Clunies Ross – a man of science (1962)

[Music plays and text appears: This film is dedicated to the memory of Ian Clunies Ross… a great Australian and a scientist. During a lifetime of service to his country and its people, he gave Australia many lasting gifts, not only in the field of science, but also in education and international understanding. This, in part, is the story of the man and his memorial… CLUNIES ROSS… a man of science]

[Image changes to show a picture of Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

Eric Pearce, Narrator: Sir Ian Clunies Ross died in June 1959. Now, through the establishment of the Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation, a national science centre is planned.

[Image changes to show various angles of a model of Clunies Ross House]

The centre, to be known as Clunies Ross House, will honour the man, who for ten years as Chairman of C.S.I.R.O., guided and inspired the growth of science and its application to Australian development.

[Image changes to show trees in a park]

Here on a site at Parkville, near the University of Melbourne, some 30 different scientific and technical societies will integrate and pursue their respective fields of endeavour.

[Image changes to show various angles of a model of Clunies Ross House]

Science and technology, on which national prosperity so largely depends, will further advance through the Clunies Ross Foundation.

[Image changes to show a picture of a group of men with Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

Sir Ian Clunies Ross was a man of many interests.

[Image changes to show a close up picture of Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

Throughout his career from the University of Sydney, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Veterinary Science, to the Chairmanship of C.S.I.R.O., he saw the urgent need for the application of science to Australia’s primary and secondary industries.

[Image changes to show a machine, and a man looking through a microscope(?)]

[Image changes to show a person medicating sheep]

His own early research was in the field of parasitology, but in later years, through his foresight and initiative, new fields of agricultural and industrial research were started.

[Image changes to show a man conducting an experiment]

His burning conviction that science must be harnessed for the good of the community made these changes felt throughout the Australian continent.

[Image changes to show a woman conducting an experiment]

[Image changes to show various images of universities]

He was fully aware of the role the universities had to play in the Australian life. Through his membership of the Murray Committee, and his association with the Council of the Australian National University, and the University of Melbourne, he greatly assisted in improving the conditions and status of our universities.

[Image changes to show a picture of Sir Ian Clunies Ross with a group of people]

The interests of Clunies Ross were not restricted to C.S.I.R.O. alone. He was genuinely interested in what others were doing, the universities, the state research bodies, private industry.

[Image changes to show close up pictures of Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

This man hated racial prejudice.

[Image changes to show a group of people talking]

Through his interest in the peoples of South East Asia he helped establish International House, where overseas students could live and exchange ideas with their Australian colleagues.

[Image changes to show a man working in a laboratory]

During his Chairmanship of C.S.I.R.O. Clunies Ross was responsible for the establishment of many new fields of research, and for the extension of others. He also knew the value of using knowledge already gained to extend and improve primary and secondary industry.

[Image changes to show sheep in a pen]

The name of Clunies Ross will always be associated with the Australian wool industry, for it was due largely to his efforts that the Wool Research Fund was established, a fund that was to prove invaluable in restoring wool to a favourable position in the textile world.

[Image changes to show a person looking at the wool of a sheep]

[Image changes to show a building, Australian Wool Testing Authority]

[Image changes to show a group of men working in a room]

[Image changes to show a woman looking through a microscope]

As Clunies Ross himself said, “Grows all over the world today, recognise that research can do, and is doing, a great deal, not only to improve the production of wool in the field, but in improving the properties of wool as a textile fibre for the manufacturing of material and clothing.”

[Image changes to show wool being processed in a machine]

[Image changes to show a building]

[Image changes to show a woman pouring a liquid into a beaker, and then pouring the liquid into a potted plant]

Because of the necessity to develop our tropical and subtropical regions Clunies Ross set up the C.S.I.R.O. Division of Tropical Pastures.

[Image changes to show a woman observing an experiment]

Research in this Division has already shown the way for an increase in the carrying capacity of Queensland pastures.

[Image changes to show sheep grazing in a field]

[Image changes to show a man herding sheep]

New forms of land and pasture reclamation were developed.

[Image changes to show a rabbit]

In Australian 600 million rabbits were eating as much pasture as 75 million sheep.

[Image changes to show sheep grazing in a field]

With the introduction of myxomatosis, nine-tenths of this menace were wiped out.

[Image changes to show various insects]

Biological control was applied to fruit and crop pests, and certain types of weeds.

[Image changes to show a windmill and cattle in a field]

[Image changes to show cattle in a field]

Research into the arid areas of the north resulted in new and better pastures, permitting cattle to graze on land previously dominated by wind and sun.

[Image changes to show a man releasing water into a field]

The hard dry earth began at last to bear life. The use of (indistinct word – 5:22) and irrigation water was found to increase the growth of clover on previously unyielding soil.

[Image changes to show water running down a dirt culvert]

[Image changes to show an aeroplane lifting off a runway]

And to aid natural rainfall experiments were carried out into methods of creating artificial rain.

[Image changes to show an aeroplane banking in the sky]

Studies of cloud and ice crystal formation were made, while aircraft and high altitude balloons were used to gather meteorite dust from the atmosphere.

[Image changes to show a man releasing a high altitude balloon into the air]

A dust associated with the theory of natural rainfall.

[Image changes to show an aeroplane flying through clouds in the air]

Dry ice and silver iodide were used in cloud seeding experiments which resulted in a considerable increase in the rainfall over selected test areas.

[Image changes to show a lake]

To further assist the water conservation so necessary to this country experiments were carried out in the field of evaporation control.

[Image changes to show a man in boat and spraying the water surface with cetyl alcohol]

By covering the water surface area with a thin film of cetyl alcohol evaporation loss was in many cases reduced by up to 60%.

[Image changes to show cattle in a field]

The standard of beef and dairy cattle improved as science sought and found the answers to many age old problems; diseases were eliminated or controlled; hardier strains were introduced, better to withstand the varied Australian conditions.

[Image changes to show machinery]

A revolutionary method of cheese making was developed, a method which has already been adopted by many countries overseas.

[Image changes to show cheese moving along a conveyor belt]

[Image changes to show a boat on the water]

Scientists explored the world below the surface of the sea to develop new and more efficient ways to reap its harvest.

[Image changes to show a man standing at the top of a mast of a boat]

[Image changes to show a catch of fish on a boat]

[Image changes to show various images of industry]

Commonwealth and state departments, universities and industry, were all associated with these research developments, and with Australia’s progress.

[Image changes to show a building under construction]

Research was carried out into the building trade, solving problems associated with building for our modern age.

[Image changes to show people working in a factory]

New materials were developed to reduce the demand on Australia’s forests, while methods to better utilise our limited timber resources were tried with success.

[Image changes to show a man separating materials]

Mining companies perfected the separation of lead and zinc by flotation processes]

[Image changes to show materials being separated]

[Image changes to show people working in a factory]

C.S.I.R.O. set up a Division of Coal Research. The Australian aeronautics industry had been established.

[Image changes to show the shell of an aeroplane]

[Image changes to show an image of stars]

Science even looked to the stars.

[Image changes to show a man operating computer machinery]

Through the study of radio physics dark corners of the universe became familiar.

[Image changes to show an echo monitor]

[Image changes to show various images radio telescopes]

The giant silhouette of radio telescopes has heralded the challenge of the space age, a challenge that science is prepared to meet.

[Image changes to show a building]

Science in Australia is progressing rapidly. The benefits of this science are reaped by the people of this country in improved living standards, and new fields of industrial and commercial development.

[Image changes to show a picture of Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

This then was the life of Ian Clunies Ross, a man of vision, who believed in science and the free exchange of ideas.

[Image changes to show Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

Sir Ian Clunies Ross: But still we’re only at the beginning of the development of this country. There are many other great problems to be solved, and for these we need many more young men and women of the highest quality to undertake this work of solving the problems of industry and helping to develop their country.

[Image changes to show a woman looking through a microscope]

[Image changes to show people working in a factory]

[Image changes to show a man conducting an experiment]

[Image changes to show various letterheads]

Eric Pearce, Narrator: Engineers, botanists, chemists, biologists, these and many more are playing their part in the scientific growth of their country, as individuals, and as members of various societies and organisations. These societies will find a common centre at Clunies Ross House, a centre to provide leadership and unity to all branches of science and technology.

[Image changes to show a model of Clunies Ross House]

[Image changes to show a machine and a man looking through a microscope]

From this centre will flow the rewards of this science.

[Image changes to show a factory smoke stack]

[Image changes to show people crossing a street]

[Image changes to show a bridge with a view of the harbour below]

To industry, and to commerce, to people on the land, to every citizen, the value of the National Science Centre to the Australian community is expressed in the words of Sir Macfarlane Burnet.

[Image changes to show Sir Macfarlane Burnet]

Sir Macfarlane Burnet: Perhaps one of the greatest virtues of Clunies Ross House will be to supply a centre and meeting place for people concerned with a wide range of scientific disciplines.

[Image changes to show a picture of Sir Ian Clunies Ross]

[Image changes back to Sir Macfarlane Burnet]

People in fact who are concerned with bringing science to every section of the community. Opportunities for contact and co-operation are just as important for the advance and application of science as they are for increasing goodwill between men in such fields as commerce and politics.

[Image changes to show a blueprint of Clunies Ross House]

Eric Pearce, Narrator: This will be the function of the National Science Centre. It will be an investment in the scientific future of Australia, an investment for every primary producer and manufacturer, an investment paying rich dividends in years to come. This is what Ian Clunies Ross would have wished, an end to which he shaped his life as a man of science.

[Text appears: Directed by Brian H. Hooper; Narrated by Eric Pearce; Model constructed by Norman Lynch, Aileen Weinberg. Compiled by the C.S.I.R.O. Film Unit for the Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation mainly from material in the archives of the C.S.I.R.O.]