The Cluthan OCTOBER
Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc Registered Number: A0028536K
THE PRESIDENT AND COMMITTEE OF THE CLYDE OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION INC (COGA) INVITE YOU TO THE COGA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND OLD GIRLS’ DAY LUNCH
SUNDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2014 CAULFIELD PARK PAVILION, COMMUNITY ROOM 280 BALACLAVA ROAD, NORTH CAULFIELD Entry between Hawthorn Rd and Bambra Rd intersections (Free parking and disabled access) PROGRAM 10.30am 11.00am 11.45am 12.20-2.30pm
– – – –
Arrival and morning tea Annual General Meeting Guest speaker Susan Duncan Old Girls’ Day lunch Cost: $25 per person
(Please RSVP by 15th October using the yellow form inside the Cluthan) ************************** GUEST SPEAKER: Susan Duncan (Clyde 1963-68), best-selling author, enjoyed a 25-year career spanning radio, newspaper and magazine journalism, including editing two of Australia’s top selling women’s magazines, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea. She now lives in her own patch of offshore paradise, Pittwater, with her husband, Bob Story, in the beautiful home built for poet Dorothea Mackellar in 1925. (More about Susan in Old Girls news.)
AT THE JUMBLE SALE, JUNE 2014
Janet Gordon (Affleck), Julie Cole (Baird), Ann (Roo) Rawlins (Hornabrook) and Jane Nevile (Lewis) ran a beautifully stocked and colourful produce stall. CLYDIES IN THE MARQUEE AFTER THE GGS ‘BACK TO CORIO’ LUNCH, MARCH 2014 Anna Affleck (Durham), Rosie Watt (Fairbairn), Meg Hornabrook and Margie Gillett (Cordner)
2
Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AGENDA 2014 1. 2. 3. 4.
Apologies Minutes Business Arising President’s Report
5. 6. 7.
Treasurer’s Report Other Business Election of 2014/2015 Committee
2013 – 2014 COMMITTEE MEMBERS Margie Gillett (Cordner) President Light Blue Coordinator 03 9525 3698 gillett22@bigpond.com
Fern Henderson (Welsh) Vice President 03 5989 2664 davhendo3@bigpond.com
Peta Gillespie Treasurer 03 5333 4324 pmg252@gmail.com
Trish Young Secretary 03 8060 9073 tyoung@smsmt.com
Katrina Carr (Moore) Clyde House Liaison 07 3374 0196 jankcarr@bigpond.net.au
Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) 03 5663 2220 elizabethlandy@bigpond.com
Sally Powe (Douglas) 0412 223 266 sallylmacgpowe@gmail.com
Di Whittakers (Moore) 03 5882 1143 burnimadeni@bigpond.com
EDITORIAL NEWS AND INFORMATION THE CLUTHAN
Julia Ponder is the new Cluthan editor. You can send Cluthan contributions to her direct, Unit 15/89 Bay Terrace, Wynnum 4178, (T) 07 3348 6644 (E) julia@comart.com.au or (E) coganews@gmail.com. The closing date for next years news and reports is the 30th June. If you would like a copy of your submission so you can proof read it email Julia and she will send you the page(s) – corrections are due back by the end of July. Thank you to those who have contributed stories, reports and news in this Cluthan as these are greatly appreciated by our readers. Thank you to Margie Gillett (Cordner) for her help in collating/writing/editing and to Sue Schudmak (Sproat) for proof reading/editing/despatch and distribution of the final copy. Thank you to previous editor Cathie Mahar for her outstanding work on the Cluthan 2006-2013. Her dedication and high standards were invaluable and greatly appreciated. Thank you to the Old Geelong Grammarians who are generously funding the printing, to Geelong Grammar School for the postage for the Cluthan and to the Clyde Old Girls who kindly help each year with getting the Cluthan ready for mailing. LIGHT BLUE
Light Blue (the Geelong Grammar School magazine) is another source for COGs to receive and share information. Light Blue comes out three times a year and has a full page of Clyde School information. If you would like to receive it (or cancel it), contact Katie Rafferty, Alumni Manager, (T) 03 5273 9338 (E) katier@ggs.vic.edu.au. Send contributions for the page to Margie Gillett (Cordner), 22 Evelyn Street, St Kilda 3183 (T) 03 9525 3698 (E) gillett22@bigpond.com COGA ADDRESS LIST AND DATABASE
Please contact Sue Schudmak (Sproat) for changes to names, addresses, phone numbers and notification of Clyde Old Girl deaths. 5 Fawkner Street, South Yarra 3141 (T) 03 9867 2663 (M) 0418 560 563 (E) schudmak@bigpond.net.au or Dougal Morrison, Data Analyst, Community Relations Office (T) 03 5273 9200 (E) dmorrison@ggs.vic.edu.au 3
THE MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE CLYDE OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION HELD AT SOUTH MELBOURNE COMMUNITY CENTRE, SOUTH MELBOURNE ON SUNDAY 13TH OCTOBER 2013 Meeting opened at 11.20am
Minutes of the Previous AGM 2012
Present (Names as signed in Attendance Book)
Having been printed in The Cluthan, these were taken as read. Moved they be accepted: Margie Gillett. Seconded by: Peta Gillespie.
Sue Schudmak Dallas Kinnear Hilary Blakiston Virginia Stevenson Gill Moxham Tim Gillespie Sue Home Roo Rawlins Rhoda Handyside Jane Dumbrell Rosemary Grant Sally Salter Sheila Little Margie Gillett Anna Affleck
Clem Hawker Janet Clark Jane Nevile Alison Smith Sally Powe Fern Henderson Dee Gowan Billy Philp Cas Bennetto Anna Tucker Rosemary Weatherly Peta Gillespie Diana Whittakers Elizabeth Landy Annette Webb
Business Arising from the Minutes of the Last AGM 2012 No Business Special Agenda Item: Proposal to adopt a New Constitution The following Special Resolution was read aloud by the President, Margie Gillett. ‘Special Resolution: the adoption of a new Constitution. This is necessary as the result of recent changes in the Associations Incorporation Act (now called the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012). The proposed new Constitution has been on the GGS website for all members of COGA to view as was announced in The Cluthan 2013 (page 4), and two hard copies are available here today for you to read, with all proposed changes clearly marked.
Apologies by mail, email or phone call Joan Montgomery Jenny Blencowe Pam Sinclair Judy Allen Tid Alston Georgie Barraclough Dizzy Carlyon Katrina Carr Susan de Crespigny Philly Fairthorne Libby Gardiner Flo Grimwade Christina Hayward Patsy Kirk Jane Loughnan Janet McCulloch Jackie Mackinnon Margaret Millard Sue Monger Suzanne Officer Julia Ponder Virginia Ronaldson Di Short Roberta Taylor Mary Van Dissel Shaen Whittaker
Susanna Allen Xenia Laycock Ros Adams Sally Alston Sybil Baillieu Janet Calvert-Jones Fiona Caro Mary de Crespigny Priscilla Donald Sandy Fairthorne Jane Gatehouse Annie Hamilton Meg Hornabrook Sue Lawrance Cathie Mahar Joan Mackenzie Anna Middleton Jane Mollard Deasy O’Connor Prue Plowman Judith Reindel Kate Senko Liz Smart Madame Ten Brink Angela Wawn Trish Young
The Constitution will basically be the same as it was before but will now comply with the guideline Rules under the new Act. The main change is that the ‘Purposes of the Association’ (with our wording unchanged), which were previously a separate item, now become the first part of the Constitution. The Resolution is – ‘The existing Rules of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc be replaced, the new Constitution adopted and an application made to the Registrar of Incorporated Associations for registration of the new Constitution’. The Resolution was passed with a unanimous show of hands by all present at the AGM. President’s Report 2013 (see page 5) Margie Gillett read the President’s Report. Moved it be accepted: Margie Gillett. Seconded by: Elizabeth Landy. Treasurer’s Report 2012/2013 Having been printed in The Cluthan, this was taken as read. Peta Gillespie read the report aloud, and moved it be accepted. Seconded by: Fern Henderson.
4
by the Clyde Old Girls’ Association on 21st October 2012 in recognition of her lifelong service to the Clyde community’. It includes the details of her title and years at Clyde.
Other Business No other Business Election of Officer Bearers for 2014 Dallas Kinnear (Heath) took the podium to declare all positions vacant and read out the nominations for the 2013/2014 COGA Committee.
The Clyde House Parents’ Association has also asked if COGA would contribute to the refurbishment of some old Clyde trophies for display, and to reupholster the old Clyde school sofas, which used to be in the front hall. We have agreed to do so, and the final cost will depend on quotes received. The current blue corduroy upholstery covers have survived 14 years of rigorous boarding house treatment. They were last replaced when COGA donated $4,000 to Clyde House in 1999. Communication with the Clyde House Parents’ Association has been facilitated by a Clyde Old Girl Jane McMicking who is on their committee, and has a daughter Amey in Year 12.
President: Margie Gillett (Cordner) Vice President: Fern Henderson (Welsh) Treasurer: Peta Gillespie Secretary: Trish Young Committee members: Sally Powe (Douglas) Katrina Carr (Moore) Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) Di Whittakers (Moore) There were no further nominations. By show of hands, all positions were approved by those present.
This year, COGA committee member Katrina Carr has identified fifteen Clyde House students who are closely related to at least 35 Clyde Old Girls. Some of these connections are difficult to confirm, often the girls themselves don’t know if they are related to a Clyde Old Girl, but they are usually pleased to find out. It seems amazing that nearly 40 years after the closure of Clyde School we still have daughters and nieces of old girls at Clyde House, along with the grand and great generations. Thank you to Trina for her diligent research work in preparing this traditional connection list for the Cluthan.
Meeting closed at 11.55am.
Thanks to the Old Geelong Grammarians (OGG) Association, COGA has received some assistance in printing and postage costs for the Cluthan this year.
COGA Committee members Sally Powe (Douglas) and Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) at the AGM.
Cathie Mahar has again edited an excellent Cluthan magazine, and we greatly appreciate her work in coordinating its production since 2006. Sadly, Cathie has now retired as editor of the Cluthan and from the COGA committee. She is not here today, but I know you will join me in thanking her for an outstanding contribution to COGA. She has an increasing commitment to health and nursing projects in East Timor, working on behalf of the Geelong Hospital. This work requires travelling, and is taking up a lot more of her time. Thank you Cathie, we wish you all the best in your endeavours.
COGA PRESIDENT’S REPORT Sunday 13th October 2013 Welcome to the South Melbourne Community Centre for the COGA AGM of 2013. Hope you managed to find your way through the Melbourne Marathon runners and the extra traffic and find somewhere close by to park. Last year our AGM was at Clyde House GGS, followed up by a tree dedication ceremony in honour of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. The sycamore maple tree is planted just near the entrance to Clyde House. Thanks to an offer by the Clyde House Parents’ Association, COGA is sharing the cost of a plaque for the tree. The plaque has been ordered and will be placed by the tree in time for the Tower Lunch at GGS in November. If any of you are attending the Tower Lunch, you might find time to visit the tree and its new plaque. The wording of the plaque reads:
COGA has a number of former committee members who provide significant ongoing assistance to the association. Julia Ponder lives in Queensland and has been involved in the Cluthan for decades, not only as a former editor, but for many years has formatted the text to be sent to the printers. This can be a complex and time-consuming process, and Julia has undertaken it each year with cheerful goodwill, no matter how
‘Dedicated to Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (Greene) 5
on the day. It was a very good result for the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten in their centenary year. We have been advised that there is to be a centenary celebration at the kindergarten when they will launch the history book. Thank you also to Jocelyn Mitchell and Debo McNab who organised the auction of a valuable Moorcroft vase which was found in Jumble Sale bric-a-brac. The proceeds of this exciting discovery and sale will be forwarded to the kindergarten as a centenary gift.
tricky it becomes. Julia has offered to be editor of the Cluthan heading into 2014 which is very good news. Her email address will be made available on the COGA website, in GGS Light Blue magazine, and to any -one who enquires about the Cluthan. If you send articles or photos to Julia, please provide all relevant names and details to assist her as much as possible. She will not be able to chase people up for articles, so please be proactive and take the initiative to send in well-finished material. Thank you to Julia for all her hard work on our behalf. The committee will be giving her lots of support.
We are also grateful to Anna Tucker for organising and coordinating the Clyde golfing teams. The continuing success of Clyde golfers in a competitive playing field is outstanding. Thank you to all the girls who don the golfing shoes, pick up the clubs and sally forth to carry our name with pride. Julie Cole won the Tommy Garnett trophy for women at the last OGG golf day. Anna is always ready to lend a hand in COGA activities, whether the jumble sale or the Cluthan and it is very much appreciated.
Sue Schudmak is like the guardian angel of COGA. She continues to maintain the database by channelling changes through to Dougal Morrison at GGS, no mean feat when she receives information from many different sources – word of mouth, email, phone calls, letters etc., sometimes while she is roaming through Turkey or Greece in a vintage car! For our meeting today, she has organised the revised COGA constitution so that it complies with the new Associations Incorporation Reform Act of 2012, which replaced the previous Act of 1981. There are two copies tabled for viewing. Every year Sue works behind the scenes to help with final editing phases of the Cluthan, and also with the envelopes and labels for posting. We are very grateful for both Sue and Philip Schudmak’s generous and consistent contribution to COGA, always ready to share their experience and knowledge.
In a few weeks, some of the lucky ones among us will be traipsing across the countryside in the Mornington Peninsula region, admiring the beautiful gardens lined up for us by COGA vice-president Fern Henderson and her partner in crime Dizzy Carlyon. They have devoted countless hours organising and researching the next COGA Garden Tour on our behalf, they have even inveigled themselves into places the public has never seen before. Thank you so much Fern and Dizzy, can’t wait for a glass of champagne in the sunset and a few laughs with old Clyde friends. Hopefully there will be some generous proceeds to share with local charities.
Jackie Mackinnon has been a trojan worker on the Archives. Having returned from her international journey to study the fine art of sculpture, Jackie spends several days every month working on the COGA archives at GGS. She has a number of regular helpers and the idea is to catalogue a definitive Clyde School collection of memorabilia, documentation and photos which will be housed alongside the GGS archives. One recent discovery was the surprising value of early editions of ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ by Joan Lindsay. Jackie is encouraging old girls to scan their bookshelves for those elusive early editions! Jackie provided a lot of help to researchers from the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten who are writing a centenary history of the kinder. Thank you so much to Jackie and her helpers for this valuable work.
Congratulations to Peta Gillespie our COGA Treasurer who has been appointed president of Ballarat Legacy, the first female president in 86 years. In addition to being a devoted grandmother and busy consultant, she has still found time to be a wonderfully helpful and reliable Treasurer, organising the agenda and financial reports for today, and receiving all the AGM replies and payments. Thank you so much Peta, the honour bestowed on you is richly deserved. Thank you to COGA committee member Sally Powe who has organised our lunch today, coordinating the food provided by Store 6 caterers of South Melbourne market. We really appreciate the time you have found in your busy work schedule and look forward to some tasty morsels. Also thank you to Elizabeth Landy who has liaised with our guest speaker, Belinda Philp and has been very helpful in organising for today and all other COGA activities throughout the year. We are grateful to our COGA secretary Trish Young who has managed to balance a full-time workload with family activities and sports coaching
Thank you to Jane Loughnan who coordinated another successful Jumble Sale in 2013. Thank you also to the thirty or so helpers who turned up to make the day a success, it is always a happy and busy day. It was suggested at the AGM last year that more buyers were needed at the sale. This year we undertook wider advertising in local newspapers and internet garage sale websites, along with the usual Age advertisement which resulted in more buyers, and greater stall sales 6
commitments to maintain a very welcome involvement in COGA. We really appreciate her work for the committee. Unfortunately she is unable to join us today because of family commitments.
COGA AGM GUEST SPEAKER 2013 BELINDA MORIESON/PHILP (LAIDLAW), CLYDE 1953-59
As COGA President, I have been busy at GGS with the Old Geelong Grammarians committee. As HOGA and COGA presidents are now full committee members and not ex-officio, we contribute accordingly. I joined a sub-committee to publish a history of the OGG association, the author is OGG Jim Darby, and the book will be launched in early 2014. Work on the history has made it clear that the OGG association has been a vital support to GGS for over a century. Clyde has been a part of that for nearly forty years, helping to ensure the future of co-education at the school. GGS is striving to meet the needs of students in a challenging world, and along with a new centre for creative education, they hope to offer an increasing number of scholarships to children from a wide range of backgrounds. Each year COGA donates funds for a Clyde bursary at GGS, we also donate a COGA prize for English at GGS, and for community service at Braemar College. These are presented at their respective annual Speech Day functions.
Belinda (Billy) Philp was an excellent guest speaker who shared stories of her career in nursing and union politics. As Belinda Morieson, she was union secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation in Victoria from 1989-2001. In 2004 Belinda was named on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, a distinction she shared that year with former Clyde School principal Joan Montgomery AM OBE. The State Government Honour Roll recognises and celebrates the great achievements of inspirational women in the community.
Reunions and gatherings are the lifeblood of COGA and the friendships we share. In addition to her work for the OGG Riverina branch, COGA Committee member Di Whittakers organised the 50-year reunion for the class of 1963 which took place yesterday, hope you all had a fabulous time!
A SUMMARY FROM BELINDA’S NOTES
After leaving Clyde in 1959, Belinda was a student nurse from June 1960-63. Nurses were called ‘Sister’, wore veils and went ‘on and off duty’ because of nursing’s historic association with church and army. ‘They are expected to work hard, be disciplined and always give that extra bit’, said Belinda.
Please remember that others love to hear of your news and reunions, it encourages them to organise the same among their own friends. Send in photos and details of your reunions to the Cluthan, it is always greatly appreciated. I loved the photo of the gathering at Susie Martin’s house in Sydney this year, and the wonderful photos of Braemar College, so reminiscent of Clyde. Katie Rafferty, the Alumni Relations Manager at GGS is always helpful in organising reunions, and we are very grateful for the support she gives to COGA.
Belinda loved nursing and worked in many areas. At Prince Henry’s Hospital she specialised in coronary care. She helped to implement an education and rehabilitation program and to produce an information handbook on prevention and recovery from heart attack. Published with financial assistance from a patient, the health minister launched the book, it was featured on Channel 7 news, many thousands of copies were sold throughout Australia and $30,000 was raised for the hospital.
News from the Woodend district concerning a council-approved development at Hanging Rock has horrified locals and Clyde girls alike. Dallas Kinnear has brought a copy of the relevant petition against this undesirable plan. If you would like to support the petition and protest, please speak to Dallas during lunch for further details of local action planned. The response needs to come from individuals, rather than from COGA as an organisation. (It will not be tabled as part of the AGM agenda.)
Following this achievement, the CEO of Prince Henry’s Hospital arranged for Belinda and a fellow nurse Jill Howard to visit coronary care units in England, Scotland and Holland, an experience she found enlightening and enjoyable. In the early 1980s, Belinda (known professionally as Belinda Morieson) became the charge nurse of the
Margie Gillett (Cordner) COGA President 7
government would not throw the ANF Secretary into prison!
endocrine ward, and subsequently the first diabetes educator at Prince Henry’s. In 1981 she was elected as a job representative (or ‘shop steward’) for the Australian Nursing Federation – Victorian branch (ANF-Vic). In 1983 Barbara Carson, the Austin Hospital director of nursing, was elected ANF-Vic secretary. Under her leadership, Victorian nurses undertook for the first time state-wide industrial action to do away with non-nursing duties, such as cleaning. The campaign was successful, and nurses were able to focus on patient care. Barbara also affiliated ANF with the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), removed the no-strike clause from the union rules and commenced the transfer of nursing education from an apprenticeship system to university education, something that was long overdue.
Once negotiations with government are finalised, the EBA is pursued with private hospitals (who generally accept public sector agreements), aged care facilities and community nurses. Belinda’s last EBA was in 2000. There was a prolonged dispute which resulted in the introduction of nurse-patient ratios. Nurses’ satisfaction is derived from being able to provide a high standard of care for their patients. ANF nurses were the first in the world to achieve ratios (which vary according to the type of patient). As a result Belinda was invited to the USA and New Zealand to talk with nursing unions about achieving effective nurse-patient ratios. Life for Belinda as ANF secretary involved long hours and many meetings. She met six different health ministers, directors of nursing, hospital CEOs, health bureaucrats, nurses at workplace meetings, nursing academics, other state ANF secretaries at ANF federal council meetings, other union officials at VTHC and ACTU executive meetings, and frequently interacted with the media.
In 1985, Irene Bolger became union secretary. In 1986 Belinda was appointed as the ANF professional officer to help develop a career structure for nurses. Pursuing this new career structure led to the 1986 fifty day nurses’ strike. In ballots overseen by hospital management, ANF members at all hospitals voted to strike. It was a tough time for all. No pay throughout the strike caused hardship for nurses, and patients on elective lists had to wait for the strike to end. But there was great support from both the public and the trade union movement. The strike was successful and a new career structure was implemented.
The ANF is unusual for a union as it represents both the industrial and professional voice of the nurses (mostly women in a male-dominated industry). The industrial officers deal with industrial issues. Professional officers deal with clinical practice, nurse education and registration, developing policies for areas such as euthanasia or clinical supervision, and providing assistance to special interest groups. The ANF resisted union amalgamation, focussing only on workers in the nursing sector.
In 1989, Belinda was elected as union secretary of the ANF-Vic. Before 1989, automatic annual wage increases for workers were handed down each year by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC). This system was changed by Bob Hawke’s government and Bill Kelty, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) who introduced enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) where unions and bosses had to negotiate three-year agreements for wages and conditions.
Unions are committed to international aid. Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA) was created in 1984 as the overseas aid organisation of the ACTU. Through APHEDA, ANF provides money to fund medical clinics on the Thai Burma border; the Australian Education Union (AEU) supports schools in developing countries, and the Construction Forestry Mining and
The EBA negotiations between unions and government are often protracted, complicated and a huge cost for the unions. As Belinda explained, there were no exceptions for the ANF. She said there are unwritten rules in negotiating: keep negotiations confidential, keep your word, allow the opposition to keep face. The process takes several months to complete and involves developing a claim which is endorsed and presented to government. For ANF, negotiating to reach an agreement on their claim can mean stop work meetings, industrial action such as strikes (bed closures in hospitals), loss of pay for country nurses who attend city meetings, disputes, AIRC directives, and finally agreement and all beds opened. Belinda was once threatened with Federal Court action and a possible gaol term if she continued to refuse an AIRC directive. She called their bluff, as she assumed the
Jane Dumbrell (Selleck) and Cas Bennetto were impressed with Billy’s talk, particularly Jane with her own extensive experience in nursing. 8
CLUTHAN
Energy Union (CFMEU) provides assistance to forestry workers and their children in India. Belinda joined an ACTU delegation to East Timor just before Indonesia withdrew. On return to Melbourne she gained the support of hospital management to send a generous supply of medicines and equipment to the Timorese.
The support of the OGGs has meant that there was no cost to COGA for the printing or postage of the 2013 Cluthan. Over the past two years, we have had several discussions with the OGGs in how they can support our Association (who, by default, are also OGGs) and it was felt that covering the cost of the Cluthan would be of most benefit to all our members.
During the period of Belinda’s leadership (19892001), the ANF became financially secure and purchased a building at 420 Elizabeth Street; membership increased from 13,000 to 35,000 (today 67,000); they increased the range of influence and special interest groups; they introduced a ‘no-lift’ policy for nurses to reduce the risk of back injury, which in turn reduced injury compensation payments for employers; they achieved nurse-patient ratios; and established an education centre for ANF members. Belinda concluded as follows: ‘I feel fortunate to have worked in both nursing and the trade union movement, both occupations assist people when they are feeling vulnerable’.
JUMBLE SALE
At last year’s Jumble Sale a Moorcroft vase was discovered and subsequently sold through an auction house (see picture below). We were able to provide the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten with a one-off special donation of $1,700 to celebrate their Centenary as a result of this sale. The 2014 Jumble Sale was also extremely successful thanks to Jane and her wonderful team and resulted in a donation of $3,500 to the Kindergarten. Nicole Messer, the Director, wrote in her letter of thanks: ‘Thank you very much to the all of the Clyde ladies. l cannot tell you how grateful we are at IHK, especially the families who will benefit. As you are aware we use this money to support the participation of vulnerable or at risk children through the provision of a universal access program in which families are referred to us through maternal health or social services. This program enables us to provide an integrated support model for families; this program would not be possible without the support from the jumble sale every year. Thank you very much, please pass it on to everyone involved. It was also really lovely to have the current families supporting the sale with donations, l hope they helped.’
Q & A: Questions from the floor included: how did the gender balance in nursing professions (mostly women) affect the ANF’s ability to bargain effectively with hospital management and the health care industry (mostly men)? Belinda said the ANF was supported by public opinion and by the unity of ANF members. Belinda’s talk was both educational and informative. We greatly appreciated the insight she gave into an era of great change for Australian nurses, and her inspirational role. TREASURER’S REPORT 2013-2014
OTHER EXPENSES
This report refers to the Financial Statement of the Clyde Old Girls Association Inc. for the year ending 30th June 2014.
We have provided support to the Clyde House Parents’ Association with funds going towards the plaque erected for the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch tree, as well as the refurbishment of some of the trophies on display at Clyde House.
It is with pleasure that I again present the Treasurer’s Report to the members of the Clyde Old Girls Association.
Incorporation Fees are higher this year, as we had to lodge our new Constitution, which was adopted at our AGM last year, with the Department of Justice.
NOTES TO 2014 BALANCE SHEET
It has been another successful year for our Association, despite the published Balance Sheet showing a negative closing figure of approximately $10,000. This is because over 50% of the Garden Tour revenue was received in the previous financial year, but 100% of the expenditure occurred in this financial year.
AGM expenses are also higher this year, as the deposit for the 2014 AGM had to be paid before the end of June.
MORNINGTON GARDEN TOUR 2013
The wonderful work by Fern and Dizzy in putting together the 2013 Garden Tour resulted in a donation to the GGS Scholarship Fund (COGA) of $5,300, as well as donations to various charities in the Peninsula area.
Peta Gillespie Honorary Treasurer, June 2014 9
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 JUNE 2014 2013-14
2012-13
NAB (Opening Balance) 01 July 2013
36,576.98
29,047.74
NAB (Closing Balance) 30 June 2014
26,604.47
36,576.98
0.00
0.00
26,604.47
36,576.98
O/S Cheques
0.00
400.00
Total Liabilities
0.00
400.00
26,604.47
36,176.98
875.00
780.00
AGM / General Donations
2165.00
2,320.00
Jumble Sale
5,977.50
5,686.95
719.97
751.45
0.00
195.00
Garden Tour
15,760.00
16,840.00
Total Income
25,497.47
26,573.40
AGM Expenses
2,409.57
1,039.50
Cluthan Printing
0.00
2,706.00
Cluthan Postage
0.00
1,661.70
5,200.00
3,416.95
Jumble Sale Expenses
300.00
1,770.00
Golf Cups (Fun and Inter-School)
380.00
380.00
English Prize to GGS and Braemar
800.00
400.00
Incorporation Fee
211.90
43.90
Clyde House – Plaque and Trophies
469.38
0.00
Archives
475.13
902.89
25,158.00
5,980.00
Gifts inc. DEM Tribute
66.00
1,143.22
Total Expenditure
35,469.98
19,444.16
Surplus / Loss for year
-9,972.51
7,129.24
Assets
O/S Deposits
Total Assets Liabilities
Net Assets INCOME and EXPENSES 2013-2014 Income AGM Lunch
Interest History Book Fund
Expenses
Jumble Sale Proceeds to Isabel Henderson Kindergarten
Garden Tour
10
2014 COGA ACTIVITIES While it is not possible to thank everyone personally, it was a terrific team effort, and we are grateful to Lou Robinson (McMillan) for being the depot in Melbourne, Haydn and Deb West (Blakiston) for lending us the van to transport donations again and for helping set up on Wednesday evening. We also thank everyone for the work collecting, setting up, selling, cleaning up and repackaging goods unsold to be donated to the Prahran City Mission. The Mission truck came by and collected the unsold goods for sale in their opportunity shops. Many helpers met for a casual lunch afterwards at the Gallery Manse Cafe, behind the Uniting Church in Toorak Road.
JUMBLE SALE REPORT On Thursday 26th June at the St Johns Church Hall, Toorak, we had a happy and enthusiastic band of thirty Clyde Old Girls (with a few new faces) working together enjoying seeing each other as they worked consistently for the Jumble Sale. Jumble was collected by Clyde Old Girls and friends, GGS boarding houses and some hand-knitted goods donated by Isabel Henderson’s great-niece, Alice Gilbert (Tolhurst). This year for the first time, Isabel Henderson Kindergarten parents, children and staff contributed home-made goods to the produce stall (cakes, biscuits, jams etc.), as well as IHK tea-towels and history booklets for sale. Their participation in the jumble sale was warmly welcomed.
The kindergarten were thrilled with the donation to help in their 101st year. Jane Nevile (Lewis), Margie Gillett (Cordner) and I attended an exciting and enthusiastic centenary held at the kindergarten last November.
After raising a total of $4,200 on the day, it is wonderful that we were able to hand over a cheque for $3,500 to the IHK to support needy families in the North Fitzroy region. An additional $1,700 was sent to IHK as a centenary gift, being proceeds from the sale of the Moorcroft vase found at the jumble sale in 2013. Special thanks to Jocelyn Mitchell (Low) and Debo McNab (Grimwade) for their great find and generosity.
Thank you to all for the work done to make the day a success, it is greatly appreciated. Jane Loughnan (Weatherly) Jumble Sale Coordinator (M) 0417 535 862 (E) ejloughnan@gmail.com
Anna Tucker (Kimpton), Penny Lewisohn (Weatherly), Nani McMullin, Wendy Read-Smith (Fenton), Heather Cameron (Dalrymple), Kate Robinson (Richardson) along with many others continually folded, sorted and hung clothing.
Letter from Ros Allen (Wilkins), who counted the cash on Jumble day with Sue Schudmak (Sproat) – after learning that the bank counted $4,199.80 (rounded up 20c by the NAB to a final deposit of $4,200):
Elise Murch (Austin), and Georgie Barraclough (Moran), worked alongside Debo McNab (Grimwade) and Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) the usual effective managers of the pricing table for clothes and accessories.
‘Well done everyone … what a momentous effort!!! A special thank you Jane and Michael … for all the work you both put into the day … we all know how much behind the scenes effort has to occur … it’s not just 8.30 am-12 noon!! Suzie and I are really pleased our calculations were not that far off the final tally!!
Jane Nevile (Lewis), Julie Cole (Baird), Janet Gordon (Affleck), Joan MacKenzie (Bloomfield) and Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook) worked hard on a very productive produce stall. Both Janet and Joan are grandmothers of current Clyde House students!
Lovely to catch up with everyone … meringues for dinner with family tonight, cake (named Untidy Edges!!) to share with a brother, Kingsley’s face as I unwrapped the bag of goodies … special Cumquat Marmalade … made by a Clyde trained cook! … biscuits and a hundred other specials.
Lou Robinson (McMillan) and her sister Deb Skues (McMillan) sold bags, hats and jewelled glitz, while the bric-a-brac with Lou Morris (Clarke), Mary Hildebrandt (Downie) along with others, and the books stall with Jocelyn Mitchell (Low), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold), Dizzy Carlyon (Clapham) and many more were busy.
Friends from Hawthorn days who donated goods, last seen at lunch or was it at drinks!!! (late Friday) ... said they had met Gay Lewis (Grimwade)’s daughter Chloe Lewis who was complete in green flowing gown with feathers from the Jumble Sale. They couldn’t believe they had met someone who had been to the Jumble Sale!! But that’s Melbourne … small world.’ xxx Ros
Davina Hanson kept a check of the doors while Susie Schudmak (Sproat) and Ros Allen (Wilkins) did an amazing job counting all the dollars, hard at work in the back room. 11
AT THE JUMBLE SALE
Debo McNab (Grimwade)’s briefing before the sale – marshalling the troops!
Felicity Dalgleish (Gardner) selling some bric-a-brac.
Three former COGA Presidents at the counting table. L-R: Sue Schudmak (Sproat), Ros Allen (Wilkins), Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly).
Jane Nevile (Lewis), Joan Mackenzie (Bloomfield) and Kenneth Mackenzie.
Chatting with customers, Elise Murch (Austin) and Debo McNab (Grimwade). 12
GOLF REPORT
FUN CUP GOLF
INTER SCHOOL GOLF
On Monday 18 November at Barwon Heads Golf Club, a team of Clyde Old Girls claimed victory in the annual Fun Cup challenge, defeating St Catherine’s and Toorak College.
The Inter school golf Challenge Cup was played at Woodlands Golf Club on Monday 7th April. The team finished second out of thirty schools, a wonderful effort. Kate was beaten on a count back in the Division A.
The Clyde team of Sybil Baillieu (Barr-Smith), Lesley Griffin (Vincent), Fi Chirnside (Macfarlan), Janet Coombes (Dalrymple) and Kate Macdougall (Howard) was cheered along by many supporters on the day, including COGA’s golf coordinator Anna Tucker (Kimpton). Kate also took out a ‘nearest the pin’ prize. Anna Tucker (Kimpton) Golf coordinator (M) 0408 540 252 (P) 03 9592 0952 (E) anna@chepstow83.com
L-R: Amanda Snaddon (White), Kate Robinson (Richardson), Angela Alcock (Gardner) and Janet Coombes (Dalrymple).
At right: Supporters at the Fun Cup Golf Susie Strachan (Skene) and Mandy Snaddon (White).
A great crew turned up to support the victorious Clyde team at the Fun Cup in Barwon Heads. Back L-R: Anna Tucker (Kimpton), Joanna Armytage (Barr-Smith). Front L-R: Julie Cole (Baird), Sylvia McLachlan (Clarke), Georgie Molesworth (Bieri), Amanda Snaddon (White), Sue Strachan (Skene).
13
FUN CUP GOLF 2013
COGA GARDEN TOUR 2013 The COGA Garden Tour organised by Fern Henderson (Welsh) and Ann (Dizzy) Carlyon (Clapham) over three days 23-25 October was a huge success. A bus-load of fifty gardening enthusiasts enjoyed a brilliant itinerary in the Mornington Peninsula region, from gardens thriving on worm farm compost to the native Australian landscapes portrayed at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, each vista conveyed the unique style of its creator. Two nights with dinner and breakfast at Lindenderry in Red Hill meant the travellers were royally entertained and accommodated. The Clyde School song nearly lifted the roof off the dining-room on the second night! The Garden Tour’s profits of around $6,600 were shared, with $1,000 going to local Peninsula charities, and over $5,000 being donated to the Clyde Scholarship Fund at GGS. A huge thank you to Fern and Dizzy for this magnificent effort, which brought together so many old friends for fun, laughter and gardens.
L-R: Angela Alcock (Gardner), Susie Sutherland (Finlay), Roz Bromell (Gardner), Tinky Urquhart (Austin). CLYDE FUN CUP WINNERS 2013
LETTER FROM DIZZY
A thank you letter from garden tour organiser Dizzy Carlyon, in response to the very positive feedback and thanks to both Fern and Dizzy for a fantastic and successful tour. Please read second last paragraph with ‘tongue firmly in cheek’! And does anyone own the mystery earrings? PS: I think RI’s are ‘Ring Ins’, i.e. the lovely friends and extras who joined the garden tour. They couldn’t help not being Clydies, but we loved them all the same! Dear Clydettes and R I’s, I am truly feeling very blessed as the letters, cards, emails and calls have been quite overwhelming and on top of all that, I have received a most generous gift card for my favourite store Dan Murphy’s. This will ensure a Christmas with bells on and Norman, who was the greatest secretary I could wish for, will certainly assist me as I drink my way through this super gift … a very big thank you for your kindness. It was great fun for Fern and me and we felt a bit lost when it was all over red rover! Living so close to one another meant we had lots to chat about, plan, replan and chat about on a regular basis which needless to say meant countless coffees and drinks and telephonics! All enjoyable ... Fern is a perfect partner as she is always positive and happy and has a wealth of knowledge on all Clyde girls and their friends having been School captain and now vice president of COGA. She also always sided with Norman when there were conflicting opinions over who had done what! Very good for household harmony …
L-R: Sybil Baillieu (Barr-Smith), Kate McDougall (Howard), Lesley Griffin (Vincent), Janet Coombes (Dalrymple), Fiona Chirnside (Macfarlan). The 2014 Fun cup at will be held at Peninsula Golf Club on Monday 13th October. GOLF NEWS
Angela Alcock (Gardner) was Manager and player for Gisborne golf Club, Metropolitan Pennant Division 5. They won the flag for the first time and Angela won a medal for being undefeated. Felicity Dalgleish (Gardner) during the Championships at Royal Melbourne won The Anne Court Cup (C Grade) for veterans over 55 years and The Marjorie Leviny Trophy for Senior Veterans over 70 years. This trophy was donated by Dee Gowan (Leviny), in memory of her mother. 14
THE COGA GARDEN TOUR 2013
Elizabeth Barkman (Piccoli), Sally Salter (Stevenson), Di Brockhouse (Strutt) enjoy a ride with Hugo Bennett at Bolitree in Red Hill South.
A beautiful morning at Eve and Alan Duke’s ‘worm farm’ garden in Flinders: L-R: Georgie Matyear (Bright), Annie Hamilton (Coy), Susie Pender (Rymill) and Fiona Chirnside (Macfarlan).
Elizabeth Barkman (Piccoli) and Lou Holt (Beecham) heading to morning tea at the Garden Vineyard in Moorooduc, first visit of the tour.
Enjoying a pre-lunch vino at Rick Eckersley’s Musk Cottage garden in Flinders. L-R: Susie Pender (Rymill), Christina Hayward (Pym), Elizabeth Barkman (Piccoli) and Sandra Kay (Moran).
Below: After a hearty dinner on the second night Clydies singing at the top of their voices ‘in praise of happy schooldays’, totally in tune of course!
15
THE COGA GARDEN TOUR 2013
Annie Hamilton (Coy) and Fern Henderson (Welsh) admire a wall sculpture at Plein Air, Merricks North.
Highly organised, always making sure things went smoothly, a very busy Dizzy Carlyon (Clapham) at Bolitree in Red Hill South.
Fern Henderson (Welsh), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) and Billy Philp (Laidlaw) at Bolitree in Red Hill South.
Di Brockhouse (Strutt), visitor Serena Osmond and Ann (Roo) Rawlins (Hornabrook) didn’t mind the rain at all while visiting the Garden Vineyard in Moorooduc.
AT THE JUMBLE SALE Left: Jumble Sale helpers – Deb Bray (Finch), Helen Connell (Wettenhall), Anne Stoney (Peardon) 16
I have one other little bit of information which, if it does apply to you, please get back to me. My long suffering room mate, Susie Pender (Rymill), who has been cruelly ‘bullied’ for being ‘the teachers pet’ on account of her sitting at the front of the Bus with Fern and me, sent me a package of ear rings that she repaired. One pair certainly belongs to me but there are another 3 pairs and we are not sure who they belong to!!! Also can I wish everybody the best of Christmases and a happy healthy 2014. With fond love, Dizzy xxx EMAIL FROM PETA GILLESPIE TO GGS
Attached is EFT for funds transferred today into the GGS Scholarship Fund. These are the proceeds from the very successful Garden Tour held by the Clyde Old Girls in October last year. The P&L of this activity was approved at our meeting this week. While the funds have gone into the generic scholarship account, it would be really appreciated if they could be used for a girl related to a Clyde Old Girl or at least who is in Clyde House. unanimous. It was also proposed at the time that Clyde Old Girls should call themselves ‘Cluthans’ – ‘Clutha’ being Latin for Clyde. Voting on the paper’s name was Miss Henderson’s idea, she had a strong respect for the girls’ judgments. Isabel Henderson herself wrote the first editorial of ‘The Cluthan – the Journal of Clyde Girls’ Grammar School, May 1914’. In 1914, the fifth year of Clyde’s existence, there were 180 students (55 boarders) at Faireleight in East St Kilda and at least 80-90 Old Girls had paid for membership of the Old Girls’ Association. The Old Girls’ continued close connection with the school was paramount to Miss Henderson, hoping ‘that they realise their responsibility with regard to the paper’. She asked to be pardoned for being so proud of Clyde’s rapid development, emphasised by her lively account of the school’s brief history. A few poems feature, as do exam results before reports of different Clyde activities, the Old Girls’ Association and much Old Girls’ news – almost exactly the same format as Cluthan magazines produced right up to 1975, but minus any sketches, photos or house entertainments. The first cover featured the school crest, designed in 1911 by Mr Herbert of the Education Department, with a straight shield bearing the name ‘Clyde’, the school motto and a group of gum leaves and nuts. This motif has appeared on the Cluthan ever since. Although designed seven years before the move to Woodend, the gumnuts and leaves in the shield proved to be particularly apt for Country Clyde! (Historical details are well documented in Melanie Guile’s History of Clyde School, published 2006).
The garden tour trips are always enjoyed by those who take part and this last one was no exception and was very successful from a social, horticultural and financial point of view! Best wishes, Peta Gillespie, Hon. Treasurer – COGA EMAIL FROM GGS TO PETA GILLESPIE
This is a wonderful gift towards the GGS Scholarship fund. Thank you so much to you and all of the COGA women involved in organising the Garden Tour. Not only is it a terrific event for COGA but the proceeds that go towards the Scholarship fund are very generous and greatly appreciated. Regards, Katie Rafferty, Alumni Manager ARCHIVES ARCHIVES REPORT 2013-2014
Centenary of The Cluthan 2014 is the centenary year of the first Clyde magazine. The Clyde Old Girls’ Association (COGA) was well established by 1914, with an elected committee and Miss Isabel Henderson as president. In March 1914, Miss Henderson suggested to COGA that they sponsor a school magazine. Miss Daniell, helped by the senior girls, launched the school paper, The Cluthan, in May 1914. It would, she wrote, ‘act as a register of daily events and activities (at the school)’ and also allow Old Girls to keep abreast of school news. The name of the paper was agreed by a vote given by each form, the decision being practically 17
The second Cluthan was produced in December 1914 just before their summer holiday. It was an ideal way to inform students, parents, Old Girls and school associates of Clyde’s progressive changes. ‘News’ was aplenty since the First World War had started. The girls worked very hard towards the war efforts, raising funds through dramatic performances, competitions big or small, knitting every minute of their spare time to produce ‘thousands of socks for the soldiers’. Several Old Girls were living overseas or at ‘finishing’ schools in Switzerland when the war commenced – Doris Ricketson ended up being the only remaining pupil at her school. Others made it out of Europe by circuitous routes. Where else would you have read about your old school friends but in the Cluthan? The last page presents a poignant poem called ‘Advance Australia’ by Edith Armstrong, about all the young Australian men going off to fight England’s battles.
trouble to present a sumptuous afternoon tea. She was scaling down and gave us her copy of the beautiful 2006 History of Clyde book. Back in Melbourne, Sandy Fairthorne kindly donated her grandmother Doris Fairthorne (Manton)’s 1911 Clyde Tennis Club sterling silver belt buckle.
Two editions of the Cluthan were produced annually until 1931 when it became just one annually. MEMORABILIA DONATIONS
A special thank you to those who have donated Clyde memorabilia to our Archive collection during the last year. Various items of uniform, sport equipment, prize cups, photos, letters, ‘prize-plated’ books, some COG authored books, short stories and a few other exciting things.
The buckle is beautifully engraved with the initials ‘DM’, and was probably worn with a sports uniform or winter skirt. School photos from the era show many girls wearing distinctive silver belt buckles. Some lovely embossed prize books and issues of the Cluthan were delivered by Lenore, daughter of Jessie Gray (Cumming); also thanks to Davina Hanson for whizzing by with some Cluthans and Sue Schudmak (Sproat) who gave a copy of ‘Garden Voices’ by Anne Latreille (Dalrymple), the story of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (Greene)’s garden at Cruden Farm and Mary (Olive) Taylor (Agar)’s self published ‘Baked Beans in the Outback and Curry in Kashmire’. A big thank-you to Meg Hornabrook for donating her wonderful book ‘The El Questro Story’. We are always most grateful for copies of COG publications, new or old!
In November 2013 I visited Sydney and gratefully collected a box of eleven prize-plated books awarded to Margaret Moline (Black), Senior School Prefect in 1929. Margaret’s daughter Annie Sutherland (cousin of Katie Sharp (Reid)) also kindly sent some photos that helped to fill a few gaps in our records. Three weeks later I was in Tasmania and visited Jean Hood (Gatenby) who donated a box of goodies including a lovely silver cup, her prized First’s hockey stick which played in virtually every pennant possible (3+), and a superb extra long hand-knitted First’s woollen scarf, now enhancing our Vault Model (who has three hats!). One hat belonged to Vickie D’Antoine (Hughes) who gave it to me during a very spoiling stay I had with her and husband Nick. I then drove down the centre of Tas and up into the equally beautiful Southern Highlands to stay with Mary Lou Ashton-Jones (Nielsen) and husband Scotty – more superb Tasmanian hospitality.
‘SEA FOLK’, A COLLECTION OF LINO-CUTS BY CLYDE SCHOOL ART STUDENTS, 1938
Just before Christmas 2013, I had a call from the State Library of Victoria (SLV); the head of Rare Books wondered if I could throw some light on the provenance of a rare book called ‘Sea Folk’ (1938) which they had bought from a dealer. The book comprised 26 unidentified picture plates of lino-cuts done by art students at Clyde School. The only identifying marks were the artists’ initials incorporated into each lino design. It took over three months to establish two had been done by the art teacher in 1938. Page 169 of Melanie Guile’s History of Clyde features an image of lino-cuts (by Nessie Gill) and tells of a hapless male teacher from R.M.I.T. who was dismissed for
[Tourist note: For those who have not been to ‘The Wall’ in Tasmania don’t delay: www.thewalltasmania.com – Official site of ‘The Wall in the Wilderness’, a 100 metre sculpture by Greg Duncan]. On my way back to Melbourne via Launceston I called on Sally Ferrall (Thyne) who went to much 18
not being able to control the girls (!!) but it was very difficult to find his name, or identify the names of the wild young artists! After much guesswork, many interviews and visits to Aged Care homes and hundreds of phone calls later I was able to identify all thirteen of the mystery artists and return a completed list to the SLV. With their teacher Mr. Knight, those talented young art students of 1938 are now famously housed in our State Library!
two of these artists are able to enjoy their newfound fame – and both have now been sent a copy of ‘Sea Folk’. Norma Fivash (Miller) can still remember the tall dark and handsome art teacher, Mr Knight, who drove up to Mt Macedon each week with the sports mistress. Perhaps too good-looking and kind-hearted for a class full of giggling girls, he eventually had to be dismissed! (See ref. above.) ‘PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK’
One exciting aspect of the SLV research exercise was that the Rare Book Department heard we did not have an original first edition copy of Joan Lindsay (Weigall)’s ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’, and, as a gift for the work completed on ‘Sea Folk’, wanted their second only copy to be most appropriately housed at GGS in the COG Archives – all the more meaningful when we learnt that ‘Picnic’ first editions cost $12,000 through Amazon! Since then we have added
Our COG Archive Collection now holds several copies of the Sea Folk booklet (with all lino plates named). The twelve student artists identified by their initials were: PF Pamela Fogerty (Faulkner, Cl’1935-38); JG Janet McIver (Gibson, Cl’1938-40); NG Nessie Ingham (Gill, Cl’1937-40); JB Joan Royds (Black, Cl’1938-41); AH Ann Hunter (Cl’1938-43); VD Virginia DeMeyrick (Deeley, Cl’1935-38); LE Liselotte Eggink (Cl’1938-40); ML Margaret Roffey (Luxton, Cl’1933-38); AM Anne Grunwald (Millear, Cl’1938-43); EH Elizabeth Whitton (Hunter, Cl’1938-43; NM Norma Fivash (Miller, Cl’1937-39) who is living in Queensland, aged 92; JAC June Alice Rogers (Chirnside, Cl’1937-39) also in her 90s is living in Armidale, NSW. All these artists’ names are now officially registered at the SLV, because their work features in a publication registered as a Rare Book. It is wonderful that 19
another of Joan Lindsay’s titles, a very amusing book called ‘Through Darkest Pondelayo’. We also have ‘Time Without Clocks’ and ‘Facts Soft and Hard’. We are only missing a book she wrote on the Red Cross and/or First Aid. In 1987, after Joan’s death, a book called ‘The Secret of Hanging Rock’ was published, the ‘never-before-published final chapter of Picnic at Hanging Rock’. The GGS Fisher Library has kindly donated this book to the COGA Archives. (**I have not had time to read this to compare it with the manuscript’s version, but would love someone to offer to do this please?) Any books in our collection may be viewed in the Fisher Library at a mutually agreed time, please contact me or Fisher Library to arrange.
and Debo McNab (Grimwade). Sue Schudmak (Sproat) – who has been assisting off and on with the archives for many years – and I have one last project to complete; formally cataloguing and indexing our wonderful collection – hopefully by the end of this year! Margie Gillett (Cordner) has contributed significantly with her excellent research and writing skills for obituaries and updating of Old Girls’ activities. We still need more helpers! If any one can spare a few hours, not necessarily down at GGS, please contact me. We would be most grateful. Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) Archives Coordinator (M) 0417 371 496 (E) jackmack@bigpond.net.au
MUSIC MEMORABILIA:
Ed.: COGA has much to thank Jackie for with the continuation of our archive collection. She followed on from Betty Clarke (Speirs)’s wonderful work many years ago and has since spent countless hours researching and collecting material for our very historic and valuable collection. Much of this has been done at home on her own. Without the work of these two COGs we would have a very much less significant collection. Thank you from us all.
Would anyone have a ‘spare’ traditional Hymn Book please? Peta Gillespie kindly responded to last year’s request by providing a copy of the glorious Easter Anthem, ‘The Story of the Cross’. If any one wants a copy please contact me or you can find it on the net www.hymnary.org/text/in_his_own_raiment_clad PEGGY GLANVILLE-HICKS (HICKS) CLYDE 1927-29
Peggy was one of Australia’s most revered composers and music critics; she is also possibly our first COG to have a street sign highlighting her name! (*Do you know of others?). Peggy lived at 45 Ormond Street, Paddington, until her death in 1990 when she gifted it to the future of Australian music.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
ARCHIVE ACTION
It has been fascinating, fun and hard work for the few who have been helping with our archive collection. Over the past two or three years our closest ‘team’ have been those at the GGS Fisher Library, always quick to support and keep us smiling. I would like to thank them most humbly. Also thanks to Rosie Grant (Hallows) for her contribution, especially her enthusiasm and accuracy. She and her husband Robert provided a delicious lunch earlier this year whilst we ran an archive workshop in their house. Thank you both, and to those who attended: Dallas Kinnear (Heath), Janet Clark (Armstrong), Judy Emerson (Shaw)
In the 60s and 70s, caricatures of all Firsts team members were posted on the Nursery notice board (by the artistically talented) on the eve of Pennant matches against Toorak College. People had to guess who the drawings represented. Can you guess who this one is? Initial M. 20
CLYDE GIRLS START AT GGS, FEBRUARY 1976
Below left: The Rider magazine cover, May 1983, with archival photos of Eileen Bartram (Hunter) and her daughter Mary de Crespigny (Bartram).
Clyde girls who moved from the mountain to GGS faced some big changes, but were allowed to wear their Clyde School uniform for the first two years. See names in caption below (Geelong Advertiser 5 February 1976).
The magazine has a four-page feature article on the Bartram family and their influence on the development of Royal Agricultural Show equestrian turnout competitions in Australia, including the famous Garryowen. THE MEMORIAL BUILDING
The Age, 26 February 1957, carried an article featuring the opening of the new Memorial building at Clyde. Pictured were: Barbara Deasey (Baillieu, later Bostock), Anne Cordner (Baillieu) and Dordie Rouse (Rolph).
HERMITAGE HISTORY BOOK
On Saturday 17th May, the GGS community was invited to the launch of ‘The History of The Hermitage’ by Clyde history author Melanie Guile. The Hermitage history committee was profoundly grateful to have engaged Melanie to write their history. She has once again proved to be a scholarly yet perceptive historian with the ability to bring anecdotes and memories to life. Melanie worked brilliantly with the HOGA history team, as she did with COGA in 2005 / 2006. The book is available through the GGS uniform shop for $85. There are many Clyde girls who also attended The Hermitage. A browse through the student index list at the back of the Hermitage history revealed the following COG names: Ann Bainbridge, Deborah 21
Blakiston, Susan Blakiston, Caroline Blakiston, Jan Brown, Penelope Cash, Diana Cash, Alison Garnett, Amanda Gubbins, Dallas Heath, Hilary Heath, Moira Moon, Marjorie Millear, Julia Ponder, Lorie Staughton, Judith Wettenhall, Jennifer Wettenhall … and that’s just with a quick glance! Two COGs went to all the three schools that amalgamated. Amanda McFarlane (Gubbins) went to the Hermitage, then Clyde, then GGS Clyde House for year 12 after the amalgamation. She is now on the GGS council and is a Clyde House parent as well. Julia Ponder attended crèche and kindergarten at GGS before starting at the Hermitage in grade 1 and going on to Clyde in 3rd form.
The Clyde and GGS connection runs deep, with Clyde girls being sisters, daughters, mothers and wives of Geelong Grammarians since time immemorial. And for over 40 years Clyde House has perpetuated the memory and traditions of Clyde School at GGS. We are part of the fabric of GGS now and always will be. Our daughters, nieces, grand-daughters and the ‘greats’ thereof continue to be among the happy throng of students at Clyde House. The history of the OGG Association has become part of the Clyde story, and vice versa. The book was launched at the 100 year ‘Back to Corio’ celebrations on 30 March 2014 and is available from the GGS Uniform shop for $85. Copies of ‘Clyde School – An Uncommon History’ by Melanie Guile are also available for purchase from the GGS Uniform Shop. OGG HISTORY BOOK
REUNIONS
‘Light Blue Generations – a History of The Old Geelong Grammarians’ by OGG Jim Darby tells the story of the OGG Association and its supportive relationship with GGS since the first old boys gathered in Melbourne for the Royal Agricultural shows each year in the late 1800s. They would gather at stylish coffee houses like Gunsler’s Cafe in Collins Street, reuniting after months of hard yakka on far flung properties. Since the 1880s, OGG friendships and business connections have created a powerful network of support, administration and financial initiatives which have sustained and built the School, equipping it for the demands of contemporary education.
1959 REUNION – CLYDE OLD GIRLS GREAT OCEAN BEACH WALK.
The adventurous ‘Fifty-niners’ – most of whom had been through Clyde in the same class and left in 1959 – have had a daring year completing, in April, the near 60 kilometre Great Ocean Walk in four days which was organised by our leader Annie Hamilton. We are proud to announce that 10 septuagenarians, some coming from interstate, were able to complete this truly spectacular walk and our lifetime friendships were again firmly cemented. The group behaved like schoolgirls (once more) and our brave guide David Mitchell managed to control the endless chatter, kept us moving and eventually got us safely 22
CLASS OF 71
Saturday 11th January 2014, enjoying drinks on the river bank, a breezy summer evening at Barwon Heads.
Anchor of the Fiji L-R – Back: Eda Ritchie (Beggs), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold), Fern Henderson (Welsh), Annie Hamilton (Coy), Belinda Philp (Laidlaw), Lil Griffiths (Lobb), Georgie Matyear (Bright), Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook), Lesley Griffin (Vincent) Front Pam Sinclair (Clyne).
L-R: School captain 1971 Sally McKay (Pearce), Sally Hudson (Mercer), Gillie Holyman, Angie Lyon (Rouse) and Margie Gillett (Cordner). 1963 REUNION
to our destination. Each day we were picked up by vehicle, completed the day’s walk and were then driven back to our overnight base. We stayed at the Cape Otway Lifestation near the Cape Otway lighthouse. Our journey began in magnificent weather and we proceeded westward past Aire River, Johanna Beach, Moonlight Head with both beach and cliff top walks, eventually arriving at our destination overlooking the Twelve Apostles. We amazed ourselves in achieving the journey and eagerly look forward to our next trip in 2015! Elizabeth Landy (Manifold)
Thirteen from the class of 1963 met for lunch at the Prince Albert Hotel in Richmond last October celebrating their 50th anniversary since leaving school. Although a small group it was a great catch up. L-R – Back: Amanda Cunliffe (Rogers), Angela Loriente (Chomley), Sue Rumley, Rhoda Handyside (Barr-Smith), Prim de Steiger (Bright), Sheila Little (Vincent), Helen Taylor (Ross), Janet Gordon (Affleck). L-R – Seated: Clem Hawker (Davies), Sue Richardson (Hawkes), Di Whittakers (Moore), Sue Schudmak (Sproat), Prue Plowman (Manifold)
23
FUTURE REUNIONS CLASS OF 1964
A reunion lunch will be held at Sue Schudmak (Sproat)’s house, 5 Fawkner Street, South Yarra, on Saturday 18 October (the day before the AGM) for those who left Clyde 50 years ago, or were peers of that group. Please email schumak@bigpond.net.au or contact Sue on 0418 560 563. CLASS OF 1974.
There will be a reunion lunch on Saturday 18 October 2014 at Kooyong Tennis Club. Contact Cas Bennetto: casbennetto@gmail.com OLD GIRLS’ NEWS Susan Duncan’s bestselling memoir, Salvation Creek, won the 2007 Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award and was shortlisted for the prestigious Dobbie Award, part of the Nita B Kibble awards for women writers. Its sequel, The House At Salvation Creek, was also a huge bestseller. She has now turned her hand to fiction and is the author of two novels: The Briny Cafe and Gone Fishing. keep in touch with Clyde because she lived in Kew with Miss Hay. After Miss Hay died, the demands of her own busy teaching career and raising a large family took over her life and she ‘rather lost touch’. She has been more housebound in the last couple of years, recovering from heart surgery, spending time between physio and doctor appointments and knitting for several babies born to ex-pupils and family members. She knitted a beautiful range of garments for the jumble sale, and hoped that they might ‘add a few dollars to the profits’. Thank you to Alice for this wonderful contribution! Debby West (Blakiston) is retiring from GGS after thirteen years as the Japanese teacher at Bostock House, and one year at the Highton campus. GGS Principal Stephen Meek said, ‘Debbie has been a valued and much loved member of staff who has always demonstrated a great passion for the teaching of languages. We thank Debbie for all that she has contributed to the School and her students and we wish her all the best for her well-deserved retirement’. Meg Hornabrook’s love affair with the Kimberley area did not end in 2012 with the publication of her book ‘The El Questro Story’. She returned to the region in April this year for her third coastal cruise in a chartered fishing boat.
Susan Duncan and dog Chip Chop Alice Gilbert (Tolhurst) the last surviving greatniece of Isabel Henderson has donated hand-knitted baby jackets to the Clyde jumble sale in 2013 and 2014. In a letter to Lou Robinson (McMillan), Alice wrote that until her marriage she had been able to
One day forty kilometres off the coast in the Admiral24
ty Gulf the unexpected happened – her dinghy capsized and sank in big seas and Meg and two other ageing biddies found themselves in a perilous situation.
League. ‘I thought, right, this is what we’re going to do here,’ Mrs Paton said. And so, on February 13, six friends converged on Mrs Paton’s house in Balwyn North, Victoria. Fears were aired, tips dispensed and they discovered they had all had ups and downs. The group gave Mrs Paton confidence to breastfeed her next two children for more than twelve months.
Clinging tenuously to an upturned esky they attempted to swim through turbulent seas to Cassini Island. However the Kimberley tide had other ideas. Strength failing and ignoring the prevalence of crocodiles and sharks the women kept their cool until three hours later rescue finally arrived. Words cannot describe how good their first drink was!
The Nursing Mothers’ Association, as the group called itself (switching to Australian Breastfeeding Association in 2001), met monthly, started a library and acted as unpaid counsellors.
Ros Allen (Wilkins) has written to let us know about the following:
Sometimes 20 people a day would ring her, often in the middle of the night, from as far as Canberra, saying ‘I don’t have enough milk, what do I do?’
Mary (Pops) Paton (Beecham, Cl’1951) OAM Mary Paton’s outstanding achievements have been highlighted this year as the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) celebrates its 50th anniversary. In 1964, Mary was a founding member of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia (NMAA), which was renamed in 2001 to become the ABA. Through Mary’s leadership and initiatives the ABA has become a nationwide organisation, supporting more than 80,000 mothers a year with the services of 1,100 trained volunteers including counsellors, specialists in infant and child care, health and nutrition. In addition to her Order of Australia Medal (OAM), Mary has been listed in the Australian Women’s Register, the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, and named as an Australian Living Treasure.
Today, the ABA has more than 230 branches, has a presence in every state, supports more than 80,000 mothers a year, and runs a 24-hour help line. There are 1,100 trained volunteer counsellors.’
Mary (Pops) Beecham attended Clyde from 194951, as did her sister Helen from 1949-52. The (edited) article below which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age in Melbourne details how Clyde Old Girl Mary Paton (Beecham) was instrumental in starting up this vital organisation. ‘The Australian Breastfeeding Association started with six mothers meeting in a suburban lounge room 50 years ago today.
Proud grandmother and recently great-grandmother Xenia Laycock (Gardiner) with her grandson Anthony McIntosh at his wedding to Neredah Blake in Portsea. Anthony is the son of Marita McIntosh (Laycock). The glamorous wedding was featured in Gourmet Traveller magazine, April 2013.
It was 1964 and Mary Paton felt a failure for struggling to breastfeed her first baby, Brigid.
Ann (Roo) Rawlins (Hornabrook) writes: Earlier this year husband John and I travelled to India to attend the International Raptor Conference in Pune, India. We heard some fascinating lectures given by dedicated people committed to saving Asian raptors (birds of prey). John had already supplied information and photographs including images of his grandfather and family taken in Poona (Pune) in 1912
There was no one to talk to. She knew breastfeeding was good, but it was not common in her family, and multinationals promoted formula. After a drop in supply, a nurse advised weaning Brigid at four months. A book proved the saviour. US author Karen Pryor’s Nursing Your Baby mentioned breastfeeding support groups for American mothers run by the Le Leche 25
Felicity Dalgleish (Gardner), was one of fifty women jewellers selected to make a brooch representing a special female Australian. It was for the 2012-2014 Australian touring exhibition ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor’, viewed by over 30,000 visitors.
for a book which was launched at the same time. Due to the incessant rain, fog and wash-aways on the narrow mountain road, the drive from Delhi to Ranikhet took over twelve hours instead of seven. On arriving late at night in minus temperatures and a power failure we were pleased the resort moved us from a tent to the main house, despite its leaking roof. Back in the days of the Raj this house would have been quite a mansion. We awoke to inches of snow and walked to the Military Hospital nearby where John was born. On discovering the reason for our visit to Ranikhet we were overwhelmed by incredibly warm and friendly hospitality. We also visited some wildlife parks and saw the wild Asiatic lion in its last remaining habitat, one-horned rhinoceros, Asiatic elephants and glimpsed a tiger and many other interesting animals and birds.
Felicity has jewellery represented in many public collections, including two pieces in the National Gallery of Victoria. Helen Connell (Wettenhall) had her first solo art exhibition at Tacit Contemporary Art Gallery in Abbotsford, April – May 2014. Wonderful paintings were displayed reflecting the adventures enjoyed by Helen and her fellow travellers as they trekked through rugged landscapes of rural Australia, including Tasmania and the Kimberleys.
Back in Australia I enjoyed a fabulous few days with school friends organised by Annie Hamilton (Coy) walking along the Great Ocean Walk. Lots of laughter and reminiscing, what a fun filled few days it was and the weather was perfect for us to enjoy the sensational scenery. We are just back from a marvellous Garden Tour of Provence – mostly privately owned by English people. A wonderful week on a boat on Canal du Midi with two former Hermitage girls and their husbands, before travelling to Bavaria to join a Naturetrek expedition with John’s brothers and their wives. The botanist was excellent and we saw some wonderful alpine flowers. Sadly the bird life in Europe is very disappointing – largely due to the pressure of humanity.
Brigid Robertson (Gordon) and husband Hugh (son of Lorie Caddy (Robertson/Yencken) were featured in Australian House and Garden magazine with their beautiful garden at Bolobek on Mt. Macedon. Brigid is a GGS Foundation committee member and the Robertsons are leading lights in the Australian Open Garden Scheme (photo above).
Margaret Paterson (Sewell) writes: Life is treating myself and family well, although at this stage I only have the one grandchild who of course is adorable. Sophie, who is about to have her third birthday, is currently living in KL. When she was four months old Simon’s job moved him to London, which was a wonderful excuse for us to visit but four weeks just isn’t long enough. Now that they are in KL they are a bit closer and it means they can return to Australia for weddings etc. so we can see much more of them. My daughter Sarah is still living in Melbourne and working for Red Cross. My youngest, James is currently back working in Berlin. He is our true traveller – he has paddled the Amazon, ridden a push bike for three months through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, done the walk across the top of Spain which took him four weeks to achieve and has also backpacked and scuba-dived his way around Israel, Jordan and Iran as well as of course doing the normal European travels.
Judith Harris (Cook) and her sister Susan Hodge (Ross/Cook) attended Clyde 1949-51. Judy has written the following letter, accompanied by a photo of the school in 1951. Ed.: Unfortunately we are unable to reproduce this photo in the Cluthan. If anyone would like a copy please contact Julia Ponder, Unit 15/89 Bay Terrace Wynnum 4178, (E) julia@comart.com.au I am sure you already have this photograph archived but I thought it might be of interest for me to point out Susan and myself. If you look over Miss Hay’s left shoulder there is a girl standing behind her and on top of that girl’s head is my sister. I am sitting in the front row second from left – with a fringe.
As for myself and husband Graeme we are enjoying retirement after many hectic years in the supermarket business. 26
a smouldering wreck, off the road some way out of town, and traced ownership to her. I rang her the other day and she is at last coping well with her new automatic model. She said she would be pleased if I sent you the poem for the Cluthan. It was published in the main Launceston daily.
The year of this school photo is 1951, and Jane Chirnside was Head Girl. I also have a photograph of the cast of Daddy Longlegs, the school play of that year. Whilst I was there, there was a really cold winter and we had some snow! Most of the girls had never seen snow before so we were let off school for the afternoon and raided the kitchen for the tin trays to use as toboggans. Cookie, fortunately, wasn’t around as he was usually drunk by then and liable to swear at us. His white cockatoo, which used to sit on a perch on the way down to the playing field, used to hurl expletives, learned from him, at us when we passed.
ODE TO THE TOYOTA SECA OF 1985
Where I live is safe and quiet, at least that’s what I thought, until thieves stole and torched my car sometime in the night. Waking in the morning, police knocking on the door, and telling me the tidings of NO CAR any more. All the future plans I’d made were cancelled right away and every-day commitments that oldies have each day.
I have memories of the trip to Hanging Rock and of happy Sunday afternoons spent down at the Res. fishing for yabbies with meat which we had saved from lunch and tied onto a piece of string. We were meant to be revising!
Gone was my independence thieves took and torched that night, but dwelling on the negatives has never seemed quite right.
Angie (Angela) Wawn is collecting stories for a proposed book on rescued and re-homed dogs, which she is writing under a pen name, Angela Rhodes. If you’ve got such a dog and would like its story included, please send it to her as soon as possible. Your story should include the dog’s origins, how long you’ve had it, its gender and colour, how it came to be rescued or adopted by you, anything known about its past life and why it was seeking a new home. Please also include how it’s adapted to life with its new family, speed at learning its new name and any other details you think appropriate. Please also include any photo or photos you’d like used. The deadline is very soon! Please send your story to her via e-mail angelarhodes34@tpg.com.au or post it to her at 97 Arthur Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010, addressing the envelope to Angela Wawn in case her usual postman is away. All stories will be acknowledged on receipt. Unfortunately, at the moment she can’t offer payment for stories used until and unless the book becomes a best seller, although each contributor of a story will be sent a free copy of the book when it’s published.
It has disrupted life for me and wasted precious days, to organise insurance and funds I’ve had to raise. My trusty friend and car expert found a replacement car to give me back my freedom, and help me lift the bar. Vandals serve no purpose and ought to be ashamed, and one day soon they will be caught and subsequently blamed, For the crime they have committed to spoil the peace and quiet of our village safe and sound every day and night. On looking back, this incident showed kindness and support. From friends in our community – more than I ever thought. The car that I’ve bought is up to date with gadgets galore. Once I’ve learned to drive the thing, I couldn’t ask for more. Sally concludes by saying ‘Here’s hoping for a fabulous 100th Cluthan!’
Sally Salter (Stevenson) writes: I hate emailing-----BUT------I was so touched by this that I thought our fellow COGs would appreciate it too. Hope you agree. It would have been much easier to photocopy it and send it snail mail. June Calvert (Taylor) an old friend from my year at school (both now 80) sent me this poem she had written together with her usual long, long Christmas letter last December. She explained that some hooligans, during the night, had stolen her much loved old car she’d owned for years out of her carport in the retirement village in which she lives in Launceston last October. The first she knew about it was the police knocking on her door some time into the morning saying they had found it,
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING AWARD WINNERS Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) has recently taken up wax and bronze sculpture and has just received an award, judged by well known sculptor Geoffrey Bartlett, for one of her wax entries in the Association of Sculptors of Victoria (ASV) 2014 Annual Exhibition. COGA PRIZE FOR ENGLISH, GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Congratulations to Geelong Grammar School students Chanel Irvine and Olivia O’Connor. 27
COGA PRIZE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE, BRAEMAR COLLEGE
who did not have one, but they never pointed it out to me. It was just good-hearted family banter,’ Mrs Hindhaugh laughs.
Congratulations to Braemar College student Samuel Hasell. Samuel has shown exceptional commitment and leadership as a youth ambassador for the Macedon Ranges Shire community.
‘We are known as a very close family and we were brought up with a very strong ethic of community service.
ORDER OF AUSTRALIA A FAMILY AFFAIR FOR CHRISTINA HINDHAUGH (BEGGS)
‘I feel enormously humbled by it. I look around my local community and see people who also might deserve one more than I perhaps. I will dedicate the award to the community of Balmoral of which I am very proud to be a member. I am also very proud to be part of the Ballarat community and am delighted to be living in semi-retirement in Buninyong.’ In a sense, it is the second part of Mrs Hindhaugh’s citation which she is most enthusiastic about – for services to women in agriculture. She says the role of women in the bush hasn’t received the recognition it deserves, particular from those living in the large cities. ‘I am proud to accept the award on behalf of farming women,’ Mrs Hindhaugh says. ‘I have written books about what it is like to be a farming woman in the Western District that was sold all over. I think people in Sydney have no idea about the lives of country women. I travelled all over Australia promoting the lives of farming women.
From the Ballarat Courier: Article by Gav Mcgrath. Picture: Adam Trafford. Christina Hindhaugh has joined her siblings with an Order of Australia citation.
‘Women are often the backbone of the country in terms of running small communities. That role goes unheralded at times.’
Christina Hindhaugh might have had good reason to feel a bit left out. She’s one of four siblings and, until today, was the only one who did not have an Order of Australia citation.
Mrs Hindhaugh says she is approaching the age of 70 ‘as slowly as possible’ and, while happily semiretired, retains a passion for innovation in agriculture. • • • •
Now she has joined the family, having been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal in the general division (OAM) for her services to the community of Balmoral and to women in agriculture.
Patron, Balmoral Bush Nursing Centre Secretary, Friends of Buninyong Botanical Garden Patron, Balmoral Health Appeal Co-producer, The First Eleven documentary, ABC Television • Hall of Fame inductee, Southern Grampians Shire Council Business Achievement Awards • Order of Merit, Australian Red Cross, Western Region
Mrs Hindhaugh, who lives in Buninyong, is the executive director of the Glenelg River Rosemary Farm, the largest commercial rosemary farm in the southern hemisphere. She is the secretary of the Friends of Buninyong Botanical Garden, former president of Balmoral’s Australian Red Cross branch and patron of the Balmoral Health Appeal.
MISSING ADDRESS
Her eldest sister is Tamie Fraser, who received her Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) citation for her services to the nation. Brother Hugh Beggs was honoured with a Member of the Order (AM) for services to the wool industry, while sister Eda Ritchie (Beggs) also received an AM for service to education, government, the arts and health.
Does anyone know of the new address for the following COG? Nancy Duncan (Coles) 10 Hunter St, North Balwyn 3143 Please contact Sue Schudmak (Sproat) (P) 03 9867 2663 (E) schudmak@bigpond.net.au
‘I often pointed it out to them that I was the only one 28
ple from other houses and work in groups. We have also been lucky enough to have Mrs Steer as our Assistant Head of House, with her kind and understanding nature and her willingness to help with whatever is necessary. We also welcome some new tutors to Clyde House: Mrs Rupinder Sian, Tanika Richards, Miss Julie Roycroft, and have farewelled Mrs Hedley (who is on maternity leave with a little baby boy, Hal) and Mr Justin Robertson who is pursuing developing the positive education at Geelong Grammar. A big thank you should go to our wonderful Matron Viv (Vivienne Murrell) as the house would never run as smoothly without her. She makes sure all jobs are done and of course is much loved for her sweet treats at supper time. We also welcome all of the new bubbly year 10s to Clyde House.
CLYDE HOUSE NEWS News from GGS is that Heather Morgan (former Head of Clyde House) has retired after 24 years at GGS. Heather joined the Highton campus in 1989 where she became Deputy Head of Campus before transferring to Corio as Head of Otway House in 1998. She was appointed Head of Clyde House in 2003, a position she held until 2010. She attended the Clyde School Centenary at Nine Darling Street in 2010 and had clearly made many friends among Clyde Old Girls and in the Clyde community. She was a highly regarded teacher of History and English, particularly in years 11 and 12, where she challenged her students to extend their boundaries. She travelled to France in 2001 as part of a Foundation Study Award to research the foundations of the Norman dynasty. She co-ordinated Debating, helping to establish the South Barwon Debating Competition, coached netball and hockey, and was an active member of the Common Room Association committee.
Our house captain for 2014 is Amy Graves who has slipped into the role effortlessly with her organised, inclusive and responsible nature. She has introduced some great initiatives into Clyde to make sure everyone feels comfortable with one another, including 6pm dinners where you can assemble at the bell and have dinner with different year levels in Clyde. She also has a fantastic group of girls helping her lead the house, including; Alex Kent and Jessica Sleigh (CoVice-Captains), Camilla a’Beckett, Ally Kirkwood, Amelia Lim, Lucy Moore, Annabel Richardson and Georgette Sanchez who have introduced many initiatives to make Clyde a more welcoming and academic environment.
The Head of Clyde House 2011-2012 was Kirsty McCartney, who helped to host COGA’s AGM and tree dedication ceremony in honour of Dame Elisabeth in October 2012. Kirsty stepped down at the end of 2012. The current Head of Clyde House is Ross Patterson, who was appointed to the position in early 2013. Ross is keen to incorporate the history and memorabilia of Clyde School into life at Clyde House, especially during the 100 years-in-Corio celebrations planned for 2014. He welcomes any interaction with COGA and visiting Clyde Old Girls.
The first sporting event early on this year that helped to create new friendships with the year 10s was the house swimming sports. We were led by our swimming captains Tiah Vocale and Amy Graves. Everyone put in their best effort whether it was cheering chants on the sideline or swimming their hearts out; every little bit counted. It was a great ending with Clyde house finally defeating The Hermitage, reclaiming the cup and chanting the whole way back to Clyde house. I think it is fair to say we had the most impressive cheers with traditional war cries being sung with great enthusiasm. We must also congratulate Camilla a’Beckett who was the runner up for the girls open age group in her division. She did a fantastic job in and out of the pool and represented her house with pride.
DAME ELISABETH’S TREE AND PLAQUE
COGA is very grateful for the assistance and support provided by the Clyde House Parents’ Association, Jane McMicking (Turnbull) and Josephine Tito at GGS in the design and installation of the plaque which has been placed beside Dame Elisabeth’s sycamore tree near the entrance to Clyde House. CLYDE HOUSE REPORT 2013-2014
Geelong Grammar school has had its 100 year celebrations this year celebrating the move to Corio. It has been a very exciting year at GGS and in Clyde house, being part of the celebrations. Clyde house has had a major change this year having our first male Head of House for Clyde, Mr Ross Patterson who is much loved in the house and has fitted in perfectly, displaying discipline and organisational skills to create a better working and living environment within Clyde as well as learning more about beauty products every day! He has put some great initiatives into Clyde including increased study hours and a collaborative learning centre where students can bring peo-
House music was led by our house music captains Camilla a’Beckett and Amelia Lim. We sang ‘Right back to where we started from’ by Maxine Nightingale as a whole house choir and sang with gusto which made it a fun afternoon. A small group sang ‘Get Free’ by Major Lazer; the group consisted of: Camilla a’Beckett, Tara Alizzi, Tara O’Reilly, Georgia Sherwood, Katherine Russell, Lucy Moore, Alex Kent, Xenia Brookes, Cosi Carnegie, Amelia Lim, 29
Ally Kirkwood with Anis Aziz and Sasha Culley on guitars. Tara Alizzi and Tara O’Reilly sang a duet together and blew everyone away with their amazing Beyoncé like voices! Clyde house may not have won but we sang with gusto which should be commended!
with LOTS of amazing food, music and dance. They are great nights that are thoroughly enjoyed by the house but none of this would happen without the slaving away of Viv in the kitchen. She produces amazing food for no less than 60 hungry girls and families of staff.
As you probably already know Clyde has a strong tradition of producing amazing rowers and this year was no exception with the year 12 rowers being Amy Graves (1st VIII), Lucy Moore (1st VIII), Annabel Richardson (coxed boys 1st VIII) and Camilla a’Beckett ( 2nd VIII). A lot of year 11s and year 10s were also involved in the rowing and did a fantastic job with a special mention to both Xenia Brookes and Bridgette Hardy who were two of the year 11s who made it to the Girls 1st VIII crew that won the Head of the River.
Stepping back in time to 2013, we had the Athletics Sports day in which Clyde has a history of being a great contender. For the last nine years Clyde has won the overall cup so we all had big shoes to fill once more. We were led by our captain Amey McMicking to victory with Clyde competing enthusiastically in all events. Whether people were cheering on the sidelines or competing, it was a fantastic atmosphere. Particular congratulations go to Xenia Brookes for being the Under 17 runner up and Obby Bedford the runner up in the Under 16 age group. Clyde placed in most events. This was because of all the hard training some girls had done with the John Landy Squad and others who had created their own training programs in order to compete in the athletics so Clyde could keep their winning streak. Overall Clyde had a very successful day.
Clyde also enjoyed a special house outing in term one to ‘Adventure Park’ in Geelong followed by lunch. We had girls going on every ride possible whether it was racing Patto down the water slide, riding the merry-go-round or leisurely lying in the sun. Clyde House had a fantastic outing and a big thank you goes to Mr Patterson and Mrs Steer for organising this.
The year 12 cohort in Clyde for 2013 had great results with many girls receiving amazing scores. Cec Cameron, the Clyde House Captain of 2013, received the highest score in Clyde getting a 39 in her IB which equates to a 97.30% ATAR.
We also had a Clyde House netball and dodge ball competition this year with 5 teams entered. It was a great night with everyone loving getting competitive or just there for the enjoyment of it. At the end of term two we also had a trivia night which was very competitive between the whole house with lots of serious and funny questions that tripped up a lot of people. It was a great initiative organised by some year 12s in the house.
I would like to say good luck to the Year 12 cohort of 2014, especially within Clyde, for a successful end of the year and wish you all the best for your exams. Clyde is a house of love, friendship and success and all former Clyde girls should be very proud of the house. Current students feel very lucky to be a member of this wonderful house!
This year there have been a few new committees started within Clyde. One is the environmental committee who have completed building the Clyde vegetable patch with all sorts of vegetables and herbs. We have had parsley, tomatoes, lettuce, beetroots and chives that have grown successfully and many more vegetables to come. We have also held lots of theme nights in Clyde including a Greek and Italian night
Lucy Moore (Year 12)
Clyde House Girls before the Boat Club Dance 2014.
30
CLYDE HOUSE GIRLS WITH A CLYDE SCHOOL CONNECTION – 2014
Student
Relationship
Clyde Old Girl
Clyde Years
Married Name
Camilla a’Beckett (Yr12)
Great-niece
Peggy Lansell
Cl’1933-37
Scott
Cosi Carnegie (Yr12) Matilda Carnegie (Y10)
Grand-daughters Great-nieces Great-nieces
Carmen Clarke Sylvia Clarke Georgina Clarke
Cl’1950-56 Cl’1960-67 Cl’1955-60
Carnegie McLachlan Bragg
Sasha Culley (Yr10)
Daughter
Annette Devilee
Cl’/GGS 1974-76
Culley
Lucy Fletcher (Y10)
Daughter
Jane Fleetwood
Cl’/GGS 1974-77
Mathilda Harley (Yr10)
Great-niece
Helen Kennedy
Cl’1939-48
Rollo
Isabelle Luxton (Yr10)
Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Margot Davey Deirdre Davey Margaret Luxton Elizabeth Luxton
Cl’1946-53 Cl’1948-54 Cl’1933-38 Cl’1925-30
Woods Naylor Roffey Howard
Olivia McFarlane (Yr10)
Daughter
Amanda Gubbins
Cl’/GGS 1974-79
McFarlane
Lucy Moore (Yr12)
Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Mary Murphy Elizabeth Murphy Anne Murphy Susan Finlay Joan Kinnear
Cl’1931-37 Cl’1931-38 Cl’1938-45 Cl’1954-59 Cl’1940-45
Moore a’Beckett Armitt Sutherland Moore
Sammy Reis (Yr11)
Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Mary Murphy Elizabeth Murphy Anne Murphy Joan Kinnear
Cl’1931-37 Cl’1931-38 Cl’1938-45 Cl’1940-45
Moore a’Beckett Armitt Moore
India Rofe (Yr11)
Great-grand-Daughter Niece
Zeerust Cameron Julie O’Connor
Cl’1920-21 Cl’/GGS 1973-76
Clarke Farrell
Katherine Russell (Yr12)
Great-great-niece Niece Niece
Mary Russell Susan Russell Caroline Russell
Cl’1925-28 Cl’1962-69 Cl’1967-73
Perchey
Lizzy Spiden (Yr10)
Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-great-niece Great-grand-Daughter
Ann Ross Helen Ross Rosemary Ross Mary Ross Susan Staughton
Cl’1956-61 Cl’1958-63 Cl’1959-65 Cl’1935-40 Cl’1929-31
Spiden Taylor Borthwick Winter-Irving Ross
Jess Sleigh (Y12)
Niece
Kate Bryant
Cl’/GGS 1972-78
Sleigh
Annabelle Stewart (Y10)
Great-niece
Susan Finlay
Cl’1954-59
Sutherland
31
VALE WE RECORD, WITH REGRET, THE FOLLOWING DEATHS
Patricia Margaret (Sally) Alston 9 August 1941 – 30 October 2013 Clyde 1952-58
Betty McKay Grainger (Hunt/Jones) (Kidd) 2 February 1917 – 12 December 2013 Clyde 1926-33
Helen Estelle Hill Smith (Lane) OAM 28 April 1920 – 20 October 2012 Clyde 1934-36
Margaret Jill Minifie (Manifold) 28 August 1928 – 13 October 2013 Clyde 1943-46
Susan Jane Ross (Hodge) (Cook) 14 April 1934 – 14 April 2014 Clyde 1950-51
Mary Essington Munckton (Lewis) OAM 29 November 1923 – 4 August 2014 Clyde 1938-41
Karin Hutchins (Brettingham-Moore) 21 January 1957 – 30 June 2014 Clyde 1973-74
Patricia O’Neill (Sanger) 15 November 2013 Clyde 1933-36
Alanna Jayne MacDonald (Barry) 16 August 1956 – 3 July 2014 Clyde 1969-73
Anne Pitcher (Nevile) 27 March 1960 – 16 May 2013 Clyde/GGS 1972-77
Nina May Mace (Bullivant) 29 July 2009 Clyde 1930-32
Patricia Steven (Vinton-Smith) 3 September 2013 Clyde 1940-43
OBITUARIES
friends of Alister and Edie Clark, they have also maintained a magnificent garden. Alister Clark apparently named two roses after the Alstons – Mrs Alston’s Rose (c1940) a deep-pink to light-red polyanthus, and the Maude Alston rose, a cherry-red floribunda named after their mother.
Patricia Margaret (Sally) Alston 9 August 1941 – 30 October 2013 Clyde 1952-58 Patricia Margaret Alston, always known as Sally, was one of four children (three girls and a son Tom) born to Maude (Did) (dePledge) and Tom Alston. Sally and her two sisters Catherine (Tid) and Anne Forrest (Alston) all boarded at Clyde in the 1950s. Home was the beautiful historic property Oaklands Junction (c1850), on the outskirts of Melbourne near Tullamarine Airport in the Shire of Bulla, purchased in 1936 by her grandfather Thomas Andrew Alston (died 1950). The Alston family has owned and lived on the property ever since. For Tid and Sally Alston, running the farm at Oaklands Junction became a lifetime enterprise.
Sally and her sisters first joined the Girl Guides while at Clyde in the 1950s. Their mother Did Alston was Guiding Captain of the Clyde School Guides company at the time. From this, Sally developed a love of camping and went on to a lifetime of significant leadership roles in the Girl Guide movement. At local level she was captain of Guides at Clyde and became captain of Bulla Guide Company which she started in her home community. She became a district leader and more recently a unit leader in Essendon. Sally progressed beyond local level to state, national and world level involvement in the Guide movement. She volunteered on many state camps, organising and managing teams, and working tirelessly on the committees of state campsites at Rowallan in Riddells Creek, and Britannia Park at Yarra Junction.
Over the years Tid and Sally have faced considerable challenges in managing a 1,000 acre agricultural business on the city fringe; increased traffic, rubbish dumping, land subdivisions, encroaching development, weed infestation from nearby ‘lifestyle’ properties, escalating rates and taxes and unsympathetic government responses to the needs of farmers and rural managers. With a primary enterprise of prime lambs (400-800 breeding ewes and 400 weaners, Merino/Border Leicester cross), together with rotational cropping, Tid and Sally have shown resilience, persistence, endeavour and initiative in finding strategies to cope with these problems. As neighbours and
In 1968-69, Sally was Deputy Guider in Charge at the Guide world centre, Sangam in India. As 32
er of Clyde for many years, Chairman of school council 1955-63 and a founding member of the Clyde Association, which replaced the old Parent’s Association. The loyalty and longevity of Clyde’s councillors were key factors in the school’s stability and success in that era.
a volunteer (it is now a paid position) Sally established a vegetable garden against considerable odds (theft by neighbouring residents!) and continued on the world Sangam sub-committee until 1975. She was made an honorary member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, entitling her to attend Guide World Conferences from 1978, and every three years thereafter. At world conferences, Sally took on significant supportive roles for members of the Australian team, everything from laundry to stitching hundreds of calico bags. These were for shoppers to use at Guide world markets, raising funds to build a new world centre in London – Pax Lodge (a project dear to Sally). Sally donated freely and generously of her time, energy and money, proving to be a prodigiously effective organiser and much-loved team manager.
Helen Estelle Hill Smith (Lane) OAM 28 April 1920 – 20 October 2012 Clyde 1934-36 Helen Estelle Lane was born on 28 April 1920 to Mrs Stella and Mr Robert (Bob) T. Lane, a car racing enthusiast and pioneer of the Victorian motor industry. She and her sister Noel (1916, later Mrs Charles Lane), and brother Robert were raised in the family home at 618 Toorak Road, Toorak. Helen attended Clyde from 1934-36. After leaving school she worked at Radio 3AW before joining the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) to work as a motor driver for the US army in Melbourne, and then at the Stonnington Convalescent Hospital. She had a deep love of horse riding and thoroughbred racing, possibly from going with her father to see Phar Lap race. As the daughter of a prominent Melbourne family Helen appeared often in the social pages with her old Clyde friends. However the impact of war and the depression on the family gave rise to Helen’s lifetime of positive thinking and considerable frugality. In 1946 she attended the Adelaide Cup Carnival with her mother Stella, and met her future husband Wyndham Hill Smith (1909-90), a well-known sportsman, WA state cricketer, racehorse owner and manager of his family’s Yalumba Winery in Angaston, South Australia.
In the 1960s and 90s, Sally served a total of eleven years on the Guides Public Relations committee, promoting Guiding far and wide throughout the world. Among her efforts, she produced a huge array of jams, pickles, sauces and chutneys for the Whittlesea Show and the Lady Delacombe golf days over twenty years, always lining up teams of helpers. Sally served on the Girl Guides Victoria State council for twenty-one years, and on the State Executive for a total of fifteen years at different times. She encouraged others to take on executive roles and supported them afterwards. In 1999 she became a member of the Olave Baden-Powell Society. In 2009 a Centenary Supporter Award was launched, creating a special group of supporters for world guiding projects. Sally joined this, and was presented with her Centenary Supporters certificate and a special pin at a Victorian luncheon, shortly before she died. Sally was personally known to the patron HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark.
On 23 April 1947 Helen and Wyndham were married at St John’s Church, Toorak. After their honeymoon in Sydney, Helen and Wyndham’s life revolved around building the Yalumba wine business, pursuing their interest in horse racing, and raising their three sons Robert Wyndham (1951) Sam (1953) and Patrick, who tragically died in 1960. Golden-haired and attractive, Helen always dressed stylishly with an unerring sense of fashion. The couple were popular hosts at Cheltenham where Wyndham was Chairman of the Port Adelaide Racing Club. They had 530 winners on the racetrack (horses such as Galway Pipe, Cellarmaster, Toastmaster and Winemaker reflected their love of ‘wine’ names). Helen’s own racing colours were carried by Puncheon winning the Marlboro Plate in 1972, and she gradually whittled away at the male dominated racetracks to win women’s rights and privileges.
Girl Guides Victoria recognised Sally’s outstanding service with a 45-year long service award, and Victoria’s highest award, The Emu. Both her Emu Award and her OBPS pin were placed on her coffin by her family. Sally ‘was an amazing person who will always be remembered as a lady who let no-one rest on their laurels, an imposing figure wherever she was’ said Lynn Emblin, Assistant State Commissioner, Girl Guides. Sally was also a lifetime active supporter of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association, maintaining her old school friendships forever. (Adapted from the eulogy written by Annette Swaffield – a guiding friend – and read at Sally’s service 5 November 2013). Other information from Cluthans, Clyde history book, the internet, and friends.)
Helen made lifelong friends in the Australian racing industry. In 1967 she suggested to Betty and Colin Hayes that Lindsay Park near Yalumba might be a
Ed.: Sally’s father Tom Alston was an active support33
Helen maintained her close family ties and friendships for life. After Wyndham died in 1990, she continued to care for her horses, sanctuary and the gardens at Yalumba. Her rules to live by never wavered: keep your feet firmly on the ground, your principles intact and care for the community. She was an integral part of the growth and success of the Yalumba wine business which is now owned by her sons Robert and Sam Hill Smith. Robert lives there with his wife Annabel, and Helen’s three grand-daughters Jessica, Lucy and Georgina Hill Smith.
good property to buy. The result paved the way for a deep and enduring friendship with Colin and Betty and the foundation of a legendary stud for horse racing and breeding. Before Betty died in March 2012, she said one of her great joys in later years was to share Sunday afternoon teas with her ‘abiding friend Helen Hill Smith’. Being married to Wyndham meant Helen was always called upon to host visitors from all walks of life. The family entertained the touring Test Cricket teams at Yalumba for twenty-one years. Beyond governors and prime ministers they entertained the Dukes of Edinburgh, Gloucester and Kent, while Barry Humphries and Peter Allen were others who enjoyed Helen’s prodigious catering and hospitality. Her role promoting the Barossa region never ceased and she became a Baron (or Baroness) of the Barossa. In 1983, Helen was awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia, general division) in the Australia Day Honours for her service to the Angaston community. She was a foundation member of the Adelaide Children’s Hospital Local Auxiliary and the driving force behind the establishment of the Angaston Cottage Industries. She was an active member of various community organisations and in 1983 was President of the Angaston and District Hospital Ladies’ Auxiliary, a member of the Adelaide Hills environment committee and of Barossa Heritage Study. She also became a Life Member of the Asthma Foundation of South Australia, part of a nationwide organisation providing services to support and educate asthma sufferers throughout Australia.
Compiled from internet resources, Adelaide Advertiser and information provided by Robert Hill Smith. Susan Jane Ross (Hodge) (Cook) 14 April 1934 – 14 April 2014 Clyde 1950-51 Susan Jane Cook was born in 1934 in England, the third of four children of Captain E. Gerald Richardson Cook OBE DSC RN and Brenda Edith Burnett, daughter of artist Cecil Ross Burnett. She had two sisters, Wendy Ann and Judith Brenda (born 1937), and a brother Peter who died aged four in Malta of diphtheria. Although not Catholic, Susan and her sisters’ early schooling was at a convent, Les Oiseaux. When Wendy said she wanted to become a nun, their parents became alarmed and sent Susan and Judith to a Church of England school instead, St. Helen’s in Northwood, Middlesex. They had an idyllic childhood in their lovely old house in Bearsted, Kent which had been requisitioned by the army for the duration of WWII. They had dogs, cats, ducks and ponies until their father, a naval engineer was seconded to work on the Woomera Rocket Range for English Electric. In 1949 their father was posted to Australia as DAMR with the Royal Australian Navy. The family sold their house in Kent and sailed from England on P&O’s SS Strathenden.
Helen loved Australian flora and fauna and established a sanctuary at Yalumba. In the late 1960s she campaigned to save the historic Moreton Bay fig trees which still grace Angaston’s main street. Yalumba is the oldest family-owned wine business in Australia, founded by Samuel Smith on land purchased from the Angas family in 1849 (‘Hill’ was added to the Smith surname by Wyndham’s parents, being the maiden name of his mother). In 1986, Yalumba named their annual Signature vintage after Helen Hill Smith. Since 1962, the ‘Signature’ has been awarded to the best traditional vintage Australian cabernet sauvignon and shiraz blend, and named to honour someone who has made a significant contribution to the tradition of Yalumba. Helen was described as ‘a tireless worker in the community and unstinting in her interest in the people and guests of Yalumba’. In July 2009, a special tasting of the 1986 Helen Hill Smith vintage described it as ‘medium depth colour, bright leafy minty cabernet, red fruits, medium weight but an elegant style, excellent to drink now’.
Susan and Judith were enrolled at Clyde 1950-51. Their father was disappointed not to win the fathers’ race on sports’ day when he learned that Miss Hay awarded a bottle of whisky to the winner! Susan learned to play golf, build cubbies and fish for yabbies; she loved Clyde because it offered friendliness, fun and adventures after the stuffy restrictions of English boarding schools. 34
On return to England, Susan did a course in floristry at Constance Spry and then worked at the Dorchester Hotel in London. She then worked for Lady Pulbrook at Pulbrook & Gould Ltd, before leaving flowerarranging to work in retail at Peter Jones department store. She married her second cousin David Hodge and moved with him to Uganda where he ran a tea plantation. They had two children, Elizabeth Clare (1963) and Robert (1965). In the late 1960s they decided to move to South Australia because of the political unrest in Uganda. They settled in Nuriootpa, while David worked for the South Australian government agricultural department. They divorced some years later and Susan moved to live near her sister Wendy Pitsch in Paterson, NSW. She moved several times before finally settling in Tanunda, South Australia and remarried to become Susan Ross. According to sister Judy, Susan’s ‘last few years have not been happy’ as she suffered from Alzheimer’s and was confined to a care home in 2008, and it was there that she died.
was awarded to girls who had the potential to become particularly useful citizens, ‘imbued with regard for the property and feelings of others and possessed of a nature that made for pleasant companionship.’ Anyone who knew Karin would agree that this was a fair assessment of her personality and outlook. She had a great giggle, was always up for a laugh, and loved her time at Clyde.
Compiled from letters written by Judy Harris (Cook), Lawshalls, Colne Engaine, Essex CO6 2HU, UK.
Written by Cas Bennetto and Sue Kilbracken (Heazlewood).
After Clyde, Karin went into nursing at St John’s Hospital, Hobart and finished her studies at the Launceston General. She married Bill Hutchins in 1983. She is survived by her husband Bill, three children, Monty (1984) Sophie (1986) and Max (1991) and one grandson. Karin passed away peacefully after a long battle with pancreatic cancer on 30 June, 2014.
We had some news about Susan Ross (Hodge) (Cook) in 2011 when a volunteer in her nursing home, Penny Pfitzner, got a little sense out of Susan one day after a screening of the film ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’. Susan said in a rare moment of coherence ‘I went to school near Hanging Rock’. Penny the volunteer followed it up on the internet, and found the name of Clyde School, contacted Margie Gillett by googling ‘Clyde’ and wrote to us about Susan. So kind, it was very good to hear the end of the story. What an interesting life.
Alanna Jayne MacDonald (Barry) 16 August 1956 – 3 July 2014 Clyde 1969-73 Alanna Barry was a welcome surprise on 16 August 1956, arriving unexpectedly twenty minutes after her identical twin sister Joanna (Jo). Jack Barry and his wife Lois had two older children, Fraser and Wendy.
Karin Hutchins (Brettingham-Moore) 21 January 1957 – 30 June 2014 Clyde 1973-74 Karin Brettingham-Moore was born on 21 January, 1957 in Hobart, Tasmania. She had two siblings, an older brother Nicholas (who tragically died in a motorcycle accident) and Alexander. Karin grew up in Tasmania and spent her early school years at The Friends School, Hobart. In 1973 she bounced into Clyde and, with her warm personality and dimpled grin, immediately befriended everyone she met. In that year she was awarded a Deportment Girdle. In 1974 she was a prefect, Treasurer of the Amenities committee, played in the Senior B Baseball team and entered five HSC subjects. A conscientious student with a good sense of fun, Karin was awarded The Olga Hay Memorial Prize in her final year. Clyde Old Girls may recall that the Olga Hay Memorial Prize (Miss Hay, Headmistress 1937-1959)
Alanna and Ian MacDonald with sons Will and Hamish 35
interest in spinal pathologies, upper and lower limb injuries, women’s health and particularly acute health management.
The Barry family lived in the Western District of Victoria, where Alanna attended Mortlake Primary School from 1961-68. She excelled in the classroom and in sport, winning Mortlake and district trophies, and enjoyed daily horse-riding with her friend Susie Palmer. Tragically, Lois Barry died of breast cancer when Alanna was only 10, and shortly afterwards her friend Susie died, leaving a terrible void. Susie’s mother Joan Palmer (Austin) stepped in to help the Barry family, starting a lifelong friendship with Alanna.
Alanna and Ian travelled, worked and changed addresses many times before settling in Bungeet, northeastern Victoria in 1992. While raising their three children Will, Hamish and Katrina, Alanna worked as a physiotherapist, first at Benalla Hospital and then at the North East Physiotherapy practice (now North East Life), earning the respect and love of her patients. She was keenly involved in the local community, serving on the Thoona Primary School council, playing highly competitive tennis regularly with the Benalla Tennis Club (‘the best ‘man’ in the ladies’ group’, she won many trophies!), playing her guitar and joining in concerts for palliative care patients, Christmas carols and hospital fund-raising revues. She and Ian were committed organic farmers, planting 2,000 olive trees on their property Loma Langi, and developing an award-winning olive oil under the Boosey Creek label.
In 1969, Alanna and Jo were sent to board at Clyde, with Alanna staying until 1973 and Jo leaving in 1972 for a year in America. The twins were effortlessly popular, with their identical blonde pigtails and mutual love of music and sport. A natural leader, Alanna was house captain of Ingleton in 1972. Her rendition of ‘Both Sides Now’ with Faireleight captain Linda Bennetto in the house entertainment ‘would have received encores until midnight if possible’. She joined the school choir and Madrigal group which performed in the local districts of Woodend and Kyneton, and achieved grade 6 in piano. In 1973 she was school sports captain, earning colours and white jumper as captain of tennis, basketball and athletics. She served on the Amenities Fund and School Dance committees, was awarded honourable mentions in the Alliance Francaise and Goethe competitions, and qualified for university entrance with a Teaching Studentship award after passing her Higher School Certificate with honours.
Alanna radiated warmth and good humour, strength of character, sympathy, intelligence, wit and music. To her family she was a great organiser, trusted confidante, astute adviser, counsellor, accountant, gardener, and provider. She was their ‘resident vet’, caring for lambs, plastering a kelpie’s broken leg, injecting, stitching, raising a litter of orphaned puppies, or miraculously reviving a snake-bitten kitten. She maintained her positive outlook, warmth and unwavering good nature through the severe challenge of her terminal cancer.
From 1974-77 Alanna studied physiotherapy at the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in Melbourne, graduating in 1977. While a student, she resided at Womens’ College (now called University College) in Parkville, followed by share-houses in Richmond and Carlton. Typically, she formed lifelong friendships with her housemates. Her first physio job was at St Vincent's Hospital in 1977, where she was commended for her excellent rapport with patients and staff. During this time Alanna met the love of her life, Ian MacDonald, an engineering graduate.
Active to the last, she did a camping trip in Africa, went to the Port Fairy folk festival, sang beautifully with Jo at the wedding of son Will to Anna, and became grandmother to little Jack, events which delighted her. She loved Jane Austen, the Geelong Cats, cooking, storytelling and good jokes. As daughter Katrina said ‘I will miss her care, compassion, fun nature and she’ll-be-right attitude … I will remember her with a smile from ear to ear, laughing with tears rolling down her face’. Son Will said ‘If everyone is able to radiate a little of her warmth then she will live on with us and the world will be a better, brighter and warmer place’.
She travelled overseas to England and Europe in 1978-79, and on return she travelled with Ian, following the demands of his engineering work. Wherever they went, she participated fully, whether in a women’s rock-drilling competition in Herberton, North Queensland, or living in the most isolated and humid mining sites in Papua New Guinea. Within days of arriving anywhere, she would find physio work and make friends with the locals.
There are no words to express how much she will be missed – no-one ever had a bad word to say about her – ever. She was a lovely person. Compiled from eulogies – Ian, Will, Hamish and Katrina MacDonald, Sarah de Crespigny; Cluthan magazine 1972, 1973; internet.
Alanna and Ian were married in 1981. They lived in Melbourne and Alanna completed a post-graduate diploma in Manipulative Therapy, developing a special 36
taken out of school to travel with her mother to Ceylon. In 1931 she was taken to England for six months to live in Whitehall Court, where she was tutored by a governess while her mother considered a marriage proposal. Returning to Melbourne in 1931 Betty went back to Clyde. She remembered not liking cabbage at dinner and would tuck it into her black velvet jacket pockets to avoid eating. She left Clyde in 1933, aged seventeen, with her Intermediate certificate.
Betty McKay Grainger (Hunt/Jones) (Kidd) 2 February 1917 – 12 December 2013 Clyde 1926-33 Betty McKay Kidd was born at home in Brighton on 2 February 1917, the only child of Mrs Hilda Mabel (McKay) and Mr Cleveland Kidd, hardware merchant and ironmonger (J S Kidd and Co., Melbourne). Betty’s father died of TB, aged 35 on 17 December 1923 when she was only six years old. During Cleveland’s illness, the Kidds had moved to live with Betty’s maternal grandfather, Hugh Victor McKay, agricultural machinery manufacturer (McKay’s Sunshine Harvester Works) and philanthropist of Sunshine, near Melbourne. H. V. McKay’s home was the magnificent Rupertswood in Sunbury which he had bought in March 1922 from Russell Clarke.
In 1934 Betty was sent to finishing school in Paris for a year, after travelling with her mother via Hong Kong, Shanghai, Peking, Los Angeles and the Panama Canal to England. Still only seventeen, she met her future husband Vere John Urquhart Hunt, a 28 year old London barrister. While at school in Paris – 14 Avenue Gourgaud – Betty enjoyed trips round Europe, visits to museums, opera and the Ypres battlefields. She also learned to speak French and became a wonderful cook, starting with chocolate éclairs. In February 1936, Betty and a group of Clyde friends including Viva Derham, Doreen Jowett and Margaret MacLeod were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Aged nineteen, Betty married Vere Hunt at Toorak Presbyterian Church on 3 September 1936. Two of her three bridesmaids were Clyde friends – Dorothy Wilson (Raws) and Betty Sheppard.
Rupertswood was staffed by a butler, housekeeper, kitchen maids, housemaids, nine gardeners and a chauffeur. Betty’s early education was at Rupertswood by a succession of governesses, and every week she walked into Sunbury to attend Sunday school. She saw little of her mother, lived in a room apart from the rest of the household and ate separately with her governess in a special dining room. Betty loved one governess, Miss Hamilton. ‘Miss Ham’ taught Betty to ride on her horse Trixie, took her on chauffeur-driven trips to Melbourne for shows such as Peter Pan, or on seaside holidays to Mt Martha where she went to swimming, tennis and fancy dress parties. Betty went horse-riding in Toorak, Frankston and Deepwater, sometimes out all day with her horse and a packet of sandwiches. She became used to being alone which served her well in later life. Betty’s grandfather H. V. McKay died at Rupertswood on 21 May 1926 leaving a bequest for the development of agricultural education and a grant of 2,000 pounds to the Australian Inland Mission, thereby ensuring the creation of John Flynn’s Flying Doctor Service.
Betty and Vere settled in the UK, living at his bachelor flat at 154 Grosvenor Rd SW1 overlooking the Thames. Betty resisted the idea of moving to Friarstown, the reputedly haunted ancestral Hunt family home in County Limerick, Ireland. It was sold, and in 1937 they bought Bradfield Place on ten acres near Manningtree in Essex. Betty and Vere had two sons, Vere David (1939) and Robin Vere (1946). During WWII, Vere Hunt served in Europe in the British Army Intelligence Corps. Betty was sent back to Australia with young David, suffering years of separation from her husband, who wrote to her every day. They were reunited in 1945, but their home in Bradfield had been severely damaged by army occupation and had to be sold. They bought Lone Oak, Little Wick Road, Horsell in Surrey. On a holiday trip to Italy in the summer of 1952, Vere died at sea of a heart attack, aged fortyfour. Devastated, Betty returned to the UK with the children. Betty had to sell their UK family home and in 1953 moved back to Australia with her two young boys, aged thirteen and seven.
Betty’s extroverted and gregarious mother Hilda (known as ‘Rudd’ on account of her red hair) later married George Stevenson, eventually earning the title Dame Hilda Stevenson DBE for her philanthropy and community work, as founder and trustee of the Sunshine Foundation which she chaired after the death of her brother Cecil McKay. Betty was sent to board at Clyde in 1926. At age nine, she was the youngest child in the school. She ‘hated every moment as it was always cold’ and she felt she did not excel in anything. However she enjoyed hockey, took part in the Ingleton house entertainments and made lifelong friends. After her grandfather’s death, Betty and her mother moved to Cliveden Mansions in Wellington Parade, East Melbourne. Aged twelve, Betty contracted scarlet fever and was 37
They were enrolled at Glamorgan and GGS, with Betty once going to watch a Fawkner Park rugby match and cheering on Mount Scopus boys in pale blue playing soccer nearby!
Jill boarded at Clyde School from 1943-46. In 1946 she was captain of tennis and awarded colours; served on the Camera Club committee and was vicepresident of the Clyde CWA group. Her sister Belinda (Bindy) also went to Clyde, 1948-55.
They enjoyed family holidays with McKay relatives at Portsea and in the Riverina, where Betty frequently went horse riding.
On 27 February 1947, Jill and two of her 1946 classmates from Clyde were given a ‘coming out’ (18th birthday) dance at the Grosvenor in Melbourne by their respective parents. Described as a ‘trio of debutantes from the Western District’, Jill, Rosemary Durham (Grimwade) and Veronica (Tim) Gillespie (Street) were photographed in the social pages of The Argus with descriptions of their beautiful dresses. Jill’s parents also gave her a ‘coming of age’ (21st birthday) dinner at the Dorchester in December 1949.
In 1961 Betty married Esmonde Jones who died in 1983 after ten years in a nursing home, where Betty visited him every day. In 1986, she married a ‘charming northern Irishman’ Craig Grainger who died in 2007, leaving her widowed a third time. Betty gave fifty years of voluntary service to Vision Australia in Kooyong, and was made a Life Governor in 1964. The co-ordinator of volunteers said, ‘Betty led the way in leadership and dedication and has been an inspiration to other volunteers’. She also worked at the Uniting Church, Toorak. She remained active and mentally sharp, living independently in Yar-Orrong Rd. Toorak and driving into her 90s. She was the family confidant and counsellor, a doting grandmother and great-grandmother, and was equally supportive of her step-families. She was an excellent and generous cook, an avid reader, took a great interest in world affairs, and endured personal bereavement with fortitude, including the premature loss of two daughters-in-law. She was elegant, dignified and peaceloving, offering unconditional and non-judgmental love to her friends and family.
Jill married Richard Lennard (Dick) Minifie in January 1953, son of the distinguished war hero Richard (Dick) Pearman Minifie and Nellie Frances (Roberts) of Monaro Rd. Kooyong. The wedding was held at St James’ Church of England in Mortlake, with Jill attended by her sister Bindy and Richard’s twin sisters, Deborah and Prudence as bridesmaids. The reception was held at Robert Jamieson’s homestead, Stony Point in Darlington. Guests came from all over the Western District and from Melbourne. The Minifie family had been involved in the flour milling industry since the 1800s (James Minifie & Co
Compiled from Cluthans, internet and information provided by her son Robin Hunt. (Robin was married to Suzanne Rosalie Philp, former Clyde sports teacher – 1970s, who died in March 2008). Margaret Jill Minifie (Manifold) 28 August 1928 – 13 October 2013 Clyde 1943-46 Margaret Jill Manifold (known as Jill) was born on 28 August 1928, the second daughter of Margaret Lorn (Alston) and Edward Walford (Wal) Manifold of Mondilibi, Mortlake. Her older sister is Anne Synnot (formerly Colvin), and younger sister is Belinda (Bindy) Roper. Their brother Derek died tragically while still at GGS, and there is a memorial window in the GGS chapel dedicated to him. Home was in Victoria’s Western District, the historic pastoral property, Mondilibi, with its substantial rambling homestead. Mondilibi was the aboriginal name for a distinctive landform on the property, the ‘Flat Top Hill’, whose origins are explained in a local Aboriginal legend. Jill’s father, the last surviving son of W. T. Manifold of Purrumbete, Weerite, bought Mondilibi in 1922, the same year of his marriage to Jill’s mother.
Jill Minifie (Manifold), tennis captain 1946 38
Pty Ltd), and this continued to be the major business interest of Jill and Richard’s family. After retiring from the Minifie business, Richard and Jill bought Cooyong, a beautiful property near Milawa in north eastern Victoria. Jill was a very keen gardener, with a special interest in her vegetable garden. She also kept poultry, and ducks were her particular favourite. Jill and her children David and Sarah have been keen supporters of Trust for Nature (Victoria), an organisation which aims to preserve land areas of ecological, historical, natural or aesthetic significance, and to conserve wildlife and native plants.
life. She was a keen horse rider, helped with stock work, milking cows, mowing the lawns, anything that needed to be done on the property. Horses were a lifelong love, she would ride into the Seymour Show, camp at the showgrounds and then ride home again. She loved tennis, playing regularly at Tallarook and on the old courts at Guild Street in Seymour – land that eventually became her home. Many famous visitors were hosted at Landscape including Prince Phillip in 1940; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in the mid-1940s; Governor-General Lord Gowie and tennis player Harry Hopman.
Jill was the much-loved mother and mother-in-law of Richard (and Penny), Sarah, Margaret (and Danny), and David.
Mary boarded at Clyde from 1938-41. She was Form VI and basketball captain, senior tennis and debating champion, secretary of the Camera Club and a prefect in 1941. Her sisters also attended Clyde: Jane Nevile (Lewis) 1942-45 and Helen Clarke (Lewis) 193640. From 1944-47 Mary did nursing training at Royal Melbourne Hospital. After finishing her training she travelled to England with cousin Molly Cowan (1948) and sister Jane (1951); enjoyed a busy social life in Melbourne while actively supporting several charities, then moved back to Landscape. The following paragraph in The Argus of 6 Sept 1947 gives an idea of her character at the time: ‘Mary Lewis looks like following in the footsteps of her energetic mother, who is chairman of the YWCA appeal committee. Mary was at the YWCA Silver Fair yesterday being a tower of strength to her parent in all those awkward situations which crop up in the running of charitable functions, and looked a ‘natural’ for a committee woman of the future.’
Grandmother of Catherine, Jocelyn, Daniel and Thomas. Richard predeceased her in 2004. Information obtained from internet, news articles, and from Jill’s sister-in-law Prue Richardson (Minifie) who is the mother of four COGs: Catherine, Deborah, Georgina and Rebekah (Richardson). Mary Essington Munckton (Lewis) OAM 20 November 1923 – 4 August 2014 Clyde 1938-41 Mary Essington Lewis was born in 1923, fourth of five children (Robert, James, Helen, Mary and Jane) born to Gladys Rosalind (Cowan) and Essington Lewis (1881-1961). As managing director of BHP and director of national munitions and aircraft in WWII, Essington Lewis was considered one of the most powerful civilians in Australian history, receiving a Companions of Honour (CH) award in 1943. In 1933 Mr Lewis bought a 3,500-acre property called Landscape in Tallarook, near Seymour. The Lewis family used Landscape as a country home, retaining a town house Kooringa in Malvern (1930s), and later 283 Williams Road, South Yarra. Mary loved country
Mary’s mother died at South Yarra in 1954. Gladys Lewis had been president of YWCA and the Lady Gowrie Child Welfare Centres, earning an OBE in 1950. Frequently absent on business trips, Essington Lewis travelled to and fro in the BHP aircraft Silver City, sometimes taking Mary on interstate flights. In 1949, Mary’s father had bought the first Holden car produced in Australia. Describing it as a ‘jolly good little car’, Mary would drive out to collect her father from Mangalore Airport when he found time to visit Landscape. On Sundays they would ride out on the property and return to host their eminent visitors for lunch. On 2 October 1961, Mary was riding with her father at Camp Hill when he fell from his horse and suffered fatal chest injuries. His death was reported on the front page of every national daily newspaper. In 1963, Mary married Captain Clive Munckton of Glenaroua in Broadford. Mary moved to live with Clive and his two sons, John and Michael, at their historic property, and in 1967 she and Clive had a daughter, Carolyn. Landscape was sold in the 1960s, and the Muncktons built a new house at Glenaroua. 39
With her vibrant personality, Mary retained her Clyde friendships and became a much-loved matriarch to her extended family, enjoying her role as stepmother, mother-in-law, grandmother, step-grandmother and great-gran. At Mary’s funeral on 11 August in Seymour, there was a huge turnout of those wishing to pay their respects to a person who contributed so much to the community, and who after 90 years represented the end of an era.
In 1991, Mary and Clive moved to a beautifully appointed house in Seymour on the old tennis courts overlooking Goulburn Park designed by Clive’s architect son Michael. Mary was to live there for the next twenty-two years, until she moved into Karingal Seymour. Mary was widowed in 1995. The National Museum of Australia has a ‘Mary Munckton and Ian Metherall Collection’, comprising the 48-215 (FX) Holden sedan delivered to Essington Lewis on 24 February 1949, the day before Holdens were released for public sale (see picture below). It was used by the Lewis family for a number of years before being sold. Having fallen into disuse it was salvaged by Mary and restored by students at the Wangaratta College of TAFE in 1987. Mary presented the car to Drage Airworld Museum in Wangaratta for display alongside her father’s aircraft the BHP Silver City. It was returned to the Munckton family when Airworld closed in 2002. This vehicle represents the key role played by Mary’s father in the development of ‘Australia’s Own Car’, an icon of 1950s Australian society. In 2004, with Essington’s great-nephew Ian Metherall, Mary unveiled the 1949 Holden at a ceremony to mark its acquisition by the National Museum.
Information from Cluthans, internet, media and the National Museum of Australia. Anne Pitcher (Nevile) 27 March 1960 – 16 May 2013 Clyde/GGS 1972-77 Dr Anne Pitcher died in May 2013, only days after being awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) by the University of Melbourne for her thesis ‘A Tapestry woven by Poets’, described as a ‘narrative in text and illustration in the Meliadus de Leonnois’, a 14th century manuscript (British Library MS Add 12228) which is a pictorial record of the Arthurian age of chivalry concerned with the deeds of the fathers of the better-known Knights of the Round Table: Ban, father of Lancelot; Esclabor, father of Palamades; and Melyadus, father of Tristan. Anne was a daughter of Jane Nevile (Lewis, Cl’1945) and the late Sandford Nevile OBE (Chairman of Clyde School Council at the time of amalgamation with GGS; GGS Council 1975-82), wife of Timothy Pitcher (a descendant of the 1850s GGS Trustee Montague Pitcher), mother of William and Florence, and sister of Sarah Nevile-Lavingdale (Nevile, Cl’1980) and Richard Nevile (M’1982). Michael Collins Persse wrote this obituary for the September 2013 issue of GGS Light Blue magazine.
Image courtesy The National Museum of Australia Ed.: Thank you to those who have provided information about family and friends this year. It is greatly appreciated and some remarkable life stories have emerged.
In January 2007 Mary was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for ‘service to the community of the Seymour district as a supporter of rural show, civic and service groups’. She was involved in many local organisations, from the Seymour and District Historical Society to Pyalong Red Cross, Riding for the Disabled, the Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society and the Australian Light Horse Memorial Park (which she associated with Clive). Mary was a well-respected Friend of the Gallery of Seymour and District Art Society, and in 2005 was made a life member of the society at a special presentation dinner held in her honour. She rarely missed an art show opening and artists in the area appreciated her interest and support of the arts.
Note: Obituaries are written depending on the information available. Please consider providing photos and information for this purpose if a Clyde family member or friend passes away. Obituaries do not necessarily have to be published in the year of death if time or circumstances do not permit. We are very grateful to receive any information and assistance at any time. Email: coganews@gmail.com or write to the editor, Julia Ponder Unit 15/89 Bay Terrace, Wynnum 4178
40