Lumen Winter 2018 - Flipbook - Page 25
This wasn’t always the direction Dave’s
career was going to take. He thought
about Medicine and went as far as sitting
the Undergraduate Medicine and Health
Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) and having
an interview. In the end, however, years of
exposure to world affairs on the nightly news
and memories of a brief but stimulating
school exchange to Germany held sway.
Arts was an obvious choice. Dave majored
in Politics and added as many subjects as
possible with an international flavour. He
kept up with his German and added Spanish,
which was to prove a good career move.
“UNI WAS GREAT. I ENJOYED
MYSELF SOCIALLY AND HAD
A LOT OF FRIENDS. ARTS
GIVES YOU A REASONABLE
AMOUNT OF SCOPE TO
EXPLORE AND GET ENGAGED
IN EXTRA-CURRICULAR
ACTIVITIES SO I WAS
PART OF THE AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL CLUB ON
CAMPUS FOR A COUPLE
OF YEARS.”
“Uni was great. I enjoyed myself socially
and had a lot of friends. Arts gives you a
reasonable amount of scope to explore and
get engaged in extra-curricular activities, so I
was part of the Amnesty International Club
on campus for a couple of years.”
It was here that Dave learnt Tok Pisin,
which is the New Guinea version of a pidgin
English that has similar versions in places
such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
“Science and maths were more my strengths
in high school but doing that exchange made
me think maybe I wanted to do something
more related to international affairs and
engagement between people.”
Dave pays tribute to lecturer and tutor
Dr Bob Catley, a former federal MP, for
really capturing his imagination. “He was
quite brilliant at providing an overview
of world politics – from the Treaty of
Westphalia on – and the history of interaction
between countries. Things that I had never
been exposed to.”
Catley also first turned Dave’s thoughts
towards a career in foreign affairs when he
invited a former student to talk with the class
about interning in an Australian Embassy.
In the 16 years since Dave graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts, he has completed postings
in Chile and Cambodia, worked as a civilian
peace monitor in Bougainville, contributed
to two major regional conferences of
world leaders and even coordinated the
refuelling stop for a Prime Ministerial
plane on Easter Island.
And he speaks three languages, including
the exotic sounding Tok Pisin.
Now, at 37, he is back in Adelaide as
Director of the South Australia State Office
of the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (DFAT). For a while at least.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “I would
never have predicted when I was at university
that this would be the path my professional
life would take but I’ve loved it so far and
had some great experiences.”
Dave didn’t follow that route, instead taking
a year off to travel and work as a volunteer
in Bolivia. That improved his Spanish,
consolidated his interest in international
relations in general and Latin America
in particular, and no doubt helped him
win a position as a graduate trainee with
DFAT in Canberra.
Not surprisingly he was soon appointed
to the Latin America section and when he
became eligible to apply for an international
posting, Chile was available. First, however,
his Spanish indirectly helped him get to
New Guinea.
“Because I had the requisite level of Spanish
and didn’t need the usual intensive language
training, I was able to do other things,
including a stint as a civilian peace monitor in
Bougainville. I was very fortunate to have that
experience as a very junior public servant.
“It was an unarmed group with military
personnel from Australia, New Zealand and
Fiji, police from Vanuatu, and a few civilians.
My role was to talk to people in the villages
about the peace process, whether they felt
safe, and how rehabilitation was going for
ex-combatants.”
However, Spanish was significantly more
useful in Santiago, where in 2004 he
began a three-year appointment as Third
Secretary, and later Second Secretary, in
the Australian Embassy.
And he was thrown in at the deep end.
Chile was hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) at the time and the
Embassy hosted visits by Australia’s Prime
Minister, Foreign Minister and Trade
Minister (twice) in quick succession.
“It was very intense and a bit of a shock
to my system but it was a good grounding
in how these sorts of large international
meetings work behind the scenes.”
Dave vowed he wouldn’t take another
posting where he would have “an APEC type
year” but ended up in Cambodia (after four
years post Chile back in Canberra) when it
was chair of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and host of the East Asia
Summit. This time around he “was far
more prepared.”
He is delighted to be back with family and
friends in Adelaide but rather fancies another
overseas posting.
“Ideally I would; that’s the normal career
progression. Family makes things different
though. When I went to Chile I was
unmarried and it was a straightforward
decision. When I went to Cambodia I
was married. Now there are four of us.
We’ll see what happens.”
Left: Dave Gordge
Photo by Russell Millard
Alumni Magazine ~ Winter 2018
23
