Professor Owen CarterPrint Page

The Owen Carter Memorial Chapel commemorates Professor Owen Carter.

Owen Carter was born at Quirindi, New South Wales on 26 December 1932, and educated at Farrer Memorial High School, Tamworth. In 1950, he entered the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Sydney at the age of 16 years, graduating in 1954 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours I). His first appointment was as a Research Agronomist with the combined University of Sydney / New South Wales Department of Agriculture Pasture Research Team at Lismore (1954 - 56).  In 1956 he obtained a Rotary Exchange Scholarship to study at Cornell University, USA. There he gained Masters and Ph.D degrees (1956-60), experience which (like that of Swain, Maling, Barr and others) contributed significantly to the acceptance of the ‘network university’ idea when this was proposed in the late 1980s.

On returning to Australia, he was progressively appointed Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Agronomy in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sydney (1960-1975). During this period he developed a national and international reputation for his research into the agronomy of soya-beans.  Other areas of research and publication included the tissue culture of oats, the effect of conditions on corn phosphate uptake and the potassium supplying power of Mardin soil.  Owen was awarded a Fellowship by the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science (FAIAS) in 1982 for an outstanding contribution to agricultural research and education. On joining Hawkesbury, he brought that combination of academic and practical experience which made the institution the powerhouse of research in the region.

At Hawkesbury, Carter functioned as Deputy CEO and also demonstrated that combination of entrepreneurial drive and industry connection which helped Hawkesbury survive in a period when the university did not yet have the research strength to contend for the larger pool of public grants.   Carter served on a number of external commissions. He was a member of the Governing Council of Orange Agricultural College; the Board of Senior Secondary School Studies; the Science Advisory Council ABC; and Deputy Chairman of the CLANN Board, to name a few.

When Hawkesbury became a member of the federated University of Western Sydney on January 1, 1989, Carter was one of the key network member administrators (along with Brian Lindsay, Geoff Alcorn, and others) who played important roles in ensuring the successful establishment of the University. He served as Foundation Chairman of the Post-Graduate Studies Committee of the University's Academic board, and absorbed increased responsibility for the day to day management of UWS Hawkesbury to free Swain for duties as a member of the Corporate Management Team of the University as a whole.

He died suddenly of a heart attack on Saturday 15 July, 1990

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