Photo: Dr Richard Flood (left) with Professor Kevin Jameson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at last week’s staff anniversary event.

Dr Richard Flood, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, was recently recognised for 50 years of service at Macquarie University. Here he reflects on those very early Macquarie days, and how far we’ve come.

I came to Macquarie early 1968 as a tutor/demonstrator when the University was a construction site.

The western wing of 12WW stood proudly close to the bitumen of the old intersection of Waterloo and Balaclava Roads and an old red phone booth.  Much of the rest of campus was dotted with the houses of the market gardener families who had once owned the land. 

In a relatively few years the central part of campus changed to look much as it does today. Under the oversight of the late Wally Abraham (of “Wally’s Walk”) – who was the Architect Planner – the ring roads were constructed and most of the now beautiful trees were planted.

1967 was a year that might have been considered to be the worst possible year to have the first intake of students at Macquarie. The year five Leaving Certificate had changed to the year six Higher School Certificate in 1966, so in theory there were no new school graduates. But the student numbers were good with most, I suspect, having graduated from school a few years earlier.

 Many of the Executive and academics at Macquarie in those early years wanted to get away from many of the practices of the older universities. It probably fair to say the older universities have, over the years, changed some of their ways to be more like Macquarie and that, with age, Macquarie has moved back to be more like the older universities.

For me being an academic at Macquarie has been very enjoyable, in large part due to the kindness of the other staff and the niceness of the students.

To all who have been so nice and helpful to me over the years I say thank you very much.

~ Dick Flood