Henry d’Assumpcao at Adelaide's Sacred Heart College from 1949 as 'alien': later Australia's chief defence scientist
Henry d’Assumpcao as a student (left) at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide and the letter (inset) from immigration minister Arthur Calwell allowing him, as an "alien", to enter Australia where he later became its chief defence scientist (at right).
Images courtesy Southern Cross and National Library of Australia (by Michael Kluvanek)
In the white Australian policy era, Henry d’Assumpcao needed a letter from Australian immigration minister Arthur Calwell to be admitted as a boarding student to Adelaide’s Sacred Heart College in 1949. d’Assumpcao was still an “alien” when he was employed by the Weapons Research Establishment in Salisbury, north of Adelaide – on his way to becoming the chief defence scientist of Australia.
Henry d’Assumpcao was from a Portuguese family in Macau who had moved to Hong Kong where it survived the Japanese invasion in 1941. But, with the island in the middle civil war between nationalist and communists, it was decided to send Henry (1949) and his brother Carlos 1948) to board at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide.
Getting approval from the federal immigration minister for Henry d’Assumpcao to enter Australia was assisted by lobbying, perhaps at the request of the Marish brothers who ran Sacred Heart College, by Ken Bardolph, a Labor member of the South Australian Legislative Council, president of the trades and labour council, and father of the college’s head prefect.
d’Assumpcao was 14 when he arrived at Sacred Heart College: “There was a bit of teasing about the surname but never in a malicious way. I was accepted by people. They made friends with me and invited me to their homes.” When the school closed for the holidays, headmaster Brother Sylvester sent d’Assumpcao to stay with his spinster sister in Melbourne.
d’Assumpcao initially wanted to be a lawyer but he followed his best friend Bernie Wadsworth at Sacred Heart by deciding to study electronic engineering at Adelaide University, while residing at Aquinas College, North Adelaide. Finishing equal top in his final year at university, d’Assumpcao hoped to work for the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) at Salisbury but his official status of “alien” blocked this. A WRE senior research manager got around this in a daring way by arranging for d’Assumpcao to be paid to do research for WRE at the university, avoiding the need for a security clearance.
d’Assumpcao began working in radar and was sent to one of the top establishments in England for 15 months. On his return, he switched to underwater acoustics and worked with chief scientist of the Australian Defence Scientific Service in Melbourne, Alan Butement, who invented radar. Together, they came up with the concept of a new Barra sonar buoy system to detect and accurately locate submarines. It was highly successful, generating $500 million of defence industry work in Australia.
After about 15 years of deep research, d’Assumpcao became involved in managing research and climbed the Defence Science and Technology Organisation ranks. Meanwhile, other members of his family came to Australia and, at 37, he married Colleen Symons, a former Cabra College student and nurse. They moved to Canberra for four years in 1987 when d’Assumpcao was appointed the chief defence scientist of Australia and head of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation with its 4,400 staff.
d’Assumpcao travelled overseas regularly, representing Australia at international gatherings, particularly involving the five allies (the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia). In 1992, d’Assumpcao was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his services to science and technology.
Returning to Adelaide, d’Assumpcao started up a national cooperative research centre aa a professor at the University of South Australia, involving four other universities and industry, and he served part-time on international and ministerially appointed committees. In 2003, he was awarded the M. A. Sargent Medal by Engineers Australia for longstanding eminence in science or the practice of electrical engineering. He also consulted to the Australian Customs Service until 2005.
