Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the passing last Tuesday of Professor Dick Stanton AO. Dick was a distant relative by marriage. His wife Alison was my grandmother's first cousin. Alison was the librarian and Dick was the Professor of Geology at the University of New England. They had a beautiful home. I remember when I was in year 11 my parents giving me a tour of all the universities in my home state. We had a very memorable dinner with Dick and Alison, and they encouraged me to go to UNE and live in Armidale. After Alison died, Dick moved to Canberra to be close to the rest of his family.

Dick's work recognised the role of volcanism and sedimentation in the formation of new ore deposits and the physics and chemistry involved in the concentration of copper, zinc and lead in volcanic lavas. While I was running the Menzies Research Centre, Dick reached out to me and encouraged me to do some work on nuclear power and nuclear waste. Dick believed that Australia's geological stability meant that South Australia was the right place for a nuclear waste storage facility and industry and that it was possible to convert nuclear waste into silicone-like substances in order to store them in the ground.

Dick and I maintained a lively correspondence, and I enjoyed having a meal with him at his daughter Marion's home a couple of years ago. We kept trying to have a meal this year but it didn't happen, although I did send him a copy of Sir Robert Menzies 'Forgotten People' speeches, which he enjoyed reading and passed them on to his granddaughter.

I was very proud that I was related, even my marriage, to one of the finest geologists Australia has produced. Even at the age of 94, his mind was sharp, and he could converse, offering original insights on any topic.

Professor Stanton completed his Bachelor of Science at what is now the University of New England. He worked in mineral exploration in mines in Broken Hill, in Far North Queensland and at Burraga. He then took up teaching fellowships at the University of Sydney, where he completed his PhD on regional patterns of mineralisation and was involved in the first systemic geological mapping of the Solomon Islands.

In 1975, following a postdoctoral fellowship at Queen's University in Ontario, he was appointed Professor of Geology at the University of New England and then emeritus professor in 1986. During his time at UNE he took sabbaticals to Harvard, on a Fulbright Award, and Oxford. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences in 1975 for his original contributions to the genesis of ore deposits. He also served on the council of the academy from 1987 to 1990 and as vice-president from 1989 to 1990.

Professor Stanton received too many awards to mention, from his first in 1974, the President's Award of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, to his most recent, being elected an Inaugural Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 2009. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986.

Professor Dick Stanton will be greatly missed, and our condolences go to his daughters, Marion and Ruth, and his grandchildren, Ben, Emma, Sarah, Kate, Julia and Alice. Sadly, Dick's son died five years ago, which left him devastated. May Dick's memory be a blessing to all those who knew him.