Alan Roberts

2020

Alan Roberts bio notes, March 2020

I enjoyed ABHS well enough up to Third Year but the final two years were an ordeal that I could not get away from fast enough or far enough. I thought John Holme’s demeanour on the rostrum, in particular, was everything a grown man should not be. Hideous!

I left ABHS at the end of 1964 with the strong intention of training as an artist. In retrospect I wish I had done Architecture but my father was determined to make a businessman of me. He failed. I did the first year of the diploma course at the National Art School and would have gone on to specialize in sculpture. But during the year I saw the Sydney University Faculty of Arts Handbook which was a revelation to me. So many fascinating subjects available! I decided to do a BA first and then return to the Art diploma. But that intention changed too. I did honours in history and fell in love with historical research and writing so, after graduating, I enrolled to do an MA which was converted to a PhD.

I tutored in History at Macquarie university for a few years, then worked as a freelance historian, then got involved in archival work, as well as the arts and heritage programs of the Australian Public Service. That took me to Canberra where my family and I have lived very happily (despite Alan Bruce’s assurances to the contrary). I continue to paint and sculpt (though more as a hobby) and became a keen gardener. I also became a keen runner and ran a marathon. One was enough!

In 1973 I married Helen Treweek, another Sydney Arts graduate who became a librarian, and we had three children: Melian who became a GP (she and her husband are practice owners); Anthea a professor at the ANU (she has been named the leading scholar in the field of International Law worldwide); and Denis a professional combat athlete. He is a six-time Australian national champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, has represented Australia in eight world championships, was ranked second in the world in 2017, third in 2018, and still aims to rank No. 1. I remind him that he has only done so well because I taught him all I know! That was a good ten-minutes’ worth.

I retired from the Australian Public Service in 2004 and began a third career as an editor. That brought me some interesting work. But increasingly I have taken on managerial roles in voluntary community organisations. For the past seven years I have guided the Canberra chapter of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia.

I have also enjoyed writing historical books again: a history of a prominent First Fleeter family (the Johnstons, 2008), a history of the Australian Academy of Science building (the ‘Shine Dome’, 2010) and a history of domestic architecture in Canberra (2013) which won a prize from the Australian Institute of Architects. I am currently completing a biography of an eighteenth century Church of England clergyman which is much more interesting than you might suppose. More books to come.

I am grateful to Stig for his efforts on behalf of us Old Boys, and am glad to be in touch still with a number of old school friends, among them James Warner, Ian Chaplin, Alan Bruce, Andrew Craig, Robert Cairncross and Kim Sweeney. I’m glad to see that Ray Kench is still involved. He was my first teacher of English, back in the Hornsby days. I still treasure one nugget he taught me: the meaning of ‘wether’, as distinct from its homonyms. If you want to know, Ray said delicately that it’s a ‘male sheep minus’.