PIRSA Oral History Program –State Library reference no. for Somerville Collection OH 675/2

An interview with Tom Miller by Bernard O’Neil on 1, 9 and 21 October 2003, and 4, 20 and 25 November 2003 in regards to the history of the Department of Agriculture.

Time Subject Proper names
 Tape 1, Side A 
0:20 Personal background: born August 1917, Mt Lawley, WA; father a railwayman in Western Australian Railways; mother a nurse; Great Depression experiences; attended State school and Perth Modern School; parents’ attitude to education; family; career options; attending university; cadetship in WA Department of Agriculture Mt Lawley; Perth; Sydney; WA goldfields; Pichi Richi (SA); Perth Modern School; Fremantle Boys School
7:45 Cadets in horticulture working on black spot in apples; BSc (Agric.) Beverley Research Centre (WA)
9:55 Nature of cadetship; choice of study course; graduation 1940 
13:35 Horticulture Branch work; World War II restricted manpower Manjimup
16:00 Career opportunities in the Department; Director-General of Agriculture, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan in 1950; marriage and young family; long stay under the Colombo Plan Pakistan; Prime Minister Menzies; Stratheden; Thomas Cook & Sons; Peshawar; Bombay; Fremantle; India; Colombo Plan
26:50 Managing the Pakistan Department of Agriculture; return to WA Department; holiday visit to Pakistan; vacancy for Chief Horticulturalist in SA; reorganisation of SA Department Perth; Pakistan; Geoff Strickland; Dr Callaghan; Bob Herriott; Marshall Irving
 Tape 1, Side B 
0.04 Reorganisation of SA Department; application for Chief Horticulturalist’s job; limited travel in Australia, mainly on apple disease Allan Callaghan; Strickland; Pakistan; Sydney; Adelaide; Public Service Board; Syd de Beaux; Canberra; Melbourne; Western Australia; Perth; Victoria
6:15 Network of Chiefs of Horticulture; quarantine and fruit export responsibilities; Commonwealth role; Chief Horticulturalists Committee; fruit fly Adelaide; Perth; Melbourne; Sydney; Canberra; de Beaux; Brisbane; Hobart; Cairns
10:45 Commonwealth Apple and Pear Board leading to Chief Horticulturalists meetings (1950–1978); Chief Agronomists Committee Strickland; Mr Powell (WA); Perth; Tasmania; Sydney; Melbourne; Hobart
13:45 Meetings of Chief Veterinarians; pleuropneumonia; attitude on Commonwealth–State relations; history of Commonwealth Horticultural Committee; Commonwealth trying to take over State jobs; state-based mentality Dunstan; Monarto; CSIRO; Canberra
19: 00 Public Service Board interview; began as SA’s Chief Horticulturalist in October 1955; career move but limited knowledge of SA; learning on the job; local industries – apples, citrus; mixed horticulture; graduates as research officers West Pakistan; Sydney; Murray River; Indus River; West Australia; Callaghan; Strickland; Adelaide Hills; Riverland; South East; Western Australia; Renmark; Berri; Waikerie; Barossa Valley
28.30 Research officers in horticulture, entomology, pathology, viticulture and post-harvest handling of fruit; growth in size of Department; fruit fly outbreaks Mile End; Port Adelaide; Western Australia
 Tape 2, Side A 
0.00 Fruit fly eradication campaigns; fruit garden city; market gardens; types of fruit fly and interstate experiences;  Strickland; Adelaide; Magill; Virginia; Sydney; Melbourne; Adelaide Hills; Murray River; Renmark; Waikerie; Tom Playford; New South Wales; Queensland; Western Australia; Carnarvon; Albany; Waite Institute; Harry Kemp; Kemp’s Nursery; Dr Andrewartha; Perth; Balhannah
 

15:00 Location of the Department Lands Department; Simpson Building, Gawler Pl
16:30 Early experiences with leaders of the Department West Australia; Roseworthy College; Callaghan; Strickland; Playford
18:40 Sale and acquisition of Horticultural Research Centres Blackwood; Berri; Loxton; Playford; Dave Kilpatrick; Adelaide Hills; Lenswood; Gabe Bywaters; Tom Casey; Lands Department; Urrbrae High School; Education Department
25:00 Directors of the Department; fruit fly outbreaks Callaghan; Roseworthy College; Mid North;  Mt Gambier; Torrens Valley;
 Tape 2, Side B 
1.30 Geoff Strickland’s rise to Director’s position; Extension Branch’s advisory work; role of District Advisers; regulatory work on crops and plants; fruit export and inspection Strickland; Barley Board; Milton Spurling; Herriott; Renmark, Berri; Waikerie; Barossa Valley; Adelaide Hills; South East; Naracoorte; New Zealand; Riverland
13.15 Fruit inspectors 
15:00 Broad knowledge and expertise of District officers Riverland; Victoria; NSW; Murray Cooper; Berri; John Jennings; Nuriootpa; Waikerie; Greg Botting; Adelaide Hills; Renmark
18.35 Roseworthy vs university graduates as District Advisers and Research Officers 
21:25 Annual Branch conference and regional meetings; process of regionalisation Riverland; Adelaide Hills; South East; Struan; Murray Bridge; Loxton; Nuriootpa
27:40 Size and distribution of Horticulture Branch Playford; Northfield
30:00 Northfield Research Centre Irving; Adelaide; Gawler Place; Northfield; Infectious Diseases Hospital
 Tape 3, Side A 
0.00 Northfield Research Centre; pig farm; research laboratory; decision to relocate to Monarto; changes to the Department’s administration; attitudes to working at Northfield and Monarto Playford; Adelaide; Northfield; Irving; Don Dunstan; Monarto
10:00 Attitudes to Monarto; expansion of Northfield Dunstan; Northfield; Irving; McColl
16:30 On-going experimental research Callaghan
20:10 Modern technological approaches 
21:00 Overseas work, 1961 – Commonwealth Fruit Officer; export of fruit London; England; Europe; Perth; Tasmania; SA; Victoria; NSW; Dave Kilpatrick
28:55 Other overseas experiences; world horticultural congress, including 1978 in Australia Europe; England; North America; Holland; Germany; France; Denmark; USA; Italy; Sydney Opera House; Warsaw
 Tape 3, Side B 
0:10 World horticultural congress Warsaw; Israel; United States; South Africa; New Zealand
2:40 International dimension to working on agriculture; dryland farming techniques vs horticulture crops; South Australian technology; winemaking Libya; Middle East; Africa; America; Phylloxera Board; Roseworthy College
11:15 Move of big companies and international companies into wine industry; wine production in SA; viticultural specialists in the Department Riverland; Barossa; Southern Vales; Clare; Coonawarra; Langhorne Creek; South East; Padthaway; Wally Boehm; Richard Cirami; Brian Coombe; Waite Institute
16:00 Career opportunities for individuals 
17:15 Loxton as a War Service Land Settlement area; irrigation; Research Centre Loxton; Lands Department; E&WS; Spurling; Strickland
 Tape 4, Side A 
0:30 Potato Board; Rundle Street markets WA, SA; Victoria; Strickland; Virginia; Adelaide Hills; South East; Mt Gambier; Naracoorte; Jack McCulloch; Rundle St
8:15 Opposition to SA potato growers; price fixing; cessation of Potato Board; licensing; black market in potatoes; surplus Victoria; Sydney; Melbourne; Adelaide; Ballarat
14:00 Potato Board’s independence from Department of Agriculture 
15:30 Dried Fruits Board (including chairmanship); other boards Hughes and Vale
20:00 Phylloxera Board 
20:30 Royal Commission into the Grape Industry; price control Mr Murphy; Playford; Barossa; Riverland
26:50 Role as a Royal Commissioner Mr De Rieu
29:30 Other enquiries, reports and investigations – Citrus Enquiry Commission; Citrus Organising Committee; marketing SA oranges New Zealand; Truby King; Harvey Turner
 Tape 4, Side B 
0:05 Marketing of South Australian oranges; own involvement in the grower organisations NZ; Citrus Growers Association; John Medley; Fruit Growers and Market Gardeners Association; Canberra; Potato Board
6:30 Similarity to interstate associations and boards; co-operative movement in South Australia Playford Government; State Bank; Lenswood; Cudlee Creek; Balhannah; Ashton; Murray Citrus Growers Co-op; England
10:45 Departmental policy on assisting farmers and growers vs enforcing rules and regulations; goal to improve 
15:30 Quality of Department’s support 
16:45 Ministerial or departmental appointments to boards and industry organisations; role of Ministers 
20:30 Vine selection; introduction of pests and diseases; expanding the wine industry; vine selection committee; use of root-stock; apple selection; lead of the growers; Fruit Industry Identities event Mildura; CSIRO; Sydney; Max Loder; Germany; Harry Tulloch; Clare; Barossa; Riverland; Adelaide
 Tape 5, Side A 
0:35 Own and the Department’s involvement with the Royal Show; use of display material elsewhere in SA; advisory role (apricot gummosis, vine improvement, River Murray salinity, quarantine, fruit imports, vegetable imports, tree imports, Argentine ants, fruit fly); field days; Bureau meetings Adelaide; Albert Engel; Dried Fruits Board
15:50 Conferences, seminars and workshops (export fruit, quarantine) 
18:20 Chief Horticulturalists Conference; upon retirement, prepared a history of the conference for the Commonwealth; Standing Committee of the Ministers of Agriculture 
25:40 Ministerial conferences; independence of the States 
28:00 Fruit export organised by the Commonwealth; 
30:50 Commonwealth take over of powers CSIRO; Mildura; Merbein Research Centre
 Tape 5, Side B 
0:05 Rivalry between State and Commonwealth bodies locally CSIRO; WA; Waite Institute; University of Adelaide
3:11 Parallel organisations in the same field; collaboration Waite Institute; CSIRO
8:35 Graduates as research officers; ongoing institutional jealousies Waite Institute; Gordon Edwards; Brian Coombe; Adelaide University; Roseworthy College; University of California; Glen Osmond
12:35 Role of the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industry CSIRO; Canberra
16:15 Stability of State and federal governments; provision of information and applied research; farm management; role of the Playford Government; attitude of premier Playford Government; Menzies Government; CSIRO; Waite Institute; Public Service Board; Radium Hill
28:00 Federal government impact on Department’s work Monarto; Europe; England; Asia
28:55 Commonwealth Extension Services 
 Tape 6, Side A 
0:35 Retired Officers Group – origins and development; view on South Australian agriculturalists Gawler; Arthur Hooper; Park Hotel; Arthur Tideman; Bernie O’Neil; Roseworthy College; Callaghan; Sydney; Melbourne; Canberra; CSIRO; Lands Department
 

14:00 Retired Officers Group field trips by bus; developments on Kangaroo Island Bob Hagerstrom; Kangaroo Island; Adelaide; Riverland; Clare; Port Lincoln; Port Augusta; Penneshaw; Royal Coach Motel; Kent Town; Bywaters
22:30 Former Minister’s involvement in the Retired Officers Group and the Department’s work; Extension Branch; press releases; personal identities of leaders in the Department lost; role of wives and women in the department’s work Bywaters; Casey; Ross Storey; Playford; Bob Herriott; Mid North; South East; Trevor Roberts; Hooper; Gawler
 Tape 6, Side B 
0:05 Retired Officers Group; departmental social club, sporting interests and Christmas party Northfield; Adelaide; Northfield Research Centre
3:05 Move to Northfield facilities; Head Office and associated accommodation in Adelaide; intention to re-locate the Department to Northfield became the Monarto proposal; spirit at Northfield Simpson’s Building, Gawler Pl; Treasury Building; Northfield; Infectious Diseases Hospital; Irving; Callaghan; London; AMP Building, Gawler Pl; Waite Institute; Glen Osmond; Grenfell St; Playford; Dunstan; Monarto
10:15 Public Service opposition to the Monarto idea Monarto; Bywaters; Simpson Building; Grenfell St building; Treasury Building
13:40 Professional organisations; management groups; the union Public Service Association; Institute of Agricultural Science; Roseworthy; Sydney; Melbourne; John Feagan; Graham Itzerott
19:15 Wages Public Service Board
20:20 Training courses vs learning on the job; children following parents into jobs Herriott; Pakistan; Ernabella; Orange, NSW; Merriden, WA; Yeelanna
27:55 Size and quality of the Department; leadership by grower organisations; decision-making Fruit Growers and Market Gardeners Association; Apple and Pear Growers Association
 Tape 7, Side B 
0:35 Departmental work on boards and committees; packaging of produce; post-retirement work on boards Dried Fruits Board; Nelson Wheeler; Angas Park; WA; Victoria; NSW; Renmark
11:40 Marketing and distribution of potatoes and dried fruits Potato Marketing Board; Dried Fruits Board; Adelaide; Sydney
16:30 Supply and demand of products; inspectors Adelaide Market
20:00 South Australian produce to the world market Britain; European Common Market; WA; Europe; England; Holland; France; Germany; Victoria; Tasmania; Department of Primary Industry; Canberra; Argentina; South Africa; Suez Canal
26:30 Change from producer to importer of fruit and vegetables; niche marketing; butter export; anti-margarine campaign Melbourne; Sydney; Adelaide; Riverland; Kangaroo Island; London; WA; Irving
 Tape 7, Side B 
0:05 Importance of orange juice; orange juice trade King; NZ; Murray Citrus Growers Association; Medley
3:10 Working life – hours, temporary and permanent staff, office accommodation, working conditions, smoking in office, safety The ‘Black Stump’; Grenfell St; Northfield; Monarto; Gawler Pl
8:50 Salary and benefits; leave; superannuation Strickland; WA
14:25 Women in the work force; dress standards Mary Walker; Irving
20:00 Working on fruit fly; unionism Glenside; Conyngham St
24:20 Hazardous chemicals 
24:45 Work behaviours and work patterns; office hours; flexi-time 
28:40 Status of the Department over time Lands Department; E&WS; Riverland