Conference Paper

Author

Sinnott, Don

Title

A cultural heritage of innovation? Development of over-the-horizon radar and university reform

In

Transactions of the Seventh South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Adelaide, 25 May 2018

Imprint

Engineers Australia, South Australia Division, Adelaide, 2018, pp. 1-8

Abstract

Heritage is not just about the built environment, even if we interpret 'environment' broadly to include intangibles like plans, strategies and designs: the most critical heritage we must preserve is a culture that is innovation-friendly. Without such a culture - 'the way we do things around here' - there is no basis from which heritage-worthy outcomes are produced. Those things which we deem of heritage value today, whether they be bridges, buildings, machines, systems, organisations or business practice reforms, all stem from a culture of innovation that existed at the time they were created.
South Australia (SA) has a mixed record in valuing and fostering a culture of innovation. The records of this conference over past years are replete with examples of innovative developments initiated and preserved within this State, testimony to a culture which has been supportive of innovation in the past. But there is also a largely silent record of putative developments that, in retrospect, should have been supported but which never advanced because attitudes of the time favoured conservatism over risk-taking and the status quo over change. Too often in carrying on with business-as-usual there has been blindness to change in the world at large. A truly innovative culture requires a willingness to look beyond the present and to embrace change. Of course, South Australia is not alone in having a mixed record as an innovation-friendly culture.
In this paper I compare and contrast two pioneering developments initiated in SA. One is the development from the 1970s of the Defence Science and Technology's over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) project, Jindalee, which has led to the Jindalee OTHR Network (JORN) operated by the Royal Australian Air Force. Recent announcement of a $1.2B JORN upgrade contract with BAE Systems Australia is testament to the enduring success of this development. It is an innovation worthy of celebration as SA heritage. The other development I sketch was a courageous attempt to reform and restructure the University of Adelaide in the 1950s. It met a wall of resistance and succeeded only in part at the time, so that today both its substance and its champion are little remembered or celebrated.
The champion of the in-house OTHR development project, Jindalee, was John Strath, a scientist based at the then Weapons Research Establishment at Salisbury, now the Edinburgh defence science and technology precinct of the Department of Defence. The University of Adelaide's rejected reformer was A P Rowe, the university's Vice Chancellor from 1948 to 1958. Strath's ultimate triumph and Rowe's only partial success speak a great deal about the culture - receptive to innovation or not - in which they found themselves.
Most of the background material for this paper is drawn from my recently published book and a predecessor monograph. The book is interlaced biographies of Rowe and Strath from their World War II work in the UK's radar development to their work in South Australia, Strath in OTHR, Rowe in academia. The monograph, dating from 1988, is a technical project history. By way of contrast, this paper focusses on the culture that underpinned the activity of these two men in South Australia and to a large extent determined the outcome of their endeavours.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• Transactions of the Seventh South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Adelaide, 25 May 2018 edited by Venus, Richard (Adelaide: Engineers Australia, South Australia Division, 2018), 116 pp. Details