Light Blue - July 2015

Editor

Brendan McAloon

Design

Chloe Flemming

Photography

Bob Bickerton

Tony Bretherton

Andrew Catchlove

Tod Fierner

Stephen Finlay (P'63)

Kristeen Hunter (Horne, He'65)

Roly Imhoff (Cu'95)

Frances Loughrey

Christine Meek

Lisa Peters-Roose

Katie Rafferty (Spry, Ga’84)

Drew Ryan

Stephen Solomonson

Ann Tyers (Fairley, He’68)

Website www.ggs.vic.edu.au

Email lightblue@ggs.vic.edu.au

CRICOS 00143G

Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed, such as an idea, a scientific theory, an invention, a literary work, a painting, a musical composition, a joke and so on. The front cover of this edition of Light Blue is an excellent example of creative design and we are constantly enriched and inspired by the creativity of others. Hopefully we are inspired to uncover and express a measure of creativity in our own lives. That said, there is much debate about how we can best uncover or instill creativity in young minds. How do we best foster creativity through education and how do we apply creative resources to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning?

Our new School for Performing Arts and Creative Education (the SPACE) will be both a wonderful venue for the performing arts and a symbol of our search for new levels of creative learning. Whether we can teach it better or learn to inspire and release it, the more creative our students become, the better they will do in the world of tomorrow. I hope we will strongly support the School’s new focus on creativity and the establishment of the Creative Education Fund.

As you read this edition of Light Blue you will hopefully enjoy the creativity revealed throughout. You will also find some changes to the final pages, as the invaluable content provided by Michael Collins Persse begins to blend with other reports and activities by the wider School community. We thank Michael for all he has done thus far and look forward to his future contributions.

Brendan, Chloe and all the contributors to Light Blue strive for creative excellence. It’s right that they do, because that aspiration reflects our essence. I hope you will enjoy reading of our adventures and the creativity of all our contributors.

Tony Bretherton Director, Community Relations

Siena Chandler (Yr8 Cn) performing in the Middle School Music Programme Concert in the SPACE on Monday 8 June.

CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL

There is no doubt in my mind that the School for Performing Arts and Creative Education (the SPACE) will inspire great things from students and staff at GGS. Officially opened on May 23, the SPACE has already seen heavy use for theatrical performances, assemblies, a jazz festival and various functions. As we become more familiar with the possibilities that this building provides, I expect we will see a huge variety of uses.

We are extremely fortunate to have such a high-quality performance, rehearsal and classroom complex and we can thank our donors who provided half of the $20 million project cost. They joined the School Council and Foundation in identifying the School’s need for larger and more modern assembly and performing arts facilities, as well as believing in the vision of teaching creativity. At the opening, one of our School Captains, Freya Johnson (Yr12 He), was eager to point out that the building will not be just a place for showpiece events – it will be used as a place where students can work on projects, come together and collaborate on ideas and new initiatives. This is what we want! A beautiful and wonderful building it may be, but its real value is in how it will be used by staff and students to further the 21st-century skill of creativity.

The SPACE has been established with the outstanding leadership and dedication of Ian Darling (P’79). As Chairman of the Fundraising Campaign, Ian secured important financial support to ensure the School had a building of superb design and functionality. He also inspired our educational thinking about creativity and its importance in 21st-century schooling. Combining his passions for the School, creative arts and education, Ian has endowed Geelong Grammar School with an exciting commitment to creative education. On behalf of the School I thank Ian most sincerely for his vision, energy and dedication. His leadership has extended to the establishment of the Creative Education Fund with a gift of $100,000 to support the School’s development work in this area.

Council recently had an occasion to thank and farewell five former members of Council who had finished over the past two years. One of these had commenced in 1998 so I undertook some research to compare the School then and now. Some startling figures emerged. Total enrolments have only increased by 60 students (which is consistent with the School’s philosophy of not becoming too large), but of the 60 increase, 59 were female. The number of boarders has increased by 172, representing a 24% increase. The number of Australian residents has grown by 238, which is an increase of 18%. These numbers are quite astounding and, I believe, are a fantastic reflection of the significant initiatives the School has taken in Positive Education, providing additional boarding facilities for girls at Timbertop and Senior School, refurbishing boarding houses at Corio, building the Handbury Centre for Wellbeing and upgrading

teaching areas and staff housing across the campuses. Some $175 million has been spent on capital improvements at the School since 1998, also a staggering amount. Although much of this is visible in the quality of refurbished and new buildings and more beautiful landscape, much is invisible infrastructure, such as sewage and water, new roofs, communications cabling, electrical substations, etc. The School operates four campuses but two of these (Corio and Timbertop) are like small townships and the cost of keeping them properly serviced outside of publicly provided infrastructure is high.

Most of you will have received and read the letter from our Principal setting out the School’s approach to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. As the Principal said, the School is appalled at any kind of abuse. Those of our community who have already brought or may bring matters before the Royal Commission must be encouraged and supported to do so. Although my thoughts are particularly with those who may have suffered abuse by some of our former staff members, I am also concerned to ensure that our current staff are valued and cared for. I expect that they are feeling some of the burden from the actions of some of their predecessors and we need to support them as well. Our community is a supportive and caring one and there are some among us who will need it in the times ahead.

I also would like to request that we are all very careful with how we use and spread information or knowledge we may have in regard to potential abuse. Any factual information or personal direct experiences must be passed on to the Royal Commission or police. On the other hand, information that is conjecture, rumour or suspicion should be managed very carefully as professional and personal reputations can easily be destroyed. We share a responsibility to ensure that any cases of abuse are appropriately reported and prosecuted, but we also have a responsibility to be very careful with how we discuss and communicate information that is not based in fact.

Finally, on another note, I was thrilled to learn that five members of our Girls’ 1st VIII Rowing crew have been selected to represent Australia at the World Championships in Brazil in August. Although the entire crew was invited to try-out for the Australian Junior Women’s VIII, a number of them had other commitments which meant they regretfully could not take up the offer. The other five went through selection trials and were successful. What a fantastic achievement for them and I wish them well.

Jeremy Kirkwood (FB’79) Chairman of Council

FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

We are all inspired by the new School for Performing Arts and Creative Education (the SPACE). It was delightful to see the reaction of the students and staff when they all had the opportunity (finally) to enter the building which they had seen rising from the ground over the previous 15 months. As they toured the building before our first joint Middle and Senior Schools assembly, you could see the look of amazement and awe clearly visible on their faces. When asked, it was the sheer size of the building, the quality of the build and the opportunities which would be available for them which were the predominant feelings which they expressed. A month or so on from that first assembly, I think we are still all in awe of the new world which has been created for our students and for generations of students to come.

Jeremy Kirkwood (FB’79), in his article, has expressed our deep gratitude to those members of our community who have supported our vision and helped make the SPACE a reality. I will not repeat all that he has written, except to make two points. It is the strength of our community which enables us to advance on so many fronts and I am extremely grateful for that support. Secondly, Ian Darling’s (P’79) leadership, as Chair of the Fundraising Committee, has been phenomenal and without his commitment and leadership, the SPACE would not now be built.

The David Darling Play House and The Bracebridge Wilson Studio have already been actively used for assemblies and plays. I am looking forward to seeing the Senior School production being performed in The David Darling Play House in Term 3 and the Middle School play in Term 4. For the performers, it will be a great experience to be able to perform in a modern and well-equipped theatre. For the audience, to be able to sit in comfort whilst appreciating the tremendous acoustics which the auditorium has, will make attending the plays an enhanced experience. I am also looking forward to seeing productions making full use of the range of possibilities which the new Bracebridge Wilson Studio provides, such as theatre in the round. It is a marvellous time to be an actor at Geelong Grammar School.

Dr Tim Patston, our Coordinator of Creativity and Innovation, explores, on page 12, the possibilities which we are seeking to unlock in our students and staff, through our focus on developing and encouraging creativity. I have no doubt at all that the ability to think creatively will be a key element in the reasons for success for our students in their professional lives in the future. The growing sophistication of computers means that many of the jobs which have hitherto been seen as being only possible by human activity, will no longer exist. However, new ideas and new ways of doing things will continue to be the human contribution to the evolution of society. That is the

brave new world for which we must prepare our students. But it is not just about employment. It is also about enrichment –about encouraging our students to have an approach to their lives where new ideas and an expectation that they can express themselves through their creativity will be the norm and will enable them to flourish.

This new focus does not come from a standing start. There is so much creative thinking already being undertaken on a daily basis at each of our campuses. One of the best examples is through the Reggio Emilia philosophy in action at our Toorak Campus, as described on pages 14 and 15. I see this most visibly in the end-of-year production which the ELC classes put on every year. Each class of three and four-year-olds decide what they would like to see featured in the end-of-year production and then the four ideas are woven together to make a storyline. The students make their own costumes, with the staff, and the whole production comes together in a cascade of colour and creativity. It is one of the events which I most enjoy attending each year, because it is so different from every other end of year production and because it is evident just how much has originated from the minds of the students.

Creativity is one of the 24 Character Strengths which feature in our work on Positive Education, which is why our focus on creativity fits so well within our general framework of Positive Education. Last month saw the publication of our book, Positive Education: The Geelong Grammar School Journey, which explains our journey with Professor Martin Seligman, Positive Psychology and the creation of Positive Education. Published by Oxford University Press, each chapter has an introduction by one of the many academic experts who have spent time with us at the School. I am very grateful to Dr Jacci Norrish for her excellent work in writing the book and to all the staff who contributed experiences and observations. Jacci writes about her experience of Positive Education at the School on pages 22 and 23.

With the rest of the country, we have been commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. Each campus held its normal ANZAC Day service, but each service was augmented with additional features as part of the centenary. Timbertop joined the community at Merrijig for its commemoration this year, rather than holding its own ceremony at the campus. The students had helped clear up the area where the service was held in Merrijig, as part of their community service, earlier in the year. The presence of the students at the commemoration and their participation in it was much appreciated by the Merrijig community and I received a number of observations to that effect. It is important that each campus is part of its local community and that is especially true at Timbertop.

Just before ANZAC Day, a current parent, Ross Illingworth, wrote to me to say that he had seen the death plaque for one of our students, who had died in the First World War, was for sale and would the School like to have it. I said that we would. Ross had done his research on the student and was thus able to tell me some key facts about Robert Mortimer Shannon. He was commissioned in 1917 at the age of 17, having deferred his place to read Law at Melbourne University. He was awarded the MC within a month of joining the Western Front and recommended for a bar for a further act of gallantry, but died before it was processed. At a memorial service held for him at the School on 10th December 1919, the Headmaster, Francis Brown, said of Robert Mortimer Shannon that “his effect upon the School had been purifying and ennobling”, while his death plaque says: “He died for freedom and honour”. A litany desk was given to the School Chapel in his memory and it can still be seen to the right of the altar in the School Chapel. Robert Mortimer Shannon died on 29th April 1917 and his death plaque arrived at the School on 29th April 2015. It is currently on display in the Perry Quad cloisters. I am grateful to Ross Illingworth for his gift of the plaque and for bringing Robert Mortimer Shannon’s story to my attention and providing us with a focal point as we remember the centenary of the First World War. It is our collective individual stories which make us the School we are.

Let me finish, as the Chairman did, with girls’ rowing. The 1st Girls’ VIII had a stellar season, winning the Victorian State Championships, the Head of the Schoolgirls Regatta, the APS Head of the River and the Australian National Championships. They were an outstanding crew, whose hard work made them unbeatable. My congratulations to them and to their coaches, Rob England and Debbie Clingeleffer-Woodford. An indication of the current strength of the girls’ rowing programme is that while the 1st Girls’ VIII were first in the final of the Australian National Championships, the 2nd Girls’ VIII came eighth in the same final, having beaten 12 other 1st VIIIs to make this final. What a dominant demonstration of schoolgirl rowing!

Stephen Meek Principal

The School for Performing Arts and Creative Education (the SPACE) was officially opened on Saturday 23 May.

The $20.4 million building will act as a catalyst for the School’s development of creativity and innovation in all areas of the curriculum and will provide a focal point for the Performing Arts.

SCHOOL FOR PERFORMING ARTS AND CREATIVE EDUCATION

Middle: Year 11 Theatre Studies students in The Bracebridge Wilson Studio; guests mingle in the Foyer during Afternoon Tea; Corinna O’Toole from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative performs a traditional Welcome to Country

Bottom: Nancy Wang (Yr12 Fr) performs in The David Darling Play House; Lucas Shugg (Yr11 Cu) works on his Visual Communication and Design folio in the Foyer

Top row: Astrid Woronczak (Yr11 Ga) and Martin Anderson (Yr11 Fr) perform in the SPACE classroom; Senior School students applaud donors in The David Darling Play House, led by school captain Don Ritchie (Yr12 P); Ian Darling (P’79) cuts the ribbon to open the new building

AN EXTRAORDINARY SPACE

The story started back in 1976 when the old Bracebridge Wilson Hall burnt down. The School had to act quickly and the construction of the Bracebridge Wilson Theatre was a temporary solution, built primarily from insurance funds. Today, nearly 40 years later, we have a new and permanent solution. One of the most pleasing aspects of this new project is that over half the funds have been philanthropically donated to the School. GGS has a proud tradition of philanthropy. In fact, without the gifts from those initial benefactors 100 years ago, the School would not exist at Corio today.

Schools must constantly adapt to new environments and need to be prepared to take risks – not ones that threaten the financial security or academic integrity of the School, but controlled risks, creative risks, where the thinking is outside of the square, where conventional thinking is questioned, where a vision can be articulated and a dream realised. The School for Performing Arts and Creative Education is not a conventional building in any way. It was never intended to be. It is this unconventional and creative thinking that was at the very heart of the project.

Looking back it seems like it was a highly strategic project, planned and planned within one inch of itself, and largely it was –but it was also a fluid, creative and evolving project with a degree of uncertainty and elements of risk at each step of the way. The real journey started only three years ago. It was May 2012 when the School launched a feasibility study for a comprehensive fundraising campaign identifying the types of projects that the School community could be prepared to support. The study revealed that a new theatre was high on the community’s list of priorities.

We started with a comprehensive research phase, visiting the major spaces of the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company, as well as a number of performing arts spaces at leading schools and institutions around the country. GGS needed a large space, where the whole school could fit together as one. It also needed a space where intimate theatre and presentations could be performed, as well as major productions and musicals, a space that would provide the possibility for a proscenium arch as well as theatre in the round, room for an orchestra pit too, and also a flexible space for functions, parent-teacher evenings, Speech Day, Careers Day, Open Day and exhibitions in a large foyer.

We wanted a building that would come alive at night with the ability to screen all aspects of school life on the exterior walls after dark, a building reflecting that the School was alive and bursting at the seams with artistic and creative energy. During 2012, the conversations were still evolving and it took several months to narrow down the options. How big would it need to be to fit the entire school? Would we build it in two phases over a decade? Would we create a big, new tin shed for assemblies and redevelop the existing BW Theatre for productions?

Where would we locate it? Could we raise the funds given all of the existing campaigns? Would it be possible in our lifetime?

We observed that many of the other schools had proceeded down the more traditional route – typically attempting a one solution fits all approach. We decided that this was definitely not the direction for Geelong Grammar School. This was no place for a temple or a white elephant that remained empty for most of the year. It needed to be a dynamic complex from day one, which was embraced by the whole community and used in all manner of ways. This School is all about community and the solution had to strengthen the sense of community at GGS not alienate it. We realised that creating two distinct and flexible spaces for multiple uses in the one complex would be a huge advantage. From that decision much of the current design and planning would fall into place. We also believed that a generous foyer area would be a great asset for any number of uses and it’s exciting to see how the foyer has dynamically developed over time – actually it was in effect re-designed after a visit to QUT (Queensland University of Technology) with Tim Fairfax (M’64).

We officially launched the fundraising campaign in February 2013 and set about raising the $20 million for the building. We got off to a flying start – we reached 50% of our target on day one when the School generously committed the first $10 million. But this was conditional upon us raising an additional $10 million from the community, so the hard work was about to begin. The School Council set us an initial target of $7 million, at which point they’d consider putting the project out to tender. We reached this target the week before the School Council meeting in August 2013. By this stage all of the key architectural plans had been signed off as well. By December 2013 the first sod of soil had been turned on the site. We reached the $10 million target on October 22 last year, on the evening of the J.R. Darling Oration. Not a moment too soon. The campaign was secure and the building was on track for a 2015 opening.

One of the final tasks was to settle on the name of the building. The Centre for Creative Education was only ever intended as a temporary name and this served us well for the fundraising campaign. It gave a vision for the project and enabled us to engage with a far broader section of the community than simply supporters of music and drama. For a permanent name we felt that it was important to honour both the performing arts and the new world of creative education and to find an abbreviated name or an acronym for everyday use. Names were tossed in and out of the pot. From the Square to the Rhomboid, the Shed, the Centre, the Corner, the Cube, the Hub... and so it went on. When Jeremy Kirkwood (FB’79) suggested that we simply describe it as it is, as a school for both Performing Arts and a school for Creative Education, we not only had our name but we found our acronym too. This is indeed a performance space, an empty space, a dynamic space, a safe space, a flexible space, a gigantic space, an intimate space and a creative space. The SPACE seemed perfect.

The names of the two theatre spaces were then recommended by Council – The Play House and The Studio. It’s a huge honour for the family to have The Play House named after my late father David Darling. He was such a quiet achiever and I know that he would have been most embarrassed and humbled by such a gift – but he would have been extremely proud too. When he was Senior Prefect in 1943, at the height of the Second World War, he learnt at first-hand the significance of creating strong, healthy and engaged communities. He believed in the importance of bringing people together to share ideas, to work collaboratively, to solve problems and to communicate face-toface with each other. The David Darling Play House is indeed a fitting tribute to him, providing a perfect space where these ideals can be nurtured and explored.

I’m equally delighted that The Studio is named after John Bracebridge Wilson. Tradition is a wonderful thing and for over 100 years students at Corio have been performing and creating excellence on the stages and spaces under the banner of his proud name. Recognised as the person responsible for establishing the character of Geelong Grammar School, I hope the creation of The Bracebridge Wilson Studio will take all aspects of the performing arts and creativity to heights never before experienced at the School.

So here we are today, at the official opening, literally three years to the day since the feasibility study was launched, two years and two months since the fundraising campaign was launched, 21 months since the School Council approved the project and 17 months since the first sod of soil was turned – about the same amount of time that it takes to renovate a bathroom. I think this has been a remarkable achievement for the School. I would like to thank all of you – the donors and the community who have been so supportive. It is indeed a great honour to have worked with this wonderful team and to be witness to this remarkable collaborative process and to have played a part in the creation of this extraordinary space.

Ian Darling (P’79) Chair, Fundraising Committee

*This is an edited extract of Ian’s speech at the official opening of the School for Performing Arts and Creative Education on Saturday 23 May. To view the full speech please visit: www.ggs. vic.edu.au/Foundation

AN ESSENTIAL 21ST CENTURY SKILL

important economic resource of the 21st century. Cultivating students’ creative capacity is therefore a core 21st-century skill. In a study released last year by the Adobe Corporation, employers identified two key skills needed for employment in the next five years: creativity and social interaction. At GGS we have long recognised that a key life skill is being able to pass through the eye of human interaction. The Positive Education programme and the House system work towards successfully developing this skill in all students.

“We live in a rapidly changing world.” This truism has now become almost redundant as an expression. It is more important to look at what is changing and how it will affect us. Australia is a country undergoing a major shift, from a resource-based economy to a new, as yet not fully understood paradigm. Current thinking is that we will move to a knowledge and new skills-based economy. As planning for this, governments of both persuasions have attempted to funnel more and more students into the university sector, as we become a “clever country”. This has created some unforeseen consequences. As we move toward 50% of students leaving school and entering university it is clear that, at the same time, increasing numbers are leaving university without work. Not all jobs require a university degree, never mind a HECS debt, as a path to employment. At the same time fewer and fewer students are entering the trades-based professions.

This change is also happening around the world. Recently Japan announced that as the number of unemployed tertiary qualified engineers grows, they have commenced a programme to retrain them as mechanics and tradespeople. In the USA, as universities take years to develop and implement degrees, private providers of entrepreneurship qualifications are growing at a rapid rate, making some degrees redundant before they have begun. How will these changes play out? Despite many years of predictions, it appears that technology is not the answer.

Creativity is essential for the economy as well as personal and professional growth. It has been described as the most

Given the state of flux in the employment sector, students need to be creative. In an educative sense this means being able to apply skills to different knowledge sets. For example, the skills of problem solving apply equally to Design Technology and Mathematics, the skills of literacy and critical thinking cross all subjects. Increasingly, teachers are recognising that skills-based learning benefits students not only in individual subjects, but in life in general.

Creativity in a life sense is the conscious ability to create a life path, rather than floating on the river of life until a bend in the river lands you on an unfamiliar shore. Students will construct a framework of academic skills, life skills, communication skills and values which lead them to informed choices in their lives. Teachers will become facilitators and guides, rather than lecturers, using data and analytics to support their pedagogic practice in meeting individual student needs.

Much of this work is already in place. GGS teachers are thinkers and innovators, striving to bring evidence-based practice into their classrooms. Increasingly, trials are being conducted across faculties and between campuses, breaking down the silos between. Sharing, rather than hoarding, expertise and experience is becoming more common.

The SPACE provides students and staff with a unique environment for creative and innovative cross-fertilisation at GGS and with experts from around the globe.

Dr Tim Patston Coordinator of Creativity and Innovation

The School for Performing Arts and Creative Education is now open and online. Creative Education is now a clearly articulated cornerstone of Geelong Grammar School. What is creativity and innovation in education? How will this be expressed and experienced at GGS?

PAPER PLANET

Bostock House children from Prep to Year 4 were fortunate to be the first students to utilise the Foyer of the School for Performing Arts and Creative Education to construct their very creative version of a Paper Planet. The Paper Planet Workshop was conducted by the Polyglot Theatre group and it was one element of Bostock House’s Grow Your Mind Day held at the Corio Campus on Tuesday 19 May.

The Paper Planet is a highly interactive workshop and the outcome is unlimited as the end product is a result of the vivid imaginations of young children. The SPACE made for the perfect imaginative play space as the children made fantastic costumes from paper and cardboard and then proceeded to build an amazing environment complete with extraordinary animals and plants out of the same materials. The children were fully engaged from beginning to end and they all took great pride in exploring the end result after each group had added their contributions to the project. The whole exercise was a wonderful illustration of how complex and simple the creativity of all students can be while using such basic materials. It was confirmation of the long-held belief that a child will arguably have more fun and exercise more creativity playing with a cardboard box than they will playing with the latest techno-toy.

Bostock House’s first experience in the SPACE was a very creative and enjoyable one. We are looking forward to further utilising this magnificent facility in the future.

Daryl Moorfoot Head of Bostock House

WONDER CENTRES

Our Early Years teachers at Toorak Campus have been reflecting upon how to develop their writing programmes. During recent curriculum planning meetings we unpacked the best ways to approach improving the quality of the children’s writing. What started out as a discussion about writing, very quickly became a robust discussion about creativity as we realised that, to achieve better writing, we needed to improve the quality of the children’s thinking and creative engagement in the writing process. What I saw strongly in these meetings was the teachers’ passion for instilling a love of writing in their children and a commitment to nurturing creativity in the process.

Time was then spent reflecting on our beliefs about what promotes children’s curiosity and engagement, our ideas about how the environment supports creative thinking and our commitment to a transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning. In the Reggio Emilia approach to learning, creativity does not belong to a specific curriculum area or particular experience. Creativity needs to be at the heart of the way we work with children across all curriculum areas. It is at the heart of how children discover and learn about their world.

In a primary school context, this creativity can be nurtured by adults, provoked by the environment and supported through utilizing the children’s “one hundred languages” for knowing, feeling and expressing their learning. With this common understanding, we had a clear way forward to plan some wonderful learning experiences for the children through the development of Wonder Centres in our Prep classrooms.

Kim Vause Head of Teaching and Learning/PYP Coordinator Toorak Campus

“I like writing my wonders down. It’s fun to write them down and then we get to research the answers. You can wonder anything you want.”

- Amelie Barras, Prep

“I like wondering about things. It’s a good way to get all my ideas and then I can learn about all sorts of things. I learnt about Venus flytraps and I really liked that.”

- Eddie Mantello, Prep

The Prep children were captivated with the Wonder Centres and used these spaces as a place to explore, to discover and to wonder. Daily discussions, building on inquiries and sharing of knowledge, excited the children to want to learn more. This enthusiasm extended into our language programme and empowered the children to write for meaning. The children eagerly wrote questions, researched topics, discussed wonders, labelled diagrams, added captions and were engaged and enthusiastic about their leaning.

Adele Delahunty Prep Teacher

We began by filling our Wonder Centre with interesting objects and images related to our unit of inquiry. These objects ignited curiosities in the children’s mind and we recorded them. We decided as a group that the Centre was open to be added to at any time. Immediately, children began bringing in items from the playground, their homes and the local community. The “wonders” they began recording were incredible. With the freedom to take their minds wherever they wanted to go, they immediately became engaged and connected to both the classroom programme and the natural environment.

We revisit the “wonders” regularly and group them together if there is a common theme. We then research answers and decide how to record what we discover. This has provided a real-life desire and purpose to read and write. The children recognise the skills they need to present their research and are therefore committed to building their ability to do so. We have also used the Wonder Centre to provoke creative writing experiences. The literacy programme has developed a real sense of meaning to the children. They now recognise the beauty and importance of their curiosity and believe in themselves to question and create.

Brigette Vallance Prep Teacher

“I love that we have a Wonder Centre in our room. There are so many things in there that make me wonder all the time. It gets my brain going and makes me really think about things.”

- Gillian Claringbould, Prep

AN ADVENTURE AWAITS

Students in Year 8 History have embarked upon an adventure into the past. The programme has involved students engaging in a Project Based Learning Unit, where students are encouraged to use their knowledge to create something to contribute to the real world, rather than simply knowing information about historical events and concepts. This is a method in which students gain knowledge, skills and understanding by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex challenge. One important feature of this type of learning is the implicit and explicit teaching of 21st-century competencies, such as critical thinking, collaboration and innovation, in-depth inquiry and the use of a public audience.

Students have encountered multiple civilisations, including those in Medieval Europe, Shogun Japan and Polynesia, in order to consider the question: What can we learn from how values and beliefs, the climate, technology, cultural groups and other people influence societies throughout history? This programme has allowed us to teach, and the students to learn, with authenticity, academic rigour, active exploration and, importantly, creativity.

The following examples demonstrate ways in which the students embedded their learning from one unit into a television show about Medieval Europe by developing scripts, costumes, storyboards, graphics and video clips.

Sarah Shepherd History Teacher

Student work: Lizzie Stewart (Yr8 Cn)

Student work: Mary Cheng (Yr8 Cn)

Student work: Snapshots from the trailer When the War Hit by Year 8 students Rick Huang (Yr8 Bw), Ben Beggs (Yr8 Bw), Emma Doak (Yr8 Ot) and Zanna Palmer (Yr8 Cn)

TELEVISION AT TIMBERTOP

Timbertop has a history of going against social trends. Three years ago individual student computers were withdrawn (we do have two class sets which can be booked for use by a teacher when necessary). You may ask why we did this. The answer is that we believed that we could gain better academic and social outcomes without them. This does not mean that we are trying to remove ourselves from the digital world and become a reclusive and backward institution. We felt that a year away from the all-pervasive use of technology would allow our students to grow and flourish without distractions. The focus would become the art of communication, writing letters home, talking oneto-one with each other, improving handwriting as well as spelling and drafting work without the aid of a computer. What a brave decision it turned out to be. Most educational institutions in the world were immersed in technology but Timbertop stepped away from it to enable our students to have one year focused on other core skills and values. When students return to Corio for Senior School, technology is embraced again, but by then it is hoped that the foundation of strong interpersonal skills has been well and truly established.

About six years ago television was formally reintroduced to Timbertop. Now I can hear many of you saying, “What, TV at Timbertop? What is happening? What are they doing? They never had TV at Timbertop and they never should!”

Well, I would argue that we have always had television at Timbertop, but the very old type which has been part of our programme ever since Timbertop was established more than 60 years ago. Of course, I am talking about campfires and fire pits. Six years ago we started building a series of rather grand fire pits so that they were simple and safe and easy to use when desired. Once again we thought that fires and fire pits would assist in what we are trying to do, which is improve the sociability of our students and draw together a sense of community. Again Timbertop had stepped backwards to move forward.

While listening to the radio the other day I heard fires called “Neanderthal TV” and how it has been around ever since the beginning of humanity. In primitive times, the campfire was a safe place for the community to gather at the end of the day. During the day, talk was about practical matters; getting jobs done, finding food and meeting basic needs for the family and community. As well as having a practical purpose (cooking food), the campfire fulfilled other needs. The fire pit was a place to reflect and campfire talk was often quieter, more reflective and creative. Stories were told. Singing and dancing took place. The campfire community was intergenerational and the young could ask questions about the world and parents, grandparents and elders were a crucial part in shaping values and stories which were to become part of the next generation. Behind the gathering was the darkness of the night and central to the community was the safe, warm fire.

Campfires are special. They provide many things that sometimes are now lacking in our society. The fire pits at Timbertop are built as a place for groups to gather, to sit around, socialise, talk and cook. Fires have a sense of magic; they are hypnotic and they break down barriers. At a fire pit you can be anonymous as the smoke swirls around in the half-darkness and you can be difficult to see. Even if you don’t talk or don’t want to talk, you can watch the “Neanderthal TV” with its flickering light, leaping flames and glowing coals. Inhibitions start to dissolve, people start to speak more freely and conversation starts to flow. Stories are often told and sometimes someone brings a guitar and music is played.

Opportunities such as this in our modern, busy world are sometimes hard to find. Rarely do we have time to sit and enjoy each other’s company in a safe, warm, creative environment such as around a campfire. The closest comparison is the evening meal where families come together at the kitchen table allowing the day to be discussed and tomorrow contemplated. It is here that family values, aspirations and ideas are shared. Unfortunately, with many people’s lives getting busier and busier, such opportunities for families to get together at meal times are reducing. At Timbertop, however, we wish to provide these opportunities where the community (students, staff and assistants) can sit around the fire pit, reminisce about the day, tell stories, sing songs and plan for tomorrow. Sometimes to be creative you don’t need huge resources, just a fertile mind. And sometimes the best place to look is backwards or to the past for creative solutions so that you can move forward.

Roger Herbert Head of Timbertop

ME, MYSELF AND...

Our Year 11 Visual Communication Design students re-imagined and refined the “selfie” for a Term 2 exhibition in the Hirschfeld Mack Centre. Whilst photographic self-portraiture dates back to the 1830s, the “selfie” has become ubiquitous in our modern world of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Armed with “low-tech” smartphones, our Year 11 students took a creative approach to the “selfie”.

Clockwise from top: Rock Shi (Yr11 M), Grace Creati (Yr11 Fr), Angus McKillop (Yr11 Cu), Jack Rayson (Yr11 FB) and Emma Calvert (Yr11 Cl)

ROWERS TO RIO

In the shadows of Christ the Redeemer, on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, five members of the all-conquering Geelong Grammar School 1st Girls’ VIII will represent Australia in the Junior Women’s VIII at the World Rowing Junior Championships in August. Maddison Brown (Yr12 EM), Sasha Culley (Yr11 Cl), Kirstie Green (Yr12 A), Bridgette Hardy (Yr12 Cl) and Sarah Harte (Yr11 A), five cogs in the GGS Girls’ rowing machine, will represent their country in Rio de Janerio in what is an unofficial dress rehearsal for the venue ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Following the completion of their near-perfect season the crew faced the difficult decision of whether to try-out for the Australian team, knowing that the Championships could prove a distraction from their VCE and IB studies. For Maddison it was a difficult decision, but one she knew would come back to haunt her had she passed up the opportunity. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to represent your country, and having such a supportive network at the School made the decision less daunting,” she said. Having juggled a hectic rowing schedule with their Term 1 studies assisted the decision-making process. A hectic schedule that saw the 1st VIII (the five Australian reps plus Xenia Brookes (Yr12 Cl), Is Cameron (Yr12 Cl), Tara O’Reilly (Yr12 Cl) and cox India Rofe(Yr12 Cl)) win the Head of the Schoolgirls and the APS Head of the River plus the Victorian and Australian Schoolgirls’ VIII titles.

Director of Rowing, Geoff Hunter, admits that while it would have been nice for the entire crew to represent Australia, he understands the decision of those that opted against it and emphasised just how amazing their 2015 season was. “This year’s 1st VIII have set the bar incredibly high for future crews,

but they have also shown this level of success to be attainable,” Geoff said. “Geelong Grammar School has had athletes represent Australia while still at school in the past but to have five in the same year, in the same discipline, is an incredible achievement for the School.”

The crew’s season finished in a blaze of glory, but it certainly didn’t ‘click’ from the outset as the girls looked to build chemistry, losing to Loreto by two lengths at the Ballarat Regatta in February. “It just confirmed our lack of racing experience and only motivated us further,” Maddison reflected. “Rowing camp was where everything finally clicked and where we all came together as a crew. We spent 10 intensive days together which enabled us to bond and focus on technique; it brought everything together to take us to the next level.” In a season of highlights, Maddison couldn’t go past the euphoria that engulfed the crew in the aftermath of their National Championships win. “Post-race I was immediately focussed on catching my breath, but when the other crews congratulated us it all sank in and I felt a thrilling wave of triumph and relief. The roar of the crowd and the music in the background when we stood on the podium only heightened the experience. I felt so proud!”

Nick Sculley

WHAT IS POSITIVE EDUCATION?

Dr Jacolyn Norrish, the author of Oxford University Press’s book Positive Education: The Geelong Grammar School Journey, explains what she learnt from a Year 3 class at Bostock House.

What is Positive Education? This is a question I am asked on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. Whenever I am asked this question, what immediately comes to mind is a visit to Bostock House. At the time of my visit, the Year 3 students were preparing to go on a camp. At 8 and 9 years old, the students were quite young to be away from home for three days and two nights. The Bostock staff had decided to focus on teaching the children some skills and mindsets for wellbeing – and specifically skills of resilience – to help them to connect with each other and engage fully while on camp. With this end in mind, the teaching staff had taken the research and theory of leading scholars in the field, such as Karen Reivich, Jane Gillham, and Martin Seligman, and explored ways of making key ideas meaningful and relevant for young students.

Throughout the weeks leading up to camp, students completed projects exploring ways in which various plants and animals adapted to the environment as they survived and thrived in different terrains. Students read stories and considered how characters had used their strengths to overcome difficulties and embrace opportunities. The class had completed a (somewhat messy) experiment on the difference between an egg and a bouncy ball… and unanimously decided that they would prefer to go through life with the capacity to “bounce and not break”.

The classroom learning had been so well scaffolded, that when the word ‘resilience’ was finally introduced, the students were able to make meaningful insights into how they could be resilient in their own lives on a daily basis. Students provided examples of times they had overcome disappointments, let go of grudges after conflict with a friend, took on an exciting challenge, or came together to support another student during a family difficulty. Students also shared what they had learnt with their parents and families, and the language of resilience spread beyond the classroom and into the home. Needless to say, students used their new understanding and skills to have a brilliant time together while on camp.

Now, as an academic I have always been captivated by the concept of knowledge translation – how do we move advances in science into the realm of real-life application? How do we translate a growing evidence base in ways that make a meaningful difference to the community? To me, these Year 3 students discussing, exploring and applying the skills and mindsets for wellbeing and resilience in such creative and tangible ways is an example of the translation of science at its best. This is how I understand Positive Education – taking the most recent scientific understanding of physical, psychological, emotional and social health and making it real, applicable and helpful for children, young people, adults and communities.

The official definition used by Geelong Grammar School is that Positive Education brings together the science of wellbeing and Positive Psychology with best practice teaching and learning to encourage and support schools and members of the school community to flourish. Central to the approach is the Model for Positive Education and its six domains of: positive relationships, positive emotions, positive engagement, positive health, positive accomplishment and positive purpose. Character strengths such as gratitude, curiosity, forgiveness, leadership and spirituality, provide an underpinning framework for Positive Education and help to bring core learning to life for members of the school community of all ages.

And why does Positive Education matter? The statistics on depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health concerns

in adolescents and adults are frighteningly high. It is estimated that one quarter of young people in Australia live with a mental illness. Positive Education is a proactive and preventative approach to building wellbeing and health in schools and communities and aims to reduce the worrisome prevalence of mental illness across the lifespan. There is also the irrefutable fact that students who are physically and mentally well are better equipped to learn and achieve academically and manage more effectively the transition to further study or employment after secondary school. Furthermore, wellbeing matters – helping students and staff to nurture strong relationships, develop and maintain healthy lifestyles, be engaged in their studies and give back to the community are valued outcomes in themselves.

Throughout my time writing Positive Education: The Geelong Grammar School Journey I was blown away by the skill and creativity of teachers in making the skills and mindsets of wellbeing real for their students. I witnessed children as young as 3 and 4 years old practising mindfulness and meditation, older students discussing the importance of growth mindsets in tackling difficult academic concepts, and students of all ages communicating about their emotions and actively looking to support the wellbeing of others.

Perhaps the only thing that has struck me more than the innovation of the school staff in teaching wellbeing was the role of relationships and communities in building mental and physical health. In Positive Education, supporting and nurturing the wellbeing of others and the community is considered as important as looking after the wellbeing of the self. Schools are dynamic, complex, ever-changing communities. They are also natural homes for the science of wellbeing. It is the coming together of the skills and mindsets for flourishing and what schools do best in terms of educating young minds that truly paves the way for flourishing futures.

Dr Jacolyn Norrish is a writer, consultant and Positive Education specialist who completed her PhD studies in adolescent mental health and Positive Psychology at Monash University, where she teaches health promotion and Positive Psychology.

NEW SCHOLARSHIPS

The Hong Kong Community Scholarship was launched at a special function in Hong Kong on Tuesday 2 June. Led by three Hong Kong-based Old Geelong Grammarians, Paul Ng (FB’88), Desmond Ting (FB’87) and Roland Wu (P’93), $75,000 has already been committed towards the $400,000 needed to bring the first scholarship student to the School.

The Hong Kong Community Scholarship will sit alongside the wonderful scholarship programme provided to the School by the Lee Hysan Foundation, whereby a student from Hong Kong enters Year 8 every year. “Our aim is to give talented youngsters from humble backgrounds the opportunities and means to broaden them to the fullest, so as to bring positive change into their lives and the lives of those around them,” Lee Hysan Foundation’s Jade Lai explained. Honouring the Lee Hysan Foundation’s commitment to our School, the aim is to ensure that our School community puts a student through the School in parallel with those coming every year via the Lee Hysan Foundation, and then works towards making this a regular pattern.

Principal Stephen Meek said that he was delighted to see support for the Hong Kong Community Scholarship and planned to select a student this October to begin at School in July 2016. “This is a wonderful opportunity for a young, bright Hong Kong student who needs 100% support to attend the School,” Stephen said. “I know we have a lot more money to raise but we

should get this young student into the School and move forward with confidence.” A new foundation is being established in Hong Kong and gifts from members of our community will be taxdeductible in Hong Kong as they support this new scholarship. A further event to move the Hong Kong Community Scholarship forward will be held in October.

Dr John Emmerson (M’55), who died in August 2014, left a wonderful gift in his will to provide two scholarships to the School. A long-time supporter of the School, John joined Glamorgan in Year 5 in 1944 and graduated as Dux of the School in 1955. He initially studied Science at Melbourne University and graduated D Phil at Oxford University, where he spent a decade researching and teaching nuclear and particle physics, before returning to Melbourne and embarking upon a long and distinguished career as a QC, specialising in intellectual property law. He won the Supreme Court Prize in 1974 and served the Bar as a Director of Barristers’ Chambers Limited (BCL) and on various committees.

The John Emmerson Toorak Scholarship and the John Emmerson Timbertop/Corio Scholarship are being established with a bequest of over $700,000 to the Geelong Grammar Foundation. Both scholarships will assist students who would not otherwise be able to attend our School. They will be awarded for the first time this year and taken up by students entering the School in 2016. This is a wonderful legacy, but those who knew John will not be surprised by his decision to honour the School in this way (he also gave the State Library of Victoria the largest gift of books in its history – a collection of mostly 15th-18th century English works regarded as “the finest collection of that material outside the British Library and the Bodleian Library, Oxford” conservatively estimated to be worth $5 million). The John Emmerson scholarships are being established in perpetuity and will be part of our long-term scholarship programme.

INSPIRING EXCEPTIONAL FUTURES

“Thank you” is a well-known expression of gratitude. Sometimes we strive to express a very big “thank you” and we want to search for words that express appreciation even more clearly or powerfully – but it’s hard to find better words. “Thank you” can be a bit of a formality sometimes, without much feeling; formulaic and expected. Or it can be heartfelt; deeply important and meant with passion and real gratitude. According to the School’s Positive Education research, gratitude is defined as thankfulness or feelings of appreciation that result from perceived fortune or the kindness of others.

As I write, I am aware of wanting to say “thank you” in the deepest way possible to the many people whose gifts made the School for Performing Arts and Creative Education (the SPACE) possible. We have written letters, sent personal notes and made phone calls. Stephen Meek, Jeremy Kirkwood (FB’79) and I joined over one hundred of our benefactors at a special lunch immediately before the official opening of the SPACE on May 23 and we did our best to convey our genuine gratitude (and that of the School and the Foundation) for their generosity and philanthropic leadership.

Our Exceptional Futures fundraising campaign has now raised $26 million since it began in 2012. I really do want to thank everyone who has got involved with the campaign so far and, at the same time, to challenge the rest of our community to find a way to get involved with what we are trying to do. While our work will inevitably stretch on into the future, with scholarships and bequests being key ongoing needs for our community to focus on, our five-year campaign is a discrete and special effort to emulate the effort people made 100 years ago to strengthen our School. This is our time and our turn. I invite you to learn more about our efforts.

We continue to search out those who want to establish a legacy by creating a scholarship or by making a bequest. This year, there is a special focus on the Toorak Wellbeing Centre. The School Council recently committed a further $2 million towards this project, meaning that we need to find a further $1.6 million for the project to go ahead. We continue to seek support for our Visiting Fellows and Positive Education programmes, whilst fundraising for a new sailing clubhouse will begin later this year. We are also considering what must be done before we fundraise for a new boat shed for rowing. There will be more about that in 2016. Meanwhile, thank you again to all who have supported the campaign thus far. You are, as our School Spirit proclaims, “making a positive difference”.

Bill Ranken (M’72) Chairman, Geelong Grammar Foundation

#OURWELLBEING

What great news for the Toorak Wellbeing Centre! Not only was the Centre deemed the priority project by the School Council for the year, but the School then backed up this commitment with a further investment of $2 million, bringing their total funding to $3 million. The message is clear: our new facility lies at the core of the School’s mission to embed wellbeing in education.

Did you know that this facility will be the first Wellbeing Centre ever built on a primary school campus? A stronger statement in support of our holistic approach to learning would be hard to find. Being able to deliver an experience comparable to that of our older students at Corio highlights the wellbeing synergy across our campuses and the importance placed on helping develop these skills early in life.

One of the most exciting aspects of this project is its focus on nutrition. On campus, in the Children’s Garden, students learn through active participation. Our aim is to enable each of them to develop awareness of how food grows, from seed germination and harvest, right through to how it relates to the food on their plate and how to prepare it. The new, fully-equipped learning and teaching kitchen will be an ideal addition to enable the journey “from seed to plate”. Understanding how our food choices impact on our health is a key learning intention of the kitchen which will be linked to the Children’s Garden via the vertical herb wall.

Physical exercise is another component of wellbeing that is a major part of our plans. A six-lane swimming pool with adjacent learner pool will not only provide the children with healthy physical exertion (with an added benefit of learning a life-saving skill), but will also mean an end to the numerous bus journeys to swimming facilities elsewhere in the city. Our desire to host competitions and swimming clubs will be met, just like at Corio.

For others, physical exertion may take another form – dance, performing arts or yoga. All of these will take place in the Meditation and Movement spaces. In addition, our meditation and mindfulness programme, led by Janet Etty-Leal, will have a home. It’s an old adage, but we are happy to remind our students: happiness is a healthy mind and a healthy body.

All in all, this creates a very potent combination that allows exposure to healthy choices at a young age. We believe that this creates a solid platform upon which to develop habits that lead to active, happy and meaningful lives. Whether you are a firm supporter of Positive Education or a borderline cynic, current global research demonstrates that improved wellbeing in our children increases their ability to concentrate and self-regulate which, in turn, increases the chances of reaching their potential. Who could say no to that?

Fortunately, many people have said yes. Passionate families at our Toorak Campus have so far donated $3.4 million, even with young children and the prospect of many years of fees to come! We are so grateful to them for their commitment. Their generosity, together with the School’s commitment, brings the total raised to $6.4 million – leaving only $1.6 million to go. It seems like a small figure given what has already been committed, but we know that we will need everyone to pull together to get us to our goal. Over the coming months, we will invite the rest of our families at Toorak – and our wider Geelong Grammar School community – to participate. Every gift counts and we ask you all to consider joining us now as we reach for the finish line.

Frances Loughrey Associate Director Geelong Grammar Foundation

For further information please visit the Toorak Wellbeing Centre pages on the Foundation section of our website (www.ggs.vic. edu.au/Foundation) or contact Frances Loughrey on floughrey@ ggs.vic.edu.au or 03 9829 1412.

Our new Toorak Wellbeing Centre will include:

fully-equipped learning and teaching kitchen with herb garden and direct links to our Children’s Garden

Welcome to The Mail Room, a place for our wider School community to share news, notes and pictures of life beyond school. The Mail Room builds on the strong sense of community that we share and the foundation work of our Curator, Michael Collins Persse, who remains our invaluable oracle of information and the source of much of the content within. As a thriving boarding school, our mail rooms at Corio and Timbertop are central to the life of the School and the flow of information, from parent to student and beyond. Long may this continue.

THE MAIL ROOM

William Lempriere Winter Cooke (GGS 1906-11) took part in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 with the Public Schools Company, 5th Battalion AIF, alongside school friend Hugh Arundell Were (GGS 1907-11). The Public Schools Company (F Company) was made up almost entirely of volunteers from the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, primarily Melbourne Grammar, Scotch, Wesley, Xavier and GGS. It suffered heavy losses at Gallipoli. Were’s older brother Clive was one of two Old Melburnians killed in the landing, whilst Winter Cooke and Were rescued Old Scotch Collegian Geoffrey Hall after he had been shot by a sniper, carrying him across “open country... amidst a torrent of bullets and shrapnel”. Were had himself suffered serious chest and shoulder wounds in the landing and was sent home to Australia (he would later serve as a Major in the 9th Battalion during World War 2).

Somewhat miraculously, Winter Cooke survived the Gallipoli campaign. He fought with the 2nd Infantry Brigade, which suffered more than 1,000 casualties in the epic Battle of Krithia, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant before the evacuation in December. He sent home acorns from Gallipoli, which were planted in the Chapel Lawn at Corio by his brothers, Cecil (P’16) and Bryan (P’19), and Senior Prefect, James Affleck (Cu’16), in August 1916 to mark the second anniversary of the outbreak of war. The surviving tree is listed on the National Trust Register of Significant Trees (another large tree survives at Winter Cooke’s property of Murndal near Hamilton). In 2004, the School began collecting acorns for Pat Garratt, head gardener at Government House, who wanted to plant the small, prickly oak tree (now known as the Gallipoli Oak) in the grounds at Yarralumla. By 2007, Yarralumla Nursery had raised 15 seedlings, but the plant described by General John Monash in 1915 as a “prickly shrub, with which these hills are covered, and which has inflicted an unkind scratch on hands, arms and bare knees”, proved slow growing and particularly fragile.

In 2013, the National Trust embarked upon its Gallipoli Oak project, with the School harvesting acorns for propagation by various nurseries, so seedlings could be planted by primary students at more than 500 schools around Victoria as part of celebrations to commemorate the centenary of the landing at Anzac Cove. The Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, launched the project in November 2014 by planting a seedling in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. In April, Gray Street Primary School in Winter Cooke’s home town of Hamilton became the first school beyond GGS to plant a Gallipoli Oak seedling in its grounds. The National Trust hopes the ongoing project will enable students to learn about the history of ANZAC Day, gain an understanding of the purpose and significance of creating memorials, as well as the personal story of William Lempriere Winter Cooke. Following the evacuation from Gallipoli, Winter Cooke saw further action in France, where he was Captain in the 4th Battalion, was awarded the Military Cross at the Battle of Pozières and suffered gunshot wounds to his leg, which ended his war in May 1917 in a hospital in Rouen, France.

Current parent, Professor David Watters OBE, has edited ANZAC Surgeons of Gallipoli (RACS, 2015) with Dr Elizabeth Milford. Published to commemorate the centenary of the Dardanelles campaign of April-December 1915, the book includes biographies of all 128 ANZAC surgeons, including eight OGGs. Ernest Sandford Jackson (1860-1938; OS 1875), a leading Brisbane medico, was the most senior OGG, whilst the first two of his five sons (all OGGs) also served as ANZAC surgeons: John Henry Sandford Jackson (1893-1930; OS 1911), known as Jack, and Charles Ernest Sandford Jackson (1895-1951; OS 1913), were both medical students at the time and worked later in surgical practice in Queensland. The other five OGGs were: Kenneth George McKay Aberdeen (1888-1952; OS 1907), later in general practice at Northam in Western Australia before being visiting surgeon at Fremantle Hospital; Leonard Charles Edward Lindon (1896-1978; OS 1911), later a Rhodes Scholar, surgeon and neurosurgeon in Adelaide, President 1959-61 of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and knighted; George Clifford Scantlebury (1890-1976; OS 1906), later a consultant surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital (his sister, Vera Scantlebury Brown, also a doctor, was a pioneer in infant welfare and antenatal care); John Arthur Hopkins Sherwin (1881-1961; OS 1899), later a consultant gynaecologist in Melbourne and commander during World War II of the Heidelberg Military Hospital; and Edward Rowden White (1881-1958; OS 1900), cox of School crews 1894-99 and then Captain of Cricket and Senior Prefect, later an eminent gynaecologist in Melbourne and, after service in Malaya during the Japanese advance in 1942, a prisoner-of-war in Formosa and Manchuria (in 1928, during a visit to the United States, he performed the first “Manchester” operation for uterine prolapse undertaken there). David is the current President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He is also the father of Florian Watters and Laurenz Watters (twins; both Yr7 Hi) and the stepfather of two OGGs, Anna Koestenbauer (Fr’06) and Jakob Koestenbauer (Fr’08). Several non-OGG Anzac surgeons became fathers of OGGs, including Major-General Sir Neville Howse VC, KCB, KCMG.

Harry Tatlock Miller (1913-1989; Ge’29) features alongside his lifetime partner, the great theatre designer Loudon Sainthill (1918-1969), in Fantasy Modern: Loudon Sainthill’s Theatre of Art and Life by Andrew Montana (NewSouth Publishing, UNSWP, Sydney, 2013). Harry made an early mark in the artistic and literary history of Australia with his 13 issues of Manuscripts, a journal published from November 1931 at the Book Nook in Geelong. Having served, like Loudon, through most of World War II in the Australian Army Medical Corps, he became a writer, entrepreneur, art critic, and (for more than 30 years) director of the Redfern Gallery in London, where they lived and worked together in the 1950s and ‘60s after some time in the avant-garde world of Merioola in Sydney. He edited Loudon Sainthill: with an appreciation by Bryan Robertson (Hutchinson, London, 1973). Among his earlier books, handsomely designed with Sainthill and also published by Hutchinson, are Royal Album (1951, the year of the Festival of Britain), Undoubted Queen (celebrating the Coronation in 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II and her subsequent royal tours; 1958) and Churchill: The Walk with Destiny (1959). Probably his most substantial obituaries were in the Geelong Historical Society journal, Investigator (June 1990), by Laurel Clark, and The Corian of June 1991. Now this impressive book tells his story more fully.

Noni Fisher née Brown (He’34), who died in March 2014, can be seen as the summit of a pyramid of sisters in a 1933 photograph of all five, wearing school uniform, on page 89 of Melanie Guile’s fine history of The Hermitage, Proud to be Women (2014). In 1940, in the School Chapel, she married Peter Norman Maberly Fisher (Ge’32), eldest son of Peter William Fisher (OS 1901), and together they had a daughter, Penny (He’60) and three sons – all OGGs – of whom the eldest, Peter Charles John Fisher (Ge’58), is the father of Peter Wilfred Fisher (FB’96), a fourthgeneration Peter Fisher to attend GGS. Noni’s youngest son, Jamie Fisher (Ge’61), served on the School Council (1991-97), while his wife, Sheran née Stokes, later joined the School Staff (2000-04). Noni herself carried on a family tradition of versatile service to the community: her father, Charles Brown, was Mayor of Geelong 1935-38; her grandfather Dr Robert Hodgson Cole (OS 1876), barrister and doctor, was Melbourne City Coroner 1903-23; and an uncle was Air Vice-Marshal Adrian Cole CBE, MC, DFC, AFC, DSO (OS 1908).

REMEMBERING JIM GUEST

Dr James Guest AM, OBE, VRD (M’34), who died on 20 January 2015, aged 98, was born in Mildura on 11 July 1916, the only child of James and Edith Guest. He finished three years at GGS as a Manifold House Prefect with School Colours for Football and started a lifelong friendship with his House Captain, Sir Rupert (Dick) Hamer AC, KCMG (M’34; Premier of Victoria 1972-81). At Melbourne University he won the Baldwin Spencer Prize in Zoology, graduated Bachelor of Science in 1938 and of Medicine in 1941, and was inspired by Frederic Wood Jones, Professor of Anatomy, who became a model for Jim’s own life. He rowed in three University crews (twice victoriously), obtaining a Blue, as well as four Trinity College crews (for two wins).

After a brief time on the junior medical staff of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, he had war service as a Surgeon Lieutenant, later Lieutenant Commander, for which in 1945 he was appointed an Officer in the Order of the British Empire “for great skill and devotion as principal Medical Officer while in service in the Landing Ship (Infantry) HMAS Westralia during operations in the South-West Pacific area before the end of the war”. An important part of that service was on Ambon, seeking the last remaining prisoners-of-war, and he continued for many years to contribute to its rehabilitation (see Joan Beaumont’s book Gull Force). He returned to the Anatomy School at Melbourne University and became surgical tutor at Trinity

College. From 1948, while a Gordon Craig Travelling Fellow at hospitals in London, he developed what became a permanent interest in colorectal surgery.

Jim married Simonette (Timmie) Macindoe in London in 1950, and – a loved and hospitable couple – they were to have two sons, James (Gl’62) and Charles (Gl’65), as well as Sibella (Cu’75; Staff 1984-87).

An obituary in The Age (20 February) by Ian McInnes summed up his main work as a colorectal surgeon: “His forte was an ability to consult on a complicated patient, where his opinion was frequently sought. He became Dean of the Alfred Clinical School, responsible for teaching undergraduate medical students at the hospital. His teaching was clear and fundamental. As head of the unit, Jim expected the commitment and service he so readily gave himself. He subsequently became senior surgeon at the hospital, and during this time was also examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was elected to the Board of Management of The Alfred in 1971.”

Jim retired from the active staff in 1976 but remained a consultant until 1981. He continued his interest in anatomy and, in 1989, was invited to give the Vicary Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in England. His subject was ‘John Hunter’s Disciple – Frederic Wood Jones’. “This lecture remains a classic reflection on comparative anatomy,” Ian wrote in his obituary, which went on to record other important areas of Jim’s service: to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute (he was chairman 1983-88), the Murdoch

Children’s Research Institute, the Medical History Society of Victoria, and in other fields, including the development of the Jack Brockhoff Chair of Child Health and Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne. He was elected President of the Melbourne Club in 1991. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1982, and in 2013 was awarded an honorary doctorate by his university. One of Jim’s last outings was in October 2014 for the launch of Tim Colebatch’s fine biography of his friend Dick Hamer (Dick Hamer: The liberal Liberal, Penguin, 2014), shortly after which he came to the inaugural School and Foundation Dinner for the launch of 100 Exceptional Stories (Hardie Grant, 2014), which includes a warm profile of Jim by Josephine Hook née Rattray (Ga’85). He has long had a special place in the affections of the GGS community.

Michael Collins Persse

THE BETTY BERRELL MYSTERY

When the Herald Sun started searching for glamourous Melbourne artist Betty Berrell and mentioned Geelong Grammar School among the clues, Alumni Manager Katie Rafferty’s inbox started buzzing.

On Friday 20 February, the headline of the Black & White section of the Herald Sun asked ‘Who knew of Betty?’ A shopping bag of personal documents along with 20 paintings had been left at the Victorian Artists Society by two American women who had cleared out the home of a deceased male friend, then boarded a plane home. This triggered a search for family and friends of glamorous Melbourne actor and painter Betty Berrell in the hope of reuniting Betty’s paintings and personal documents with her family.

Among the items in the bag was a passport issued in the names Mrs Ruby Elizabeth J. Berrell and a photo of Betty at what appeared to be her own wedding at Geelong Grammar School to Flight Lieutenant Roberts Christian Dunstan (FB’38) with a hand-written date on the back of 8 October 1945. Dunstan became well known as a one-legged gunner in the RAAF during World War 2 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order before becoming a journalist and film critic for the The Herald in Melbourne and later a Victorian MP and Minister. The Artists Society was also investigating clues that suggested Betty may have married New Zealand-born actor Lloyd Berrell. “It’s a mystery where there are some connections but not all the threads of her life go together – we are hoping someone can help,” Victorian Artists Society’s Ron Smith explained.

President of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association (now also OGG President), Margie Gillett née Cordner (Cl’71), emailed me the article, asking if Roberts Dunstan was an OGG. Our records showed that he had attended the School from 1930-38 and, via The Corian, had married Betty in the GGS Chapel on 4 October 1945 (later confirmed by a photo and article in The Argus). I also found his obituary in The Corian archives (he passed away in 1989 aged 66), noting he had remarried in 1957 and had not had any children

with Betty, so I could not begin to track any relations of Betty that way. I did happen to notice, however, that a Betty Dunstan (née Leggo) was recorded on our database as having attended Clyde School from 1930-31. There was also another person listed below Betty with the same maiden name, Joan Laidlaw (née Leggo), who attended Clyde School in the same years, 1930-31. I wondered if they might be sisters, even though our records did not link them in any way. Since I had no luck tracing Betty’s descendants, I started looking for Joan.

I found Joan Laidlaw (Leggo) on genealogy and family-tree website Geni, where I learnt that her husband was born and died in Hamilton (on September 29, 2000) and that Joan had a son and a daughter (though they were unnamed). I knew we had some Laidlaws on our database so I searched for Laidlaw in Hamilton and came up with Steve and Margie Laidlaw (past parents) and their son Harry (FB’13). I had no way of telling if they were relations of Joan until I noticed one of Harry’s middle names was Leggo. I thought that was enough of a connection and emailed Steve, who I presumed was Joan’s son and therefore Betty’s nephew. He was!

The Herald Sun article had jogged a different memory for Bob Tate (M’49), who said October 4 1945 is a day he would never forget for another reason, although he was only 12 at the time. “A mate of Roberts Dunstan, a Spitfire pilot, wanted to pay his respects to Roberts (on his wedding day) and flew over the School and, as young ones do, wanted to show off with a few tricks and attempted a loop-the-loop but was not high enough and crashed into the cliffs on the edge of Corio Bay,” Bob recalled. “The pilot was Donald Carlos Gordon – a name I have never forgotten.” It is a story often recounted to me by OGGs who remember the crash, including those who witnessed it from the verandah in Junior School (Middle School). To this day there is a mark on the foreshore, not too far from the Lunan Gates, where the plane crashed. Don Gordon (M’42), who was only 21 years old, had already been awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. His name was added to those in the

War Memorial Cloisters as he was still on active service, completing a conversion course from multi-engined aircraft to Spitfires. His obituary in The Corian says he served with the Lancaster Squadron and was awarded the DFC for his actions during an attack on Stuttgart in July 1944: “The aircraft was attacked no fewer than four times by hostile fighters. Flying-Officer Gordon’s combat manoeuvres were so successfully executed, that the aircraft escaped unscathed, and the mission was completed successfully. Throughout his tour of operations, this officer has displayed courage and determination of a very high order.”

If Don Gordon’s short life was impressive, the more I discovered about his friend Roberts Dunstan’s was even more so. He was a champion sportsman at GGS, where he captained Cricket and Football teams, was under-15 and under-16 Athletics champion, and set a Public Schools long-jump record which stood for years. He dreamed of playing for Collingwood but left school after Fourth Form (Year 10) and joined the AIF in early 1940 at just 17 years of age. He lost his leg after a shell splinter wounded his knee in the Battle of Bardia in the Western Desert. He later recalled that the incident began when “five of us” attempted to “take Tobruk ourselves with one .303 rifle, fifty rounds of ammo and a gallon of cognac. We got lost in the desert, ran our utility truck into a tent occupied by British Intelligence, and were put under open arrest. I was wounded on reconnaissance the next day, and the other four were fined a week’s pay.” He returned to GGS in 1942, spending a few months as a prefect in Cuthbertson House, before joining the RAAF, flying 29 combat flights over Germany and becoming the youngest Australian (and probably the only tail-gunner) to win the DSO. He was 21 years old. He spent 19 years at The Herald and would go on to forge a stellar political career, holding various Ministerial Portfolios in both Henry Bolte’s and Dick Hamer

(M’34)'s Victorian Liberal governments. When Roberts died in 1989, then Premier John Cain expressed the House’s “sincere sorrow” and described him as “exuberant, forthright, robust, controversial and outspoken”. He once won a £10 bet by climbing Mount Bogong on crutches. He was remarried in 1957 to Joanna (née Saunders) and had a son, Marc.

Meanwhile, Betty Berrell (née Leggo, formerly Dunstan, Cl’31), had established herself as a star of the stage and the screen. Steve Laidlaw said that his aunt was a member of the Melbourne Theatre Company in its early days alongside the likes of Frank Thring and starred opposite George Fairfax in the comedy Lullaby at St Martin’s Theatre. She appeared in television plays Happily Ever After (1961), Night Stop (1963) and Double Yolk (1963). “She and mum (Joan Laidlaw) were also excellent divers and were asked to promote The Herald’s Learn-to-Swim campaign by diving off the Princess Bridge into the Yarra.” She was remarried in 1952 to fellow actor Lloyd Berrell, who played Roo in the original Sydney production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. He died tragically in 1958 when they were both en route to the UK. Steve said that while she was certainly a talented artist, she only ever painted for herself. Her paintings remain now for her family members to treasure.

Katie Rafferty née Spry (Ga’84)

To read more about the remarkable lives of Betty Berrell (née Leggo, formerly Dunstan, Cl’31) and Roberts Dunstan (FB’38), please visit www.ggs.vic.edu.au/Alumni

Betty Leggo married Roberts Dunstan at Geelong Grammar on October 4, 1945

The Honourable (Francis) Robert Fisher AO QC (Cu’39), who died in November 2014, was a Judge of the Federal Court (1978-89) and Chancellor of Flinders University (1983-88). He was the son, with three sisters, of Guy Fisher (OS 1908), lawyer and company director, and Alice Elizabeth née Squires (from Cambridge in England). A Bertie Manifold Scholar at GGS, he was a School Prefect and Captain of Cuthbertson House in 1939, receiving School Colours for Athletics.

After a first year of Law at Adelaide University, he served for over five years in the AIF as a Gunner and Gun Sergeant in Australia and New Guinea – including early months when, as he later wrote, Australia was “utterly defenceless” (“we were the only AIF Unit in the country at the time, armed with turn-of-the-century 18-pound guns and one rifle to six men”). In 1949, he married Margaret, known as Peggy, daughter of James Hemery Lindon MC (OS 1905; Senior Prefect, Dux, and from 1948-50 Chairman of the School Council). At Cherry Mount, Mount Lofty, and then Pine Hill, Stirling, they were a much-loved couple who had twin daughters and a son, Peter George Robert Fisher (Cu’71), who is also a lawyer.

Dudley (Mick) Adams (P’40), who died in August 2014, became a Spitfire pilot and Flying Officer during RAAF service in World War 2, from 1942-46. He was a House Prefect and received House Colours for Shooting. After the war, he studied forestry and was a forestry officer in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges until 1953. Mick then farmed successively at Kyabram, Tyrendarra, and Sutherland’s Creek. In the 1980s he took to flying his own Cessna 172, was President of the Portland Wine and Food Society and became a life member of the Tyrendarra Pastoral and Agricultural Society. He retired to 300 acres near Bannockburn to be closer to family in Geelong and Melbourne. Father of John (P’77), he was the grandfather by his daughter, Jude, of Estelle (A’06), Selina (A’08), Olivia (A’10), and Zoe (A’11) Blair-Holt.

John Calvert JP (M’41), who died in May 2015, was the fourth-generation in Australia to be so named. A great-grandson of the first of them, who was a prominent pioneer in the Colac district, he was the son of John (OS 1889) and Eleanor Amelia née Chambers (from Nil Desperandum station). For many years John farmed at Weering, near Inverleigh, and later served as a Shire of Colac councillor. In 1962 he married Primrose Buchanan, and through two of their three children he was a grandfather of three more GGS Calverts: John (Bo’01), known as Jack, Georgina (Yr11 Fr), and Amberlie (Yr7 Ot).

Sir Brian Inglis AC (FB’41), who died in September 2014, had a distinguished career with the Ford Motor Company Australia, of which he was managing director (1970-81), going on to be president, then chairman, of Ford Asia-Pacific. He was also chairman of Aerospace Technologies Australia (1987-94), Amcor (1989-94), and Optus Communications (199196). A School Prefect and Captain of Francis Brown House in 1941, he then joined the RAAF, was posted to the United Kingdom, and as a Spitfire pilot and flight-lieutenant was involved in ground support of the 1944 D-Day landings. In 1953 he married Leila Butler, daughter of Villers Butler (Staff 1914-18; first Housemaster of Cuthbertson; then Headmaster of Ballarat Grammar School) and sister of Walter Butler (Cu’25; Staff 193032 before long service at Scotch College) and Edward Butler (Staff 194780). Sir Brian received France’s highest honour, the Légion d’Honneur.

Gordon McLaurin (Cu’41), who died in August 2014, was the son of James McGibbon McLaurin and Jean Armorel née Robson, of Dalriada and Urolee, near Holbrook. He and his brother, James Anthony (Cu’41), known as Tony, had three years at GGS, leaving early to help run the family property. Gordon mixed with rough working men and could swear with the best of them at the same time as developing a great love of Shakespeare (whom he could quote extensively) and Dickens under the tutelage of his devoted grandmother Gertrude Robson. He was often a drover for his father and in 1949 moved a mob of 888 bullocks from Roma to Wodonga (a distance of more than 1,300 kilometres). He loved horse racing, was a life member of various racing clubs, and attended 66 consecutive Melbourne Cups – it was at one of these that he met his first wife, Sue, with whom he had daughters Clara, Amanda, and Eve. After the death of his brother, Gordon helped greatly with the upbringing of Tony’s son John James (Cu’69), known as Joe, who became like a son to him. Space here is inadequate to do Gordon’s life, at once robust and sensitive, full justice, but I finish with words from a splendid eulogy by his son-in-law Linden Gunn: “He was a true gentleman and one of the best story-tellers around. This ability enabled him to engage and captivate friends”, of whom he had “a myriad who admire, respect, and love him”.

1943 1944

John Daniell AM (FB’43), who died in April 2015, was a pioneer of the Australian film industry who filmed the signing of the surrender of the Japanese on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay at the end of World War 2. He was 18 years old and on his first overseas assignment. He covered the Korean War for the United Nations before embarking upon a successful career in film production with Ajax Films, where he was production manager and later general manager, producing films such as They’re a Weird Mob (1966), Ned Kelly (1970), and Wake in Fright (1971). When the Australian Film Commission was created in 1975, John was appointed its first director, guiding the production of films such as Newsfront (1978), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), My Brilliant Career (1979), and Breaker Morant (1980). He was general manager of the Hoyts Edgley joint venture which produced Phar Lap (1983), The Coolangatta Gold (1984), and Burke & Wills (1985), before being appointed executive director of the Film & Television Production Association (now the Screen Production Association). He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1990 and was Cinema Pioneer of the Year in 2010.

Richard Charles Visger Awdry (M’44), who died in December 2014, was evacuated to Australia with his brother Philip (Bw’44) at the height of World War 2, attending GGS from 1941-44 whilst staying with the Sargood family of Corowa. He completed his schooling at Marlborough College and became a tea planter on Mount Melangi, in what was Nyasaland (now Malawi), before returning to London and a career in advertising. He published a thinlyveiled account of family eccentricities as a novel called A Pride of Relations (Macmillan, 1958).

Dr John Learmonth OAM (Cu’44), who died in July 2014, was a revered General Practitioner at Rockhampton in Queensland, having been attracted there as a young doctor by his uncle, Dr William Edward (Ted) Hasker (Cu’18). The eldest son of Lancelot Wimble Learmonth and Dulcie Roxana née Hasker, graziers at Barrama, near Coleraine, he was followed by Brian (Cu’48; see page 38) and Mary (Cl’55), who married Peter Tallis OAM (Cu’50) and is the mother of four OGGs – Richard (M’78), Mark (Cu’80), Caroline MacLachlan (Tallis, Cl’83), and John (Cu’86). John had four years at GGS, finishing as a School SubPrefect and Cadet-Lieutenant. He served as a Private in the AIF (1945-47) before studying Medicine at Melbourne University. He completed postgraduate study in Edinburgh, where he became a Fellow of its Royal College of Physicians and met his future wife, Barbara Joyce. They settled in Rockhampton and had five children: Michael, Ian, Susan, and twins Anne and Jane. John flew Piper Cherokees, sailed along the coast as far as Gladstone and Mackay, and helped establish the Australian Country Hospital Heritage Association. A kind, sincere, and gentle father and grandfather (to nine), with a deep interest in their education, “he looked for good in people almost to a fault” a son said in a eulogy. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1992 “for service to medicine as a rural practitioner and educator”.

John McArthur (M’44), who died in November 2014, was a general surgeon who was surgeon-leader of the Prince Henry’s Hospital surgical team at Long Xuyen during the Vietnam War. He was the son of George Alexander Douglas McArthur (OS 1902) and Helen Fraser née Fitzgerald, a granddaughter of Dr Alexander Morrison, the second Principal of Scotch College. Captain of Athletics at GGS, with School Colours also in Rowing and Football, John spent a year in the AIF in the 13th/33rd Infantry Battalion before undertaking medical studies that led to his following his father’s profession as a consulting surgeon in Melbourne. In 1955, he married Sally Barbara Carr from Boortkoi, Hexham, and they had two daughters, Jane and Clare, and a son, Christopher.

1946

Christopher Legoe QC (M’46) was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for “distinguished service to the law and to the judiciary, to the development of professional standards and legal education, and to historical, artistic and environmental conservation groups”. Chris served as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia (1978-94), including a period as acting Chief Justice in 1993, and returned to the bench briefly in 1995. In 2010,

he donated 16 hectares of land at Salt Creek which enabled the linking of the northern and southern sections of Coorong National Park. He has served as chair on National Trust and Royal Adelaide Hospital committees, as well as donating to and being a benefactor for the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation. Early in his career he was a pioneer of the Independant Bar of South Australia (“the original Reluctant Debutante”, as he puts it).

CLUBS & BRANCHES

1. Sandy Hutton (OGC) and Simon Reed (P’76) ran their final OGG v OGC Golf Day in March; 2. Sandy Peake (Li’74), Juliette Moran (Yr12 He) and Ruth Vagnarelli (Hickinbotham, Cl’82) at the OGG SA Branch Seppeltsfield Picnic; 3. Andrew Laycock (P’58), Annie Laycock, James Laycock (P’90), Amanda Laycock and OGG Riverina and NE Victoria Branch President, Sandy Mackenzie (FB’59) at the Wodonga function; 4. Past parent Fiona Landy with Bill Paton; 5. Frances Stewart (Gatenby, Ga’84) and Jane Bamford (Sauer, Cl’78); 6. Roland Wu (P’93), Stephen Meek, current parent Emma Smith, Tony Bretherton, Karman Hsu (P’83) and Paul Ng (FB’88) at the launch of the Hong Kong Community Scholarship; 7. Tyler Dodd (Yr12 Fr), Colin Edwards, Josh Hoevenaars (Hi’04), Al Saunders (Yr12 M), Tom Osmond, Cal Wood and Freddie Imhoff (Bostock ’12) watching the Old Geelong Cricket match on Baths Oval

11. George Johnstone (OGC), Charlie Reed (P’06), Jake Ward (M’05), Jeremy Cross (Fr’05) and Henry Weddell (OGC); 12. GGS parents

David and Skye Leckie hosted the OGG NSW Branch Cocktail Party in Sydney. Skye is pictured here with OGG NSW Branch President Will Wilson (M’78); 13. Amanda Madsen (Ryan, He’02), Bianca Friend and Genevieve Milesi (Ga’02) ; 14. Past parent David Ross, Tom Seymour (P’92), Skye Docherty (Je’92) and Kirsty Ross (Je’92); 15. Eileen Scott, Kate Scott (Cl’13), Jonathan Scott and Peter Little (Timbertop ’63)

8. Berta von Bibra and Ewen Cameron (Cu’65); 9. Kate and Roderic O’Connor (P’74) hosted the OGG Tasmania Branch Cocktail Party at their home and are pictured here with Max Cameron (P’76) and Helen Baillie; 10. Ed Smith (Cu’86), Stephen Symond, Patricia Hammond and Geoffrey Hammond (FB’67);

Peter (Bertie) Bruce (FB’48), who died in February 2015, was a surgeon and head of the Urology Department of the Queen Victoria Medical Centre at Monash University (1975-85). Born in Vienna, after graduating from Melbourne University, he spent six years completing postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom and USA, obtaining a Master of Surgery degree at Liverpool University. He won the Biennial Essay Prize of the Australasian Urological Society in 1964 and was Assistant Urologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for ten years. Peter also bred Hereford cattle and Arabian horses on a property at Wandong. He married three times and had two children with his first wife, television presenter and writer, Susan-Gaye Anderson: Melissa and Justin.

Professor Norman Beischer AO (Cu’48), who died in February 2015, was an eminent obstetrician and gynaecologist. The son of Dr Albert Ludwig Beischer of Bendigo, he followed his brother William (Cu’46) to GGS, leaving with Honours in six subjects and a Whittingham Scholarship that took him on to Trinity College. He won the Jacobs Prize in Clinical Gynaecology and shared the Fulton Scholarship in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Melbourne University, where he was the first candidate admitted to the postgraduate degree of Master in those disciplines. In 1968, he became the first Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Mercy and Austin Hospitals – a post he held for 28 years. He was the author of more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1982-99), and author and joint author of several landmark textbooks, in particular the 1976 publication Obstetrics and the Newborn with Professor Eric Mackay, known widely as “Beischer and Mackay” (it has gone through many editions and been translated into several languages). Norman was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1994 “for service in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology and for clinical research into the causes and prevention of maternal and perinatal deaths”. He married Elizabeth Young in 1961 and three children followed: David (Cu’79), Andrew (Cu’80), and Anne. He was a loyal and perceptive OGG, helping the School (including its Archives) in quiet ways typical of his insight into the needs of others.

Brian Learmonth (Cu’48), who died in September 2014, was a farmer at Barrama, near Coleraine, carrying on a substantial part of the former Koolomurt estate held by his father, Lancelot. He followed his brother, John (Cu’44; see page 35), to GGS, where he was a School Prefect and Cadet-Lieutenant with School Colours in Cricket and Football. He went on to Longerenong Agricultural College, where he topped his year and was College Captain. He spent some time in the United States before marrying Pamela Coles in 1959, becoming the father of five: David, Deborah, Sarah, Camilla, and Anna. Latterly Brian and Pam, who survives him, lived at Wallington. He took a keen interest in the history of the Learmonth family, which included the great Russian poet Mikhail Lermontor, and was one of an extended family represented at GGS since 1895.

1950

Malcolm Muir (P’50), who died in June 2013, was a property adviser in Cambridge, Tasmania. He was deprived of the last two of what would have been six years at GGS by an attack of poliomyelitis, after which he was tutored at home in Hobart, where his father, Dr John Bertram Gilchrist Muir, was superintendent of the Royal Hobart Hospital. Malcolm finished his schooldays at Hutchins. He married Rae Baker in 1962, and they had six daughters: Catherine, Sarah, Jennie, Ruth, Victoria, and Lucy.

1951

(Robert) Wilson Ronald (Cu’51), who died in October 2014, was a farmer at Nap Nap Station, on the lower reaches of the Murrumbidgee River near Hay, which was first acquired by his great-grandfather Robert Bruce Ronald in 1890. He was the eldest son of Robert Bruce Ronald MC (OS 1905) and Gaié née Chrisp, with brother, Hugh (Cu’53), also attending GGS. During his tenure, Nap Nap enjoyed notably good yields of barley and wheat, and much clearing was achieved of lignum, cotton bush, and light scrub. He married Margaret Elizabeth Atkinson in 1962, and three children followed: Robert (P’80), Alastair (Cu’81), and Catherine (Woodhouse) (Cl’86), known as Cate. He won many shooting trophies, was skilled in the delicate carving of wood and gemstones, and served his community in many ways, including the Country (later National) Party, the Graziers’ Association, and the Lower Murrumbidgee Flood Control. Nap Nap was sold in 1986 and Wilson and Margaret moved to a smaller property, Gobbagumbalin, near Wagga Wagga, in which town they lived latterly.

Bruce Wilson (P’51), who died in January 2015, was managing director of Wilson Removals, a firm started by his grandfather in Melbourne in 1890. A Sea Cadet while at GGS, where he had seven years in Barwon and Perry, he had many later successes at yachting, including the State’s Finn title. A brother of Ian (P’51), he and Karen née Adkins had a son and a daughter.

Blair Catanach (M’55), who died in October 2014, was managing director of Catanach’s Jewellers, which he relocated from Melbourne’s CBD to Armadale in the late 1980s. Son of William and Corona Catanach, he had nine years at Corio, was Captain of Swimming, Secretary of both Football and Gymnastics, and a School Sub-Prefect. His later training included time in Switzerland with the Omega Watch Company. A Registered Valuer of the Gemological Association from 1961, he had a term some 20 years later as president of the Victorian division of the Australian Jewellers’ Association. In 1961, he married Jacqueline (Cl’57), daughter of Peter Lempriere (Cu’26), sister of the late Robin Lempriere (Cu’69), and a greatgranddaughter of Richard Grice (OS 1873). Their children, Peter (M’78), Amanda known as Mandy (Je’80), and David (M’85), all attended GGS, as did his granddaughter Olivia Fish (He’11) and several extended family: Blair’s sister, Julia, married Reece Burgess (FB’56) and is the mother of Andrew (FB’81), Matthew (FB’82), Simon (FB’84), and Edwina (Callus) (Ga’88). In a eulogy, Tony Mollard (P’53), described Blair as “larger than life – a little bit of a larrikin” and spoke of his great joy and sense of fun. Mandy and David now steer Catanach’s through a fifth generation of family ownership.

THE HERMITAGE OAK

Jeremy Dummett (FB’57) has published his second book of Sicilian history, Palermo, City of Kings: The Heart of Sicily (I.B.Tauris, 2015). Jeremy is an expert on the history of Sicily and the author of Syracuse, City of Legends: A Glory of Sicily (I.B.Tauris, 2010). School Prefect in 1957, with first-class honours in Modern History, he went on to read History at Trinity College, Cambridge, and work as a finance and marketing consultant in London, Athens, and Milan. He and his wife, Hermione, are the parents of three sons and live in Islington, London. His sister, Caroline (Cl’57), has been a lay inspector of schools in Suffolk and has two daughters.

Christopher Davis (M’59), who died in May 2015, was a cardiac surgeon in Seattle. He had ten years at GGS, including four years at Glamorgan, and received first-class honours in Chemistry. He graduated from Melbourne University in 1965 and was a resident at the Alfred and Royal Children’s Hospitals before travelling overseas to work at an American Army Field Hospital in Germany. He moved to Seattle in 1970 to complete post-graduate studies in General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, entering private practice in 1976. Harold Riggall (Cu’59) kindly relayed notes written for the 50-Year Timbertop Reunion in 2007: “He married in 1973. He and his wife had three sons. He owned a 54’ sloop, and the trips he and his family undertook included sailing up the inside passage to Alaska. He remained loyal to and kept in contact with his friends in Melbourne and, with his wife, travelled back here quite frequently.”

The young oak tree that stands outside The Hermitage House at Corio holds special significance for Old Girls of The Hermitage. The first Headmistress, Miss Elsie Morres, regarded the ancient market town of Wokingham, originally called Oakingham, as her ancestral home – the home of her father’s people. Miss Morres would tell the girls that the oak tree stood for strength, endurance, reverence, and wisdom. The light green of oak leaves and laurels of Wokingham and Sherbrooke Forest gradually became the colour of The Hermitage and featured in its uniform, in ties and jumpers, blazers, and hatbands – and is visible still today in the blazers of The Hermitage House. She marked important occasions by planting oak trees in the gardens of The Hermitage in Pakington Street – once in 1910 to honour The Hermitage Old Girls and again in 1933 on her leaving the School. In planting acorns, she was sowing a future with seeds from her past. When The Hermitage moved to Highton in 1973, an acorn was taken from the oak tree planted in 1910 and planted there. When The Hermitage amalgamated with Geelong Grammar School in 1976, an acorn was taken from the Highton tree and planted outside The Hermitage House at Corio. This young oak is a direct descendant of the tree Elsie Morres planted in the grounds of The Hermitage 105 years ago to remind the girls of what they could become – strong, independent, and intelligent women.

1960 1963 1964

Howard Charles (M’60) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2015 Australia Day Honours “for service to the community of Nimmitabel”. Howard has held a remarkable number of community positions in the small town in the Cooma-Monaro region of southern New South Wales, including President of the Nimmitabel Show Society (1988-93), Chairman of the MacLaughlin River Land Care Group (1997-2012), President of the Nimmitabel Lions Club (2002-04), member of the NSW Agriculture Ministerial Advisory Council (2005-11), and board member of the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (2005-13).

Robert Corney (Cu’63), who died in December 2014, was the fourth-generation Corney to farm Tulse Hill, near Coleraine. One of the first graduates of Marcus Oldham College, he was the son of Norman (Cu’33) and Joy née Nolan, with a sister, Shelley Griffith. His family had been in the Coleraine district since 1840 when his great-greatgrandfather, William Corney, acquired Wando station, north of Casterton. His cousin Arthur Ranken (FB’57) spoke at his funeral of their family history and Robert’s steadfast character.

1964 1965

Tim Fairfax AC (M’64) continues to pioneer philanthropy in Australia, collaborating with a consortium of public and private organisations to create an innovative fund to support the arts in Queensland. The Tim Fairfax Family Foundation has joined with Foresters Community Finance, Positive Solutions, QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, and Arts Queensland to create the Arts Business Innovation Fund (ABIF). The new fund was developed not only to provide grants, but also to rethink business models by introducing access to new sources of funding, such as debt financing through no-interest loans. The Tim Fairfax Family Foundation has contributed $500,000 (matched by the Queensland Government) to build a million-dollar fund, managed by Foresters Community Finance, to provide grants and no-interest loans which require applicants to match funding with their own capital or by securing additional support.

Tim Loveless (P’65), who died in June 2014, owned several pharmacies, successively at Knoxfield, Hampton Park, and Brandon Park, with one also at Glenroy. Son of Gordon Loveless and Marion née Walpole (who died in 2013, aged 100), he and his wife, Virginia, had three daughters, Kirsten, Fiona

50 YEAR TIMBERTOP REUNION

Over 100 people gathered at Timbertop in March for the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Timbertop year. The group, including past staff members, had travelled from across Australia and around the world, including the UK, East Timor and Canada. One of the highlights of the weekend was when Ian Collier returned Andrew Smalley’s (FB’67) Latin exercise book, complete with corrections in red pen. Other past staff who attended the reunion were John Bedggood, Andrew Maclehose and David Odling-Smee.

and Lisa. He served on the board of Collingwood Football Club from 1984-97, savouring the Magpies’ drought-breaking 1990 premiership, and was made a Life Member of the club. The Old Geelong Football Club also claimed his great loyalty. Tim was a much-loved man and his family and close friends helped him through his last four years, when he suffered from an acute immune disease. In a eulogy, Adrian Bell (Cu’65) spoke of him as a loyal friend to many – and, in debate, as “formidable” and “convincing”: “I never won an argument with him.”

Stephen Mills (Ju’65) is the author of The Professionals: Strategy, Money and the Rise of the Political Campaigner in Australia (Black Inc, 2014). A lecturer at Sydney University’s Graduate School of Government, he is also the author of The New Machine Men: Polls and Persuasion in Australian Politics (Penguin, 1986) and The Hawke Years (Viking Australia, 1993).

1966

Richard Weatherly (M’66) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2015 Australia Day Honours “for service to the visual arts, and to conservation and the environment”. Widely known for his paintings, particularly of birds, Richard was foundation President of the Society of Wildlife Artists of Australasia and foundation President of Watershed 2000, a project dedicated to restoring 800,000 hectares of habitat in the Otways and Grampians.

Peter Dennis (M’64) married Salvatore Annino in November 2013.

James (Bim) Affleck OAM (Cu’67) has followed his five masterly books recording the war services of alumni of GGS, Geelong College, and Ballarat and Clarendon College with Stories Untold and Faces Forgotten: Great War Enlistments from Koroit, Port Fairy, Macarthur, Penshurst and Surrounding Hamlets, published in two substantial volumes by the Koroit and District Historical Society (2015). Bim spent 18 months painstakingly researching the lives of almost 1,400 men who enlisted from the region, which are covered in 680 pages of profiles, photographs, letters, and other snippets of life. “The intellectual integrity and tremendous human pathos explored in this book is exceptional,” Wannon MP, Dan Tehan, said.

Rod Fraser (M'67) was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for “significant service to secondary education, to national and international learning development organisations, and to the community”. Rod is currently Principal of Ivanhoe Grammar School, having held the position since 1996, and has announced that he will retire at the end of 2015. He is also Chair of the Round Square International Network of Schools, recent past Chair of the Centre for Strategic Education’s International Education Advisory Group, past Chair of the International Baccalaureate Regional Council/Asia Pacific, and past member of the IB International Heads Council.

Rupert Myer AM (Gl’67) was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for “distinguished service to the visual and performing arts, through governance roles with leading cultural institutions, as a supporter and benefactor, to the promotion of philanthropy, and to the community”. Rupert has been Chairman of the nation’s peak arts funder, the Australia Council for the Arts, since 2012. He has overseen the Australia Council’s replacement of architect Philip Cox’s temporary 1988 Venice Biennale pavilion with a new gallery this year. A former Chairman of the National Gallery of Australia, he is a board member of Jawun Indigenous Corporate Partnerships, Creative Partnerships Australia, and The Myer Foundation.

Michael Thawley AO (FB’67) was appointed secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) in December 2014. Australia’s ambassador to the United States from 2000 to 2005, Michael has previously worked closely with two of Australia’s most ambitious prime ministers, Paul Keating and John Howard, during a decorated public service career. He entered the public service in 1972 and served in a variety of positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Office of National Assessments (ONA), including overseas postings to Rome, Moscow, and Tokyo. He was head of the international division of PM&C under Paul Keating and continued as John Howard’s senior adviser on foreign affairs, deeply involved in negotiating the independence of East Timor from Indonesia. In 2001, he was meeting with the then prime minister in Washington on September 11 when the terrorist attacks took place in New York and Washington. He played an influential role in establishing the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement in 2004. When he completed his five-year term as ambassador, US President George Bush hosted a farewell reception for him in the Oval Office, with dignitaries including Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in attendance – a sign of his stature in Washington. He spent the next nine years as a senior executive at Capital Group, a major US funds management group, before returning to Australia. “His great strength is that he is not a static thinker,” Jacob Heilbrunn, a senior editor with the American foreign policy journal The National Interest, told The Saturday Paper. “He has indefatigable energy and intellectual curiosity.” Michael told the Australian Financial Review that he returned to Canberra to help make a positive difference. “Australia is at the end of an era in terms of the economic cycle of 20 to 25 years of prosperity,” he explained. “It can remain prosperous, but it must change if that is to happen.”

Left page Clockwise: Walking to the Darling Huts; Andrew de Crespigny (Cu’68) and David Odling-Smee; Clive Wawn (M’67) and Jo Kilpatrick (Cu’67)

Right Page Clockwise from top left: John Cameron (Timbertop ’65) and Michael McMillan (Ge’67); Ian Collier returned Andrew Smalley’s (FB’67) exercise book, with corrections; Mac Armytage (P’68), Chris Johnson (M’68), Richard Congreve (FB’67), and Tony Chandler (FB’67); Past staff members Andrew Maclehose, David OdlingSmee, Ian Collier, and John Bedggood (Cu’52)

The School’s great co-education experiment that began in 1970 with girls from The Hermitage attending classes at Corio as “guests of the school” was gathering pace in 1972. This image, with Dr Judy Mackie (Kenneally, Li’73) leading a line of girls “arriving” from The Hermitage, was actually posed for the Geelong Advertiser in February 1972. Vicki Steggall (Mendelson, Li’74) is writing a history of the School’s early years of co-education, set against the backdrop of enormous social change in Australia. Students of the 1970s have been invited to contribute their memories and thoughts for Vicki’s book via an online questionnaire about the early days of co-education. The questionnaire is still on the Alumni page of the School’s website if you would like to contribute.

DIARY DATES

MANIFOLD HOUSE RE-OPENING AND REUNION DINNER

Saturday 22 August 2015

OGG WA BRANCH FUNCTION, PERTH

Wednesday 2 September 2015

HOGA AGM AND OLD GIRLS' DAY

Saturday 5 September 2015

1975 (TERMS 1 & 2) TIMBERTOP 40TH REUNION

Saturday 19 September 2015

OGG NSW BRANCH PRE-AFL GRAND FINAL DRINKS, SYDNEY

Thursday 1 October 2015

HOGA GOLF DAY AND LUNCH

Monday 5 October 2015

OGGASIA DINNER, MALAYSIA

Saturday 10 October 2015

COGA AGM & OLD GIRLS’ DAY

Sunday 11 October 2015

COGA FUN CUP GOLF, BARWON HEADS

Monday 12 October 2015

2005 10 YEAR REUNION

Saturday 17 October 2015

OGG GOLF DAY, BARWON HEADS

Friday 30 October 2015

1965 50 YEAR REUNION

Saturday 7 November 2015

TOWER LUNCHEON

Saturday 7 November 2015

OGG MOTORING AND CYCLING EVENT

Saturday 7 November 2015

1985 30 YEAR REUNION

Saturday 14 November 2015

1995 20 YEAR REUNION

Saturday 28 November 2015

HOGA CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Monday 7 December 2015

For enquiries about any of the above events please contact Katie Rafferty, Alumni Manager on tel: 03 5273 9338 or email: oggs@ggs.vic.edu.au

COGA NEWS

Carol (Cas) Bennetto (Cl'74) will be guest speaker at the COGA Old Girls’ Day lunch on Sunday 11 October at the South Melbourne Community Centre. Former head of communications at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Cas is currently CEO of the Kimberley Foundation of Australia (KFA), directing its mission to research, preserve and promote ancient rock art in the Kimberley region. She has previously worked at Charles Darwin University, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Smith Family. Invitations for Old Girls' Day will be sent out with The Cluthan in September.

Lesley Griffin (Vincent, Cl’60) has joined the COGA Committee. She is pictured (back left) with Trish Young (Cl’75), Katrina Carr (Moore, Cl’75), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold, Cl’60), and Peta Gillespie (Cl’69). Front: Fern Henderson (Welsh, Cl’59) and Margie Gillett (Cordner, Cl’71). Absent: Sally Powe (Douglas, Cl’73) and Di Whittakers (Moore, Cl’63)

HOGA NEWS

Dr Gillian Opie (He’75) will be guest speaker at the HOGA Old Girls’ Day on September 5. Gillian is a neonatal paediatrician who was instrumental in establishing the Mercy Health Breastmilk Bank (MHBMB), the only breastmilk bank in Victoria. She is also Chair of Ready Step Grow, which provides programmes and professional support for families of premature babies. The Old Girls’ Day will coincide with the 40 Year Reunion of the Class of 1975, of which Gillian was a member. 1975 was the last year of The Hermitage before amalgamation with GGS.

A large number of old girls celebrated the HOGA Christmas Lunch in the All Saints Hall. The lunch featured Christmas music and carols performed by the Bostock House Choir and orchestra. Pictured at the lunch are Sue Callahan (Holmes, He’71) and Pauline Greaves (Harvey, He’68).

NEWS & EVENTS

OGG NEWS

Margie Gillett (Cordner, Cl’71) was elected as the 64th President of the Old Geelong Grammarians’ Association at the recent OGG AGM. Margie, who is also the President of the Clyde Old Girls' Association, has had a long association with Geelong Grammar School. She and husband Charles are past parents of Emma Gillett (He’09) and Margie is also the sister of Kammy Cordner Hunt (Cordner, Cl’76), David Cordner (Cu’79) and Richard Cordner (M’79). Margie has been on the OGG Committee since 2009. She replaces Peter Chomley (Ge’63), who retired after four outstanding years as OGG President. Peter guided the Old Geelong Grammarians’ Association during a period of substantial achievement and we thank him for his leadership, dedication and commitment. We also congratulate him on his new status as a PhD of RMIT University.

Eight staff members were appointed Honorary Life Members of the Old Geelong Grammarians’ Association at the AGM in recognition of their years of service to the School. They were: Gordon Agnew (Maintenance Supervisor), Pam Barton (Primary Teacher), Mark Broom (Financial Controller), Justin Corfield (former Teacher), Therese Janssen (Cuthbertson House Assistant), Jean Murray (Primary Teacher), Paul Rettke (Music Teacher), and Gary Watson (Audio Visual Manager).

Sam Parsons (P'14) and Zoe Yang (Ga'14) were presented with the OGG Prize for Dux of the School at the AGM. Sam and Zoe each achieved a perfect score of 45 out of a possible 45 points in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, which translates to a maximum Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) of 99.95. Zoe is studying for a Bachelor of Biomedicine (Chancellor’s Scholars Programme) at Melbourne University, while Sam has been offered a general merit scholarship to attend Princeton University in the United States, where he will major in Economics. Sam and Zoe spearheaded an exceptional set of numbers achieved by Geelong Grammar School’s 2014 Year 12 cohort, with 78 students (36.8%) achieving an ATAR score of 90 or above.

Clockwise from top: Sam Parsons (P’14) and Zoe Yang (Ga’14); Justin Corfield, Paul Rettke and Gordon Agnew; Margie Gillett (Cordner, Cl’71) and Peter Chomley (Ge’63); Jean Murray, Lachie Stevens (M’96), OGG Vice President, and Pam Barton; Therese Jansen

Keith Landale (P’70), who died in March 2015, was a farmer at Chippenham Park, Deniliquin. He was a son of David Landale (P’36) and Priscilla née Raleigh (Cl’35) and brother of Peter (P’66), Denise Calder (Cl’68), and Ian (P’72). Having grown up at the family property Dahwilly, Keith farmed cattle, sheep, rice, and wheat at nearby Chippenham Park. Captain of Football while at GGS, with Colours also for Cricket and Athletics and Half-Colours for Shooting, he played more than 100 games for Deniliquin in the Murray Football League, was a keen golfer, and achieved many country wins with his racehorses. He married Robyn (Robbie) Harper and with her had three sons: Angus (P’98), Andrew (P’01), and William (P’03).

Harry Barber (FB’71) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2015 Australia Day Honours “for service to the community as an advocate for improved cycling infrastructure”. Almost as well known for his bow-ties as for heading up one of the world’s largest cycling organisations, Harry worked tirelessly as CEO of Bicycle Victoria (now Bicycle Network) for the best part of two decades to improve bicycle infrastructure in Victoria and was instrumental in the development of Melbourne’s network of bike lanes and trails, Australia’s biggest one-day bike ride (Around The Bay), and the remarkable growth of the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride. During his time at the helm of Bicycle Victoria, membership grew from 3,000 to 50,000 members. “For me, the bicycle is a wonderful thing,” he said. “Riding the bike brings a smile to my face every day. But it’s so important that we get as many people on bikes as possible, because six out of 10 deaths in our society are related to diseases that come from not getting enough physical activity. The big change that’s going to occur, I think, is that there will be a lot more riding for transport. That’s the big opportunity, both for health and for transport. If we can get all of the people who ride (recreationally) today to use their bikes for some of their transport trips, it gets more physical activity into their lives that will prevent disease (and) will give us a better transport system.”

Ross Lipson (A’74), who died in December 2014, was an inspiring music teacher who created the schoolgirl soul band, The Sweethearts. Ross founded The Sweethearts at Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong in 1989 and the all-girl 25-piece band (originally comprising staff and students) took their music to the world, playing Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, Italy’s Poretta Soul Festival and Jazz a Vienne in France, as well as Woodford, Port Fairy, Queenscliff and more in Australia. One of three sons of Margaret and Menzie Lipson, he followed older brothers John (Ge’70) and Bill (Ge’71; Staff 1978-89) to GGS, starting at Bostock House in 1962 and completing Year 12 in Allen House, where he was House Captain and a School Prefect. Ross completed a science degree at Melbourne University in 1977. He joined the RAAF in 1978 and spent six years playing the oboe and saxophone in the Air Force Band, before sailing to Queensland and New Guinea with girlfriend Bernadette (Bea) McMaster, whom he married in 1987 and with whom he had two daughters: Holly and April. He joined Matthew Flinders College as a science teacher, conceived The Sweethearts as well as a formal Certificate IV qualification in Music for Victorian secondary students, became a finalist in Victoria’s Teacher of the Year awards and embarked on a teacher exchange to Alaska. Ross will be remembered by the band-members whose lives he changed and in a perpetual award at the Queenscliff Music Festival created in his name to recognize excellence in a local female musician.

40 YEAR REUNION

In a unique twist, the 1975 Reunion began where it all ended 40 years ago – at Corio – with old classmates travelling from across Australia to meet for morning tea in the Hawker Library. About 60 people reconvened at The Botanical in South Yarra later that evening for drinks. Many thanks to the Reunion Committee of Ann Walker (Cu’75), Tom Faithfull (Cu’75) and David Kininmonth (M’75) for a very enjoyable day.

1. Pip Coward (M’75), Juliann Connolly (Byron, Li’75), William Buckingham (Cu’75), Peggy Steuart (Armstrong, Li’75) and Lynne Hartley (Li’75); 2. Andrew Fuller (A’75), David Kininmonth (M’75), John Davis (A’75) and Paul McGann (A’75); 3. Juliann Connolly (Byron, Li’75), Pip Coward (M’75) and Peggy Steuart (Armstrong, Li’75); 4. Alastair Kemp (FB’75) and Sue P (FB’75); 5. Lyn Baulch (Graham, Li’75), Pauline Middleton (Li’75), Richard Lie (FB’75) and Nick Ames (FB’75); 6. Sibella Guest (Cu’75) and Ian Hanley (A’75); 7. Jon Houghton (P’75) and Philip Yee (M’75); 8. Juliann Connolly (Byron, Li’75) and Trish McClelland (Vanderaa, Li’75); 9. Tom Faithfull (Cu’75), Ann Walker (Cu’75), David Kininmonth (M’75); 10. Juan Jose (John) Garcia (Cu’75) and Chris Jolly (Cu’75)

THE LAST PULSE

Anson Cameron (M’78) published his eighth work of fiction, The Last Pulse (Random House), to critical acclaim in December 2014. “A comic masterpiece… it’s one of the funniest, blackly exuberant explorations of Australian national identity in memory,” Ed Wright wrote in The Australian. An environmental satire, The Last Pulse uses the plight of the Murray-Darling river system and an unlikely hero, South Australian farmer Merv Rossiter, to illuminate issues as broad as climate change and local politics. It is very funny and very serious. “The novel is vibrantly witty (and) scathing in its social analysis,” according to Peter Pierce, editor of The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. A regular columnist in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Anson has been recently treading the boards at the Williamstown Literary Festival and Sydney Writers’ Festival – the latter prompting him to confess that “I learnt a lot in two days about a novel I'd worked on for two years”.

Having lived with a novel for that long, how does it feel to revisit it in a forum like a writers’ festival?

It is strange to re-attach to a novel, which I probably stopped writing two years ago, when the people who are asking questions about it have just finished reading it, so they know it better than you do in a sense. I know the structure and the tricks that are going on off-stage because I spent a lot of time with it, but I’ve forgotten a lot of what the characters do and the actual action escapes me, so it can be difficult at times.

The hero, Merv Rossiter, is a very salt-of-the-earth character, of a type that populates a lot of your writing, right back to your first book of short stories, Nice Shootin’ Cowboy (Picador, 1997). Where are these characters drawn from?

You’ve got to write what you know about and Merv is more a less a composite of many farmers and orchardists and blue-collar workers that I knew from growing up in Shepparton. I think what sets the Australian rural worker apart is the distance – they become self-reliant because of distance. If the tractor breaks down or the levée bank cracks, they’re so far from anything that they’ve got to roll the sleeves up and get on with it. My characters are informed with that, as is Merv, whose problem is irrigation further upstream. He decides to do something about it and rolls his sleeves up and takes it upon himself. They’re the sort of people I grew up with and they’re the sort of people I relate to.

Some writers write whimsical, delightfully happy stories but I find that I almost always write more powerfully when I’m writing against authority. I probably should write a political column and not the unspecified column that I write for The Age because anger is an energy, as it were. It’s our duty to speak back at authority and I enjoy it.

You’ve written bits and pieces about your Dad. What influence has he had on your writing?

Dad was a writer in a sense, trapped in a lawyer’s world. He worked away at being a lawyer all his life but he had the soul of a poet in a way. He at least imbued me with that and I could see his love of the written word and of story, which is where I took my love of it from, him reading me poems as a kid and seeing the world that was inside those poems.

How important has it been for you to have a fairly prominent place to express yourself through your regular column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald?

It’s rewarding on a couple of levels. One is that you get instant feedback, whereas writing a novel might take years and your passion has moved on to your new project. With a column you get instant feedback, a lot of it negative or, in my case, some of it hostile. I enjoy that as well. It’s educational as well. I didn’t realise that there was a significant proportion of the population who can’t read humour or irony or satire – it’s like being colour-blind. I get letters from people who think I’ve been serious about something when I haven’t, which has been an education.

The Last Pulse has been described as an environmental satire. Is it harder to sustain satire in a novel than in a column or short story?

The fact that The Last Pulse was set on a river gave the plot such narrative drive, in that the river is flowing, the flood is flowing, I didn’t need to get up in the morning and think ‘what’s next?’ I just said ‘we’ll be around the bend, there’ll be a town’, and in that way the story drove itself onwards. It’s not hard for me to carry on with satire – I’m sort of a one-leg-in-the-air clown and it seems to be my natural shtick. When I discovered Dickens and Cervantes, I suddenly realised that the great literary geniuses were all doing humour – Jane Austen, Shakespeare, even Steinbeck. There is always humour at some level and I realised that it was a legitimate way of seeing things.

Does that allow you to access serious material more easily?

Reading your column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, there is often a moral at the heart of your stories and a strong sense of social conscience. Where does that come from?

I think it was Shelley who said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, in that they come up with the ideas and the thoughts that eventually leech into the more popular realms of thought and become law. In this day and age a writer of novels, because they take a long time, is late to the game. Alan Jones will be on to an issue long before I get to it, so I need to come at it from some other angle than just be a social commentator like the radio jocks. Satire gives me an angle that hasn’t been used and there is still barren ground for a writer of novels to work.

Did you always want to be a writer?

I always knew I’d be a writer, or always thought I’d be a writer, but thought there was no great hurry. When I did start to write I realised how much I had to learn about the caper, but if you want to be a writer you’ve got live a bit first. You can’t be 18 years old and sit in a room and think, ‘I’m going to write now’. I always feel better when I’ve written something than when I haven’t. It’s not so much an addiction, but my sense of self-worth is pretty closely tied to my work. If I have a day when I think everything has worked I rise up and I go to the esky feeling at ease. It may just assuage doubt and pain more than engender happiness but that’s two sides of the one coin.

Have you been happy with how The Last Pulse has been received?

It has been very gratifying. It was well received. I’ve sold the film rights so hopefully they’ll get on and make the film as I think it would make a great film – a very Australian story, something like The Castle – but that was last year’s baby and now I’m writing a memoir and trying to hammer that into place. Every morning you get up and see all the gaping flaws in that book, so I’m wrestling with that and you’ve got to keep moving on

Will there be some gents who were at Manifold in the 1970s who have reason to fear that you are tackling a memoir?

I thought about that for a very long time but have realised the collateral damage that could attend my memoir, so I’ve thought about how I can limit the damage so that I leave myself some friends and acquaintances who will still talk to me after it comes out. So I cut it off when I first get to Geelong Grammar – the memoir ends on my first day at Timbertop when I meet a bloke called Will Crozier (M’78), so it’s my boyhood; it’s called ‘Boyhoodlum’.

1982

Emily Humphries (Cl’81) is an artist and poet whose book of poems (201013), The Divining Tower, was published by Little Fox Press in 2014.

Jessica Sharpe and Tom Wenzel (P’82) welcomed a son, Henry James Frederick Joachim, on 4 January 2015.

1983

Jo Horgan (Je’83), founder and chief executive of Mecca Brands, was profiled in Rare Birds: Australia’s 50 Influential Women Entrepreneurs (Rare Birds, 2015). Jo founded Melbourne-based Mecca Brands in 1997 with the first Mecca Cosmetica store in Melbourne’s South Yarra. Today, the Mecca Brands footprint encompasses 63 stores around Australia and New Zealand.

She recently featured in Women’s Wear Daily’s Beauty Biz as one of the top 50 most influential people in the global beauty business and won the beauty category at the annual InStyle and Audi Women of Style Awards, which was hosted by Marta Dusseldorp (Cl’90) in Sydney in May. Jo is also on the board of the National Gallery of Victoria Foundation, and is a governor of the St George Foundation charitable organisation and a high-profile supporter of The Hunger Project.

1989

Scott Austin (A’89) is driving the expansion of Austins & Co winery, a former sheep farm that hugs the curves of the Moorabool Valley, near Bannockburn. Scott took over the reins of the family business in 2007, which now boasts several labels, including Greenbanks and 6Ft6, with plans for a wedding/functions venue and on-site accommodation. Scott and brothers Tim (A’87) and Nick (Cu’90) attended GGS and he worked in the fashion industry before being lured back to the family property. “The lure of farm life and the romance of the wine business were attractive and sold me very quickly,” he confessed.

The 1996 Rugby season was the most successful in the School’s history. The 1st XV, 2nd XV and Under 16A XV won their respective matches in the Victorian Schools’ Rugby Union (VSRU) grand finals – the first time that the winners in all three divisions came from the same school. The 1st XV was undefeated for the season, recording a huge 61-0 win against Melbourne Grammar and defeating St Kevin’s 10-5 in the grand final. The 2nd XV was also unbeaten during the season, scoring over 400 points and conceding a mere 35. They drew 7-7 with St Kevin’s in the grand final but were declared premiers, having beaten St Kevin’s twice during the regular season. From left are Simon Hall (Cu’97), Douglas Ellinger (A’97) and Andy Susanto (FB’96) in the 2nd XV grand final at Orrong Park.

Quimby née Mills (Je'91; Staff 2005) and Max Oddie (Fr'91) welcomed a daughter, Hazel Alexandra Mills, on 18 October 2012.

Claire Greig (Davison, Cl’92) has returned to the racetrack, racing in the Victorian Historic Formula Ford Series, raising awareness and money for the Stroke Foundation with her FAST Racing Against Stroke campaign. Her mum, Jan, suffered a stroke when Claire was just 12 years old, in her first year at the School, and the experience left an indelible mark on her childhood. “It’s a significant journey for our whole family,” Claire explained. “We’ve never really grieved through the situation. We’re tough country people but this has brought us closer together.” You can follow Claire’s journey on Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/fastraceagainststroke

Ben Ibrahim (FB’96) was recently appointed as the anchor of Foxsports Asia’s coverage of the English Premier League. Ben is a graduate of Monash University and has been involved in the television industry for over a decade. He has always been a mad sports lover and continued rowing and coaching junior and senior crews at Melbourne University, Carey, and St. Kevin’s.

Hyacinth née O’Sullivan (Ga’96) and Sebastien Rebaud welcomed a son, Stanislas, on 25 March 2009 and a daughter, Camellia, on 24 March 2011.

Charlotte née Coote (He’97) and Geordie Taylor welcomed a daughter, Francesca Andrea Patricia, on 22 March 2015.

Sam Crooke (P’97) married Megan Graceffo on 16 May 2015.

Sunday and Ben Batters (P’98) welcomed a son, Henry Robert Baillieu McKay, on 19 March 2015.

Alexandra née Finlay (Cl’98) and Christopher Curtain (Highton ’91) welcomed a son, Charles Christopher, on 20 December 2014.

Alison née McGregor (He’98) and Mario Mortera welcomed a daughter, Gaia Rae, on 9 September 2014.

Sarah née Chomley (Cl’93) and Nick Bradley (M’93) welcomed a son, Oscar Edward Huckleberry, on 8 January 2015.

Jacqueline née McArthur (Ga’93) and Malcolm Starritt welcomed a daughter, Francesca Cecile, on 13 January 2014.

Dalia Bluzer and Sam Spark (FB’93) welcomed a son, Eli Peter Jacob, on 1 January 2015.

Sophie née Osborne (Cl’94) and Elliott Davis are the proud parents of two sons, Archibald Joseph (Archie) born on 9 October 2010 and Rupert on 25 December 2012.

Averil and Lachlan Scully (A’95) welcomed a son, Henry James, on 25 October 2014.

Belinda Thomson (Ga’95) married Cameron Kidd on 31 January 2015.

Noah Carroll (M’96) is Secretary of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party, successful in forming the Government after the recent State elections.

Georgina née Lyons (Ga’99) and Matthew Goldsworthy welcomed a son, Frederick James, on 15 December 2014.

Anna and Dougal Speirs (Cu’99) welcomed a daughter, Heidi Kristina, on 17 Novermber 2014.

Pia née Davies (Fr’00) and Ross Smillie welcomed a son, Lachlan James, on 25 September 2014.

Alexandra née Griffiths (A’00) and Charles Mann (P’02) welcomed a son, Stirling Llewellyn McCall, on 26 March 2015.

Stephanie Hoessrich (He’00) and Philipp Rabut welcomed twins, Cecilia and Louis, on 30 January 2015.

Catherine Saliba (Ga’00) married Alexander Suvoltos (FB’97) on 24 January 2015.

Sophia née Staughton (Cl’00) and Andrew Callaghan welcomed a daughter, Hazel Victoria, on 19 January 2015.

Hugh Whitehead (M’00) has transformed one of Geelong’s oldest buildings, the Alan Warren Signs building in Ryrie Street, into an eco-café. Little Green Corner takes sustainability seriously, with customers trading coffee for tomatoes, eating produce sourced locally (including from Hugh’s hobby farm at Waurn Ponds), and enjoying power from crowd-funded solar panels.

Sarah née Cahill (A’01) and Jolyon George welcomed a son, William Patrick, on 30 November 2014.

Bridget Healey (A’01) married Chris Stover on 10 January 2015.

Joanna Manifold (He’01) married Jonathan Morris on 22 November 2014.

Elizabeth McDermott (Ga’01) married Anton Falez on 26 February 2015.

Carly Mills-Blunden née Mills (A’01) and Luke Blunden welcomed a son, Samuel Richie, on 18 March 2015.

Alison and Donald Piper (M’01) welcomed a son, Basil John Wedgwood, on 10 June 2014.

Bec Starford (Fr’01)’s memoir, Bad Behaviour, was published by Allen & Unwin in March 2015. Bec is an editor at Text Publishing and the co-founder and publishing director of Kill Your Darlings. She was also a founding member of the Stella Prize steering committee.

Amelia Tyers (He’02) married Charles Taylor on 17 January 2015.

Sarah Vickery (Ga’02) married Matt McCormack on 17 January 2015.

Emily and Cameron Rahles-Rahbula (FB’02) welcomed a son, Felix Nicholas, on 11 February 2015.

Seb Brown (Cu’05)’s raw and sculptural jewellery recently featured on The Design Files (http://thedesignfiles.net/2015/04/seb-brown/). Having studied Communication Design at RMIT, Seb established his jewellery-design studio in Brunswick in 2010 and has collaborated on a jewellery range with Melbourne fashion label Kuwaii.

Award-winning artist Lachlan Petras (FB’07) is exploring the intersections of the Balkan Wars and the history of soccer in Australia in his most recent project, funded with a multi-cultural grant from Sports Without Borders. Lachlan won Australia’s richest graduate art prize in 2012, the $35,000 Dr Harold Schenberg Art Prize, and is best known for his sci-fi sculptures. He has continued to explore the possibilities of sculpture through residencies at the CSIRO and the Institute of Frontier Materials in Geelong, but this most recent project represents a different direction, featuring a season with the Zvezdara Soccer Club in Serbia.

Alistair Farland (FB’08), who died instantly in a road accident in North Carolina on 15 October 2014, was the much-loved younger son of Geoffrey and Catherine Farland, of Cremorne in Sydney, and the devoted brother of Joel. In just two years at Corio, Alistair made a strong mark in many fields, receiving the Juan Jose Garcia Prize for Drama and Half-Colours for Music. He sang in the Chapel Choir, played in the School Band, captained Qualis, presided over the Blood Council, co-ordinated the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme, and debated. He rowed, ran, swam, and played Tennis. He went on to graduate Bachelor of Business from Sydney’s University of Technology, worked at the Apple Store, and followed a myriad of interests. His death occurred more than 14,000 miles into an epic motorbike journey from Alaska to Argentina. His funeral was held in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, where his family all spoke of his adventurous and challenging spirit; his father of his ability to bring out the best in others; his mother of the “immense joy” he had brought them in his 24 years: “We are so proud of you, of your generosity of spirit and your eagerness to give back.” At GGS, Alistair’s spirit will continue to inspire the positive and creative endeavours that so epitomized his time among us.

Camille Summers-Valli (Ga’08) has followed her experimental documentary about the Diné Bikéyah tribe of Big Mountain in Northern Arizona with a series of short films for the Nepal Earthquake Recovery Appeal (NERA). Camille, who exhibited her Big Mountain project at the 2014 Liverpool Biennale, travelled to Nepal following the devastating earthquake of April 25 to film local aid-workers. Watch her films online at https://vimeo.com/ user6925218

Kuntadi Dimas Satria (FB’07), of Selantan, Indonesia, married Dhani on 20-22 March 2015. The happy couple must surely hold some record for attendance at a wedding, with about 4,500 people in attendance, including 32 “best men”.

Jock Landale (M'13) played basketball in front of tens of thousands of fans this season, but is under no illusion about the amount of work it will take to become a fixture in the Saint Mary’s Gaels starting five. In recent years Geelong Grammar School has had a number of students go on to excel in many different sporting disciplines – from AFL to rowing, netball to athletics – but perhaps the most intriguing athlete is Jock; a US college basketballer coming from a school that doesn't have a boys’ team entered in APS competition. Jock spent his weeks playing and training with the Geelong Supercats in the Australian Basketball Association (ABA), while representing GGS in Athletics and Football. Having represented Australia at Under-19 level in 2013, Jock caught the eye of scouts from Saint Mary’s – a well-known breeding-ground of Australian basketball talent, including NBA players Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavadova – and was offered a four-year scholarship. At the time Jock called it a dream come true and, although his playing time in the first year was limited to a handful of minutes here and there, he is loving life at Saint Mary’s College (where he is undertaking a Finance degree with a Business major) and his game has improved dramatically.

“Physically, I have taken a significant leap in terms of losing fat and just improving my general fitness,” Jock said of his first season in California. “My mid-range and three-point shooting has become more consistent and my post game (an important attribute for a big man in basketball) has also improved.” Living away from home can be tough, but Jock says he hasn’t experienced a great deal of homesickness and acknowledges that his time at GGS has played a big part in that. “Having been at boarding school has made it a lot easier. I still miss Australia but it barely dwells on my mind. Having Aussies here (there are two other Australians on the Saint Mary’s roster) has made a difference too. It’s always nice to hear an accent I’m used to.”

There were a number of highlights in Jock’s first season, including playing in front of 14,000 fans against Brigham Young University (BYU), but it was a game against West Coast conference-rivals Gonzaga that affected him most. “Their student section have synchronised dances to songs and jumps up and down together. It was insane. The adrenaline was really pumping for that game.” Interestingly, after following in the footsteps of Patty Mills and taking the #13 jersey at Saint Mary’s, Jock will be on the lookout for a new jersey number next season since the #13 was retired after Mills won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014.

Kit Foster (He’14) is exhibiting her work at this year’s Top Designs exhibition at the Melbourne Museum from March 21-July12. Kit, who achieved a near-perfect VCE study score of 49 out of a possible 50 points for Visual Communication Design, is exhibiting elements of her Visual Communication Design folio. She is studying for a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University, with a major in Engineering and a minor in Architecture.

Davey Jones (P’14) won the handicap event at the Australian Clay Target Association’s National Skeets Championship in Wagga in May. Davey, who won Colours for Shooting in Year 10, had never competed in a national clay-target event. Armed with a secondhand Beretta DT10, he blitzed the handicap event to claim his first Australian title. He is studying Agricultural Science at Charles Sturt University in Wagga.

Mariah Kennedy (A’14) has been awarded The University of British Columbia’s International Student Award and International Major Entrance Scholarship. She is planning to study for an Arts degree with a major in Anthropology at UBC’s Vancouver campus. She achieved an IB score of 44 out of a possible 45 points and was recognised for “exceptional academic achievement and intellectual promise”. A former UNICEF Young Ambassador, Mariah also features on the cover of the Geelong Yellow and White Pages for 2015-16, under the theme Australian Stars Rising Above.

Jean Adams (Staff, Glamorgan/Toorak, 2001-13), who died in August 2014, was much valued by her pupils and their parents, and by her colleagues. She was the wife of Michael Lee and mother of Christopher Lee (FB’06).

Kiera Foletta (Staff, Clyde School 1970s), who died in February 2015, was the matriarch of the Foletta family, well-known in Australian equestrian circles. She was 94. She established the Glenelg Pony Club in 1956 and developed an equine studies subject at Clyde in 1972. She was a popular teacher, admired for her forthright and cheerful manner. Two of her five children attended GGS, Geoff (P’64) and Warwick Foletta (TT’72), as did grandson Hamish Foletta (P’95).

John Jacker (Gardener 1983-2004), who died in July 2014, gave great service in his care of the grounds at the School’s Highton campus. He was a great-grandfather of Jessica Randall (Yr10 Fr) and James Randall (Yr8 Ot).

Claire Robson (Staff 2010-) and Nick Bryant welcomed a son, Ned William, on 10 February 2015

DEATHS

Dennis John Abela (1981) on 8 April 2015

Richard Charles Visget Awdry (194144) on 27 December 2014

Emeritus Professor Norman Albert Beischer AO (1945-48) on 2 February 2015

Sally Anderson Bennett née Skene (Clyde 1962-66) on 1 June 2015

John Crosbie Bodman (1960-62) on 18 November 2014

Malcolm William Alistair Brodie (Glamorgan 1938-40; GGS 1942-50) on 8 February 2015

Dr Peter Thomas (Bertie) Bruce (194548) on 28 February 2015

John Calvert JP (1937-41) on 6 May 2015

Ross Cameron (1945-49) on 31 May 2015

Robin Clive Macpherson Clarke (1946-52) on 9 March 2015

Robert Christian Corney (1958-63) on 29 December 2014

Dr Peter Athorne Crooke (1938-41) on 10 September 2014

John Victor Daniell AM (1940-43) on 7 April 2015

Dr Christopher Charles Davis (195059) on 12 May 2015

Jane Davison (widow of The Reverend John Davison, Chaplain 1964-71) on 24 December 2014

Susan Lisa Dean (The Hermitage 197375; GGS 1976) on 9 March 2014

Alistair John Farland (2007-08) on 15 October 2014

George Farmer (1936-41) on 18 January 2015

Kiera Alison Foletta née Stranaghan (Staff, Clyde) on 23 February 2015

Maurice Frederick Ford (1961-64) on 25 May 2015

The Right Honourable John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH (Glamorgan 1937) on 20 March 2015

John Russell Gabb (1931-37) on 14 July 2014

Thomas Roy Grantham (1931-39) on 7 January 2015

Elizabeth Guzelian (widow of Max Guzelian, Staff 1970-88) on 25 December 2014

Geoffrey Lucian Faithfull Henderson (1946-48) on 30 October 2014

Peter Raymond Hinchliffe (1972-75) on 26 May 2015

Michael Delville Hughes (1959-63) in June 2015

Dr Stewart Clark Johnston (1937-43) on 21 January 2015

Dr John Salisbury Jose (1943-49) on 18 April 2015

Keith Raleigh Landale (1962-70) on 2 March 2015

John Connor Lear (1942-47) on 3 March 2015

Tom Elder Legoe DSM (1938-43) on 21 April 2015

Mark Elder Lewis (1971-76) in March 2015

Ross Home Lipson (1962-74) on 9 December 2014

Ronald Frederick McKendrick OAM (1945-47) on 11 May 2014

Gordon Robson McLaurin (1939-41) on 24 August 2014

Patrick Hollis Meehan (1991-95) on 21 February 2015

Domenico Meneghini (Staff, Timbertop, 1953-67) on 26 November 2014

Edwin Gilson Mohr (1944-47) on 10 January 2015

Malcolm Gilchrist Muir (1947-50) on 19 June 2013

Alfred Robert Osbourne (1945-47) on 19 December 2014

Dr Thomas Trenfield Prime (1944-47) on 14 January 2015

George Nelson Raymond (1951-57) on 15 May 2015

Robert Wilson Ronald (1944-51) on 26 October 2014

David Alexander Hugh Shimmins (1965-66, 1973-78) on 1 May 2015

Clytie Siddall née Prime (The Hermitage 1962-73; GGS 1974-75) on 4 February 2015

Mary Patricia Sambell née Bennett (The Hermitage 1937-39) on 31 March 2015

John Fraser Syme (1937-44) on 19 April 2015

Trevor Raymond Thomson (1942-48) on 27 December 2014

Lenore Violet Twentyman née Westman (The Hermitage 1930-35) on 7 July 2014

John Bruce Wilson (1945-51) on 6 January 2015