Each March, the Launceston Historical
Society organises
the John West Memorial Lecture.
The lecture is sponsored by The
Examiner newspaper
and the University of Tasmania.
The Memorial Lecture has become a major
event in the calendar for Launceston. It is held on or as
near as possible to 12 March which is the anniversary of the
first issue of The Examiner
newspaper.
The lecture was established in 1988 to honour the
Rev. John West, Congregational minister, journalist and
historian.
2010 The Examiner - John West
Memorial
Lecture
This was held on Friday 12 March, 8pm
in the Sir Raymond Ferrall Centre, University of Tasmania,
Launceston
Our speaker was: Professor Tim Flannery
He spoke on the subject:
The CPRS
– Is it right for Australia?
Tim Flannery is on a
mission. He believes that human activity is altering the
earth's climate drastically, and that
before too long these changes will have a devastating effect
on the life of our planet. He wants to mobilize social and
political will to address this problem before it is too
late.
That is why Tim Flannery wrote
The Weather Makers: How Man Is
Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth.
In this important and provocative book, which debuted on
The New York Times
bestseller
list, Flannery tells the fascinating story of climate change
over millions of years to help us understand the
predicament we
face today.
In authoritative yet accessible language,
Flannery carefully lays out the science, demonstrating the
substantial, human-induced climate change and the likely
ecological effects to the planet if this process continues.
He then proposes a game plan to halt, and ultimately
reverse, this damaging trend.
The
Weather Makers
has sold over a million copies
worldwide, and is proving to be one of the most pivotal and
influential texts in our understanding of global warming.
Previous Lectures
|
1989
|
Professor Henry Reynolds:
Tasmania's Forgotten Treaty
|
|
1990
|
Professor C M H Clark, AC:
The Writing of Australian History
|
|
1991
|
Emeritus Director Daniel Thomas, AM:
Tasmania's Contribution to the Advance of Art and Taste
|
|
1992
|
Alison Alexander, Michael Rowe and Dan
Huon:
Launceston Examined: A city and its Newspaper 1842-1992
|
|
1993
|
Dr Marilyn Lake:
Gender and History: Lady Franklin and the Masculinity
of Self-Government
|
|
1994
|
Dr Patricia Grimshaw:
Writing the History of Aboriginal and White Women in
Colonial Tasmania
|
|
1995
|
Mr Justice Michael Kirby, AC, CMG:
John West, nationhood and the millennium
|
|
1996
|
Sister Veronica Brady:
"To Set the People Free": Conviction and Conscience.
John West at the end of the Twentieth Century
|
|
1997
|
Mr Clement Mulcahy:
Sectarianism - A Blessing or a Curse: does Tasmania
have a Cromwellian Legacy?
|
|
1998
|
Mr John Lyons, Editor
The Sydney Morning Herald:
Media at the Crossroads
|
|
1999
|
Professor A G L Shaw:
John West's Tasmania
|
|
2000
|
The Honorable Sir Guy Green, AC, KBE,
Governor of Tasmania:
Constitutionalism and the Two Cultures
|
|
2001
|
Professor Geoffrey Blainey:
How Six became One: the Strange Story of the Creation
of Australia's Commonwealth
|
|
2002
|
Associate Professor Janet McCalman,
FAHA:
Via Blessington: pathways in an ecological history of
humankind
|
|
2003
|
Professor Stuart Macintyre:
The slavish violence of mere servants of the people:
John West and the problem of responsible government
|
|
2004
|
Mr Paul Brunton:
The Voyages of Abel Tasman 1642-44
|
|
2005
|
Professor Tim Bonyhady:
Louisa's legacy: an appreciation of Tasmania's first
environmental activist
|
|
2006
|
Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart:
“Unutterable”: Imagining the Macquarie Harbour Penal
Station
|
|
2007
|
Dr Michael Vertigan AC
Investment in Education - a key to Australia's future
Prosperity
|
2008
2009 |
Professor Henry Reynolds AC
What now for the Black-Arm band?
Aboriginal history after the apology
Phillip Adams
The End of the World? or
The Birth of a Better One?
|
Each of the lectures for 1989 - 2004 has been published in
the Society's annual Papers and Proceedings.
Copies of recent issues (and some earlier issues) are still
available.
John West
(17 January 1809 - 11 December 1873)
John West, the son of a Wesleyan clergyman, was raised in a
good home and had the benefit of a literary education.
Admitted to the Congregational Ministry at Thetford, Norfolk
in 1829, he served at a variety of postings over the next
decade, until being accepted by the Colonial Missionary
Society in 1838 for service in Van Diemen's Land.
Sailing from London with his wife and five young children,
West arrived at Hobart Town in December of that year. He
soon relocated to Launceston and became involved in a
struggle with the leadership of that town's existing
Congregational Church.
Not willing to accept a rural placement, West had gathered
together a second Launceston congregation. Officially
approved by the Church in 1839, West's congregation was
first based in an infant school building, moving into its
own newly constructed chapel in St John Square in September
1841. West continued to minister there for twelve years.
Widely respected and popular, West soon established himself
as one of the city's leading citizens and made many
important contributions to the colony.
In addition to undertaking his clerical responsibilities, he
is credited as being instrumental in the foundation of the
Mechanic's Institute, City Mission, the public hospital, the
general cemetery, Cornwall Insurance Co, and as a promoter
and fund-raiser for the establishment of Hobart High School.
He is notable for his association with The Examiner
newspaper, founded by fellow Congregationalists, James
Aikenhead and Jonathon Waddell and the first edition of
which was published on 12 March 1842. While the general tone
of The Examiner newspaper was more moderate than most
of its contemporaries, West successfully used its columns as
a vehicle of dissent to promote the abolition of the
transportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land.
West emerged as a leader in the fight against transportation
in early 1847 and during the following three years of
campaigning concluded that locally based protest did little
to sway the opinion of the British government.
Recognising the need to extend the anti-transportation
movement's influence if the campaign was to succeed, West
won acceptance at a Launceston protest meeting in August
1850 to seek the co-operation of abolitionists throughout
Australia. Over subsequent months West toured to promote
this cause, his efforts culminating in the formation of the
'Australasian League for the Prevention of Transportation'
in late 1851.
The anti-transportation cause was further promoted by the
publication in 1852 of West's two-volume book, The
History of Tasmania. Aimed primarily at providing an
account of the colony's transportation system, the text is
also significant, from an historical perspective, for
providing a comprehensive, accurate and relatively unbiased
chronicle of Tasmania's history since European settlement.
Through his writings in the newspaper, West contributed much
to the debate on political, educational, religious and
cultural issues of the day. For example, in 1854 a series of
sixteen articles on federation (which has since been
described as the first scientific treatment of this topic in
Australia) was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
The same year John Fairfax, the owner and another
Congregationalist, invited him to become the Editor of
The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax had first met West in
the early 1850s during the anti-transportation campaign and
was impressed by his leadership in this campaign as well as
his stance on many political and religious issues.
Throughout West's life he showed himself to be a man
dedicated to many causes, and was motivated not by material
remuneration, but by what be believed to be morally right.
Through his writings, he contributed much to the debate on
political, educational, religious and cultural issues of the
day.
References:
-
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 2,
1788-1850, I-Z, Carlton: Melbourne University Press,
1967.
-
John West,
The History of Tasmania, ed. by A G L
Shaw, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1971.
-
John West’s Union of the Colonies: Essays on
Federation, ed. by Patricia Fitzgerald Ratcliff,
Launceston: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, 2000.
-
The Usefulness of John West: Dissent and Differences
in the Australian Colonies, Patricia Fitzgerald
Ratcliff, Launceston: The Albernian Press, Launceston,
2003.
