Asian Studies Program

Chinese Australia

About the compiler

Ian Welch was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1937. His childhood was spent in Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne. He attended Melbourne High School, (1950-1953) where he was greatly influenced by teachers including Arthur Moy, an Australian of Chinese ethnic background, Lloyd Evans and Jack Gregory (later Professor of History at Latrobe University) who contributed to a love of learning and, in particular, a passion for historical studies.

Ian trained and worked as a secondary school teacher in Victoria from 1959-1969. He worked at Norlane and Belmont High Schools in Geelong, and later at Murrumbeena High School, Gardenvale Central School and Noble Park High School. In 1970 he was appointed Lecturer in Asian Studies at Frankston Teachers' College, (State College of Victoria at Frankston) now part of Monash University.

In 1974, Ian was appointed National Executive Officer of the Australian Asian Studies Coordinating Committee, a joint committee of the State and Federal Governments of Australia, to improve the teaching of Asian languages and Cultures in Australian Schools.

Upon the completion of the ASCC program in 1979, Ian joined the national Curriculum Development Centre where his work centred on dissemination of educational innovation and the development of theoretical frameworks for a national approach to curriculum development.

In 1985 the CDC was merged with the Australian Schools Commission. During this period, Ian was the Editor of the national educational journal, Curriculum Australia. In 1990, he was appointed National Director of the long-running Disadvantaged Schools Program, The English as a Second Language Program, and the Country Areas Program. In 1990, he became Director of Management Education in the Australian Department of Employment, Education and Training.

After taking early retirement in 1994, Ian developed a taught a nation-wide program in church leadership and management education for clergy with St Mark's National Theological Centre, Canberra, and Charles Sturt University.

In 1998 he enrolled at the Australian National University to prepare a biography of Cheok Hong CHEONG from which most of the material in this website has emerged.

Ian Welch holds a Trained Secondary Teachers Certificate (Secondary Teachers College, University of Melbourne); a BA majoring in Asian Studies; (Monash University); a research MA (Monash University) "Pariahs and Outcasts: Christian Missions to the Chinese in Australia.' and a research MEd (Canberra) "Reconstructing a Tradition: National Curriculum in Australia." based on the common curriculum program initiated by the Curriculum Development Centre.

E-mail: ianwelch@coombs.anu.edu.au