Dymphna Clark

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday May 20, 2000

Andrew Clark

Dymphna Clark

Scholar, muse

1916 - 2000

If Dymphna Clark could be present at her own funeral she would be anything but solemn.

There would be a warm, generous smile for those she knew, and an invitation home for some home-made banana cake, lemon peel, or ginger beer and, of course, tea. There's a fair chance afternoon tea would become dinner, with salmon or tailor from her beloved property at Wapengo, on the Far South Coast of NSW.

Clark, who has died at the age of 83, was not a guarded woman. The soul within her would never allow that. But more elusive is the answer to the question: what drove her?

The answer is complex. But at her core she was a person of high intellectual standards and principle a combination that was easy to misrepresent. But whatever the criticism, or pressure, she never budged from her principles.

Those who knew her during her remarkable life were often reminded of her strength and dignity. This was reflected when, already old and fighting cancer, she rebutted the cowardly slanders aimed at her late husband, Professor Manning Clark, after his death. In public life her achievement was overshadowed, perhaps unfairly, by that of her husband while he was alive, and much of her remaining nine years was taken up in defending his reputation, publishing more of his works, and in the formation of Manning Clark House. But she has left behind her own unique body of work, involvement in causes concerning the environment and Aborigines, and friendships testimony to her independence, energy and vision.

Hilma Dymphna Lodewyckx was born in Melbourne on December 18, 1916, and was educated at Mont Albert Central School and Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) in East Melbourne. Her father, Augustin Lodewyckx, was Associate Professor of Germanic languages at Melbourne University and her mother, Anna Sophia (nee Hansen), was active in the promotion of Scandinavian languages and culture in Victoria, and also taught Swedish at Melbourne University.

The Lodewyckx household, situated on an acre of land at Mont Albert, was a European oasis. The orchard, vegetable and flower gardens were demarcated by carefully stacked Flemish-style woodpiles. Outside the back door was a row of clogs.

It was also a haven for the study of languages. Clark spoke Dutch at home, and was flawless in German. She was also fluent in French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, and had a passable command of Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesian and Russian. She matriculated, aged 15, then graduated with honours from Melbourne University, and travelled to Germany in 1938 as a von Humboldt scholar to study for a doctorate in German literature at Bonn. However, she left after a few months because of the evil deeds of Hitler's Nazi regime, and travelled to Oxford where Manning Clark, whom she had met while they were both undergraduates at Melbourne University, was studying for an MA in history. They married in 1939, had a son, Sebastian, at the end of that year and returned to Australia in 1940 when Manning Clark became a history master at the exclusive Geelong Grammar School.

Four years later he was appointed lecturer in politics at Melbourne University and also lectured in history. In 1949 he was appointed foundation professor of history at the Canberra University College, then affiliated to Melbourne University.

Dymphna Clark played a pivotal role in the research work, editing of documents, proof reading, preparation of indexes, and general editing, of Professor Clark's Sources of Australian History, Select Documents in Australian History, and his six-volume A History of Australia, which was published by Melbourne University Press between 1962 and 1987. Her contribution was far more than the sum of these parts. A scholar of the highest standards, she advised her husband on expression, and literary organisation. Without her, his mammoth work would not have been completed, although it was, in the end, his history.

During this period she was also a lecturer in German at the Australian National University, taught German to diplomatic cadets, maintained a large and hospitable household, where Scandinavian cooking was a speciality, and became a passionate supporter of environmental programs.

In later years, while her husband was alive, Clark's leadership qualities emerged. During the mid '80s she was a driving force behind the formation of the Aboriginal Treaty Committee, which also included the late Dr H.C. ``Nugget" Coombs and the poet Judith Wright, and which influenced the reconcilation movement.

In the nine years since the death of Manning Clark, she spent much of her time devoted to the publication of his work, and defending his reputation against a range of posthumous attacks.

These included a savage personal attack by the former publisher of Melbourne University Press, Peter Ryan, and articles in Brisbane's Courier-Mail. The latter's claim that he had been awarded an Order of Lenin was later rejected by the Australian Press Council, which also made an unprecedented demand for a retraction.

The mother of six, Clark spent much of her later years working on the translations of pioneering works on Aborigines by German anthropologists, and edited the diaries of Baron Charles von Hugel, an Austrian naturalist who visited Australia in the 1830s.

She is survived by her six children Sebastian, Katerina, Axel, Andrew, Rowland and Benedict and 15 grandchildren.