140 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2017
Professional sport in Australia remains
dominated by men, which makes this
Melbourne-born athlete’s ascension
to household-name statusin 2017
impressive enough. But it’s Erin Phillips’s
involvement in both basketball and
Australian rules football at an elite
level that makes her truly unique.
In May, after nine years in America’s
WNBA and a medal win with Australia
in Olympic basketball, the 32-year-
old announced her intention to stop
shooting hoops. But her appointment as
director of player development for the
Dallas Wings means she remains highly
visible in the United States, where she
will continue to spend half the year.
Back home, she had a superb return
to AFL in 2017 after a 17-year absence,
co-captaining the Adelaide Crows in the
league’s inaugural women’s season.SPORTS SENSATION
BRAINY QUEENSLANDER
ERIN PHILLIPS
Australia’s foremost neuroscientist
— and founder of the Queensland
Brain Institute — has been publishing
groundbreaking research for decades,
earning the admiration of his global
peers. In 2017, the Queensland
government decided he should be
widely recognised at home, too,
making him both Queensland Senior
Australian of the Year (and thus
a national Senior Australian of the
Year finalist) and a Queensland Great.
“In 1992, at a time when the brain
was understood to be a static organ,
Perry discovered the brain could
produce new nerves,” says University
of Queensland vice-chancellor and
president, Professor Peter Høj. “In part
due to Perry’s work, the brain is now
understood as ever-evolving, able to
produce new nerve cells capable of
altering learning, memory and mood.”
Speaking at the Queensland
Greats ceremony, Bartlett was
characteristically humble. “I’m chufed
because [this] also recognises the
Queensland Brain Institute, which
has become one of the world’s great
neuroscience institutes,” he said.Prof Perry Bartlett
COMMUNITY LEADER
For the past 30 years, the founder and CEO of the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture has
been resolute in building a national network of trauma services for refugees. In 2017, he was crowned
Victorian Australian of the Year. Here, Paris Aristotle shares his thoughts on the road ahead.
“Our refugee settlement services are considered among the best in the world. The most
contentious area is asylum seekers, in particular those who sought protection in Australia by boat
through the assistance of people smugglers. That area is politically volatile, poorly understood and
issues are oten misrepresented. It’s an area where the quality of dialogue and level of collaboration
between government, non-government and civil society needs substantial improvement.”Paris Aristotle
“Having grown up in a sporting
family watching Dad [Greg, a former
AFL player] play football, it’s always
been something I wanted to do,” the
athlete says with typical understatement.
She was named the AFLW’s Best and
Fairest, and Club Champion, and was
judged best on ground in her side’s
grand final win over the Brisbane
Lions. The AFLW league also earned the
Women’s Health Women in Sport Awards
gong for Moment of the Year.
To cap it of, Phillips was nominated
for Sport Australia’s prestigious Don
award, which recognises individuals
and teams who have inspired the
nation. It went to boxer Jef Horn, but
Phillips took the rare loss in her stride.
“I am just so incredibly honoured to
even have my name whispered among
those other finalists,” she says.PHOTOGRAPHYGETTY IMAGES