Alumni from the archives

Xavier Herbert (Class of 1919)

Considered one of the important figures in Australian literature, Xavier Herbert was born in 1901 and is best known for his 1975 Miles Franklin Award winning novel Poor Fellow My Country. He studied Pharmacy at Perth Technical College before enrolling in medicine at the University of Melbourne, where he began his writing career publishing short stories.

Herbert was a great champion for the rights of Aboriginal Australians. His first novel published in 1938, Capricornia, was a fictional account of life in northern Australia and describes a period of history through non-conformist characters who reflect his compassion for the marginalised.

In the late 1940s Herbert was Protector of Aborigines in Darwin. He drew extensively on this experience for his final novel, Poor Fellow My Country, which he was writing at the time of the historical 1967 referendum.

During a trip around his home state in 1983, Xavier Herbert returned to CBC Fremantle and presented a signed copy of his famous book to Ms Trevanna Cooper, nee Letizia, which is still available in the CBC Library.

Xavier Herbert died in 1984 in Alice Springs, where he was buried with his wife’s ashes.

William Wallwork (Class of 1920)

Born in 1903, William Wallwork was a brilliant student who passed his leaving certificate at the age of 13. After graduation, he went into Law and in 1933 took up the post of Resident Magistrate at Broome before moving to Bunbury. His work with the coal industry in Collie earned him a reputation as one of the state’s most successful industrial arbitrators. An outgoing and friendly fellow, Wallwork was also the founding president of the Bunbury Apex Club.

In 1940 Wallwork returned to Perth with his family and took on the role as Senior Police Magistrate. He served as chairman of the Local Coal Reference Board and the Western Australian Coal Industry Tribunal, where he tackled some of the biggest disputes in the history of Western Australian mining. Typical of a CBC gentleman, Wallwork served the people and under his direction the tribunal arbitrated between mining companies and the government, protecting jobs and the workers’ rights. In 1957 he was appointed as Unfair Trading Control Commissioner and was responsible for the controversial decision in declaring Cockburn Cement guilty of unfair trading. In 1960 he became Chief Stipendiary Magistrate and conducted state royal commissions into allegations of bribery of members of parliament.

William Wallwork died in 1971 and was survived by his second wife and their two sons, and the three sons and two daughters of his first marriage.

Ralph Honner (Class of 1921)

Ralph Honner aged 87.

Born in 1904, Hyacinth Ralph Honner became one of Australia’s best-known officers of World War II and a hero of the Kokoda Trail. He joined the military in 1936 and enlisted in the AIF in 1939. He sailed for the Middle East in April 1940 in command of C Company 2/11th Battalion. After a period in Palestine, Honner’s company fought at Bardia, Tobruk, and Derna before being sent to Greece and then evacuated to Crete. Honner managed to escape to Alexandria where he was promoted to Major and awarded the Military Cross. On his return to Australia he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel before being sent to Papua to fight the Japanese on the Kokoda Trail. He was credited with turning a demoralised troop into a skilled defence and fighting unit that was a part of the victory at Gona. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order before taking over command of the 2/14th Battalion in New Guinea, where he was seriously wounded.

Honner’s combat career was over and he was intead stationed in Melbourne. Towards the end of 1944 he left the Army to chair the War Pensions Assessment Appeal Tribunal. He served as President of the New South Wales United Nations Association also and was also President of the NSW Branch of the Liberal Party in the early 1960s. When he retired in 1968, Honner became ambassador to Ireland.

Honner is the subject of a biography by Peter Brune, Band of Brothers. He died in Sydney on 15 May 1994.