Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

Before coming to the major body to whom our thanks are due, I want to mention two others which did not get a mention on the invitation card. First, the media-Queensland Newspapers, through the Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail, has given the exhibition wide and sophisticated coverage; and Channel 0, whose representatives are here tonight, will use its good offices to support the exhibition in every way. Second, those members of the Gallery staff who, together with their Egyptian colleagues, have laboured with great dedication and fortitude, sometimes long into the night, to provide a fitting setting for pie treasures of the Pharaohs. But, of course, these treasures would not be here without the generosity of their owner, the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt which, as the invitation points out, has loaned them to us as a gesture of goodwill to Australia for its Bicentenary. It would be hard to imagine a more splendid gesture of goodwill than this, and it will add a unique cultural dimension to the close economic ties– exemplified most significantly by the wheat trade-which already unite our two countries so closely. As the press has so eloquently pointed out, in a strange way this land of Australia, beyond.even the.dreams of the ancient Egyptians, has become bound up with one of their most profound symbols for life and its renewal. I particularly want to thank the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, through its diplomatic and cultural representatives who are here tonight, and particularly His Excellency the Ambassador, Mr Nabil Mohammed Badr. Egypt, perhaps more than any other country, has been responsible for the entry into our lives of mystique and fantasy. Breathes there a man with soul so dead who has not dreamed of viewing the Sphinx by moonlight, if he has not done so, or has not ceased to dream of her, if he has. What reader of Shelley does not conjure up in his own mind the shattered visage of Ozymandias with his two vast and trunkless legs of stone standing in the sand of the desert. Who is not affected by the Egyptians' obsession with the possibilities of immortality and life after death and the elaborate provision of food and equipment to provide for it. I am not an Egyptologist, and this is something I greatly regret, because I can think of no more fascinating and rewarding field of study. But one does not have to be an Egyptologist to feel and be deeply affected by the mystical splendour of Ancient Egypt or to recall that brief but memorable exchange between the Earl of Carnarvon and Mr Howard Carter-the Patron and the Archaeologist-on the evening of 26 November 1922 before the door of the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen, a moment for which both men had been waiting with fluctuations of high expectation and deep disappointment for many years. As Carter held a candle inside the Necropolis and waited for his eyes to become accustomed to the gloom, Camarvon could not stand the suspense any longer. 'Can you see anything', he asked. 'Yes', Carter replied. 'I see wonderful things.' And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you will see in a moment when you pass through the portals of the great stone door that gives entry to the treasure house beyond-wonderful things. So, to all those who have played a part in making this experience possible, I ask you to express your appreciation in the usual way. 46