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Issues from 1998
Issues from 1998
 
 
 
 

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Darvall primus and secondus (’58) honoured

Each recipient of a Queen’s Birthday honour has served his or her local community, profession, institution or industry with distinction. The Darvall cousins have made outstanding contributions to education and the legal profession.

Peter Darvall

Peter retired from Monash University after 33 years in 2003 and held a number of senior leadership positions at Monash University, including Vice-Chancellor and President of the University. At Monash, he successively served as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He became Pro Vice-Chancellor in 1993, and was Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1993 until his appointment as Vice-Chancellor in 2002. Peter has written four books, edited two other books, and has published over 100 papers on structural engineering, engineering education and higher education.

He has held visiting appointments at overseas universities, has served on many Monash academic councils and outside boards, and has acted as a consultant to industry and government.

Peter is very active in retirement. Among many other activities, he is on the board of Melbourne Water, and chairs the Victorian panel for the General Sir John Monash Foundation Awards – an Australian equivalent of the Rhodes Scholarships. He also chairs the Australian Synchrotron Beamline Managing Trustees and the Monash Engineering Foundation.

Tony Darvall

Tony is a sole practitioner, working from the offices of the litigation group of national law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Melbourne. Tony is a lawyer whose interests and experience include management, non-executive directorships and community involvement. A partner of Corrs Chamber Westgarth from 1967 to 2002, Tony was appointed Melbourne managing partner of the firm in 1995, and spent two and a half years leading the firm’s Victorian operation. He has now retired from the firm.

Tony’s business involvements have included Member, Melbourne City Link Authority, Deputy Chairman, Southern & Eastern Integrated Transport Authority, Chairman, VicUrban, Chairman, Werribee Park Advisory Board and Commissioner, Essential Services Commission.

Among many legal positions Tony has been Member and Chairman, Legal Practitioners Liability Committee, Foundation Member and Chairman, Melbourne University Law School Foundation, Senior Advisor to the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, and Relationship Partner for some of the firm’s major clients. His community interests include Member of the Ethics Committee of the Royal Melbourne Research Foundation, Deputy President, Australia’s Open Garden Scheme Ltd, Chairman, Maud Gibson Trust, and Deputy Chair, Appeals Committee, Brotherhood of St Lawrence.

Peter gave Great Scot some insights into school days with his cousin: ‘Tony and I were in the same year level at Scotch, and once in the same class. That was in Form 2 in 1954, ‘Cakey’ Adams’ class (53 years ago, and the phrase ‘forty years on’ always seemed so far away!) .

‘Cakey used to call us ‘Darvall primus’ and ‘Darvall secundus’, with Tony of course being ‘primus’, since he was more mature, taller and more handsome. It was thought at that time that we were both headed for the law, but I diverged and became a structural engineer, lost in academe.

‘There are some parallels, and further differences. Tony has a property at Dromana, beautifully laid out, put together and presented: indeed ‘primus’. My place at Flinders is run down and needs a lot of work, which I am happy to put in, over time: indeed ‘secundus’.’ GS

The following recipient of an Australia Day Honour was accidentally omitted from the May issue of Great Scot:

Member of the Order of Australia

Simon Roger Balderstone AO (’71)

For service to environmental protection and Indigenous affairs, to the Olympic movement, and to the community through organisations providing health, education, cultural and development assistance services.

Updated: Monday 24 June 2013