Chaplain’s Address

Music Has a New Home at PLC

It was an endeavour which spanned four years, two Principals, and half the tennis courts but in Term 3, PLC was able to officially open the doors to its state-of-the-art purpose-built music building. It was on Wednesday 1 August 2018 that the first meeting took place to discuss the renovations to Finlayson House and the development of the temporary Music Village on the tennis courts in the Junior School. In September that same year, the Music Village was installed onto the tennis courts – which was always to be a temporary measure until a new centre for musical excellence could be established. From that time, there were ongoing collaborative discussions between staff and the architects at Parry and Rosenthal as the design was finalised. Then, despite the disruptions of the two years that followed, on Monday 24 May 2021 PLC celebrated the ‘turning of the sod’ and Cooktown commenced works on the site. In a little over 12 months, on Tuesday 26 July 2022, PLC’s new music building opened its doors to both

Watch the time lapse of the construction of the music building Junior School and Senior School students as their new home for music at PLC. With government guidelines only just relaxing for schools at this time, the decision to postpone the official opening until Saturday 3 September was made. On this day, PLC officially opened the new music building which commenced with a with a smoking ceremony by Professor Simon Forrest and a didgeridoo performance by Mr Micheal Spratt. Reverend Nalin Perera then gave his official blessing before Chair of Council, Ms Clare Poll, Director of Music, Mr Chris Goff, Principal, Ms Cate Begbie, and Arts Captain, Olivia Muir cut the Black Watch ribbon. The event then moved inside the building where guests were treated with a number of musical performances by students from both PLC and Scotch College. In Ms Cate Begbie’s address, she acknowledged the vision of the principals who came before her; to Ms Hazel Day and her passion for The Arts that resulted in the development of the Hazel Day Drama Centre and the resultant growth of The Arts programme at PLC, to Ms Beth Blackwood AM who identified the need for a purpose-built music building, and to Dr Kate Hadwin who commenced the steps towards the design and initial construction.