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C ouncil N ews

King’s Birthday Honours 2023

Photograph, Jax Moussa Photography Photograph, Astrid Ackermann

MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION
OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

Ms Rita Erlich AM (1966) Professor Liza Lim AM (1984)
For significant service to the tourism and hospitality For significant service to the performing arts as a
industry in Victoria. music composer and academic.

I was at JCH on a non-resident scholarship in the late 1960s. I was a resident at Janet Clarke Hall in 1984. I’d been awarded
That gave me access to tutorials and some meals at the a JCH scholarship and College life felt quite familiar as I’d
College. Sometimes I wished I had been a resident (although previously been a boarder at Presbyterian Ladies’ College
perhaps not, at that time, for the food) because the mood of (Burwood). JCH was already a co-ed College by then but
the College was of goodwill, learning and encouragement. being at a place with such a strong history of women’s
enfranchisement in the history of education was inspiring and
The tutorials gave me both extra learning and opportunities for that’s still a kind of touchstone for me, given my work in gender
friendship, and those things were very important to me. I had equality and inclusion in music.
done well at school, but I was not confident in my abilities,
and the experience of JCH, even limited, was reassuring as I was studying music at the Victorian College of the Arts at
well as encouraging. The French tutor at the time, Dr Fiona Southbank when it was a separate institution from Melbourne
Caro (Macleod 1950) – now a distinguished JCH Fellow – is University. Being at JCH gave me a chance to experience wider
a woman I still see, and we both have fond memories of our university life because of the mix of students and tutors from
time at JCH. What is particularly pleasing to me now is that as different faculties.
an alumna I am still involved with the College and can keep
up to date with all the latest news. One memorable occasion was the annual revue when one of
my early compositions was performed: ‘Sequence of St Eulalia’.
Rita is a distinguished journalist, author and editor, specialising I played the violin accompanying a VCA friend, Andrew Muscat
in food, wine and nutrition. Since the 1970s she has been a Clarke, who sang the countertenor part… all kind of nerdy
prolific writer and editor in a wide range of newspapers and and arcane but also great fun. Dr Eva Eden was the Principal
magazines, and an active committee member of numerous in 1984 and I remember her as a formidable person. Like at
food and wine councils and societies. Since 1983 she has co- Oxbridge, there was a ‘high table’ for dinners and they used to
edited or contributed to The Age Good Food Guide. say grace in Latin! The other thing that I remember is that it was
one of the first colleges to offer access to computers in the very
early days of word processors – those were the days before the
internet and when there was one shared payphone per floor! It
was obviously another era but one I look back on very fondly.

Liza is a composer, educator and researcher whose music
focuses on collaborative and transcultural practices. She is
Professor of Composition and the inaugural Sculthorpe Chair
of Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
34 LUCE Number 22 2023