Reality,Risk,Relevance: A Choice of Paths for the Eighties

Abstract

T his paper was delivered at Murdoch University as the Seventh Walter Murdoch Lecture on 18 September, 1980. It has been printed by Murdoch University and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the University and Sir Roderick. Carnegie.

Walter Murdoch, like my own great grandfather, left Scot land to settle in a far country.

He brought to people all over Australia a civilised and con tinuing influence through his writing. He did not admire tradi tional oratory. Nor do I. As he said, "Take rhetoric and wring its neck ". Tonight, I want to give you not professional speechmaking, but a sober look at some choices.

Reality — to be faced. Risk — to be accepted. Relevance — to be judged toughly and competitively.

Most of you will not have known that after graduating, Murdoch did precisely what other young men of his genera tion did in other fields, even without the then rarity of a university degree.

He started his own private school at Camberwell in Melbourne. It failed after three years; . But for that very reason perhaps he understood more about small and large business, and the realities of risk, than most Australian teachers before or since.

Partly for that reason, what he taught and wrote for more than haft a century still often has particular relevance, and wisdom, and lasting freshness. to ine.