Heritage advocate and UTAS alumnus, Ian Stephenson had a passion for Tasmania.
Ian Stephenson’s sudden passing has been a shock to his friends and colleagues in the cultural heritage sector across Australia and internationally. Ian was a man of great vitality who engaged and motivated people to achieve good outcomes, often against the odds.
Ian was raised at Epping NSW and was educated at Newington College, the Scots School at Bathurst and the University of Tasmania. He then worked for eleven years with the Australian Taxation Office in Hobart, seemingly in fulfilment of a wish to prove to his chemist father that he could stick at something he was not particularly interested in. Knowledge of financial matters was to be a boon for Ian’s later cultural sector career. He was a ‘big picture’ person and able to frame the wide ranging social benefits of heritage in economic terms.
While living in Hobart, Ian got to know Clive Lucas OBE, the architect for the Australian Government-funded Port Arthur Conservation Project (and previously the architect who had seen the resurrection of the National Trust’s Clarendon). Ian was the host to archaeologists and others involved in the Port Arthur Conservation Project’s at his house in Hobart’s Glebe. In gratitude, they gave him the nickname ‘Rocky’, not for Sylvester Stallone’s boxer but for the diminutive, problem-solving beaver in the Canadian animation, Rocky and Bullwinkle.
In 1988, on long service leave from Tax Office, Ian completed a Diploma of Museum Studies at Sydney University. Ian then had a highly productive career across a range of heritage organizations – as Curator of Collingwood for Liverpool City Council; as Senior Curator at the National Trust of Australia (NSW); as Director at Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Historic Places; as CEO at the National Trust of Australia (South Australia) and as Curator at the University of New England, Armidale.
At the National Trust of Australia (NSW), Ian energically managed concurrent Centenary of Federation grants. At Old Government House, Parramatta, Ian worked with Clive Lucas on a re-restoration of the house, restoring much of the early 19th century detail discarded during the 1960s restoration. Ian went on to project manage the re-interpretation of the house to reflect the Macquarie period with paint schemes by Dr Ian Bristow and interior furnishings designed by Dr James Broadbent and made by the National Trust sewing volunteers. For the National Trust, an organization dependent on community volunteering and philanthropy, Ian secured volunteer commitment worth many thousands of dollars per year over more than two decades.
In the 1990s Ian attended the Victorian Society Summer School, followed by the Attingham Summer School, Royal Collection Studies and various Attingham Study Weeks. The Attingham Trust provides an important international professional network for the study, curatorship and conservation of historic houses. Ian formed strong friendships with British experts. This was mirrored by friendships with leading heritage thinkers in Australia the UK and USA. As a custodian of historic sites Ian formed firm friendships with people who might otherwise have opposed change and descendants of the original builders of those places.
In retirement, Ian embarked on what was a second career in heritage advocacy. The need was great in NSW where heritage is seen as an impediment to development. While living in Hobart, Ian had opposed the loss of housing in North Hobart to industrial and commercial uses. In more recent years he advocated rezoning of industrial and commercial sites in North Hobart, Argyle and Campbell Streets for medium density housing.
Ian had a great passion for Tasmania. Ian became a Trustee and latterly Chairman at the Copland Foundation whose roles include sponsoring acquisitions and conservation for Australian historic places together with scholarships at Attingham Trust courses. He supported several significant acquisition and interpretation projects by National Trust Tasmania.
Ian was an exceptional advocate, educator and mentor around our cultural heritage. He has left us when we needed him most.
