Patrick Gallagher AM, Chairman, Allen & Unwin

Patrick Gallagher, pictured with Professor Kerri-Lee Krause, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Patrick was educated in England, graduating with Honours in English from Durham University. He joined Allen & Unwin in 1969, and moved to Australia in 1976 to establish the company’s Australian office. Since 1990, Allen & Unwin has been Australia’s largest independent book publisher, and their authors have been recipients of all major literary awards, including the Miles Franklin three times. In 2008 Patrick was awarded the Order of Australia for services to publishing and literary culture.

A transcript of the Occasional Address, delivered by Patrick Gallagher:

"Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and graduands,
 
Graduands... a new word to me I confess. I'd always thought that there were graduates and undergraduates, but when I read the details in your Vice-Chancellor's gracious invitation to speak today I realised there was a whole hidden class, a limbo, maybe even a purgatory according to how nervous  you are about these proceedings, of undergraduate chrysalises eager to shed their juvenile skins and grow their graduate wings.
 
The word graduand doesn't feature in my 2 volume shorter OED, but recourse to that modern reference tool whose name we should not really speak in academia tells me it was first used in America in 1881. I wonder whether it's crept into the ivy clad halls of Oxford or Cambridge yet... Then my own far off university studies came to the fore and the term gerund swam into my menory. I was almost right - gerundive is the strict tem for something about to happen.
 
Memories of dusty lecture halls came back again when I read that a celebrated example of the gerundive was a pronouncement  the Roman Cato endlessly delivered Carthago esse delendam, Carthage must be destroyed. This in turn reminded me of Hannibal crossing the Alps and finally the Romans indeed destroying Carthage, slaughtering every man woman and child and sowing the fields with salt.
 
My excuse for this indulgent lapse into ancient history is I guess to point out that what you learn is never wasted, and can come back to you in the most unexpected ways. University studies these days are inevitably much more closely geared to future employment, and I've no doubt that nearly all of you have had an eye to this in the course of study you've pursued - and in which you've succeeded, which is why you're here today. But another equally valuable part of your time at university is the broader knowledge you've acquired.  Those of us who've been lucky enough to have several years between school and the work force starting to learn about life, about people and above all about ourselves have a priceless start in life.
 
When it comes to employment don't let anyone tell you it wasn't easier in our day. In my case I was keen to get into publishing and went off on the usual round of interviews. Nothing happened for a few weeks, then I was summoned for a second interview. I didn't fancy my chances, there were dozens of applicants first time round, and what's more it was the first day of the Lord's cricket Test which I was all set to go to. Reluctantly I decided I'd better do the right thing and to my surprise got the job. A few months later I fessed up to my boss who'd interviewed me and he said "why didn't you tell me, we could have had the interview at Lord's?" It was no coincidence that several of his appointments turned out to be keen cricketers.
 
I talk from time to time with people who want to "break into" publishing - always break into, with a distant sound of tinkling glass - and my advice is always the same, and applies I think to almost any area of employment - get to know as much as you can about the business beforehand. In my case people who don't know the difference between publishing and printing get short shrift, but if they've read up on the subject, found people in the industry to talk to, done a short introductory course, worked part time in a bookshop perhaps, then I know they are serious and I in turn take them seriously.
 
Anyway, you're at the stage in life when you'll be getting advice from all sides, and now is not the time for another list. What you might like though are some wise words from two of the most impressive people I've worked with or published. David Suzuki you will all know as a passionate and charismatic environmentalist. One of his best known quotes about our current position with the environment is that we're in a big car hurtling towards a brick wall and we're all arguing about where to sit. Your generation has to be the one to turn the car round.
 
At my son's graduation I listened to Philip Adams listing his own Ten Commandments - with a publisher's cynicism I said to my wife "I bet we read this in The Australian at the weekend" - and sure enough we did. I can't remember nine of them, but the one that mattered was "You must fall in love". Philip didn't mean with someone of the opposite sex - or indeed the same sex - but that you must embrace what you do with a passion.
 
Now some of you will have already fallen in love, with other people perhaps but also with things you've learnt or studied along the way. From what I know of your courses I'm sure some of you will have already fallen in love with words, with art, with music, with topics which started as study and became more than that. Only the luckiest of you will be able to tailor your future working life what you most enjoy, but don't lose sight of your passions, nurture them, expand them, be constantly on the lookout for new ones.
 
It's been a privilege to be here today. When I look out at all of you inevitably that apparently cruel but in fact quite complex saying comes to mind "youth is wasted on the young". What it actually means of course is 1) that the young can't really appreciate what they have until they look back on it - and 2) that the old are thoroughly envious of the young. On the latter I'm happy to admit guilty as charged, on the former your presence here today shows that you're making the absolute best of the abilities and opportunities that you have,  I congratulate you and wish you every success in the future."
 

Photo: Sally Tsoutas