Furphy 'specialist' to speak at 2012 John Furphy Memorial Lecture

A fellow who is not a Furphy, but is considered a Furphy specialist will speak at next year’s annual John Furphy Memorial Lecture.

Professor Geoffrey Blainey
spoke at Wednesday night's
John Furphy Memorial
Lecture in Shepparton.

An Emeritus Professor of English at La Trobe University, John Barnes, will deliver the eighth annual oration on September 13, exactly 100 years, to the day, that noted author Joseph Furphy died.
The great, great grandson of John Furphy, Adam Furphy announced details of the 2012 lecture after Professor Geoffrey Blainey had spoken at Wednesday night’s memorial lecture.
Adam, along with being the Managing Director of J. Furphy and Sons in Shepparton, is the chairman of the regional advisory board for the Shepparton campus of La Trobe University.
The Harder Auditorium at Shepparton’s TAFE College seats 160 people and was nearly full for Wednesday night’s lecture.
Prof Blainey, who obviously has a deep and broad understanding of Australian history, encouraged people to consider that history fully before blandly accepting many of the present arguments about climate change.
He pointed to changes in the world’s climate that had resulted in significant alterations to Australia’s coastline, including the creation of Bass Strait and the appearance of Tasmania as an island, which were all events that Aborigines of the day had learned to live with.