Clem Jones died 10 years ago but ‘Mr Brisbane’s’ multimillion-dollar legacy lives on
FORMER mayor Clem Jones is credited with transforming Brisbane into the vibrant, modern city it is today, and 10 years after his death his multimillion-dollar legacy still lives on, writes David Muir.
Opinion
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TOMORROW marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of former Brisbane mayor, Dr Clem Jones AO, who died on December 15, 2007.
Elected lord mayor of Brisbane in 1961 and serving a record 14-year term, Clem was affectionately known as “Mr Brisbane” and is often credited with turning Brisbane into the modern, vibrant and cosmopolitan city that it is today.
He even built a city when tasked as chairman of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission to rebuild Darwin in January 1975 following the destruction of the city by Cyclone Tracy.
But as much as Clem achieved in his life, in the 10 years since his death he has achieved even more.
Since 2007, $25 million has been distributed through Clem’s estate and foundation, supporting medical research, sport, education and law reform far and wide in Queensland and interstate.
A major focus has been medical research with the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CADRC) at the University of Queensland Brain Institute well on the way to finding a cure for alzheimers and ageing dementia.
This research led by Professor Jürgen Götz is developing a cure through use of ultrasound. An early prototype of the ultrasound tool will, in effect, be a skullcap, that will be able to deliver ultrasound to clear the brain of plaque.
Imagine this, a cure without drugs and transportable so that it can be delivered anywhere in Queensland. Professor Perry Bartlett had described this tool as being dialysis for the brain. This invention could impact the entire world and be developed here in Queensland.
Other exciting medical research projects established by Clem include the Clem Jones Research Centre for regenerative medicine at Bond University and the Clem Jones Centre for neurobiology and stem cell research at Griffith University. These two programs may enable people with spinal injuries to walk again and those who go blind through macular degeneration with age, see again.
In his lifetime, Clem Jones established Foodbank Queensland which, some 22 years later, still supports the school breakfast program through the YMCA which this year reached a 10-year milestone with more than 2.7 million meals served to schoolchildren across 89 schools.
Clem through his estate has also been funding the Brisbane Strikers soccer team over the past 10 years, the club winning NPL Queensland Premierships in 2016 and 2017. The Strikers are, in effect, the humidicrib for soccer in Queensland, ultimately providing elite players to state and national teams.
On the 10-year anniversary of his death, the Clem Jones Foundation has established a scholarship in the name of Clem and his father Ted to be known as the “Clem and Ted Jones Memorial” at the University of Queensland. In recognition of the early life of Clem Jones and his father whom Clem admired for his gift in mathematics, the scholarship will be established to provide an education in mathematics to a needy student from the wider Ipswich region, which was the original home of Clem Jones.
Only days ago, Andrew Denton of Go Gentle Australia acknowledged that the assisted dying legislation in Victoria would not have got across the line without the campaign support of Clem Jones. Euthanasia law reform was one of the express wishes Clem made in his Will. Another law reform wish by Clem was that Australia move to become a republic with a directly elected head of state. Next year a national campaign for such a republic will be launched in regional Queensland in Townsville.
Philsopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell said that “one must care about a world one will never see”. This surely rings true for the late Clem Jones.
David Muir is chair of the Clem Jones Estate.
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