Adrian Lipscomb2

Adrian Lipscomb[edit]

ADRIAN LIPSCOMB is an Australian author, academic, lawyer and artist. He is best known for his work in less-developed countries, and his autobiography, “A Ripple Passing By” (first published in 2014) ¹, as well as various short stories and travel articles, notably on Papua New Guinea ² and his journeys to remote areas. ³

Childhood & Schooling[edit]

ADRIAN LIPSCOMB was born in the late 1940s at Castlecrag in Sydney, the youngest of three boys. His parents were:

ALFRED W.G. LIPSCOMB (1900-1973) who was General Superintendent for Doctor Barnardo's Homes in NSW between 1937 and 1939; head of the Aborigines’ Welfare Board for NSW ⁴ between 1939 and 1953 and the author of a popular Agricultural Science textbook entitled “Breeding & Management of Livestock” ⁵; he later taught Biology at Knox Grammar School in Sydney; his ancestry included four convicts, notable among whom was JANE WALKER (1765-1838) who arrived in Australia on board the Marquis of Cornwallis in 1796;

and

ELIZABETH ANN LIPSCOMB (née Hewitt) (1913-1985) who was born in New Zealand, and was the grand-daughter of the celebrated Scottish war artist, journalist and traveller WILLIAM SIMPSON (1823-1899) ⁶.

As a “baby-boomer” Lipscomb enjoyed a happy middle-class childhood in the northern suburbs of Sydney in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he attended Gordon Public School for three years. Then --- for high school --- he was sent to Knox Grammar School ⁷, where his father was a teacher. This was an elite private institution that was known for its discipline and regimentation; he struggled with the competitive environment, and (in the process) acquired an abiding stammer that was to become “the worst thing” in his life. In his late teenage years, he was able to develop a personal strategy to deal with his speech impediment --- he worked long and hard to overcome his fears, and in time, he became a fluent and eloquent speaker; in later life he received much praise for his elocution and his baritone speaking voice, and he was often asked to speak in public. This then led to a life in which he repeatedly sought to challenge himself in various other ways --- to put himself frequently outside his “comfort zone”. His success in doing so was measured in “experiences” rather than dollars.

Military Service, Travels & University[edit]

Lipscomb completed his Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1967 and worked for two years in a clerical capacity for an oil company before being called up for National Service in the Australian Regular Army. He trained initially at Kapooka and Singleton, and then served with 4 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment ⁸ at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville. Although the Vietnam War was raging at this time, he was not posted on active service.

On his discharge from the Army, he spent several years back-packing around the world – and this became a seminal time of his life. He lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa, for eight months, sharing a flat with other travellers at a time when Apartheid reigned supreme; in the process, he learned much about life, politics and racism. He then moved on to explore the rest of southern and eastern Africa (where he climbed Kilimanjaro), and Israel (where he worked on Kibbutz Misgav-am in the northern Galilee), before traversing the “Hippie Trail”, through Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Southeast Asia.

After returning to Australia in late 1972, he found it difficult to adjust to life in an affluent but largely unaware and apathetic society – he was imbued with a desire to “make a difference”, so he helped out with a “soup patrol” for homeless men, alcoholics and addicts in inner-Sydney, and applied (unsuccessfully) for several jobs in overseas aid. He also worked out at a gym four times a week, and studied art at the Royal Art Society (RAS) of NSW in North Sydney. ⁹ (This early training in landscape and life art painting was to serve him well many years later. It evolved into a flair for digital illustrative processes utilising computer graphics – and became a major interest in his life, particularly when he moved into retirement many years later.)

Money was, however, running short by 1974. So he again found employment with an oil company – initially travelling around Australia as a Stock Auditor, and then based in the town of Sale in Victoria, where he worked with a team of auditors monitoring the construction of off-shore oil platforms in Bass Strait. In 1975 (still in search of adventure) he took off for a month to Papua New Guinea to experience Melanesian culture, and to trek solo along the Kokoda Track – this was some years before that historic locality became a popular challenge for young Australians. ¹⁰

By 1976 the desire to “make a difference” dominated Lipscomb's thinking, so he resigned from the oil company in order to travel further in Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and North Asia. Again, his travel experiences gave him a yearning to make a contribution in the less-developed world.

In 1978 he returned to Australia, where he met a Dutch girl named BARBERA MORET at a philosophy class in Sydney – and thus began a fortunate relationship that was to endure for the rest of his life. (Barbera Moret later wrote her own autobiography entitled "The Lure of the Horizon" in 2018 in which she described her life in Holland in the 1940s and 1950s and her migrant experiences as a young woman in Australia. ¹¹)

Between 1978 and 1981 Adrian returned to full-time university in Sydney. He majored in Human Geography, and focused his studies on issues of economic development and social justice in Southeast Asia. During these years he served as editor of the Macquarie University Writers’ Co-operative, and was actively involved in a variety of community-based Aboriginal organisations, notable among which was Operation Aborigine to which he contributed much time and effort, together with his friends, the well-known Daily Mirror journalist, LEO KELLY, and Aboriginal elder, KEVIN COOK. He also held office in a voluntary capacity as a Director of the Board of Tranby Co-operative College for Aborigines in Glebe, Sydney. ¹²

Department of Defence[edit]

On graduation from Macquarie University, Lipscomb joined the Department of Defence in Canberra as a civilian Research Officer. Initially he conducted a social-impact study on a proposal to move Army bases to outback locations, highlighting the need to identify and protect Aboriginal sacred and significant sites in areas of operation (he was highly critical of the proposal – which was later scrapped). Later he moved to the Department’s Strategic and International Policy (SIP) and Policy Co-ordination (PC) Divisions before becoming Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Defence (then SIR WILLIAM COLE) in 1984. ¹³

In 1985 he moved to the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO – since renamed the Defence Intelligence Organisation [DIO] ¹⁴). In his capacity as analyst and desk officer responsible for certain South Pacific countries, he maintained a database and monitored political, economic and sociological events, proffering advice and analyses as events dictated. At this time the Minister for Defence was Kim Beazley and the Foreign Affairs Minister was Bill Hayden.

Penultimately, he served as JIO’s External Relations Intelligence Liaison Officer with New Zealand (XRNZ); Australia was trying to steer an even-handed course in its relations with its ANZUS allies (the US and New Zealand) despite diplomatic friction between the two over access to New Zealand ports by nuclear-armed or powered warships – a dispute that had come to a head with the USS Buchanan incident. ¹⁵ He represented JIO at a Bilateral Defence Intelligence Conference in Wellington in 1987 (the US pointedly refused to attend because of the dispute) and he presented the Tour d’Horizon (overview) paper. Ultimately he became Assistant in Intelligence Administration (AIA) responsible to the Director JIO (then DR PAUL DIBB) for specific administrative functions and certain aspects of JIO’s relations with other members of the Australian intelligence and security community.

Bellingen & Tourism[edit]

After six years in Canberra, the lure of new and challenging activities beckoned – activities in the wider world that were of a more philanthropic nature. Lipscomb and his partner, Barbera Moret, relocated to the town of Bellingen in northern NSW, where they became involved in the tourism industry. Bellingen had long been a melting pot for artists and “alternative lifestylers” wishing to escape from the pressures of big city life. He soon became involved with the Bellingen Neighbourhood Centre, the Bellingen Environment Centre, the regional State Emergency Services (SES) and a local community radio station (2bbb-fm)¹⁶ where he presented a weekly program of classical music and social commentary entitled "Watching the River Flow", and was actively involved in a Radio Drama group.

Perhaps the most significant event of his early years in Bellingen was the altercation that became known as the “Neighbourhood Centre Dispute”. In 1989/90 several Bellingen Shire Councillors held the community to ransom by trying to evict a number of philanthropic organisations from their council-owned premises. Lipscomb was elected Chairman of the Neighbourhood Centre Management Committee in the midst of these difficulties, and he steered the organisation through some very troubled times. The local Chamber of Commerce even organised a half-day strike of Bellingen businesses and a procession down the main street of Bellingen of several hundred people in support of the Neighbourhood Centre. Most of the offending councillors were voted off Council at the next election, and SUE DETHRIDGE (who was a vocal supporter of the Neighbourhood Centre) was elected mayor. It was a win for the community!

In his spare time Lipscomb also started writing short stories and indulging in freelance journalism. His contributions have appeared in publications as diverse as the Royal Geographical Society’s Geographical magazine, Travel Away magazine, the American “pulp” periodical The Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and (more recently) the public affairs blogsite Pearls and Irritations (an on-line publication conceived by former diplomat, John Menadue AO).

After undertaking a small-business course, networking widely in the tourism industry, and studying marketing practices, he and Barbera opened Koompartoo Retreat ¹⁷ on their Bellingen property (Koompartoo is an Aboriginal word meaning “a new beginning”). This was the first of an innovative style of Farmstay tourist accommodation businesses in the area; there are now more than twenty similar enterprises. Koompartoo prospered in succeeding years, attracting primarily up-market tourists seeking to experience the Dorrigo National Park located a half-hour drive away, or to undertake white-water rafting and canoeing expeditions on the nearby Nymboida and Bellinger Rivers. The business expanded in 1991 with the construction of two more finely-crafted cabins that were nominated in that year for the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) award for the most innovative use of timber. They sold the business in July 1994, and moved into a charming old house in Bellingen township proper.

Solomon Islands & PNG[edit]

In November 1994 Lipscomb further pursued his interest in sustainable tourism, and took up a position as Tourism Advisor to the Western Province Government of the Solomon Islands under the auspices of Australian Volunteers Abroad (AVA). ¹⁸

His partner, Barbera Moret, had experienced a debilitating bout with polio in her childhood in Holland in the early 1950s, leaving her with doubts about her stamina to withstand lengthy periods in a difficult and demanding environment – but she was keen for Lipscomb to pursue his interest nevertheless. So he went to the Solomon Islands on his own, but made several trips home to see her during his time away.

He was based in Gizo ¹⁹, the capital of Western Province, and was primarily engaged in facilitating the introduction of eco-tourism concepts to the area, offering local villages alternative ways of linking in to the formal economy so they would not have to rely so heavily on the selling of timber and fishing rights to multi-national companies whose operations continued to cause irreparable long-term damage to the islands’ environment. During his time in Gizo he prepared, among other things, a White Paper on Tourism for the Western Province Assembly, he proffered policy advice on tourism (and other matters) to the Assembly Executive, he researched, wrote, and produced a Gizo Guidebook, and he helped a number of Solomon Island individuals and villages to embark on viable tourism enterprises. ²⁰

Eighteen months later he returned to Bellingen, and happily reunited with Barbera. He then accepted a position as Associate Lecturer with the Centre for Tourism on the Coffs Harbour campus of Southern Cross University, where he taught two units: International Tourism Perspectives and Tourism Research Methods.

In 1997 he was offered a contract to update and rewrite the Lonely Planet Guide to Papua New Guinea, a country he had visited briefly several times in previous years. He spent three months researching in PNG in that year (at a time when the political scene was in turmoil because of an arms supply scandal that became known as the Sandline Affair ²¹), and then spent four months back in Australia writing and editing the book, which was published in 1998.

Legal Studies and Legal Practice[edit]

In 1999 (at the age of forty-nine) Lipscomb embarked upon a radical change in career focus. He took on a three-year graduate law degree at Southern Cross University in Lismore. During this time he was appointed student editor of the SCU Law Review and was primarily responsible for the December 2000 edition which focused on the socio-political and legal situation in Myanmar; he also co-authored (with NICHOLAS COWDERY QC who was then Director of Public Prosecutions for NSW) the lead article entitled “The Just Rule of Law”. ²²

He graduated with Second Class Honours (Division I) at the end of 2001, and completed a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice with the NSW College of Law in 2002. He was admitted as a Legal Practitioner to the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 4^th October 2002 and to the High Court of Australia on 26^th February 2003. He then practised with a small north coast legal office until moving to STACKS the Law Firm at Nambucca Heads in 2004 – undertaking primarily criminal and civil litigation.

Three years later he established his own law firm in Urunga. He continued to concentrate on criminal and civil litigation, but frequently undertook pro bono legal work for the senior citizens, the Aboriginal community (notably with respect to "Circle Sentencing"), and the underprivileged in the local area.

Retirement[edit]

Lipscomb retired from active legal practice at the age of sixty-five; he then published his autobiography, "A Ripple Passing By". He continued to undertake voluntary work – primarily with Australian Red Cross Emergency Services dealing with the unpredictable human consequences of cyclones, floods and bush-fires on the east coast of Australia – notably the Kalang River floods (2009), the Lockyer Valley floods (2011), Cyclone Marcia in Rockhampton (2015), the Townsville floods (2019), and the 2019 bushfires across the Mid North Coast of NSW.

In 2015 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the Bellingen community, and in 2023 he was awarded the National Emergency Medal.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (UK) (FRGS), a member of the International Commission of Jurists, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, and Amnesty International. He is also currently Assistant Team Leader with Red Cross Emergency Services in Urunga. At various times he has been Chair of the Bellinger Community Communications Co-operative Ltd (which owns and operates community radio station 2bbb-fm), Director of the Bellingen District Loan Fund, Chair of the Bellingen Urban Committee, committee member of the Bellingen Community Markets Association Inc., and Chair of the Bellingen Neighbourhood Centre Management Committee.

His hobbies include classical guitar, genealogy, bush-walking, art, and creative writing. He was particularly pleased, in his retirement, to find that he had time to explore more innovative, computer-based, artistic techniques – particularly during the extended periods of isolation imposed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020. His recent artistic works are done in an impressionistic style, and utilise various computer-generated programs and tools to manipulate photographs and achieve varied effects. The end product is often referred to as "semi-realistic generative art".

References[edit]

¹ Lipscomb, Adrian, “A Ripple Passing By”, Blurb Publications, Ca., first published in 2014, updated, edited and republished in 2022 https://www.blurb.com/bookstore

² Lipscomb, Adrian, et al, The Lonely Planet Guide to Papua New Guinea, Lonely Planet Publications, Australia, Feb 1998

³ Lipscomb, Adrian, Rites of Passage: Selected Short Stories, Poems and Vignettes, Blurb Publications, Ca, 2021

⁴ Aboriginal Protection Board: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Protection_Board

⁵ Lipscomb, A.W.G., Breeding and Management of Livestock, Whitcombe and Tombs, New Zealand, first published: 1933 (ninth edition published in 1973)

⁶ See William Simpson, Artist (1823-1899) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Simpson_(artist)

⁷ Knox Grammar School, Waitara, Sydney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Grammar_School

⁸ 4^th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Battalion,_Royal_Australian_Regiment

⁹ Royal Art Society of New South Wales http://www.royalart.com.au/

¹⁰ Kokoda Track https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoda_Track

¹¹ Barbera Moret: The Lure of the Horizon, Blurb Publications, Ca. 2018

¹² Tranby Co-operative College for Aborigines, Glebe, Sydney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranby,_Glebe

¹³ Sir Robert William Cole (16 September 1926 – 8 January 2019) was a senior Australian public servant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cole_(public_servant)

¹⁴ The JIO has since been renamed The Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) – see http://www.defence.gov.au/dio/index.shtml

¹⁵ New Zealand Nuclear-Free Zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_nuclear-free_zone

¹⁶ Bellingen township in NSW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingen,_New_South_Wales

¹⁷ Koompartoo Retreat, 12 Dudley Street, Bellingen NSW 2454 https://koompartoo.com.au/

¹⁸ Australian Volunteers Abroad is now known as Australian Volunteers International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Volunteers_International

¹⁹ Gizo, Solomon Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizo,_Solomon_Islands

²⁰ See, for example: Lipscomb, Adrian J.H., Village-based Tourism in the Solomon Islands: impediments and impacts, in “Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism: International Case Studies”, Eric Laws, Bill Faulkner & Gianna Moscardo [eds.], Routledge, London 1998 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203360491-22/village-based-tourism-solomon-islands

²¹ Sandline Affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandline_affair

²² Nicholas Cowdery & Adrian Lipscomb, The Just Rule of Law, “Southern Cross University Law Review”, December 2000 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SCULawRw/2000/3.pdf