COGA

COGA’s annual magazine, The Cluthan, was distributed in September to 608 members. It contained an invitation to the COGA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Old Girls’ Day Lunch, which was held at Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club on Sunday 23 October. The AGM was attended by 26 members, with over 50 apologies. Guest speaker Di Whittakers (Moore, Clyde ’63) talked of her extensive travels across the Australian outback, leading fully catered camping tours in 4WD vehicles, covering thousands of miles across rugged and remote terrain. The tours blazed across giant red sandhills in the Simpson Desert, along the Gunbarrel Highway, up the rocky trails of the Flinders and O’Donnell ranges in South Australia and the Northern Territory, through the Kimberley region in Western Australia, to Birdsville, Oodnadatta and Lake Eyre. At Clyde in the 1960s, Di was awarded the Tidiest Junior Prize. Her organisational skills were evident early and are especially useful for running her family’s Riverina property and catering for weeks off-road in barren terrain with food supplies counted down “to the last lamb chop”. Di’s husband Jon Whittakers was her tech assistant in projecting some spectacular travel images. It was lucky they could make it to Melbourne from Deniliquin NSW for the AGM, with so many roads blocked by flooding.

During our AGM, we acknowledged sadly the death of COGA Vice President, Anne Stoney (Peardon, Clyde ’62) in August. Anne was a loyal and long-serving member of the COGA Committee, a former Treasurer and Secretary who gave generously of her time and energy to COGA events over the years. Her friendship, good cheer and sense of humour are greatly missed.

The COGA committee for 2023 comprises Margie Gillett (Cordner, Clyde ’71) as President, Elizabeth Landy (Manifold, Clyde ’59) as Vice President, Trish Young (Clyde ’75) and Peta Gillespie (Clyde ’69) will continue as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Committee members include Katrina Carr (Moore, Clyde ’75), The Cluthan editor Julia Ponder (Clyde ’69), Sally Powe (Douglas, Clyde ’73), Di Whittakers (Moore, Clyde ’63), Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly, Clyde ’69) and Kammy Cordner Hunt (Cordner, Cl’76). The committee includes liaison representatives for The Cluthan, Clyde House, Archives, Golf, the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten and the COGA membership database. Former COGA President Sue Schudmak (Sproat, Clyde ’64), Anna Tucker (Kimpton, Clyde ’71) and Jane Loughnan (Weatherly, Clyde ’70) also consistently help with these liaison roles.

Sally Salter (Alison Stevenson, Clyde ’51) recently sent a donation to the Clyde Scholarship Fund. We thank Sally for her generous gift, which will help foster educational objectives consistent with COGA’s aims.

The Cluthan is a compilation of news, articles, reports and photos contributed by COGA members. In publishing obituaries each year, we rely on information from friends and families of the deceased. As an alumni association, maiden names are recognised and known ahead of married or other names. All too often, tributes are published for women without acknowledging the names they were given by their parents. That name is part of one’s early identity, character and development. We endeavour to capture the essence and energy of Clyde girls, to record their life stories and perpetuate their individual legacies among friends. Each Clyde girl is knitted into the fabric of her family, community, workplace and country. Each life story is unique and memorable. In addition to impressive careers and adventurous lives, there are stories of extraordinary community service and volunteer work, time given generously and wholeheartedly to help others, and this is a legacy COGA can be proud of. Please send contributions to Julia Ponder via coganews@gmail.com.

1 AGM guest speaker Di Whittakers (Moore, Clyde ’63) with her husband Jon and COGA President, Margie Gillett (Cordner, Clyde ’71)

2 Gay Morton (Howard, Clyde ’57), Lou Robinson (McMillan, Clyde ’58) and Jenny Blencowe (Hogg, Clyde ’55) at the AGM and Old Girls’ Day

Lunch

3 Di Whittakers (Moore, Clyde ’63) with husband Jon, Elizabeth Landy (Manifold, Clyde ’59), Ann ‘Dizzy’ Carlyon (Clapham, Clyde ’58) and Peta Gillespie (Clyde ’69) looking through

4 The class of 1970 held a delayed 50-year reunion weekend at Woodend in May, visiting Braemar College, the former Clyde School. Pictured L-R: Alice Austin, Katrina Weatherly (Kelly), Debby West (Blakiston), Nanette McMullin, Sally Davies (Montague), Jane Loughnan (Weatherly), Jackie Brown (Kemp), Ingrid Tsiligiannis (Alliston), Tina Taylor (Creswick), Anna Tucker (Kiimpton), Sally Anne Skene, Lou Gatenby (Harrison), Deborah Eastwood (Llewellyn-Jones), and Megan Smith.