Dr Sarah Hill
Chief Executive Officer, Greater Sydney Commission
Ceremony: 10 October 2019, 2:00pm - Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
Speech
Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, presiding Deans, presiding Director Chair of the Academic Board, members of the University Council, Executive and UTS team, good afternoon. And may I commence by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which the UTS campus stands, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging. Well, congratulations everyone. To the graduates, all 150 plus of you here today, and your family members and friends who are sharing this wonderful time with you.
As a firm believer in ongoing education, I've experienced the joys of several graduation ceremonies. Indeed, Pro-Chancellor, my first was 20 years ago. Seems like only yesterday. As a young science graduate, and my most recent, as you just heard, was last year, completing my thesis in the economics of cities. That makes me very familiar with the incredible sense of pride, achievement, and incredible relief that this day has finally come. And that's just for the moms and dads.
For the graduates, the years of study that have brought you here today have been a journey, not just for you, but for the support networks that no student can get by without. We've all needed someone to support and encourage us, to keep us focused, maintain sometimes flagging enthusiasm, imminent procrastination and distraction. So to the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, partners, spouses, friends, and other loved ones, congratulations to you too.
For the graduates today, it's not just about acknowledging where you have been, but where you are going. As the American civil rights activist, Malcolm X, said, "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." Each of you are here from the Faculties of Design, Architecture and Building and Transdisciplinary Innovation, which is a very cool name, are all creators of the future, but indeed you must prepare and plan for it today.
Now, I'm a planner, a planner of cities, so that resonates quite well with me. And I'm responsible for planning greater Sydney's future, its next 40 years, making the city a more sustainable, liveable, and productive place. And so I believe we are sitting in no better location today, at no better time, to be inspired to not only design, but to build and to innovate, to make our future even better. Today we are gathered in what my organisation, working with the university, have coined the Camperdown to Ultimo Innovation Corridor. This corridor is an excellent example of transformation, evolving from simple paddocks on the outskirts of our city in the early 19th century, to the heart of the city's retail district and electric tram network in the early 20th century. It's now the new thriving tech quarter of Australia, attracting award-winning design, sustainability, and cutting-edge innovation, and of course world-class students.
Innovation underpins the success of 21st century cities, and education campuses have become the catalyst for this change. They are no longer the isolated, inward facing, and gated centres of the past. Today, exemplified by this very campus, they're integral to our city's DNA, the quality of our urban fabric, our community's well-being, and our economic success. Working with UTS, along with other leading and internationally recognised health and education organisations located within this very corridor, we have certainly and collectively designed a vision for the Camperdown to Ultimo Corridor to be Australia's innovation and technology capital. It will grow as a place for the world's leading industry, health and education sectors, creative, cultural and digital industries, business support servers and start-ups to thrive.
But my challenge to you today, and Pro-Chancellor, I also have a number of challenges for the students today as they enter into life, working in our great city. My challenge to you, our city designers and innovators of the future, is to bring this vision to life and create a place that not only generates great research and ideas, but a place that improves people's lives and the value of our city, to the benefit of our entire country. I encourage you to strive for solutions and productive outcomes, whilst respecting the environment through the adoption of low carbon living, by enhancing our city's resilience, and expanding our green and blue grids. My challenge to you is to do this in a way that respects people, respects culture, by creating active, safe, accessible, beautiful and entertaining public spaces that are connected, walkable, and attractive, during both the day and the night.
There is no more exciting time for you to rise to these challenges and for the opportunities our city will present to you. However, my final challenge and advice to you is to recognise that your own development and growth is a continuous journey, that your careers and successes are as much about working with people to achieve the right outcomes, as they are about dreaming up ideas. It is in this regard that I'd like to share with you three lessons that I've learned along the way, and yes, you will learn in industry that things happen in threes, because quite frankly, four is too difficult to remember.
So my top three for you are, number one, put up your hand. Don't wait to be asked to help. Learn by doing and step forward for new opportunities, because you never know where they will take you. Indeed, when I was presented the opportunity to plan the London Olympic Games and their legacy, with a team of incredible people, I was pleased I did not take the advice of my peers that London would never be able to host another Olympic Games and that the project would be a waste of my time. I took the risk, I put up my hand, and that one decision has opened up an incredible path and options for me in my career journey to date.
Number two, be humble. Listen, and I mean really listen and don't just wait to be heard. And recognise that collaborating with others makes it easier to not only identify the problem, but solve it. One of the simplest yet powerful things we've achieved at the Greater Sydney Commission is a culture of collaborative working, with the next generation of professionals who realise that collective is more powerful than the individual. And my third key lesson to you today, and key tip, is love learning because it's a lifelong journey. It helps you find the facts on which to base your advice and inform your ideas. Now, education and learning certainly do not always have to be formal, but take opportunities to travel, be involved in new projects, volunteer for committees, and write opinion pieces, all as opportunities to gain new experiences, insights, and thereby education.
Now in seeking to find an appropriate and motivating quote to conclude on and inspire your future, I must admit I consulted my famous, and certainly my favourite research assistant, Google, and I came up with a whole series of quotes from the standard Confucius, to Walt Disney, to Winston Churchill and J. K. Rowling. But then I really thought I need to share with you a quote that has inspired me to prepare much of my work in planning Sydney's future. And I found it in the opening of a very old plan, the 1948 County Cumberland Plan. And this plan maybe recognises the first real plan for our great city. The 1948 Plan was written in a post-war period in a very different climate to when we wrote greater Sydney's current plan, A Metropolis of Three Cities. But the words provided in the preface continue to stay with me as a guide for my career. I work here in the Camperdown to Ultimo Corridor with UTS and across our great city.
The plan's preface said, "This is not a vaguely idealistic plan. It has been based on proven facts. And if its authors have looked upward to the stars, they've kept their feet on the ground." So graduates, I give you the same advice, and the last challenge for today, for your careers. Look to the stars, but remember to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Congratulations to you and your families for this major milestone on your journey. And thank you.
About the Speaker
Dr Sarah Hill is the Deputy Secretary, Strategic Directions and Integration, at the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Sydney Commission.
Previously she worked in the United Kingdom as a Principal Planner and led the London Borough of Hackney Major Projects Development Assessment Team. Dr Hill was a founding member of the new planning authority known as the London Olympic and Paralympic Joint Planning Authority responsible for the master planning and approvals for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Upon returning to Australia, she was a Director of Hill PDA Consulting, and specialised as an economic planner with expertise in employment areas and the economics of development.
Dr Hill has received numerous accolades and awards, which include the 2005 Royal Town Planning Institute Award for Planning, the 2012 Urban Development Institute of Australia NSW & Stockland Women in Development Leadership Award, the 2015 NSW Planner of the Year, and the 2016 to 2017 Australian Planner of the Year.
She is a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia, and was previously President of the NSW Division of the Planning Institute of Australia. Dr Hill is also a Director of Rowing NSW.
She is an Adjunct Professor here at UTS, and Chair of the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building Industry Advisory Board.
Dr Hill holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master in Urban and Regional Planning and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney. She is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
