Time for some Newman Nostalgia!
This week, in celebrating 2021’s amazing High Achievers, we thought we’d showcase two from earlier years who are, and keep, achieving great things.
First is David McAllister AC, who was at Marist Junior College from 1973 and graduated from Newman College in 1980.
He went on to study at the Australian Ballet School and was cast in The Australian Ballet’s production of Sparticus in 1983, while still in his final year of study. “I kept going to work afterwards," he said, “and no one said anything, so I just kept going to work!”
In 1985 he won the Bronze Medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow, after which he was invited to dance, many times, for the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies, and the Georgian National Ballet. In 1986 he was promoted to Senior Artist (dancer) with The Australian Ballet and, in 1989, to Principal Artist.
David has danced in all major productions including Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Coppelia, La Sylphide, Onegin and Romeo and Juliet. He took his final bow after dancing in Giselle at the Sydney Opera House in April 2001 and, in July of that year, was appointed Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet.
He went on to be longest serving Artistic Director and Choreographer and retired from the role in 2020, having steered The Australian Ballet to acclaim on the world stage.
In 2001 he was awarded a Centenary Medal, and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004. In 2021 he was promoted to the Companion of the Order of Australia, and received the highest accolade in dance - the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award - by the Royal Academy of Dance.
He returned to Melbourne last week after spending six months in Helsinki choreographing Swan Lake for the Finnish National Ballet.
Our 1980 Yearbook shows David won the Year 12 Academic Award for Art, and that his aspiration was to pursue the Arts. How incredibly he has succeeded - what an amazing Newmanite!
Then we have Professor Barry James Marshall AC, who was in the Marist College Class of 1968 and went on to study medicine.
He and his colleague, Robin Warren, were convinced gastric ulcers were caused by the bacterium (and carcinogen) Helicobacter pylori, rather than too much stress or spicy food. In 1984 they wrote a paper for the Gastroenterological Society of Australia proposing their well-tested theory, but were widely ridiculed for it.
Barry said at the time, “Everyone was against me, but I knew I was right.”
So they concocted a broth containing some H. pylori and swallowed it, thinking they might develop an ulcer - perhaps years later. Barry was stunned when, just three days later, he developed ulcer symptoms! (He was fine after a course of antibiotics.)
This was an incredible breakthrough, allowing for further understanding of a link between H. pylori infection, gastric ulcers, and stomach cancer.
For his work he and Robin Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005, and Barry was made a Companion to the Order of Australia in 2007.
Today, he is Director of the Marshall Centre at UWA. (Zoom in on the emblem above his pocket.)
We hope you’ve enjoyed revisiting these incredible Newmanites and will feature two more next week!
David McAllister AC (1980), former Principal Dancer of The Australian Ballet (1989-2001), and The Australian Ballet's longest serving Artistic Director (2001-2020). An amazing Newmanite!
Prof Barry James Marshall AC (1968), who swallowed H. pylori to prove it caused gastric ulcers when everyone said he was wrong. Instead he proved his detractors wrong and cured himself, winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005.
Zoom in on the emblem above his pocket.