it was such a worthwhile venture that I joined the board. We employed Colin Graham as CEO. (See ‘Innovation’) The Coast really needed to establish more businesses, mentor them and keep them here. I’d had trouble recruiting at FKP in the late ’80s when highly-qualified people from out of town wouldn’t come here because of the lack of education facilities for their kids.

“Those negatives I experienced growing my own business on the Coast won’t be a problem for people following in the future. USC really has delivered on what we hoped, to provide a university level education to allow children to stay at home and get educated like they can in capital cities.”

The Forrester children are now successful in business, property and architecture. At ARIA, still run by Tim, the development division directors include two USC graduates – Brent Liddell (commerce and accounting) and Michael Hurley (business and international marketing). In a twist of history, Michael and his twin brother Sean Hurley (business and international business) were in USC’s first cohort of students in the year it opened, 1996. Sean is now based in the United Arab Emirates as expansion director for fashion house Mango throughout Africa, the Middle East and Australasia.

(And in another twist, ARIA’s recently opened 20-storey apartment building opposite the Queensland Art Gallery in South Brisbane is called Austin – after Dick Austin.)

ROD FORRESTER

I SAW A REAL NEED FOR IT.

IT WAS THE NEXT PHASE OF

GROWTH FOR THE COAST.

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‘I think it’s got a great future. It could be the envy of Australia’Bill Freeman knows the Sunshine Coast, and Sippy Downs in particular, like the back of his hand. He has bought and sold it, surveyed and developed it. He remembers building the first house on the now-completed Chancellor Park estate. He also remembers “running into strife” by initially calling it University Park. (“I didn’t know that was a protected name.”)

Still doing business on the Coast, Bill has files full of maps, diagrams, technical reports and submissions from well before the university college arose in the middle of his dream town. He points to an August 1993 report that shows the price of an average 700sqm block in the estate was forecast at $64,000. Within a couple of decades, land buyers were paying $260,000 for blocks half the size. “That shows you how it’s rocketed – four times the price,” he says.

“My dad, who was a policeman at Palmwoods after World War Two, said, ‘A good education cements everything’. When I caught the train to high school at Nambour in the late 1950s, it was the only state high school between Caboolture and Gympie. I got a cadetship with the Main Roads department and studied surveying by correspondence. When the government designed the Sunshine Coast Motorway, I marked out the road corridor through the bush and swamp.

“Alfred Grant, who owned the huge pastoral lease, was a visionary who dreamt up concepts for residential development that urbanised that end of the Coast. When I bought some of the land with others, I thought this area would be national park and another town. (It is now the Mooloolah River National Park and town of Sippy Downs.) The State Government initially thought the land this university sits on should be for an industrial complex. In the 1980s I presented some mapping to a university committee run by Alison (Barry-Jones) and my focus was on this as the best site because of the population growth, what I called population circles, and commercial potential. There was big competition from Noosa and Caboolture for the uni.

“I worked closely with entrepreneurial people like Bevin Pope (Queensland Office of Higher Education), who did a lot of submissions, and the university’s Paul Thomas and Mark Bradley on sorting out the water, sewerage and effluent issues. I was struck by the drive of Paul and Mark, and I remember Ian Kennedy (USC’s second chancellor) as another entrepreneur. I’m glad the site has given the university room to move and to grow. I was disappointed the new public hospital was not co-located next door.”

(The State Government’s original hospital plan was the subject of political controversy in the mid-2000s after it was proposed for a site adjoining the university. The land, still co-owned by Bill Freeman and Rod Forrester, now houses a private medical precinct. In 2015, another of their land parcels adjoining the university was announced as the site for insurance company Youi’s global headquarters, to accommodate up to 2,000 staff.)

“The University has blossomed,” continued Mr Freeman. “It has made a major contribution in terms of jobs and educating kids at home. I think it’s got a great future. It could be the envy of Australia. I’ve met more entrepreneurs there too, like (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation) Roland De Marco. In the next 20 years, I think it could go from the fastest-growing uni in Australia to the biggest.”

CIRCA 1995

2010 THE SIGN ON BUILDING J WAS INSTALLED IN 2006 MARKING USC’S 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

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