Professor Tom Hillard looks back over half a century

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It’s been almost half a century since Associate Professor Tom Hillard first started at Macquarie, but he’s not quite done yet.


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs he hands over his teaching reins and embarks on full-time research on an exciting project initially funded by the late great Australian author Colleen McCullough, we asked Tom to reflect on his teaching career and the changes he’s witnessed at Macquarie – both inside and outside the classroom.

What’s changed since you arrived at Macquarie?
Most of all, in those early days, there was the sense of intellectual excitement and fervour in the air: the University was growing and developing, and everyone was looking for opportunities, which were plentiful. Everyone was thinking about where they could take things, which made for an exciting environment.
The physical landscape has totally transformed. When I first came out here in 1969 from the University of Sydney, I could have wept. Sydney, with its elegant sandstone, prompts a sense of privilege (whether deserved or not), but out here, we just had three buildings: W6A and W6B, E7A and E7B, fairly ‘brutalist’ in style, and the original library [now the MUSE building].
At that time, walking between the buildings felt like quite a trek – partly because the ground all along was mud and clay. I remember that Wally Abraham – who Wally’s Walk was named after – explained that the brown and grey of the bricks and cement of the buildings was chosen to replicate the Australian bush.
It’s now, of course, a beautiful campus, but in those early days it was a very different place.
What will you miss the most?
 I’m going to miss the excitement that comes from teaching – one of my favourite things about teaching has been the give-and-take of classes. I always love being interrupted in class, especially with questions to which I don’t immediately know the answer and falling further and further behind in the lectures because of the conversations that I’d have with the students. I will miss the buzz of teaching, and being a part of that. Macquarie’s early commitment to small-group teaching in the tutorials (something that universities cannot afford these days) was, I think, a magical part of my early working life. It meant that you got to know your students well.
What will you be working on?
A large grant was given to the University many years ago by Colleen McCullough, with the aim of producing a Dictionary of ancient Roman biography. A series of Colleen’s novels were set in Rome’s Late Republic, and her keen interest in the period — together with her close association with my colleague Professor Alanna Nobbs — led to this donation.
The research I do, alongside my colleague and partner (in life and academe), Dr Lea Beness, is largely focussed on the politics of that era, so, apart from an archeological site in northern Greece that very much excites us (above and below water), we’re working on that; at this stage, we’re looking at multiple volumes that will take years to finish. The great regret is that Colleen hasn’t lived to see the full project come to life.
I’m really looking forward to going into research full-time; I still have things in manila folders that haven’t been digitised, so I’m looking forward to going through all of them page by page!

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  1. Tom was a colleague and friend when I was in Englist at Macquarie from 1973 till 1989 when I left to take a chair at UWA. Recently he taught my youngest son who enrolled at Macquarie but could not complete for health reasons. Throughout and since Tom was the most responsive, sensitive and inspiring teacher. My son speaks of him with real affection and huge respect. Why am I not surprised? Because I too remember Tom in the exact same way. Research has gained but teaching at Macquarie has lost one of the truly wonderful practitioners of a dying and increasingly sidelined art…face to face inspiring teaching and student commitment. Also not a bad cricketer as I remember from the odd History v Library clash when I got called on as a ring in for 0ne of the sides who were shorthanded.
    Ave Tom
    Enjoy the rest of a great career.

  2. A great scholar and human being! Thankfully, I’m sure he’ll still be sighted around the department, but his teaching will be sorely missed.

  3. There will only ever be one TOM HILLARD at Macquarie – not in name, but in the highest spirit of personal dedication to teaching and research excellence and collegial engagement.

  4. Dear Tom

    all the best with ‘retirement’ into full-time research – look forward to catching up – we too are transitioning into adjunct roles ….

  5. Tom was one of my Rome studies lecturers years ago and I always loved his classes! Being a staff member myself made my time on campus even more interesting.

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