The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 46

'The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, December 8, 1990 PECTRUM UNIVMY OF MOM DREAMS The saga of mother love It's a private university that will cater for 19 students. Yet the Government has spent millions finding land and refurbishing buildings for it. valerie lawson explains how a college became a university, and how it is a vital link in the Fairfax family dream for a super suburb. I 1 JJ laWd to be developed gfe vCS by Greenfields 1 Camden JL Campfaelrtown HARRINGTON PARK fSOr' JbAJm kmht Rur? "SMSrKa Proposed Scenic Protection Area ResIdentiabJEZV Harrington Park Sfessr zoning ffjy vhomeuead buying Oran Park which is owned by brothers Tony and Ron Perich. The Perich brothers had wanted to upgrade Oran Park to be "something akin to the new Eastern Creek race track," said John Mullane, former chief planner with Camden Council.

Mr Mullane, who nows works for the Perich family as general manager of one of their companies, Greenfields Developments, added that "there was some support in the council for that but nothing could be done because of the rural zoning of that area. There was obvious concern about it in the Fairfax camp." The Perichs made it clear that if Oran Park represented a problem to the Fairfaxes, "they could buy (It is understood the price was about $10 million and they declined.) Subsequently, said Mr Mullane, "the Government established a task force look at the need for a sophisticated motor racing complex with a view to letting Oran Park wind down. Eastern Creek was developed as a result." The Eastern Creek international motor racing circuit, which opened last month, was built with help of $32 million in NSW Government loans and guarantees to its developers. In October 1986, Tailer Investments applied to Camden Council for a rezoning of the remaining land at Harrington Park, but six months later, this was rejected. During that six-month period, in January 1987, Sir Warwick died.

Early in 1988, The Daily Telegraph announced on page one that "Sydney is to get its first private university, and it will be built in the western suburbs. The university will be at Camden on 40 hectares of land donated by Lady Fairfax, widow of the late media chief Sir Warwick. Premier Barrie Unsworth, an enthusiastic supporter of the plan, is due to announce details on February 3." Said one of Lady Fairfax's advisers: "The university was leverage to get the local community to support the satellite city she planned there." Originally, Lady Fairfax had asked Harvard University if it would be interested in establishing a branch of its business school, but it declined. Lady Fairfax then turned to the University of Rochester. She had met Mr William E.

Simon in Brisbane at a lunch hosted by Mr Bruce Judge, former chairman of Ariadne. Mr Simon, a former US Treasury Harrington Park homestead DEVELOPMENTS USTRALIA'S newest private university is due to open at Watsons Bay, on the lore- shores of Svdnev Harbour. on January 11, 1991. "We i .1 nave pabbcu me go no go stage," says Peter IvanofT, director of the Australian Simon University. "No go was fewer than 15 students.

The university has scraped into "go with just 19. University is perhaps too grand a word for this latest product on Australia's tertiary education market. The Australian Simon University is a postgraduate business school which is targeting the employers of mid-career executives who would benefit from studying for a Master of Business Administration (MBA). The university has a hefty price tag on its 19-month one-day-a-week course $49,000. The idea is for the company to pay for its executives courses.

It's been a long and winding road fro RfmieF Unsworth's 1988 announcement of a new Australian S7moh University in Camden with an intake of 250 students, to the university's actual opening day plans at Watsons Bay with 19 students. The institution was conceived as part of a Fairfax family land development and grew as a byproduct of government care and cultivation of a powerful media family. But the size and scope of the planned university shrivelled as it ran into numerous obstacles among them, the takeover of the John Fairfax Group, the recession, new competition and personal feuds. The Simon University is coming onto the market as two other private universities are also in strife. Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle can no longer count on the support of its former financial backer, Mr Denis Kbrgan, of the troubled Barrack House group.

It is going cap in hand to the Catholic community for funds to allow An adventurer's paradise. But if Mr Simon has been no help at all, NSW governments, both Liberal and Labor, could not have done more. The Greiner Government is allowing the university the use of buildings on land controlled by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. And it has paid for the refurbishment of the former Army buildings which have been redesigned in Art Deco style by Peddle Thorp and Walker at a cost of $2.7 million. (The alterations were made possible through a special grant from the NSW' Treasury.) Landscaping and drainage on the site will not be completed until at least May.

This will cost a further $160,000. At the moment, only two people work for the university Mr IvanofT, former chief manager, executive resources, at Westpac, and Ms Helen Bowler, univer- A PROFESSIONAL FUTURE lUmSI IMMIHftllBar UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY SOUTH CREEK VALLEY it to open in 1992. The Bond University, short of money and students, is burdened with the name of the floundering Mr Alan Bond and is closing one of its schools. All three universities were originally part of bigger land development programs conceived by three people Lady Fairfax, Mr Denis Horgan and Mr Alan Bond. Just as Notre Dame is an offshoot of the famous Indiana university, the Australian Simon University is an outpost of the University of Rochester's William E.

Simon business school, named after the former US Treasury boss William E. Simon. But although Mr Simon has lent the school his name, he has donated no money. Not only that, he has fallen out with the Australian university's sole benefactor, Lady Fairfax. Lie No.

1418 HAST of the Stephen Roberts Theatre From the summit of Mt. Kinabalu the view was breathtaking. The late afternoon sun illuminated the dense rainforest canopy below one of the highlights of my recent Borneo exploratory trip" Richard corbett, Aug 90 To discover more about our special departure in sity registrar. They occupy the university's main building, a former officers mess, built in 1936 and abandoned in 1979. Sited on top of Gap Bluff, within the Sydney Harbour National Park, the building is close to the naval base, HMAS Watson, and South Head.

Every Friday, from January 11, the students will attend lectures here and eat lunch in the adjacent building, known as The Armoury. Among the companies or institutions paying for students to attend the course are Goodman Fielder Wattie, Westpac, Coca-Cola Amatil, Barclays Bank, GIO, QBE, the Salvation Army, IBM and St George Building Society. One member of the Simon University council is lawyer Mr John Landerer, who is also a director of Goodman Fielder Wattie. Mr Landerer joined the Good news travels fast And the good news for the travel industry is that The Svdnev Momma Herald publishes an exciting weekly travel section. Trawl Leisure each Thursday Travel Leisure will oro-vtde just the information Herald readers need to oian their destinations, how to get there, and what to do when they arrive From the Oktoberfest to the Rio carnival.

Travel Leisure has it all And advertisers can have it all by SlXinA.y!? Williams a call on 82 2441 But hurry Like we said, good news travels fast, and so will soace in this great new section. Travel A Leisure. May '91, join me for a FREE FILM NIGHT Wednesday, 12 December at 6.30 pm. Call us to reserve your seat. Ph.

(02) 264 3366 The three year undergraduate diploma course, offered by the North Shore and Kuring-gai Campuses, provides a comprehensive preparation for professional nursing practice in hospital and community settings, and prepares graduates for Registration with the NSW Nurses Registration Board. CLINICAL EXPERIENCE This dynamic programme includes clinical experience in a wide range of major teaching hospitals, peripheral hospitals, community centres, nursing homes and long-term care centres. TO APPLY Enquiries should be made through the Kuring-gai Campus. (A fee of $55 is charged for all late applications.) No HECS fees apply to this course. INFORMATION EVENINGS North Shore Campus from 6pm Wednesday 12 December 1990 UTS Building a new tradition in Nursing Excellence 128090 CTT3 HE origins of the Australian I Simon University go back to the 1970s when the Askin Government began to think about the decentralisation of Sydney and Lady Fairfax began to think about the future of her son, Warwick.

Lady Fairfax always maintained that the university would eventually move to land controlled by her at Camden, south-west of Sydney. It would be built on 40 hectares within the 800-hectare Harrington Park, the historic Camden estate purchased in 1956 for 97,937 ($195,874) by her late husband, Sir Warwick Fairfax, as a grazing property. When Lady Fairfax became Sir Warwick's third wife in 1959, he was chairman of John Fairfax and Sons Ltd, but in 1976 he was deposed in a boardroom coup and replaced by his son from his first marriage, James Fairfax. The Fairfax family split into two camps: Sir Warwick Fairfax-Lady Fairfax-Warwick, and the Rest. At that time, Sir Warwick and Lady Fairfax decided to seek the subdivision and sale of part of Harrington Park, owned by the Fairfax family company, Tailer Investments.

This was a holding company for a maze of Fairfax family trusts. Some of the proceeds perhaps $30 million to $45 million could then be used to help young Warwick Fairfax increase his shareholding in John Fairfax and Sons. The Harrington Park land was zoned rural. A redevelopment would mean a rezoning to urban. To help achieve this, Lady Fairfax made many approaches to both ALP and Liberal Party politicians, including then Premier Mr Neville Wran.

She and her husband recruited Mr Marty Dougherty, a former editor and public relations man, to act as their day-to-day go-between and lobbyist. A town planner, Mr Rod Pegus of Pegus and Peddle Thorp and Walker, was appointed in 1980 to design the redevelopment. Said Mr Pegus: "I was originally engaged by Sir Warwick but she Lady Fairfaxl had quite an active influence." Mr Pegus said the proposed redevelopment, which he saw as a mini-city of shops, schools and houses, would have been a natural component of the New Cities Plan, drawn up in 1973 by the NSW State Planning Authority. This called for the development into one satellite city of Camden and Appin. "The first town to be developedl Simn University the next was to be Camden, and Harrington Park formed part of Camden.

The (rural) land had to be rezoned urban and this is where I was involved." Mr Pegus added that "the Unsworth Government and then Greiner got right behind" the Harrington Park development. Why were they so keen to help? Throughout the 1980s, the ALP, particularly the Wran Government and the Federal Treasurer, Paul Keating, believed that the Fairfax press took a particularly critical stance towards them. The advisers say that Sir Warwick and Lady Fairfax indicated to a number of politicians that if their side of the family regained control of John Fairfax and Sons, the style of journalism practised by Fairfax papers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and the now defunct National Times would change. The Fairfaxes' first plan was for a Malaysian developer, understood to be Ipoh Gardens, to fund and build the Harrington Park subdivision, but this fell through. Mr John Mullane, former chief planner for Camden Council, said that later potential developers with the Fairfaxes were the Japanese company EIE, Kevin Parry, IEL (a company then run by Sir Ronald Brierley and whose board then included Lady Fairfax), Hooker and Jennings.

The redevelopment plan upset local residents so much that in 1982, Camden Council initiated a commission of inquiry on the use of the land. The commissioner decided that 320 hectares almost half of the Harrington Park land could be rezoned urban. This was in the south-east corner of the estate and surrounded by land to the north and west which was still zoned rural (see map). Within the rezoned land was the Georgian-style Harrington Park homestead, built in the 1830s. Lady Fairfax decided to retain this house along with 40 hectares around it.

Despite the commissioner's findings, the NSW Minister for Planning rejected urban zoning for any part of Harrington Park. However, in August 1986, one month after Mr Barrie Unsworth succeeded Mr Wran as Premier, approval was granted by the State Government for the development. The NSW Minister for Planning in 1986 was Mr Bob Carr who told the Herald: "From memory, the Fairfaxes had been knocked back before because of the cost to the Water Board lfor services to Harrington Park. That was resolved when the Fairfaxes accepted responsibility for funding provision of the water andor sewerage." Tailer Investments committed almost $5 million for the provision of this service. The Government's change of heart was announced in August 1986 through a press release written by Mr Dougherty.

He explained that Tailer had won rezoning approval and that the newly developed land would contain an "executive housing development" of 2,800 home sites. Despite the announcement, nothing happened. The Fairfaxes wanted to develop the entire site. As well, they were not prepared to pay for the redevelopment themselves and potential developers baulked at the cost. One major problem throughout the negotiations was the proximity to Harrington Park of the motor racing circuit, Oran Park.

The noise from Oran Park would make any residential development impossible. It already irritated locals. At one stage, the Fairfaxes considered BftUiaijijHjMiljljMililililtf TJ0K1LD EXPEDITIONS council this year on the invitation of Bridge Oil executive chairman Mr Robert Strauss, who was appointed chairman of the council in February. The two men are personal friends. Mr Strauss was not the university's first chairman.

He replaced Mr John Reid, chairman of James Hardie Group. Mr Reid did not want to discuss the university with the Herald. Another council member who resigned this year is Mr Gerry Gleeson, former head of the NSW Premier's Department Mr Gleeson said he left the Simon University council because of his commitments to the new Australian Catholic University where he is a member of the interim senate. Mr Gleeson is a financial adviser to Lady Fairfax. The other council members are Mr Peter Dodd, until recently executive director of Mr Malcolm Turnbull's merchant bank Tumbull and Partners but now with merchant bank Fay Rich white; Mr James Beatty, a partner in the law firm Baker and McKenzie; Mr Greg Lindsay, executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies; Mr Maurice Newman, chairman of Bain and Co; Mr Steven Rich, chairman of his family investment company Beaulieu Holdings; and Mr Andrew Kaldor, managing director of computer and typewriter ribbon company Columbia Pelikan.

Mr IvanofT says 30 per cent of the faculty will be local lecturers; however no-one based in Australia has yet been appointed. Within the past three weeks, two US members of the faculty of the Simon School of the University of Rochester have been to Sydney the acting dean, Professor Charles Plosser, and associate Professor Dick Schiavo. Asked whether they were fundraising for the university, Mr IvanofT said: "We met some organisations in terms of marketing our program." The Australian Simon University is competing with 25 other institutions offering MBA courses in Australia and is the most expensive although Mr IvanofT is at pains to point out that any company paying for his or her employee to do this course still has the services of that person four days a week. They study on Fridays only at the university and at home after work and on the weekends. (The MBA course at the University of NSW's Australian Graduate School of Management is SI 8,000.

The new full-time MBA course which starts next year at Macquarie University will cost $28,750.) What happens to the university the remainder of the time? From Monday to Thursday the buildings will "go into Gap Bluff conference says Mr Ivanoff. According to Mr Peter Shadie, the acting superintendent of the Sydney metropolitan area of the National -Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the university itself will market its premises for outside use and the "NPWS will retain a proportion of the revenue from that The terms of the university's lease are not being revealed. It is paying an undisclosed amount for use of the buildings under what Mr Shadie calls "a four-year licence agreement dated from the beginning of January 1990. The licence will expire at the end of 1993. The licence requirement is that the university offers the use of the buildings as a conference centre for four days." The three parties to the agreement will be the Minister for the Environment, Mr Moore, the director of the NPWS, Mr Bill Gillooly, and the university.

"It hasn't been executed yet," said Mr Shadie. "There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over the terms of the licence. It's tied up with the legal people." Perhaps to appease local residents, who have objected to the new university, a public walkway to South Head from Gap Bluff has recently been opened at a cost to the NPWS of $114,000. The licence arrangement varies considerably from the plan announced by the Greiner Government in July 1988. Then, the Premier said the university would operate at Watsons Bay for two days a week and that the buildings would be used on other days as an "environmental education centre" run by the NPWS.

Mr Greiner said the buildings would be refurbished at a cost of $1.5 million $1 million provided by the NPWS and $500,000 from the Simon University. Woollahra Council maintained that under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, the university was not permitted under the area's parkland zoning. But the Government bypassed the council by using its powers under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. The NPWS wrote to the council saying that according to clause 1 la of the State Environmental Planning Policy No. 4, it did not need the council's approval of the application.

The council then appealed, unsuccessfully, to the Land and Environment Court. The court ruled that the Minister for the Environment and the director of the NPWS had the power to allow the university to use park land. Mr Greg Woodhams, chief town planner at Woollahra Council, said last week that the council has appealed this decision. The appeal would be heard in the Supreme Court early next year. The Greiner Government has also helped the university in another way.

In 1989, it changed the original status of the Simon school from a university college to a university in its own right. This allowed donations to the university to be tax deductable under the Income Tax Assessment Act. The only donation the university has yet received is from Lady Fairfax who has committed $3 million, according to her public relations adviser, Mr Murray Williams. The director of the university, Mr IvanofT, says he does not expect any other benefactors to come forward. He added that Lady Fairfax had paid for the fixtures and fittings of the university buildings.

Jt3L Enquiries JEAN OLSEN Phone 41 3-81 32 Kuring-Gai Campus (Eton Rd, LindfiekJ) CAROL CANNANE Phone 436-6268 North Shore Campus (Cnr Reserve Rd Pacific Highway, St Leonards) Thar' mora to lift with THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY 1 mm0 11 -m DR. RUPERT SHELDRAKE Author of "A New Science of "The Presence of the and "The Rebirth of Scientist and International Lecturer will give a PUBLIC LECTURE "THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST" WEDNESDAY 12TH DECEMBER, 1990 AT 8.00 pm. STEPHEN ROBERTS THEATRE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Secretary, was a director of Ariadne until 1988. He told Lady Fairfax he would back the university but. at no stage did he commit himself 4, financially.

At the building at The Gap. which formally launched the university, in February 1988, the dean of the Simon School in the US, Dr Paul MacAvoy, indicated that the school was looking for donations of $20 million towards its buildings. In August 1987, eight months after Sir Warwick's death. Lady Fairfax's son, Warwick, made a takeover bid for John Fairfax and Sons Ltd. In order to privatise the company, he borrowed $2 billion which was partly refinanced with the help of Mr Simon.

Mr Simon's company, WSGP International, helped in the $450 million junk bond component of the refinancing of the company in January last year. Mr Simon became a director of the John Fairfax Group in July 1989; however, he resigned four months later, worried about the state of the company and about his own financial liability as! a director. Mr Simon makes no secret of the fact that he thinks Lady Fairfax and her son are in trouble md she knows that he is critical of her. Lady Fairfax referred all questions about the university to Mr Robert Strauss, the chairman of the university council. He does not appear to be interested in the Harrington Park history or future of the venture.

Mr Strauss told the Herald: "I was never in favour of Camden. It's essentially a postgraduate course you can't get people to go to Camden." However, it seems Lady Fairfax is pressing ahead with her Harrington Park redevelopment plans. Last July, Camden Council displayed a plan for upgrading most of Harrington Park's rural land along its northern elevated boundary, to a "scenic protection Camden Council's chief planner, Mr, Ian Power, said this provoked "an objection by the owners of the This year, says the Mayor of Camden, Ms Liz Kernohan, "we've all been approached by Mr Pegusl as a group of aldermen with a plan for the urban development of the rest of the Harrington Park. I personally believe it should not be done." The council is to vote on the rezoning of the rural land before it adjourns for Christmas, on December 10. Mr Gerry Gleeson, Lady Fairfax's adviser, said the council's plan was not a problem.

"Only part of Stage 2 of the planned redevelopment) was proposed as scenic protection." Harrington Park is adjacent to the proposed new satellite city: South Creek Valley, which stretches across 11,000 hectares (10 to 15 per cent of it owned by the Perich family), from Oran Park in the south, to the outskirts of Penrith in the north (see map). The NSW Department of Planning has a South Creek Valley unit which is working on plans for the area to become a city of up to 200,000 people. In a background paper prepared by the unit a year ago, the department says South Creek Valley will capitalise on the "excellent tertiary educational facilities" being developed there, including the William E. Simon School which "will be located at Harrington Park in 1992 on land donated by Lady Mary Fairfax." The Government now waits, slightly Impatiently, for Lady Fairfax to build the university and find a developer for the rezoned portion of Harrington Park land which Is appreciating in value and now worth $28 million to $35 million. 2J MB One can look at wine, talk about wine, write about wine, even philosophise about wine, but there's only one sure way of telling how good it is, and that's to drink some.

So if you haven't yet had the pleasure of tasting the Rothbury range of wines, don't hesitate any longer. They don't just represent Australian wine making skills at their finest, but are wonderfully good value. U.S.A. wine guru Robert Parker was prompted to say of our Chardonnay; "It is bursting with rich, buttery, apple-like fruit Normally Chardonnay of this calibre costs a lot At 7.00 pm there will be a booklaunch in the Dr SheldraKe new Dook, I ne Keoirtn ot Nature The PROOF of the Pudding The superb Cowra Chardonnay is available from the Qsdney Foyer 'Fractals, Chaos and Computer Imagery: from science to perception and art' A free public talk by Dr Richard Voss (IBM USA) CThe man behind the beautiful fractal images of Mandelbrot) An introduction to fractals using computer-generated images, animation and music. Tuesday December 1 1, 5pm Clancy Auditorium University of NSW, Kensington Enter the world of chaotic imagery Further information: (02) 697 4713 No bookings Tickets at door THE ESTATE.