Dr David Daintree is director of the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies in Australia. In this conversation we discuss the state of Western civilisation and its important features, perhaps the most important one that it is grounded in a material and spiritual reality that cannot be changed by our perception and only ignored to our detriment. David took a BA from the University of New England, an M Litt from Cambridge and his PhD in Tasmania. His academic background is in Classics, and his specialisation medieval Latin. Dr Daintree was Principal of Jane Franklin Hall, a college of the University of Tasmania, from 1984 to 2002. From then to 2008 he was Rector of St John’s College in the University of Sydney, and after this President of Campion College: Australia’s only Liberal Arts college. Dr Daintree has been a visiting professor at both the Universities of Siena and Venice, and a visiting fellow at St. John's College, University of Manitoba, Canada. In 2013, at the invitation of Archbishop Julian Porteous, he became founding Director of the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies. In 2017 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. David is married to Elizabeth.