A decade of memories

Farewell from Contact editor Michael Jones

An image of outgoing 'Contact' editor Michael Jones speaking with colleagues while looking over a computer screen.

After almost a decade at the helm, this edition of Contact marks my last as editor. I'm not going far – I'm actually not even changing desks – just moving into the media and content team in UQ's Marketing and Communication office, where I'll continue to work on content across the broader UQ community.

But it's the end of an era for me, having spent half my working life producing this publication.

I joined UQ back in March 2015 after a decade in newspapers – a job I never thought I would leave. But I can say with conviction that editing Contact has been the highlight of my career, and I am honoured to have played a small part in the publication’s 34-year history.

Contact was established in 1990 and was published as a printed magazine until 2021. In more recent years it has become an online publication, keeping you up to date in real time with regular digital editions sent directly to your inbox.

A selection of Contact covers during Michael's time as editor.

A selection of Contact covers during my time as editor.

A selection of Contact covers during my time as editor.

One of my favourite projects as editor was leading a re-design of the print magazine in 2016 – a labour of love for a self-confessed print nerd.

But I’m proud to say I also helped bring the publication – kicking and screaming (mostly on my part) – into the digital age, producing timely online content and curating the monthly e-newsletters you receive today.

My challenge was to bring the same visually compelling print content that readers had always valued onto their computer and phone screens. I have invested in various training courses and spent countless hours honing my skills in the digital storytelling space to produce an engaging online experience that I hope you’ve enjoyed.

Pages from Contact magazine in 2010.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

Pages from Contact magazine in 2015.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

Pages from Contact magazine in 2019.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

How the design of Contact magazine evolved over the years.

I’m often asked, what’s the best thing about working at UQ and editing an alumni magazine? And I always answer this way:

When working as a newspaper journalist, I often reported on the worst of society. At UQ, I’m reporting on the best – inspirational alumni, students and staff who are saving lives, making groundbreaking discoveries, creating change in their communities, and leading by example in their chosen fields.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an example of this. When society was challenged, our UQ alumni and community stepped up when it mattered most – either by developing life-saving vaccines, working on the frontline of health care or pivoting their businesses or careers to help those in need.

What could have been a quiet period for alumni news turned into an influx of inspirational content. And despite fears that people might have experienced COVID-content fatigue, the opposite happened. We found that by positioning UQ researchers and community members as experts in their fields during this challenging time, Contact's engagement statistics soared, and they’ve been rising steadily ever since.

What this period proved was that an alumni magazine can play a key role in the modern media landscape. And with audiences looking for trusted news sources more than ever, why shouldn’t the community come to universities to get expert analysis on the big topics facing society?

Name any topic and chances are UQ has an expert who can comment on or analyse it – a dream scenario for an editor.

My last major assignment before signing off on Contact was to write and edit stories about UQ’s 27 Olympians and Paralympians competing in Paris. As a former sports reporter and editor, I loved every minute of it – despite the timezone difference.

I had the pleasure of working with 2 of UQ’s esteemed graduates and sports journalists – Louise Evans and Nicole Jeffery – who were on the ground in Paris during the Olympics and kept our readers up to date on all the action and results from our UQ athletes. 

In total, we produced 22 individual stories during the Olympics and Paralympics, while also publishing 52 updates on a live blog.

Of course, none of what Contact has achieved in the past 10 years could have been done without a great team, and I've been fortunate to work with many talented colleagues across the University – writers, editors, academic contributors, photographers and designers – who are dedicated to driving engagement with our alumni audience.

While it's the end of an era for me, Contact will keep you up to date as it always has under the editorial control of my colleagues in the Alumni and Community Engagement team, and I’m excited to watch Contact continue to evolve.

So, as I look back on almost 10 years of fond memories, I thought I would share with you 10 of my favourite Contact stories during my stint as editor.

I hope you enjoy this scroll down memory lane and, as always, thank you for reading.

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and music therapist Maggie James. Image: Anjanette Webb

Bittersweet symphony

A 2019 cover story on music therapist and UQ alum Maggie James ranks as one of my favourite interviews and continues to impact me today. 

Maggie (Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy ’02, Master of Business Administration ’14) worked on the palliative care wards of the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, where terminally ill children are cared for during their final days. On top of that, she is a member of the International Board of Trustees for the Butterfly Children’s Hospices in China, where she is supporting the Chinese government to establish its own paediatric palliative care services.

Maggie shared with me one of her favourite moments of her career – when a 6-year-old patient, who had a severe head injury from a car accident, woke mid-song after months of being in a coma.

Her favourite song was Over the Rainbow, and Maggie sang it to her every week while she was unconscious.

“One day while I was singing to her, I saw her fingers wriggle and her mouth started to move. So, I sang the chorus over and over again,” Maggie said.

“I saw that she started mouthing some of the words to the song, so I slowed down and, the next minute, she sang the last word of the chorus.”

Maggie’s job is emotionally taxing, so it was heartening to receive many messages and well wishes from parents and family members of some of the patients Maggie has cared for over the years.

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ alum and shipbuilder Rick James. Image: Anjanette Webb

The shipbuilder’s legacy

Rick James designed more than 150 of Australia’s most iconic vessels and graduated from UQ’s Bachelor of Naval Architecture program in 1951.

My former colleague Rachel Westbury and I had the pleasure of sailing on one of those vessels – Rick’s own boat, Thanet – in 2018 while filming and photographing then-90-year-old Rick for a story Rachel wrote for Contact.

Contact editor Michael Jones on a boat with alum Rick James.

Talk about a rough day at work… Rick James and me on the high seas. Image: Anjanette Webb

Talk about a rough day at work… Rick James and me on the high seas. Image: Anjanette Webb

As you can see from the photos, it’s no wonder this ranks as one of my favourite days ‘in the office’.

Rick sadly passed away in November last year, but I think about him every time I’m visiting the Wynnum-Manly area.

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley.

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley. Image: Studio Commercial/David Silva

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley. Image: Studio Commercial/David Silva

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley.

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley. Image: Studio Commercial/David Silva

UQ alum and Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley. Image: Studio Commercial/David Silva

Creator of dragons

UQ alum Deborah Riley said it was a dream come true to work as the production designer for Game of Thrones from 2013 to 2019, and it was a dream come true for me to tell her story for Contact.

On top working on Game of Thrones, for which she has won 4 Emmy Awards, she has also worked as a set designer for films like The Matrix, Anna and The King, 21 Grams and Moulin Rouge!. Her success also saw her selected as an art director for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games closing ceremony.

With all that success, it made my day when she wrote to me to request more copies of Contact magazine so her mother could send them to her friends.

An image of Australian soldiers in World War 1

Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

An image of Australian soldiers in World War 1

Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

We will remember them

Working closely with UQ archivist Bruce Ibsen, Contact published a series of articles to acknowledge 100 years since the end of the end of World War I in 2018.

This series revealed one of the most remarkable stories of coincidence and loss from World War I – the story of Bachelor of Arts graduates and childhood mates Charles Wonderley and Walde Fisher, who, after graduating from UQ together on the same day, were killed on the same battlefield, near Amiens in France, on the same day on 5 April 1918.

Charles Wonderley and Walde Fisher in their UQ graduation photo in 1916.

Charles Wonderley and Walde Fisher in their UQ graduation photo in 1916. Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

Charles Wonderley and Walde Fisher in their UQ graduation photo in 1916. Image: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland

Just weeks after publishing the story, a reader emailed to say that his father had served with Walde Fisher in France. It’s great to know that Walde’s memory lives on more than a century later.

Off the back of these stories, UQ unveiled a new Roll of Honour plaque in 2018 that now recognises all 51 Queensland Agricultural College (UQ Gatton) staff and students – 15 of whom were omitted from previous memorials. 

The plaque was a result of years of research by Mr Ibsen, who produced Faces of the Fallen – a publication honouring the UQ staff and students who died during World War I.

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor.

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor. Image: Anjanette Webb

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor. Image: Anjanette Webb

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor.

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor. Image: Anjanette Webb

Forensic anthropologist Donna MacGregor. Image: Anjanette Webb

Body of evidence

UQ alum Donna MacGregor is changing the lives of grieving families who have been impacted by war. The Bachelor of Science (Honours) graduate is an Army reservist and the only forensic anthropologist in the Unrecovered War Casualties – Army unit. Her role is to read skeletal remains to help determine identities.

I interviewed Donna for Contact in 2017, when she told me about how she helps to identify the bodies of soldiers who died on battlefields – most notably during World War II – and give them the dignified farewells they deserve.

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle.

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle. Image: Anjanette Webb

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle. Image: Anjanette Webb

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle.

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle. Image: Anjanette Webb

Thuy and Son Ngo with their son Eagle. Image: Anjanette Webb

On a wave of hope

War. Secret escapes. Stranded at sea. Pirates and eye patches. It’s a story of survival almost too wild to believe, and one I was honoured to tell.

UQ graduates Son and Thuy Ngo had each made perilous journeys to Australia from war-torn Vietnam as children in the early 1980s – with both fearing they and their families would die at sea in their rickety wooden boats.

While telling Son’s and Thuy’s harrowing stories of survival, this Contact feature also included their son Eagle, who is determined to make the most of the opportunities afforded to him.

The now Bachelor of Science graduate (2021) and Doctor of Medicine student has his eyes set on a career as an ophthalmologist and has also co-authored a children’s book with his uncle and Sydney ophthalmologist, Dr Jason Cheng, about amblyopia (lazy eye) and patch therapy.

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019.

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019. Image courtesy of Discovery

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019. Image courtesy of Discovery

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019.

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019. Image courtesy of Discovery

Cameron Bellamy and team celebrate reaching Antarctica on Christmas Day 2019. Image courtesy of Discovery

Conquering The Impossible Row

UQ alum and endurance athlete Cameron Bellamy is no stranger to danger and pushing his body to its limits.

In 2018, he became only the 11th person to swim the Oceans Seven, the swimming equivalent of climbing’s Seven Summits, and the first person in history to complete a circumnavigation swim around Barbados – 96 kilometres in 42 hours. In 2019, he completed the longest channel swim in history – from Barbados to St Lucia – covering 151 kilometres in 56 hours.

But an image that sticks with me is of Bellamy and his 5 crewmates hunkering down in their ocean rowboat as mountainous 30-foot waves crash over them in the middle of one of the most dangerous stretches of ocean on Earth – the Drake Passage.

Soaking wet and freezing cold, they’re at the mercy of the fearsome stretch of water, and there’s nothing they can do but wait until the churning ocean tames its anger.

The crew had set themselves the challenge of becoming the first to row unassisted across the Drake Passage, while raising vital funds for the Eastern Cape-based Ubunye Foundation, which supports communities in some of the poorest areas of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Bellamy and the crew set out to conquer the Drake Passage from Cape Horn in Chile on 13 December 2019 and, on Christmas Day – after almost 13 days at sea ­– they did the impossible, reaching Antarctica and entering the Guinness World Records.

The image of Bellamy and his crew celebrating on board the rowboat among giant icebergs on Christmas Day is still one my favourite photos published in Contact.

An image of a forensic investigator at a crime scene.

Images: Microgen/Adobe Stock

Images: Microgen/Adobe Stock

An image of a forensic investigator at a crime scene.

Images: Microgen/Adobe Stock

Images: Microgen/Adobe Stock

Catching serial killers

Catching serial killers tells the story of inspirational alum Dr Angela Williamson, who is bringing criminals to justice through world-leading science in arguably the most recognised law enforcement agency in the world – the FBI.

Dr Williamson was at the forefront helping to bring the world's most-prolific serial killer, Samuel Little, to justice. But of even greater relevance to our Queensland audience was the fact that she helped solve the case of teenager Daniel Morcombe, who went missing on the Sunshine Coast in 2003, and whose disappearance became one of the most publicised and extensively investigated crimes in the state’s history.

The article was published in June 2021 and continues to be one the most-read alumni profile articles in Contact. It was celebrated for its design with a nomination in the education category in the annual Shorthand Awards.

An image of the movie 'Barbie'

Image: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Image: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

An image of the movie 'Barbie'

Image: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Image: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Barbie in the real world

As much as I tried, I couldn’t escape Barbie-mania in 2023 as the film phenomenon swept the globe.

I was happy to watch on as my colleagues, always with their fingers on the pulse, published an analysis on the day of the film’s release about how the childhood icon stacks up to the feminist ideals of 2023.

UQ experts discussed whether we should thank Barbie for encouraging the belief that girls can do anything or ask her to please explain the perpetuation of exaggerated white femininity and excessive materialism.

The article, accompanied by a clever social media promotional strategy featuring actual Barbie dolls, reflects Contact’s mission to cover the global events through visually compelling and entertaining content. 

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher.

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher. Image: Jenny Cuerel

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher. Image: Jenny Cuerel

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher.

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher. Image: Jenny Cuerel

UQ Hockey Club legend and dual Olympian Don McWatters and UQ Division 1 women's captain Morgan Gallagher. Image: Jenny Cuerel

The 100 club

The UQ Hockey Club celebrated significant milestones this year, marking 100 years of men’s hockey, 112 years of women’s hockey, and 10 years since the men’s and women’s clubs merged in 2014.

To tell the story, I worked with the club to bring UQ hockey legend and Hockey Australia Hall of Famer Don McWatters back to campus, where he met current women’s club captain and Australian representative Morgan Gallagher to reflect on UQ’s history in the sport. Don also brought his stick and blazer from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he was a member of Australia’s bronze-medal-winning team.

The article also delved into the history of hockey at UQ and included images from various hockey teams and players from 1912 to today.

The article led to one my favourite emails from a reader, who wrote:

“I am sitting here with tears of love and delight reading the comprehensive description of Don McWatters’s hockey history and his proud association with UQ. Loved the inclusion of his lifelong friendship with the 3 McBryde boys, who he grew with up in Maryborough. I continued reading to find the photo of the young Syme Cup players from 1953. It’s Jack’s birthday today, so it’s very poignant to see my young Jack. This was before we were married in 1956. Of course, seeing the young Rod, and dear Alan Kemp, and Ivan Barton, Kenny Sue, Neil and Johnny – all these young men – brings back so many memories that I cherish.”

Receiving this email was a reminder of the true value of alumni magazines and why we do what we do.