Scotch College

Australia Day Honours 2009

The Scotch Family congratulates the following Old Scotch Collegians and members of the Scotch Family who received Australia Day honours in 2009.

Words: Mr David Ashton Coat of Arms: Wikimedia

Australia Day awards are made to people who have served their profession, their community or their country with distinction – and without the thought that one day they might receive this kind of recognition for their efforts.

Dr Ronald Bertram Cullen AO

Ronald, a past Scotch parent, received his award for service to public administration in Victoria through the development of innovative management practices and organisational change.

Christopher Lloyd Bowen OAM

Christopher (’74) received his award for service to choral music as a composer, conductor and director, particularly through the Sydney University Graduate Choir, and to music education.

Adrian Roy Twitt OAM

Adrian, a past Scotch parent, received his award for service to the community of Wangaratta through a range of community and charitable organisations.

Alex Buchanan AM

Alex (’51) received his award for service to food science and technology, particularly through research supporting aid programs in the South-East Asia region, and to the community.

Alex is a retired food technologist and scientist. He studied agriculture and science as a 1959–60 ambassadorial scholar at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, USA. His research has led to improvements in food production to support developing nations and emergency relief activities. Among Alex’s accomplishments are the development of the Australian milk biscuit, a high-protein biscuit used by the Australian government and many Rotary clubs for emergency food aid, and the creation of affordable, nutritionally balanced infant food for health centres in Thailand. Alex also helped implement the first successful cooperative food research projects between Australia and the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

A devoted Rotarian, Buchanan helps to manage Rotary’s Royce and Jean Abbey Endowment Fund, and has been awarded the 2008–09 Rotary Foundation Global Alumni Service to

Humanity Award. The award was created to honour outstanding former foundation program participants whose extraordinary service to humanity and professional achievements exemplify the Rotary ideal of ‘service above self’. In 2003, Alex received the Australian Government’s Centenary Medal ‘for service to Australian society in food science and technology’.

Michael Naphtali AM

Michael (’65) received his award for service to the community through executive roles with environmental, sporting, educational and Jewish organisations.

Michael graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degree and obtained an MBA from the University of Chicago. He began his consultancy operation, Hind Consulting and Investment Pty Ltd, in 1993 and established Hindal Corporate soon after. He has acted as a key adviser and business consultant, predominantly to large private clients. Michael was the co-chairman and co-founder of Hindal from 1996 until it was acquired by Credit Suisse in May 2008. He is now an executive director with Credit Suisse.

Michael was formerly chief executive and a director of the Pratt Group, in which he was involved in the group’s rapid expansion in Australia and overseas. Prior to joining the Pratt Group, Michael was a director of Hill Samuel Australia Ltd (the predecessor to Macquarie Bank).

Among Michael’s numerous community and charitable activities, he is a director of Jirrawun Arts and the Yachad Accelerated Learning Project. He is immediate past president of the Jewish National Fund Inc of Australia, past president of the Victoria division of JNF, a former committee member of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, and formerly deputy president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to the community. Michael’s sons David (’92) and Paul (’93) both attended Scotch.

Philip Pullar OAM

Philip (’57) received his award for service to agriculture, particularly through the development of the canned fruit industry, to the community of Cobram, and to the sport of diving.

Philip Pullar has had a major involvement with the fruit industry, including as a member and former president of the Cobram Fruit Growers’ Association, the Victorian Peach and Apricot Growers’ Association, the Victorian Canning Fruit Growers’ Council and the Australian Canning Fruit Growers’ Association. He has been chairman of the Fruit Industrial Committee and the Australian Canned Fruit Industry Council.

Philip was a councillor at the Shire of Cobram from 1976 to 1982, including a term as shire president. Among many other community activities, he is president of the Cobram Hospital board of management, a past member of the advisory committee of the Tatura Research Institute, a member and former president of the Cobram Development Committee, current chairman of the Moira Healthcare Alliance, and a past president of the Cobram Barooga Golf Club.

He has been a board member of Diving Australia since 1990, and was its chairman from 1996 to 2008, presiding over the most successful period in Australian diving history, when Australian divers won a total of 10 Olympic medals at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Games – two gold, two silver and six bronze. One of the medallists is Philip’s son, Dean (’90), who won bronze in synchronised springboard diving at Sydney in 2000. Philip’s other son, Andrew (’86) is also an old Scotch boy.

Jock Wallis OAM and Margaret Wallis OAM

Jock (’42) received his award for service to the community of Seymour through contributions to natural resource management, historical and service organisations.

Jock is one of three generations of the Wallis family to attend Scotch College as boarders – it began with Jock’s father, Alfred (1911), followed by Jock (’42) and then Jock’s sons, Richard (’71) and Andrew (’73 – who died in 1989). Jock grew up on the family property, ‘Fairholm’, at Seymour and returned to it to help his father during the war. Jock’s passion in farming has been pastures, care of the land and the environment, which led to his involvement in groups and courses before many farming organisations were formalised. Seminars and field days often held in conjunction with agricultural societies were held on his home property, ‘Eastwood’. This led to the creation of organisations such as the Grassland Society of Victoria, which became the Grassland Society of Southern Australia. Jock was an inaugural member, state chairman and is a life member. He was also inaugural chairman of the first Landcare group set up in Victoria after the devastating floods of 1973–74, and a founding member of the Shire of Mitchell environmental steering committee, as well as a member of the Salinity Program Advisory Council.

Margaret, a past Scotch parent (and Jock Wallis’s wife) received her award for service to the community of Seymour through contributions to aged care, social family welfare and historical organisations.

Margaret’s area of interest and involvement has been in establishing Karingal Hostel for the aged at Seymour, and after 45 years of service she has recently resigned from the board of management, having seen it grow to a 36-bed hostel with plans for future development. Her other major involvement was as chairman of a committee set up to establish the Seymour and District Community House. GS