By Helen Musa
ONLOOKERS were dubbing it “The Lucky University” when the University of Canberra launched its new Donald Horne Institute for Cultural Heritage, and no wonder.
Not only was Horne a former chancellor, one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals and author of the 1964 book “The Lucky Country,” but the university was embarking on a healing process that saw the large crowd of curators, conservators and representatives of our leading national institutions, seemingly burst into one huge collective smile.
No small measure of the optimism could be put down to the university’s new vice-chancellor Stephen Parker, who declared himself to be “deeply committed” to the centre, which will deal with heritage in all its forms – family heirlooms, local museums, public parks, historic houses, national institutions, landscapes, heritage and UNESCO programs.
Best news of all for the many graduates of the university’s conservation courses, abandoned several years ago amid public outcry, was that from semester one, 2009, the institute will offer two degrees: bachelor of cultural heritage and bachelor of cultural heritage conservation. Masters degrees are also being developed.
The ACT Government has chipped in with a one-off grant of $275,000, though Attorney General Simon Corbell was being pressed to help talk the Federal Government into giving more. Tom Harley, chair of the Australian Heritage Council, in officially launching the institute, said the venture was “prescient and much-needed.”
On hand for the opening was Myfanwy Horne, widow of the late author, and their children Julia and Nick. Mrs Horne outlined the range of intellectual subjects covered in Horne’s 20 books, adding that she could not imagine a more fitting monument to her late husband, whose dream for the university was that it should be both a relevant institution and a treasure trove. 
She quoted from his last graduation address in which he told graduands: “Go in the name of imagination, of wonder and curiosity.”
The new centre is to be directed by Dr James Warden, who promised to honour a critical perspective of Horne with vigour and enthusiasm. Its executive officer is the well-known Canberra craft expert and art activist Meredith Hinchliffe.