University of Western Australia (UWA) employee Barbara Williamson is in the unique position of having worked closely with two Guide Dog owners during her time as a staff member at the university.

As a 17-year-old shorthand typist, Barbara worked with Dr Arnold Cook, who brought the first Guide Dog to Australia in 1951 and was instrumental in setting up the first Guide Dog training school in WA. Dr Cook is the namesake of our Arnold Cook Society, which recognises the foresight, generosity and commitment of those who decide to leave a bequest to the Association.

Now, more than 30 years later, Barbara works with Association board member and Guide Dog owner Greg Madson in the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

“I didn’t have much to do with Arnold Cook’s dog, Ingrid,” says Barbara. “She would sit on his side of the desk and I would come and sit on the other side and take shorthand, as we did in those days.”

Barbara says she used to read Dr Cook, who lectured in Economics, his mail, the Financial Review and The Economist. “He wrote all his lecture notes in Braille.” 

Of working with Greg at the Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre, Barbara says “Greg is lovely to work with. I’m constantly amazed at what he gets through. And it’s great to have a bit more contact with his Guide Dog, Nicholas, who is gorgeous.”

In addition to being on the Association board for the past two years, Greg is a member of our Consumer Advisory Committee and is President of Blind Citizens WA.

Greg and Nicholas have only recently become a team; they celebrated the beginning of their journey together at our June Babbingur Graduation Ceremony.

Nicholas is Greg’s second Guide Dog, taking over from Pollock, who retired in September 2009 and sadly passed away in February this year. Pollock’s ashes were sprinkled underneath a newly-constructed seating area built at UWA within the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences – a peaceful area for contemplation and thought.

Read the full article on Barbara, Greg and Guide Dogs at UWA in the 14 June issue of UWA News on the University of Western Australia website.

Greg and Nicholas at the June Babbingur Ceremony.

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