St Catherine’s School EST. 1896
A PROUD HISTORY
St Catherine’s School pupils at Kilbride, 1925
a proud history St Catherine’s School in Heyington Place, Toorak–one of Australia’s finest Independent girls’ schools–is a very different School from the one founded in Castlemaine more than 120 years ago. As the founding Principal of Castlemaine Ladies’ College in 1896, Miss Jeanie Hood’s personal credo for her Students “to be women of the future” was considered aspirational and exuded confidence for the role of women at this time. Since then, under the leadership of many capable women, St Catherine’s has grown from only a handful of girls
to approximately 740 today, striving to empower and nurture young women to reach their highest potential.
our charter As a leading girls’ school in Australia, St Catherine’s is committed to nurturing and empowering independent and globally responsive young women, enabling them to approach all their endeavours with confidence, wisdom and integrity. Central to the School’s philosophy are the St Catherine’s Values: Integrity, Curiosity, Perseverance and Empathy. These are the qualities the School aims to foster in each student.
From 1896 to today, this pictorial history is a visual snapshot of St Catherine’s School’s journey.
1890s
1896 St Catherine’s School was founded when
Miss Jeanie Hood opened a school in Templeton Street, Castlemaine, which she named Castlemaine Ladies’ College.
Castlemaine pupils, 1898
1900s
did you know about st catherine? St Catherine of Alexandria is the Christian patron saint of educators and scholars, and was recognised as a notable scholar and living a life of truth and justice.
1903 The School Motto,
Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum (Nothing is Great Unless it is Good) was introduced.
1907 St Catherine’s Secondary
School registration gained by Miss Ruth Langley.
1905 St Catherine’s School was registered as School No. 430.
Catherine lived in the fourth century, and was persecuted for her religious beliefs. The ‘Catherine Wheel’ is named after the wheel on which she was martyred. St Catherine’s Day is celebrated on 25 November.
Castlemaine staff and pupils, 1905
1910s
1918 Due to the First World War and increased competition from other schools, St Catherine’s struggled to retain enrolments. In 1918 Miss Langley reported ‘a year of continued progress and success in spite of adverse circumstances’.
Castlemaine staff and pupils, 1914
Miss Langley invited the brothers of the students to attend dancing classes, to provide the girls with more contact with the opposite sex.
1919 Bertha Jorgensen MBE was dux of the School in 1919.
In 1923 she became the first female leader of a professional orchestra and had a distinguished career with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for fifty years.
1920s
1921 St Catherine’s Old Girls’
Association was formed and the first School Magazine was published.
1920 St Catherine’s School opened in St Catherine’s girls, 1920s
Williams Road, Toorak. Miss Flora Templeton, who ran Blair School in St Georges Road, Toorak, joined Miss Ruth Langley in establishing St Catherine’s.
1924 165 girls enrolled at
St Catherine’s School.
1922 The School relocates to Kilbride, 17 Heyington Place, Toorak.
1930s
1931 New Science room completed. Chemistry and Physics introduced to the curriculum.
1934 Miss Edna Holmes becomes Headmistress in 1934. Clocktower built in the Senior Quadrangle.
1933 Enrolments reach 270, with 42
1937 School trips by train to Cairns and Green Island, Queensland.
girls in the Boarding House. Miss Ruth Langley passes away in 1933.
A page from the student autograph book, 1930
Robin Hood was performed in the Ballroom, 1931
1940s
our chairs of council
1942 Evacuation to Warburton
Chalet, March to December. Miss Hilda Langley and Miss Edna Holmes announced the evacuation to parents explaining that the Defence authorities would be taking over the whole school in Toorak for Army use.
1946 St Catherine’s School on
display at the famed Myer Christmas Windows,1946.
1944 Students voted for their
School Captain, Prefects and Leaders.
1947 First School Council
meeting held with the change from private ownership to a corporation. 316 students now enrolled.
The Right Rev J McKie May 1947 – May 1948 Mr Bernard G Brett OBE May – Aug 1948 Mr Frederick R Lang Aug – Nov 1948 Mr Stanley W Byrne Nov 1948 – Oct 1950 Mr Ronald R Orr Oct 1950 – May 1952 Mr James C E Campbell CBE May 1952 – Nov 1967 Mr Edward (Ted) La’Beckett Nov 1967 – Aug 1973 Mr Frank H Osborn Aug 1973 – Sept 1988 Mr Richard R Green Sept 1988 – Sept 1999 Mr Roger W Poole Sept 1999 – March 2003 Dr Anne Waterhouse April 2003 – June 2009 Mrs Meg Begg (Christensen ’61) June 2009 – June 2011 Mrs Clare V Cannon (Darling ’77) June 2011 – June 2017 Mrs Jane Hodder June 2017 – Present
First day at Warburton; our wartime country school, 1942
did you know? Barbreck means ‘speckled hilltop’ from ‘barr’ meaning top or hilltop and ‘breac’ meaning speckled.
1947 Miss Mary Winter had
taught at the School from 1917 and retired in 1947.
1949 St Catherine’s School Parents’ Association established.
1948 Barbreck purchased from
Mr William Love and becomes St Catherine’s Junior School.
Senior Art Class, 1947
The original Barbreck building was built in 1887 after Mr Duncan Love bought two acres of land on the corner of Torresdale Road and Heyington Place. In 1948 Barbreck was bought by St Catherine’s School.
1950s
1953 Planting of the Jubilee tree.
(It was only in 1996 that the School realised its founding year was 1896, not 1903 as previously thought.)
1951 Teacher, Miss June Epstein,
composed music for the School Anthem based on a passage from St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.
1956 The Haxton Mural by Elaine Haxton was unveiled on the new Library wall.
School Captain, Margaret Woodlock selected for Shot Put in the Australian Olympic Team.
1954 Students gathered along Toorak Road to welcome
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Thirty-six girls took part in the celebrations along with 17,000 school children at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
St Catherine’s girls wait to greet the Royal Party, 1954
Senior students visit Central Australia, 1951
1958 Television introduced at the School. St Catherine’s
A beach excursion, 1950
Establishment of the General 1957 Committee as a representative body of staff, Prefects and Senior girls.
was used as a testing ground for numerous research projects into television and other technologies. No. 27 Heyington Place was purchased to provide a new boarding house, and later named Campbell House in recognition of Mr JCE Campbell CBE, Chair of the School Council (1952–1967).
1959 Snowsports program established.
1960s
1961 Swimming Pool opened. 600
girls taught to swim, April 1962.
1960 New House Groups, Beaulieu and Holmes
School Swimming Team, 1961
created. Beaulieu was chosen as it was the earlier name of Sherren House and Holmes, to honour former Headmistress, Miss Edna Holmes (1934–1943).
Staff with Principal Miss Mary Davis on the front steps of Sherren House, 1961
Baseball Enthusiasts, 1968
1963 St Catherine’s hosted the first
United Nations Association of Australia Interschool Conference, attended by 47 students. 586 girls now enrolled.
1964 Embroidery of St Catherine by Mrs Scarse of the Hammersmith College of Art, gifted to the School by three Old Girls. The embroidery now hangs in the Myer Concert Studio.
Girls and their partners at the School Formal, 1969
school anthem Our School Anthem takes its words from 1 Corinthians 13 Tho’ I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And tho’ I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all myst’ries and all knowledge; and tho’ I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And tho’ I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and tho’ I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, Love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three and the greatest of these is love.
did you know? The School Song, Ode to St Catherine’s, was composed by Music teacher, Mrs Helen Lovass, students Tse Pei (Emmeline) Ng, Bianca Valmorbida and the Class of 1996, to mark the Centenary of St Catherine’s School. Its premiere was at the Centenary Gala Concert with Massed Choirs including Old Girls, parents and friends of the School. One of its verses contain these words: ‘There is one thread that binds us all, a thread of gold and blue Spun with creed and spirit true of faith, hope and love.’
1970s
1972 Original Barbreck demolished
and new building constructed.
1975 Junior School building opened and boys 1970 Opening of the new Mary Davis Library and portrait of Miss Davis, by artist Paul Fitzgerald, unveiled.
The June Epstein Room named in recognition of our Music teacher, composer of School Anthem and play, St Catherine of Alexandria.
were welcomed to Barbreck up to Year 4. Retrospective Art exhibition to honour former Art teacher, Mrs Slawa Duldig (1946–1963). Prep Class with boys, 1977
Barbreck girls outside the original Barbreck building, 1970
1976 Senior students enjoyed
1978 Jubilee Year. An Exhibition
Geography excursions.
1976 Driving lessons
introduced for students.
Preschool children in 1977
1977 Davis established as a new
House group, and other Houses combined into three, with new names were given: Davis, Beaulieu Blair, Holmes Kilbride and Langley Templeton.
was held, showcasing the history of the school
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program introduced.
1980s
1983 Two micro computers and a mini computer purchased including five screens and a high speed card reader. Astronomy Club established.
1984 Barbreck Library extended and classrooms added.
Amnesty International Club formed. Introduction of Physical Education as a Year 11 subject.
School Fete, 1984
1987 St Catherine’s won the Combined
Schools Swimming Carnival for the first time in 23 years. ‘Barbreck K Club’ established-staff and students walked or ran ten laps of the oval (one kilometre).
Girls on the new School bus, 1987
Introduction of Barbreck ‘DEAR’ (Drop Everything and Read). At 10.50am each day students read for 25 minutes.
1989 Opening of the St Catherine’s Hall and
Winter Garden in the Dorothy Pizzey Centre. First functions were the School Dance, Gala Concert and Middle School Play.
1988 New Library built
within the framework of the existing Hall. Haxton Mural retained.
1990s
1992 For the 50th Anniversary of the
evacuation to Warburton, 125 Old Girls and staff reunited at the Warburton Chalet. St Catherine’s School Foundation established with Sir Zelman Cowen AK, GCMG, GCVO, QC, former Governor-General of Australia, as its inaugural President.
1994 NASA Astronaut-in-Residence, Dr Rhea Seddon, unveiled the new Science wing Observatory; pictured here with Miss Dorothy Pizzey AM, ninth Principal of St Catherine’s (1977–1997).
Fountain gifted to the School by an anonymous donor, and erected outside Sherren House.
1993 Laptops introduced for Year 7 students.
Laptop computers introduced, 1993
Students in ‘turn of the century’ dress walked the streets of Castlemaine for the Centenary celebrations, 1996
1996 The School celebrated its centenary with a trip to Castlemaine by steam train and launched its history book, St Catherine’s: A Centenary Celebration 1896–1996.
Centenary Embroidery dedicated by the Governor of Victoria, the Hon. Richard E McGarvie AC.
1998 Illawarra, an 1890s
mansion leased through the National Trust, was restored and refurbished as a boarding house.
1999 Wiltondale purchased
by the School, housing the Visual Arts Centre.
2000s
2001 Lady Southey AC
(Marigold Myer ’45) appointed President of the St Catherine’s School Foundation in 2001–2009.
2002 St Catherine’s Rowing name a boat
in honour of Miss Anne Smith, Head of Junior School (1980–2000). St Catherine’s Walk and underground Car Park officially opened by Mr Roger Poole, Chair of School Council.
2004 The Piazza at the rear of Sherren House officially opened on 7 May 2004.
Gala Concert, 2009
2007 Sherren House Drawing Room restored by an Old Girl and all boarders moved to Illawarra.
Early Learning Centre, Campbell House: The Ilhan Family Centre
2008 Both the Early Learning
Centre, Campbell House and the Visual Arts Centre, Wiltondale officially opened in August. 23 Heyington Place renamed St Catherine’s House.
2009 St Catherine’s becomes a
Four Star Sustainable School.
2010s
2010 The Clocktower is
restored and an atrium is constructed. The new School Sports Field is completed.
2011 The Marigold Southey Sports & Aquatic Centre opened.
2015 The Ruth Langley Research &
Learning Centre, Edna Holmes Centre for Science and Mary Davis Centre officially opened by Old Girl, Rhodes Scholar, author and poet, Dr Lisa Gorton (’89).
2016 St Catherine’s celebrated
2017 Virtual and Augmented World
120 years.
elective, added to the curriculum, the first of its kind in Australia,
60 past School Captains and Vice Captains, spanning over seven decades attend a reunion breakfast.
The St Catherine’s 1st VIII won the Australian Henley Rowing Regatta on the Yarra.
2018 New Junior School building opened
for learning and demolition of previous Barbreck building commences. 20 years in Illawarra celebrations. Fifth year in a row the Snowsports team have won the National Championship in the junior and senior divisions.
did you know? In 1996, the Old Girls’ Association presented the School with 400 yellow St Catherine’s Rose plants to mark the Centenary year. The Rose is described as a fragrant hybrid rose, featuring a tall bush with repeat flowering, beautiful large well-formed blooms of palest lemon, deeper and brighter in the heart of the flower.
our principals
Miss Jeanie C Hood Miss Ruth Langley
Miss Flora Templeton Miss Hilda Langley Miss Edna L Holmes Miss Sophie Miss Mary E Davis Mrs Rhoda A Baylis Miss Dorothy Pizzey AM Mrs Judy McCowan Mrs Laraine Sharr Dr Sylvia J Walton AO Mrs Michelle Carroll
Founding Principal/Proprietor 1896–1902 Principal/Proprietor 1902–1919 Co-Principal/Co-Proprietor 1919–1930 Principal/Proprietor 1930–1933 Co-Principal/Co-Proprietor 1919–1930 Principal/Proprietor 1933–1947 Headmistress 1934–1943 Headmistress 1943–1949 Principal 1946–1949 Principal/Headmistress 1950–1971 Headmistress 1971–1977 Principal 1977–1997 Principal 1997–1999 Principal 2000–2007 Principal 2007–2013 Principal 2014–Present
St Catherine’s School 17 Heyington Place Toorak VIC 3142 Telephone +61 3 9822 1285 Email info@stcatherines.net.au www.stcatherines.net.au CRICOS 00574F ABN 90 004 251 816
