OSC President

Mr Aaron McDonald

OSC President

By the time you read this article, the Old Scotch Collegians’ Annual General Meeting 2022 will have occurred virtually.

Regrettably, at the time of writing, the height of COVID-19 cases in Perth has prohibited our Association from running many of its great events help that keep our members connected (including our Business Directory Launch and Beverley Dinner, which Scotch was to host this year). If current projections can be relied on, we can expect a return to normalcy in the second half of 2022.

I am pleased to report that:

• We recently surveyed the OSC membership for feedback on how the organisation can better serve members’ interests. These responses will arm the OSC Committee for a strategy day to be held later this year. The responses received were encouraging and broadly consistent with “keep doing what you are doing”. This was especially the case in relation to providing regular updates of OSC successes and keeping old boys connected. One trend that emerged from the survey was a desire to better promote members’ businesses. To that end, if your business is not yet included in the Scotch Business Directory, I encourage you to get on board. All you need to do is register at scotch.wa.edu.au/scotchbusiness-directory. The Directory is free and contains great offers and opportunities for fellow OSCs.

• We recently held the Tartan Lawyers event for high school students, law school students, graduates, solicitors and members of the judiciary from both PLC and Scotch. Attendees heard from The Hon. Neil McKerracher QC (OSC 1968) and Jenny Thornton (PLC) on practical skills derived throughout their careers.

• The Seniors’ Lunch is scheduled to go ahead on Friday 27 May, and the 2021 Leavers’ Reporter Collection for Friday 29 July.

• We are currently bedding down the details for Founders’ Day and will share them shortly. Watch this space.

Headmaster Dr Alec O’Connell, The Hon. Julie Bishop and OSC President Aaron McDonald (OSC 2001)

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the recent successes of Dr Neil Warburton (OSC 1973) and Tim Bunney (OSC 2005). Neil was awarded an honorary doctorate from Curtin University for his leadership in helping young people discover career paths in the resources sector, and Tim was recently appointed Managing Director of Euroz Hartleys Limited.

If I can assist you, please reach out to oscpresident@scotch.wa.edu.au

Celebrating 125 years of educational excellence

Harry ‘Mick’ Gayfer AM

A legend of the Australian grain industry, Harry ‘Mick’ Gayfer (1925–2021) left Scotch in 1942, after spending his final year as Head Prefect. His final Reporter editorial spoke of service and duty – values that he continued to embody throughout his life. Mick was the longest-standing chairman of the CBH Group and served as a grower director on the board for 37 years (1959–96), 25 years of which he was chair. As a Member of State Parliament (1962–89), he was a highly effective spokesperson for the industry. Mick was awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1991, a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1997 and the Centenary of Federation Medal in 2003. At the College, we emphasise serving and contributing to the community, and there is no greater example than Mick.

Iain Grandage

Iain Grandage (OSC 1987) is an awardwinning Australian composer and music director. Joining the Perth Festival as Artistic Director for 2020 to 2024, Iain is one of the nation’s most highly regarded artists. He has received multiple Green Room Awards, the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for an Individual, and the APRA/AMC Award for Vocal Work of the Year for his opera, based on Tim Winton’s novel, The Riders. He has also won multiple Helpmann Awards for theatre, opera, silent film and as a music director. An artistic powerhouse with a history of collaborating with Indigenous artists across the country, we are privileged to have him leading Australia’s longest-running arts festival.

Akshay Venkatesh

Former prodigy Akshay Venkatesh’s (OSC 1994) mathematical talent was already evident during his time at Scotch. By the time he graduated from school at age 13, Akshay had won medals at the International Physics Olympiad and International Maths Olympiad (at ages 11 and 12). He remains the only Australian to have won medals at both. Since then, Akshay has gone on to be only the second Australian to be awarded the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel Prize for mathematics. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UWA, having graduated from the same university with honours in mathematics at age 16. Known for his profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of mathematics, Scotch could not be prouder of Akshay’s achievements.

Obituaries

Dallas Hamilton (OSC 1933)

Born in East Fremantle in March 1916, Dallas was the eldest of three brothers and two sisters.

His family moved to Swanbourne in the early 1920s, where he described Collegians’ House as being “the outstanding building” of the suburb. Dallas attended Scotch as a day student in what would now be the equivalent of Year 9, starting in 1930. He recalls the biggest change was that he “had to wear shoes and socks every day, which was a big burden to most young West Australians!” At the time, Scotch had approximately 400 students and, along with the rest of the country, was suffering through the effects of the Great Depression.

In 1931, Dallas received the Gordon Gooch Scholarship, enabling his family to send his brother Beverly to the College. Beverly also won a scholarship in 1933, so his youngest brother, Murray, joined them. Dallas was a keen rower, and when receiving his scholarship at the 1932 Speech Night, Headmaster P C Anderson described him as “a very fine type of boy”.

All three Hamilton brothers were members of the Scotch College Cadets and enlisted to serve in World War II. Beverly was sadly killed in the war, and Dallas came home injured.

Dallas credited his love of education and learning to his teachers, particularly Leigh Jenkinson and George Campbell. He studied at university and had a long career afterwards, as a meteorologist and travelled extensively with the Air Force. Both Dallas and Murray (dec.) had sons and grandsons attend Scotch College. In 2016, Dallas addressed the Senior School Assembly on his 100th birthday. He leaves behind a remarkable legacy centred on his deep love for his family and our College.

Harold Clough (OSC 1942)

Old Scotch Collegians extend our deepest sympathy and best wishes to the family of Harold Clough.

In 1942, at the age of 16, Harold enjoyed a year at Scotch College where he was a Cadet Sergeant and rowed in the Second VIII. After only a year at the College, Harold began an incredible journey that saw him become one of Australia’s most successful businessmen.

“I guess I’ve had a fortunate life and been extremely lucky. I’ve also learnt the secret that the harder you work the luckier you get. So, I think the two things are associated.” – Harold Clough (from Memoirs of William Harold Clough by Mimi Packer)

Tom Hill (OSC 2002) and Nick Hill (OSC 1999)

Business Spotlight

Juniper Estate

Juniper produces premium wines in the heart of the remote, environmentally pristine Margaret River wine-growing area. Planted in 1973, and together with Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Cullen, Moss Wood and Woodlands, Juniper is one of the region’s founding vineyards.

Juniper was established in 1998 by the late Roger Hill and his wife, Gillian Anderson. Since 2017, Gillian and Roger’s sons, Nick (OSC 1999) and Tom (OSC 2002), have run the business, staying true to their parents’ ambition to produce great wines from their three sustainably farmed vineyards. The brothers’ deep respect for the region’s history and desire to push boundaries drives them to create wines that speak to time and place.

Visit scotch.wa.edu.au/scotch-business-directory to find other OSC businesses and community offers.

What have they been up to?

Peter Browne (1962)

I retired in 2001 as the Director General of Education. I then took up a posting as an adjunct professor at Curtin University before moving to BHP as a consultant in educational needs. I was honoured to be awarded an OAM for services to education. I served as a City of Claremont Councillor for 10 years, four as Deputy Mayor. I remain a serving Justice of the Peace. After leaving Scotch, I trained as a teacher, teaching secondary in country and city schools. I met my wife, Barbara, also a teacher, in Merredin. She went on to be Head of Senior School at PLC. We have two children and three grandchildren.

Roger Hitchcock (1982)

I left the College and completed an apprenticeship as a chef. I used the trade to travel, drifted around Australia for several years, then worked in exploration as a chef field worker in the territory for a few years, lived in very remote bush camps, travelled overseas and lived in Scotland for a couple of years. I returned and went back to TAFE for a new career. I spent 10 years with WA Child Protection, then moved to my house in Narrogin last year as a counsellor after completing a bachelor’s degree with ECU. I married twice and divorced twice. I’m now working with Rural Aid Australia, covering the Great Southern and South West regions.

Jeffrey Haworth (1972)

Since leaving Scotch in 1972, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Mining Geology) degree from the WA School of Mines and have worked in nickel, diamonds and, in 1979, a career in petroleum. This led me to work in Australia, New Zealand, the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the USA, where I did research and published papers.

Joining the WA Mines Department in 1991, I have been working in developing their petroleum databases, leading the basins and energy study group, and research into greenhouse gas storage on a national level. Notably, I was the Head of Petroleum Regulation from 2012 to 2018 and am currently the Executive Director of the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

Working for government has involved me in many things, including policy setting and research into battery minerals, hydrogen and climate change mitigation. I have had an exciting and enjoyable career and have met some inspirational people during my time.

I have been married, divorced, have one daughter, two grandsons, been a bush firefighter, lived with my partner in the hills and am now looking to retire this year to enjoy exploring Australia and the world.

John Kirkwood (1962)

I studied optometry at UWA from 1963 to 1966 and worked in Victoria Park in 1967 and Mount Hawthorn for about five years. I finally joined Abernethy Owens (formerly Manning & Abernethy) in 1972, becoming a partner in the late 1970s. Joy Dalley and I met in 1964 and were married in 1968. We have two children, Nicolle, born in 1970, and Jaimie in 1973. Nikki is married with three children and is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney vet school. Jaimie (OSC 1990) is married and is the offshore legal manager for Santos. We moved to Baldivis in 1991 for the semi-rural lifestyle, breeding alpacas until 2010. I retired from my practice in 2010, having sold out a few years earlier. We were avid travellers until two years ago and look forward to starting again soon.

Ben Leishman (1992)

I graduated from UWA with a mechanical engineering degree, then completed a PhD in aerodynamics at the Whittle Laboratory, the University of Cambridge, funded by UWA’s Robert and Maude Gledden Postgraduate Scholarship. I worked for Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace in Derby, UK, designing aircraft jet engines for widebody commercial and military aircraft, supporting engine development and test programmes throughout the UK, Europe and US.

I returned to Australia in 2010 as a rotating equipment engineer with Woodside working on turbomachinery equipment, spending the first five years thawing out in Karratha working on LNG facilities before returning to Perth in 2015 with the same company. I’m still using my old Texas Instruments TI-36 calculator from my Years 10 to 12 maths classes. I enjoy competing in long-distance triathlons and marathon running. However, the bike is currently hanging in the shed, and the running shoes are in the bin with any spare time now spent with my young children (Alexander, three years, and Isabelle, four months) and wife Katie (an artist). We met while living in the UK and married in 2016 at an old Norman era church (built about 1120) in Melbourne, Derbyshire.

Liam Nuttall (2012)

In December 2021, I fulfilled a milestone that I set for myself whilst a student at Scotch; I graduated from the Royal Military College – Duntroon – and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Australian Regular Army. I am now progressing through the pilot training continuum to fly Black Hawk helicopters.

Tom Percy (1972)

After leaving Scotch in 1972, I attended UWA and was admitted to the legal practice in 1978. I was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1997 and practise primarily in the area of criminal law, specifically jury trials and appeals. In 2006 I received the Community Service Award from the Law Society of WA, and in 2007, I was awarded the WA Civil Justice Award by the Australian Lawyers Alliance. In 2013 I was awarded the Law Society of WA’s Lawyer of the Year.

I have been an occasional columnist with The Sunday Times and The West Australian and last year released my first novel, The Curate’s Egg. In my spare time, I still like to go to the football, races and cricket. I am a current board member of the WACA and the East Perth Football Club, where I was awarded life membership in 2006. I am also a long-suffering member of the Fremantle Football Club.

Grant Posell (2012)

Shortly after graduating from Scotch, I moved back to the US to attend university at Blinn College and Texas A&M University to finish my undergrad with a bachelor’s degree in communications. After three years of recruiting, I transitioned into tech by completing a full stack web development bootcamp while also marrying my wife, Jennifer. Recently, I have rounded off my educational background with a Masters in Analytics and have been building my cloud experience to eventually do more in tech.

Steve Whalan (1982)

Forty years – time flies. During that time, I drifted aimlessly for several years after leaving Scotch, working a gazillion unskilled jobs. I eventually found an aim and commenced a degree in valuation and land economy at Curtin University with George Ventouras (OSC 1983), Andrew Rankin (OSC 1981) and Richard Hagon (OSC 1982), graduating in 1990, followed by several years of working as a property valuer (Hooker Corporation and the Valuer General’s Office). I failed to find any satisfaction in this profession and wasn’t really that good at it, so I decided to pack up and move to Townsville (along with my patient wife) to study marine biology at the ripe old age of 32.

Eight years later, with a newly minted PhD, I commenced a career in marine science researching marine ecosystems (primarily for conservation and aquaculture outcomes) in Scandinavia, the Caribbean, Asia and Oz. I’m currently an associate professor at a regional NSW university, researching intelligence/ cognition in brainless animal models (corals and sponges). It’s a wacky pursuit but keeps me busy and interested in going to work. These days, most of my spare time involves hanging out with my wife Stephanie Windsor (Penrhos 1982) and my grown daughter, Zoe, when she’s home.

James Woods (2002)

As a new dad to a boy named Cooper, I can see why parents are drawn to send their kids to Scotch College. I still have friends 20 years on, and for me, Scotch was such an accepting and friendly, open experience to make of it what you want.

Since Scotch, I have enjoyed university and extensive travel around the globe, working as a bosun [a petty officer or deck boss] on the superyacht of a British billionaire. I met my wife on board, and after we finished a fouryear lap of the world, we decided to jump off in Sydney to start a life in Perth together.

I started a company called Four Stripes, which pays homage to the ‘four stripes’ you might find on a ship captain’s shoulders, but in this case, it’s the name of a creative agency in Subiaco. We are a small, specialised team focusing on high-quality outcomes for mostly B2B clients. We’ve been operating for 10 years, and we look forward to many more.