Jim Dixon’s an expert on accounting standards but his life hasn’t been all dull. For example, when our new member was a student in 1967, he did a training program for PNG volunteer aid workers. This took him first to Port Moresby and a chance to try out his Pidgin English skills on the locals before helping with land surveys in Kar Kar Island in the Bismarck Sea, topped by an active volcano.
Above, Back row: Son Grant Dixon, daughter Melissa Stone.
Front row: Callum Stone, Karin, Jim, twins Madeleine and Lily Stone.
He wandered down to the Moresby outdoor food market by the waterfront. Young girls whom today we would describe as sex workers, were keen to do business. He declined but then had to push and shove his way past the young ladies’ intimidating male friends.
He got safely through to the Moresby main drag and turned the corner past the Bank of NSW branch. He came upon quite a scene. Minutes before there’d been a row between a white supervisor and a local laborer. The laborer won the argument by beheading him with his shovel. Jim was advised to clear off smartly or he’d be caught up in the ensuing police business.
“I flew out of Moresby to Lae with the clear impression that the country, the town and the university there had many challenges ahead and that I would never consider an academic appointment to PNG,” Jim says in his dry style.
As for his Pidgin, no-one understood a word on his whole trip. Jim 75, will be talking to Bearbrass about the trip at our October 20 meeting so we won’t spoil his plot further now.
Jim’s first 21 years were based in Footscray and he became the first Maribyrnong High student to get a Melbourne University degree. Soon after graduating he married Karin Schafer (who’s joined Bearbrass with Jim).
Jim , like so many of our members, started as a teacher, at Sale Technical School and Sunshine High. He moved up to 16 years’ lecturing on accounting at Footscray Institute (now Victoria University) and started the B.Bus. course there in banking and finance. He learnt a lot from sabbaticals and banking courses in the US, which led to a five-year job with NAB on acc
ounting research. He went on to seven years with the big-city accounting/consulting firm Pitcher Partners and then became Technical Director of the 140,000 member CPA accounting body. This involved him in heavy international work on standards eventually adopted by the Commonwealth.
ounting research. He went on to seven years with the big-city accounting/consulting firm Pitcher Partners and then became Technical Director of the 140,000 member CPA accounting body. This involved him in heavy international work on standards eventually adopted by the Commonwealth.His final career stages were as State Assistant Auditor-General under Wayne Cameron and Executive Director (accounting/audit) there until 2007 retirement. He’s still in demand for complex accounting projects at State, Federal and international levels and also as a lecturer. For example he delivered more than 200 two-day presentations nationally to public works engineer groups and he’s helped with projects for ASIC and the Commonwealth Solicitor. His latest racy authorship was Australian Infrastructure Financial Management Guidelines. 271 pages). His co-author role took three years of coordinating local government authorities in all States and Territories. He updated the book half-yearly until 2015.
Jim can’t seem to leave work alone and continues to chair the La Trobe Gardens Owners Corporation (for nearly two decades), and help run the EastEnders Committee.
He’s a joint member of Bearbrass and Sunrise Probus, where he was president in 2015 and 2016. He’s also been chair of the Royal Historical Society Foundation (Vic) and director of Arthritis Victoria. For light relief he’s been treasurer of the Black Hole Theatre (we hope that Hole is not where their finances went), and of the Living Museum of the West.
On the family front the Dixons’ daughter Melissa has kids Callum 10 and Lily and Madeleine, both 6 and non-identical twins? Melissa works for a charity at the public-facing end and sees a lot of our society’s underside. Son Grant works on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean with the largest legal firm there, Maples. Jim and Karin have had five holidays with him there. The Dixons are inveterate travellers from their base in LaTrobe Street. Their tally is 80-plus countries.Since 2017 Jim’s been full-time carer for Karin who suffered a severe stroke leading to limited mobility and aphasia. Jim says, “With determination and a wheelchair we’ve continued to travel to places like the south of England and Iceland.” #