University Of New South Wales - Sydney, Australia

An indefatigable optometrist associated with UNSW for more than 30 years has started a bush practice – 50 years after he received his optometry diploma.
    Professor Brian Layland, the 1992 International Optometrist of the Year and a visiting professor at the Co-operative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology CRCERT), has hit the road for the remote Aboriginal Medical Services.
    Having played a key part in overcoming one of the major barriers to Aboriginal people seeking eye examinations – the lack of eye services within Aboriginal community-controlled health services – Layland now travels to many regions to deliver eyecare services himself.
    Thanks to work by Layland, the International Centre for Eyecare Education ICEE) now has a presence at 66 locations around NSW, in collaboration with the Aboriginal Medical Services, CRCERT and local optometrists. Thirteen of those are equipped clinics, while most of the others are outreach services, either by country-based optometrists or from Sydney.
    Many smaller remote Aboriginal communities are best served by a mobile eyecare team. Layland made his first trip in April this year to Balranald and Ivanhoe in far western

NSW. To date, around 8,000 patients have been seen in the NSW program, and in many cases the patients coming to the clinics have never seen an eyecare practitioner before.
    Layland’s optometry career has now come full circle: he is on the road again. After he graduated in 1953, he was employed to run a travelling consulting room in a truck. There was a slight drawback – he didn’t know how to drive.
    He had a quick driving lesson around the block before taking off for the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. A year later, he started his own practice in Liverpool, where he stayed for 45 years.
    Since 1998 he has also worked on the issue of diabetes-linked blindness. He has some personal interest in this – he is one of the 1.5 million people with diabetes in Australia. He is chair of the National Diabetes Committee of the Australian Optometric Association and serves on a number of related committees.
    Now 73, and speaking just before he took off for Goodooga in north-west NSW, Layland says he’s given no thought to retirement, particularly while there is such reward in the outreach work.
    “You see people who clearly need eye care, and it hasn’t been available, and now it is,” he said. “It’s a very positive feeling.”

Several UNSW students and their friends have raised $10,000 for refugees on the Thai-Burma border through a dance party held earlier this year.
     The group, which includes social work/law student Dave Green and arts student Laura Kelly, put up their own money to book the venue and equipment.
     They advertised the party in street press, through Sydney universities and on Triple J and over 1,300 people turned up on the night.
     “That was totally beyond our expectations. We were hoping to raise $5,000 and ended up doubling it,” said Green.
     “It’s such a mini industry, the whole dance party scene and it’s really good to think there’s a willingness out there to channel that into something socially beneficial.”
     The bands and 20 DJs who performed on the night all donated their time for the fundraiser.
     The money will be channelled through the University’s Centre for Refugee Research into two projects for ethnic Shah and Karen people in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border.
     Weaving looms will be bought for women in the camp, to give them a form of income and an alternative to prostitution. The money will also go towards a human rights training program in the camps.
     This is the second dance party the group have organised. They held their first in September last year and donated the proceeds of the event to the Asylum Seekers’ Centre.

Find a bargain at lost property sale

The U Committee’s annual lost property sale will be held this month.
All unclaimed items from the lost property office, including clothing, watches, jewellery, sporting goods and umbrellas will be up for grabs at the sale. Some household items have also been donated. Proceeds will go to the Committee’s consolidated revenue fund and for projects in 2004.

The sale will be held on Tuesday August 12 in the John Clarke Gallery, Square House, from 9am–2pm.

Brian Layland and patient.