Melbourne Fritz Duras Lecture
The Melbourne Fritz Duras Lectures commemorate Dr Duras' significant contributions to Health and Physical Education.
Bringing physical education into conversation with culture, creativity and technology
In partnership with ACHPER, the Faculty of Education presented the 2023 Fritz Duras Memorial Lecture in Sydney, delivered by long-time collaborators Adam Goodes and Dr Baden Pailthorpe, and moderated by Australian comedian, media personality and former radio presenter, Adam Spencer.
Goodes and Pailthorpe reflected on the career, legacy and impact of “trailblazer” Dr Margaret Williams-Weir, Australia’s first Indigenous university graduate and a PE teacher taught by Dr FritzDuras, charting the links between physical education, sport and creative arts, and technology, and the relevance of these links to the future of education in Australia.
Dr Fritz Duras
Since 2008, the Faculty has held the Melbourne Fritz Duras Lecture to honour Dr Duras and continue his important work in Health and Physical Education at the University of Melbourne and in the wider community.
Professor G.S. Browne, who was Dean of the Faculty of Education at the time (1930s), helped Dr Duras move from Germany in order to start a course to train physical education teachers. Dr Duras, who was a doctor and specialised in sports medicine, was named Director of Physical Education.
He was a pioneer in the field, having established the first Australian university course in Physical Education. Dr Duras was also the founding President of the Australian Physical Education Association - which evolved into ACHPER (pronounced atch-per) - Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
Past lectures
Contact us
For more information on the Dean’s Lecture Series, please email our events team.