Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

I looked it over and something more than surprise seized me--a deep conviction that these were not common effusions ... I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear, they also had a peculiar music, wild, melancholy and elevating. I had much the same feeling about Pamela's poems, and I congratulate her for them. By writing them, she has, as a former Trustee, brought an unexpected measure of fame to the Gallery itself. And now I will hand over to our hosts, Thomas Rowland Publishers, and Pamela Bell herself, whose day this is. 1 Speech to launch Images of a School by Pamela Barnett, Brisbane Grammar School, 4 November 1989 RICHARD AUSTIN LAUNCHED THIS VOLUME IN HIS CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF TRUSTEES, QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY BECAUSE THE AUTHOR, MRS PAMELA BARNETT, WAS A VALUED MEMBER OF THE GALLERY'S VOLUNTEER GUIDES. IN HIS SPEECH, RICHARD AUSTIN PAID SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO THE GUIDES FOR THE WORK THEY UNDERTAKE AS A VITAL LINK BETWEEN THE GALLERY AND THE COMMUNITY I happened to note in the Australian newspaper a week or so ago a report of a book launching that took place at the Australian Consulate-General in New York. The book in question was Thomas Keneally's latest novel Towards Asmara, and (unlike today) the principal speaker appears to have been the author himself, since no-one else even rated a mention. · He is quoted as saying, among other things, that in England book launchings were speechless, in America they were tense, while in Australia-and here he foisted upon his hapless audience an appalling rhyming couplet- In Australia the speeches are longer Because the beer is stronger. There appears to be no beer today, so the length of my speech can safely rest somewhere between the American and the Australian models. I do, however, see some champagne in the offing. This does not suggest another rhyming couplet, but rather an equally appalling pun. I hope my speech will be painless. Let me say again how delighted I am to be here today-and for a special reason. Mrs Barnett, the author of the book I am about to launch, Images of a School, is one of those vital cogs in the wheel of the Queensland Art Gallery. She is, as I expect most of you know, a Volunteer Guide and the Guides provide perhaps the most valuable service of all-the link between the Gallery and the public. Although the Gallery can claim no credit for her book, it can, I feel, claim the author as one of its own and let me say emphatically that we are very proud, indeed, to do so. 111