Celebrating 40 years of the PLC Pipe Band

PLC Perth is this year celebrating four decades of its beloved Pipe Band, with a gala reunion and history book planned to commemorate the anniversary.

Old Collegian, current parent and historian Lucy Hair has spent hours in PLC’s archives trawling through hundreds of documents to trace the band’s story. Mrs Hair has discovered that while 1981 was the first official performance of the band – at that year’s Speech Night, Musical Director Eric Page first introduced the concept of a pipe band in the late 1970s.

An enormous undertaking to first teach girls the pipes and drums and then get them to a point where they could play and march, it took years of hard work before they were polished enough to pipe in the Official Party at Speech Night to the God Save the Queen and Land of our Birth.

However, the band truly came of age thanks primarily to the dedication and commitment of music teachers Ailsa Miller, Kerry Jones and Kerry’s husband Peter, who would go on to volunteer his services to PLC and the Pipe Band for three decades.

Former Principal Hazel Day said not only did this trio teach the girls to play and march, they put their life and soul into the band and gave many girls, wonderful opportunities to perform not only for PLC but the wider community.

“Who will forget our Band marking in the ANZAC Day parade or performing at the opening of the annual International Cricket Series at Lilac Hill in those early days,” Mrs Day said. “Then the iconic trip to Scotland in the 80s when they had such wonderful musical experiences. Had it not been for their enthusiasm and the support of the School community, the PLC Pipe Band would never have achieved what it did.”

Members of the Friends of Pipe Band are organising this year’s 40th celebrations – an afternoon event at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club on Sunday 29 August. More details will be made available to the PLC community soon.

A special video to commemorate the anniversary has also been put together by the 2021 Senior Pipe Band.

FoPB is offering pre-sales of the Pipe Band history book, which is anticipated to be ready by the August reunion. See the PLC website for more details. If you would like to prepurchase a copy of the book, please visit the PLC website.

Annual art exhibition is back in 2021

We are very excited that the biggest event on the PLC OCA calendar is back in 2021.

The OCA Art Exhibition will be hosted at PLC from Friday 21 May to Sunday 23 May.

Showcasing more than 75 artists, the exhibition celebrates established and emerging artists from the broader PLC community, including Old Collegians, their family members, staff, parents and friends of PLC. All artworks are for sale with funds raised from the exhibition supporting the annual OCA Bursary Programme for current students and other projects within PLC.

The exhibition launches with the Opening Night Cocktail Party from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm on Friday 21 May. The evening includes Flametree sparkling and wine, plus beer, canapés, entertainment and the opportunity to be the first to preview and purchase the art works.

As always, we welcome everyone from the PLC community to come along and enjoy the Exhibition and OCA Cafe over the weekend and ask the community to purchase a raffle ticket on arrival.

A special thank you to our sponsors

The OCA Art Exhibition is made possible thanks to the wonderful support of our sponsors, event supporters and many volunteers and we are sincerely grateful to those who are supporting this event.

A special thanks is extended to our incredibly generous main Sponsors this year including; Old Collegian Liz Towner and current parent Anne Towner through their family business, Flametree Wines; Old Collegian Siobhan Way via her Siobhan Way Fine Jewellery; Old Collegians Jody Fewster of Ray White Cottesloe and Advans Exhibition Services.