It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the sudden passing of Daryll Hull, industry Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Workforce Futures within the Macquarie Business School.
During his 40-years career, Daryll made a substantial impact across industry, business, government and academia both in Australia and overseas. As far as we know he was the first PhD graduate in Industrial Relations from UNSW, under the supervision of Bill Ford. For some years he was based in Oxford at Ruskin College and at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik (in the former Yugoslavia) from where he advised on matters of work organisation and management. Subsequently, he pursued his interests in this and many other areas in industry, government and academia, always looking at building bridges between these spheres well before it became fashionable to do so.
Daryll’s international work extended beyond Australia and Europe across East Asia. He was a long time Mission Leader for technology-based policy advice and technology business incubation and science parks with the United Nations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, China and India. He ran his own successful businesses, assisted others to develop their own and acted as an advisor and mentor for senior executives, academics and university students. He played a critical role assisting John Toohey (who later became a Professor at RMIT) to set up the Master of Business Technology at UNSW, one of the early flexible learning programmes in the country, and then played a pivotal role in setting up the Master of Technology Management, co-taught by the Faculty of Commerce and Economics and the Faculty of Engineering at UNSW between 1998 and 2002.
In 2003 he was commissioned by the Business Council of Australia to develop a framework of 14 attributes for best workplaces within the Australian work environment. The Report, entitled: ‘Simply the best workplaces in Australia’ was well received by employers and trade unions alike. In 2015, he updated this paper as ‘Simply the best workplaces in Australia – Redux’ because he considered that the original conclusions needed to be restated and he used this opportunity to raise additional research topics in the area of excellence in workplace leadership.
In 2008, Daryll established the Transport and Logistics Centre (TALC), a national research centre funded jointly by the Federal and NSW Governments. He then contacted with me as Director of the UNSW Industrial Relations Research Centre (IRRC) to develop industry university research links. In that capacity he provided a grant of US$120 K to the IRRC to enable collaboration on research relating to transport and logistics. He continued to provide further funding support for a number of years, including through his role, as Director of the TALC, as an Industry Partner with IRRC colleagues (Michael Quinlan, Ian Hampson, Sarah Gregson and Anne Junor) in a 2011-2014 Australian Research Council Linkage Project investigating the future of aircraft maintenance in Australia.
In 2011, Daryll’s potential for establishing university-industry links was recognised by then Dean at Macquarie University (MQ), Mark Gabbott who appointed Daryll on a fractional basis to the newly established Centre for Workforce Futures. In this capacity Daryll helped to establish research opportunities with the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Ryde Council and also CEDA (the Committee for Economic Development of Australia). Daryll facilitated several projects on Workplace Health and Safety in road transport undertaken by Louise Thornthwaite and Sharron O’Neil (now at UNSW Canberra). He also initiated connections with the Hunter Valley’s wine industry and facilitated a survey of the Hunter Valley wine sector particularly in regard to the impact of environmental change.
Daryll agreed to act as the Director of the Centre for Workforce Futures at MQ following the retirement of Professor Ray Markey and in July 2018 Daryll and I officially became centre director buddies, an opportunity for collaboration and visioning that I am indebted to Steven Brammer, then Dean, for initiating. Daryll and I had great fun developing a new mission for the Centre focused on Decent Work, paid and unpaid work, caring work and co-operative work.
Daryll always made an effort to engage with students. In 2012 he presented a keynote address to the Maquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics Higher Degree Research Expo on investigating ‘wicked problems’. More recently he mentored students involved with Enactus, the global student organisation operating in 36 countries, whose mission is to enable ‘progress through entrepreneurial action’. His contribution was recognised in 2019 when he was named Faculty Adviser of the Year by Enactus Australia. In keeping with his immense generosity of spirit Daryll said the award really belonged to the students: it ‘is theirs as much as mine. It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to work with such a passionate and talented group of volunteers who are totally committed to their projects and to each other’.
Over recent years, Daryll’s close connection with transport stakeholders, across the private, public and educational sectors, contributed to his Major Ports initiative and collaboration with the Port of Newcastle. The latter’s CEO, Craig Carmody, contributed support for a range of research activities with his own workforce as well as the Centre for Workforce Futures, including funded research projects on employee engagement and a PhD scholarship. Together with Peter Creeden, Daryll launched the Future Ports 2050 network involving leaders of ports across Australia and key academics from other Australian and American Universities. A critical aspect of this initiative was the proposal to develop an audit tool for assessing the readiness of Australian ports for digitisation. Craig Carmody commented:
I am proud and privileged to have been able to call Daryll not only a colleague or mentor, but also a dear friend. Over the last 15 years I have benefited from his care, support, his sharp intellect, wise advice, his presence and genuine authenticity … He had such integrity, inspiring knowledge and an intent to simply do good, to help and to make a difference. … One of a kind, Daryll’s legacy is tangible across our industry, ensuring that his positive impact will not be forgotten.
Continuing his lifelong commitment to improved co-operation, some years ago Daryll initiated what he called a living database on this subject, collaborating with Anna Booth and the Fair Work Commission on a 2-day Symposium on Cooperative Workplaces, held in October 2020. Bringing his two interests in maritime and co-operation together, Daryll was brokering a partnership with Engage Marine, a national marine services group, to explore new forms of work organisation in Australia’s maritime sector, focussing on the use of partnerships and cooperatives. Most recently, Daryll was working with key stakeholders on research relating to mental health in the transport and logistics sector through the development of the Steering Healthy Minds project in partnership with TWU and TEACHO (Transport Education Audit Compliance Health Organisation) Ltd., including testing evaluation methods in pilot projects in Queensland in partnership with Central Queensland University.
It has been a highlight of my career to collaborate with Daryll throughout all these years and most specifically as co-Directors of the Centre for Workforce Futures. Envisioning a Future of Work, in line with the UN’s Sustainability Goals and particularly Goal 8 Decent Work, was a shared passion and one to which Daryll made an immense contribution throughout his life.
Daryll touched many people with his kindness and generosity of spirit, his support and his quick wit, intelligence and insight. His recent efforts to promote the reshaping of traditional models of work consistently focused on models of decency and co-operation. Industrial Relations lawyer, Christa Lenard, who worked alongside Darryl on a number of maritime projects said:
There are very few people who can demand the respect of the unions; of Boards; of business and every other stakeholder in between. Daryll was always that person – steady in the centre. When he spoke, the room listened.
In paying tribute to Daryll’s optimism, calmness and perseverance, President of the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the International President of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (formerly National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia), Paddy Crumlin said:
Daryll’s firm view was that all Australian workers deserved far more from their industry, regulators and politicians, and he spent his life addressing that gap with humour, insight and integrity which was quite often the glue that shaped industry and training policy at the highest of levels’. Close colleague Simon Earle noted ‘Daryll’s ability to bring people together to get things done was unrivalled. He was always involved in multiple projects designed to make the world a better place, but never too busy to lend an ear, or impart some words of wisdom. And he always let you know how valuable you were.
Josie Gibson, Director of the Catalyst Network, an experimental group of professionals and changemakers from different industries and sectors, to which Daryll belonged from 2019 commented:
Daryll was a valuable contributor on these conversations: informed, wise, mischievous, often provocative, providing nuggets on everything from philosophy and politics to bees and viticulture along the way. Behind the scenes he’d call with encouraging words to keep growing ‘the skunkworks’, as he liked to call our group, to ‘keep up the good fight’. Daryll embodied passion and joie de vivre, underpinned by a poetic sense of humanity, compassion and social justice. We were privileged to know him – albeit for too short a time.
In his last unpublished essay, ‘Work in the Time of Coronavirus’, Daryll Hull, wrote:
Understanding the world outside our own perspective does not necessarily mean we have to leap from the security of our own place and time, form barricades and fight in the streets. There are many stages of leaving the fishbowl. Finding the alternative pathways, marking them on the ground, shining a light on them and offering to show our friends and colleagues how to get there in a safe and helpful manner – this is a strategy as much as storming the Bastille. However, nudge strategies may have to become ‘shove’ strategies. Sometimes breaking the rules, direction action and shouting on social media can get people moving. It’s all a question of timing. And courage. And hope.
‘The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well’. Ralph Waldo Emerson
We mourn Daryll’s passing and many of those he touched are committed to carrying on his legacy.
