Cor Unum

Cor Unum

Stuartholme 1920 - 2010

A Celebration of Stuartholme Families

90 years

Cor Unum

Stuartholme 1920 - 2010

A Celebration of Stuartholme Families

90 years

Cor Unum A Celebration of Stuartholme Families 1920 - 2010 Published by Kiss Photography Pty Ltd PO Box 307 Alderley Queensland 4051 Australia studio@kissphotography.com.au www.kissphotography.com.au ISBN 978-0-646-54745-9 Copyright Š 2010 Kiss Photography All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Photography by Margherita Gregory Design by Michael Gregory

Stuartholme School Prayer God of Love, Enlighten our minds, Enliven our hearts And animate us with Your spirit.

Through our service of others, May they come to know Your love for them, And be united with us in the Heart of Jesus.

Amen

Foreword Alumnae ...

I have always loved Stuartholme and I am sure I always will. This book gives us a glimpse of why Stuartholme has a place in my heart and the hearts of many others. It is not just the bricks and mortar, the chapel or the magnificent grounds. It is the people who have made it what it is. Twelve months in the making this project is the Stuartholme Sacré Coeur Association’s gift to commemorate our 90th Anniversary.

This small but enthusiastic committee of Alumnae is constantly striving to reconnect past student with each other and to the school. I acknowledge their hard work and thank them for their enduring support: Sr Rita Carroll (Class of 1960), Barbara Forde (nee Murphy, 1978), Deborah McDonald (nee Sayers, 1978), Louise Hall (nee Healy, 1978), Amanda Doekes (2007), Hannah Daubney (2007), our honorary member Mr Graham Thomson and the two newest members of the committee Celeste Hallinan (1987) and Emma Sloman (1992).

Apart from producing this book, another of the highlights of Stuartholme’s 90th Anniversary was the huge gathering we organised back in May. We had over 300 Alumnae and their families wondering around the grounds, catching up with each other and past teachers. They were the first to hear the new Stuartholme song, Spirit of Cor Unum, written by Megan Smith (Class of 1988) which was commissioned especially for the 90th. They spent the day laughing and swapping stories as they explored the historical exhibits lovingly arranged by Sr Rita Carroll. They watched in awe as the students presented the history of Stuartholme in “Set the World on Fire”. It was wonderful to see groups sitting in the sun with beautiful food and drinks and enjoying being a part of the celebrations. I can’t wait to see what we can do for the Centenary Celebrations in 2020!

Finally, this beautiful book would not have come to life without the considerable talents of Margherita Gregory of Kiss Photography. With her mega-watt smile and unfailing sense of humour she has been a pleasure to work with. I hope you will treasure this coffee table book showcasing Stuartholme families through the decades as much as I do.

Diane Therese Neve President Stuartholme Sacre Coeur Association

Cor Unum

Foreword Principal ...

The ninetieth anniversary of our beautiful school has been the catalyst for this wonderful initiative spearheaded by the SacrĂŠ Coeur Association of Stuartholme School. I congratulate President Diane Neve, and her Executive Team for their vision and tenacity in bringing this to fruition.

The artistic flair of talented photographer Margherita Gregory of Kiss Photography is evident in the pages that follow. For all who have had the pleasure of working with Margherita I know there is a shared appreciation of her work and the generous spirit of her engagement with us.

The brief stories of those who have been photographed provide some glimpses of our 90 year story.

As a School of the Sacred Heart, we at Stuartholme are united by the spirit of our motto Cor Unum. It is a fitting and apt title for this beautiful book.

Enjoy!

Helen Sinclair Principal.

It is my delight to introduce my family to you.

Michael, my husband, my great support and friend.

Melea our daughter, her husband Matthew and their three sons, Ryan (5), Jack (2) and William (12 weeks).

Melea, Matt and the boys live up here now making babysitting very easy!

Our sons, Kurt and Nathan. Both boys live and work interstate.

Six years ago Michael, Melea, Matt, Kurt and Nathan came up to Stuartholme to share my installation as Principal.

Together with me they have experienced the open-hearted welcome and friendship of the Stuartholme family.

In the spirit of Cor Unum Helen Sinclair Principal.

Stuartholme

“We need you to grow into the persons you are called to be and to develop the capacities to shape your world into one where everyone will know love, where everyone will have access to the resources needed for quality of life, where everyone will experience security and peace.

Heart dreamers: people who dare to hope in the future; compassionate people able to enter into the dreams of God and the aspirations of their sisters and brothers across the cultures; and people who commit themselves to develop the capacities of spirit, mind and heart to make these dreams a reality!

And so I ask you: What are your dreams for our world? What do you hope for – for yourselves, for your friends, for those in other parts of the world, for your children? What are you learning and experiencing that will enable you to live these dreams? What more do you want to learn?

Let us continue to support one another in this international Sacred Heart project of dreaming the world into love!”

Take a few minutes today – in one of your classes, at lunch, or quietly before you go to bed – to be in touch with YOUR dreams for our world.

Sister Kathleen Conan RSCJ Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart

Adults and students alike, we thank you for being part of this global, international family of the Sacred

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It was really fitting for us to be photographed in our new “heritage garden” since we, as the present RSCJ community in Brisbane, represent so many women who have dedicated their lives to handing on the educational vision of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat.

At rest in our cemetery is Mère Talpomba, the last surviving French RSCJ who came to Australia after the expulsions from France around 1910, reminding us of our debt to these adventurous women.

We know that they passed this spirit on to us as our own alumna, Sister Mollie Ahern, is there with them, having returned to us after twenty-five years of service in Uganda. She represents the many Stuartholme women whose spirit of service has taken them beyond the shores of Australia.

Our own little group has family and personal links that thread through the ninety years of Stuartholme’s history.

Family connections of Joan and Rita travelled from Ipswich to be educated at Rose Bay, beginning a tradition of Sacred Heart education for a number of the clan.

Sister Mollie Wheeler was the first Brisbane girl to join the Society and over the years a steady stream of young women followed in her footsteps.

In these times of change, we RSCJ, look to the whole Stuartholme family to preserve the spirit of Cor Unum into the future – you will see some of their faces here in this book.

When I was a student at Stuartholme one of my favourite places was the path around the Hill. Both the path and the Hill exist only in our memories and imaginations now, as they made way for our beautiful oval.

While the path around the Hill was generally out of bounds, there were many occasions when we were allowed to walk around it with groups of friends at recreation. For me it was a place for deep reflection and what would be described today as “deep and meaningful” conversations. We always stopped at the cemetery gate to say the traditional prayer for the dead, “Eternal rest…”

I already love the new heritage garden area, I hope that it will be a place where stories of Stuartholme’s origins become embedded so they can be handed down to the generations who come after us.

The Freney family were here to welcome and support the sisters at Annerley when they came to Brisbane.

Three of the girls Doreen, Joyce and Ursula joined the Society while Margaret joined the Carmelites down the road at Auchenflower.

All the present Brisbane RSCJ have been educated at Stuartholme or have taught here.

Sr Rita Carroll

Cor Unum

Sr Ursula Freney

Sr Genevieve Bannon

Sr Anne Breen

Sr Kathleen Muirhead

Our family has had a long and happy association with Stuartholme. My mother, Adrienne, and her three sisters, Teresa, Julia and Adelaide were boarders in the early days.

Then my sister, Sally, and I arrived as boarders in 1959 and were joined later by some of our cousins. My brother’s three daughters, Julie, Fleur and Jane, have also been privileged to have been educated at this wonderful School.

I am deeply grateful for all that Stuartholme has given to me over many years. It will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Kathleen Muirhead rscJ

I am the eldest of 4 children from the Brisbane Area. I went to Stuartholme for 6 years in 1947. My sister Clare, also attended Stuartholme. After entering the Society in 1953, I worked in several of the Boarding schools, before 10 years in New Zealand teaching in our Primary school in Wellington.

When I returned to Australia I taught catechetics and did Pastoral work in the Brisbane Valley and elsewhere.

Anne Breen

Back in 1974, Sr Hiroko Okui left Japan to experience a year in the life of Stuartholme. Thinking back, it must have been rather overwhelming for her. I have a feeling we were not the most refined 12 year old girls around. In fact we were

Sr Joan Pender

Sr Mary Brennan

typical Australian kids. Full of life and energy; not particularly disciplined; and more inclined to chat and giggle than learn anything. In the middle of this maelstrom was a gentle and poised young nun who somehow managed to get us to settle and listen. We quickly fell in love with this centre of peace ad tranquility in our midst. Flash forward 36 years we were thrilled to see Hiroko again at the 90th Anniversary.

Sr Okui now resides in Rome and is one of the four Central Councilors in Rome assisting the Superior General, Kathleen Conan rscj.

Rome is long way from Stuartholme, but it is easy to see Hiroko’s heart still belongs to those Yr 8 students who gave her a brief insight into the Australian way of life.

Diane Neve

Sr Hiroko Okui

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Graham and Pam Thomson

Mr Graham Thomson’s first connections with Stuartholme date back to the days when, as Headmaster of the Brisbane Boys’ College, he communicated with Sister Margaret Toohey, then Principal of Stuartholme, over matters of mutual interest.

No doubt, there are members of the alumnae who could expand further on what may have been of common interest to these two educators.

In 1992 Graham was invited to join the Stuartholme School Council to offer his educational experience and wisdom during those initial years of major development of the school.

In this role, he and his wife Pam have become well-loved members of the Stuartholme family.

The students know that Mr Thomson will be there with his camera to record their exploits at all the notable events in their school lives.

The alumnae are ever grateful for his welcome and assistance with any of their projects and surely his former BBC students delight in reconnecting with their former Headmaster as he calls on them to assist him with his fundraising for Stuartholme!

Graham’s love of Stuartholme led him to accept an offer to set up and run the Development Office for the school in 2006.

Stuartholme

THE SPIRIT OF COR UNUM (Melody, Lyrics and Vocals by Megan Smith) (Production track by Sarah Godden) Verse 1 Friends made, Dreams dreamed, Faith is found In the Spirit of Cor Unum Be brave, Believe, Surround us With the Spirit of Cor Unum Pre You have to hold it up, You have to keep it You have to know your faith, And to believe it It binds us all, It’s not a secret It’s the Spirit of Cor Unum Be strong, succeed It binds us, If you only believe Chorus Reach for the stars, You know who you are With one faith and one heart If you only believe (Repeat) Verse 2 Be wise snd free, Aware In the Spirit of Cor Unum From a far Community, Come together In the Spirit of Cor Unum Pre You have to live your faith Have to believe it Have to be aware And fight for freedom It binds us all It’s not a secret It’s the Spirit of Cor Unum Chorus Reach for the stars, You know who you are With one faith and one heart, If you only believe (Repeat) Instrumental Chorus Reach for the stars, You know who you are With one faith and one heart, If you only believe (Repeat) If you only believe

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Jo Anast nee Talty. Boarder 1976 – 1980.

With Jo is her family: husband Jay Anast. Daughters Mycah Anast (2008) Jory Anast (2010) and son Talt Anast. and her Mum Joan.

just hang in there and get through whatever there was troubling me and life would bounce back to times of great fun, friendship and wonderful times. That resolve has stayed with me to this day.

When I came down to Stuartholme from Nhulunbuy, a town at the tip of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, to begin my boarding life my parents told me I was being given a wonderful opportunity and that I should take every advantage of it. My father told me that there was a plane ticket home waiting for me and should I ever call and say I wanted to come home I would be on the first plane out of Brisbane.

All things pass. When I had my own children I was living in California and I always thought about my two girls attending Stuartholme. I didn’t know how that would happen. As life turned out we returned to Australia and Mycah and Jory were keen to try the boarding life they had always heard me talk about.

Dad then told me that before I made that phone call I was to wait two weeks and really give my decision some sound thought. It was some of the best advice I received.

Mycah graduated in 2008 after 5 years of boarding and Jory will graduate this year, 2010 also after 5 years of boarding. Our photos will be hanging in those long corridors together. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if I one day had granddaughters laughing and talking in those beautiful girlish ways walking down those same arched corridors?

I lived at Stuartholme for 5 years and during that time there were periods of homesickness, of loneliness, of feeling outcast and when those moments were upon me I would go out onto the balcony and look out over at that magnificent view of Brisbane and think about Dad’s words.

Before I ever had to make that call I found life returned to normal at school... arguments were resolved, homesickness was forgotten and loneliness passed. I learned that when the going got tough to

I’m proud to say that both our girls are Stuartholme girls.

Jo Anast

Cor Unum

Jory, Mycah and Talt Anast

Convent of The Sacred Heart

The bricks line these halls, where we have walked, day in, day out, studying photo frames of girls just like us.

We have slid down these banisters racing to the front steps and outside where we would sit beneath clouds of lilac.

These Jacaranda trees have been our clocks; empty branches for winter, and a purple sky for summer, when we would lie, socks off and dresses pulled up, the heat and summer scents pouring off the bricks and enveloping us, until we entered worlds known only by school girls, young and alive.

We have watched this stain glass window illuminated with sudden light and violet flashes, holding each other. We were safe inside from the thunder colliding.

In braver moods, we would watch these storms rage from the balconies; these balconies, which have held our tears, our laughter, our midnight feasts.

We have seen the city in night and day in ways not many have; a constant painting, hung against a Brisbane sky.

How do you explain a single memory held by all to enter these arches?

These bricks have worn our fingerprints for ninety years.

Stuartholme School: We sleep when it sleeps, rise when it rises.

We have laughed, loved, lived within its shelter.

Five years gone and now we are hung on the walls, frozen in photos.

Yet our footsteps can still be heard in those who come after us.

Our laughter is still echoed in those we precede.

Our story another brick to hold up these walls, another petal on the Jacaranda tree.

Present, gone, still yet to come – We are the Stuartholme girls, and we always will be.

Jory Anast

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Tanya Boyle “My experience of Cor Unum occurred when I was living at Sancta Sophia College (1986 and 1987) whilst attending Sydney University. Sacré Cœur sisters were stilling running the college and their philosophy was to nourish the whole women by combining the university experience with the richness of spiritual inquiry, thereby providing a true preparation for our future lives. This positive experience has been a source of strength for me throughout my life. When I found out there was a Sacré Cœur school in Brisbane I enrolled my daughter so that she too could benefit from the positive experience of growing up within the nurturing environment of the Sacré Cœur tradition.”

Madeline Boyle Stuartholme is a fantastic school. I have made lots of lovely friends in Year 8. The teachers are supportive, funny and smart. I have especially enjoyed rowing.

Stuartholme

Billie and Jessie Bridger This year has been my first year at Stuartholme. My sister, Jessie, will be here next year and I can’t wait for her to start her journey here with me. The school is so welcoming and has so many beautiful traditions for new and old students. The school is great academically and offers an excellent range of co-curricular activities as well.

I look forward to my upcoming years at Stuartholme and I am very lucky to have been given the opportunity to go to such a wonderful school. Billie Bridger

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The Brinnand girls have been part of the Stuartholme Family for 20 years.

My daughters, Alanah (1997) and Jacinta (1999) ran through the corridors and played in the grounds as young girls eagerly waiting to be old enough to wear the uniform and walk the halls as students of Stuartholme.

They are now grown, completed university and each have successful careers.

Alanah married Han Hooi in the Stuartholme Chapel in 2006 and they have a beautiful son Otto (2009). Alanah and Jacinta are proud Alumnae who live Janet Erskine Stuart’s legacy “Our education is not meant to turn the children out small and finished but seriously begun on a wide basis”.

We are so blessed to continue being loved and nurtured by the rscJ, Alumnae and the Stuartholme Community. Cor Unum.

Dearna Brinnand Professional Assistant to the Principal

Cor Unum

I entered Stuartholme as a boarder in Year 8 in 2010.

Before commencing at Stuartholme, I lived in Japan with my parents for three years.

I attended Tokyo International School, which was great fun and very different from my previous school in Canberra; my brothers, Rory and Liam, also attended school in Tokyo.

Tokyo International School only went up to Grade 8, and I had always wanted to attend Stuartholme. Part of the reason for this was that so many of my relatives have graduated from Stuartholme, including my aunts, Melissa, Julie and Philippa, and my cousin Emily.

I have enjoyed my first year at Stuartholme, making new friends and getting to know the teachers. In addition to a full academic workload, there are so many fun sports and activities.

Stuartholme is a great experience, and I am looking forward to the years to come.

Caitlin Brown

Bonnie Craven spent her childhood in the Republic of Nauru before moving to Brisbane with her mum, Rosemary, in 2004.

She started boarding at Stuartholme in 2008 when her mother moved to Cunnamulla to teach in the local school.

Bonnie is in Year 10 this year and enjoys the social side of being a boarder. She has established close friendship bonds with many girls and views them as her ‘sisters’.

Bonnie is proud to represent the school in swimming, water polo, rowing and music. She plays the saxophone in many school ensembles.

Her Mum misses her dearly but is happy to know that her daughter is safe and thriving in a special place – Stuartholme School.

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Fleur Louisa Loy Callaghan 2005-2009 Hockey -2005, 2006 2010 – 1st yr B. of Fine Art – Qld. College of Art Brighid Kathleen Fitzgerald Callaghan 2007- 2011 Tennis -2007, 2008 Tiadora Fredericka Tethba Callaghan 2010- 2014 Waterpolo, Athletics, Rowing, Duchene Strings -2010 House COEN

The Callaghan Family Genevieve grew up in Bardon in the1960’s and 70’s and was always aware of the ‘catholic girls school on the hill’... and the chapel standing out as a landmark high amongst the trees.

By the mid 1990’s, after some years away, Genevieve, with Irish husband Des... and eventually three daughters, was again living in Bardon.

In January 2005, when eldest daughter, Fleur entered Year 8 at Stuartholme, the Callaghan Family found not just a school but a community, and not just an education, but a structure in the Five Goals of the Sacred Heart to grow and support the young girl into the young woman. The Callaghan Family’s involvement with Stuartholme will have been 10 years when Tiadora finishes year 12 in 2014

Stuartholme

The Carmody girls have a long, fond connection with Stuartholme. They believe the school is special in it’s commitment to helping each girl find her own path.

As a boarder there in the 1970s Robyn met lifelong friends.

This was a period of significant and exciting social change particularly for young women and a time of great optimism.

The religious and staff encouraged the girls to embrace these opportunities in the uniquely Stuarthome way consistent within the values of a Sacred Heart education. Strong women such as Sisters Jill Murphy, Margaret Toohey and Spruson provided great scholarship and wonderful role models.

Robyn left Stuartholme in 1974 and by 1980 was admitted as a lawyer. Marriage and children followed but always the connection with Stuartholme remained strong. The children’s play group had several Stuartholme “old girls” and mothers of “new girls”. In the hurly burly of the years that followed there was child rearing, further study and an academic career. In 2007 Robyn took an appointment as judicial registrar of the Magistrates Court and continues to enjoy a nice mix of professional and family and friend times. This year she will be joined by her daughters and Carolyn Gardiner (Dowling) to walk the Camino from France to Spain to the tomb of Saint James in Santiago del Compostella.

It was only a matter of time until her two daughters were welcomed in to the school community.

Clare loved the opportunity to develop her creativity and passion for social justice at Stuartholme. She was very active at school, particularly in drama department and Amnesty International. Clare took confidence and a love of arts to a drama degree at QUT. Enriched by the social justice ethos of the school, Clare became volunteer on Stuartholme outreach programs. For some years she combined social awareness and creativity for a living- managing arts programs with communities. She now works creatively with business and industry in Melbourne where she has a regular dinner group with other Stuartholme Alumni.

Tess, was a star on the athletics field, enjoyed rowing and three years signing with the vocal ensemble. A French student, she developed a love of the language and the culture on exchange at Sacred Heart sister school Marmoutier in Tours.

After graduating as a chef Tess moved to Paris. She now works promoting French Champagne and working hospitality and wine marketing.

They attribute their successes to the values of Stuartholme as well as the leadership of some memorable teachers such as Sister Murphy, Linda Statham, Ellen Connolly, Robyn Bedford Peter Rogers and Nan Chesterman….

The girls recently made a pilgrimage to Joginy to appreciate the life and times of St Madeline Sophie Barat as well as the food and terroir of this beautiful region.

A lawyer, an artist, a French chef. Three different women, three unique experiences. One shared story of finding your own way

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Alexandra Carter (graduated 2008) and Emily Carter (graduated 2010) have many fond memories of their time at Stuartholme. We decided to send our girls there because Stuartholme had such a wonderful atmosphere, great location (only five minutes from home) and made the girls feel welcome.

Emily enjoyed her five years at Stuartholme very much.

She was involved in many activities the school had to offer over the musical and sporting categories such as tennis, softball, choir and a variety of bands. She loved being around a supportive and friendly environment and rarely had any problems finding help.

Alexandra promptly became involved in activities like tennis, softball, concert band, jazz band and many more. During her five years at Stuartholme she enjoyed the general friendly atmosphere of the school and how everyone always encouraged you to “achieve higher” and “do your best”. She has made many friends for life and regularly keeps in contact with the school through tutoring younger students and as a part of the Stuartholme alumni.

Emily has found that the academic aspect of her time at Stuartholme has been a very positive, informative experience and accredits the hard work of her teachers.

Emily will hopefully be studying Applied Science next year and aspires to move onto Veterinary Science, where she will study to become a clinical Veterinarian.

Through Stuartholme’s vast opportunities to participate in music, sport and general academic excellence Alexandra feels they helped her become a very wellrounded student and develop essential life skills needed in her years following Stuartholme. Alexandra now studies science at the University of Queensland with the hope of becoming a doctor.

We are very sad to be leaving the school next year however we are forever thankful for the wonderful guidance, friendship and growth Stuartholme has provided over the years.

Cor Unum

The Nielsen-Castro Family

Our history with the school is not long but it is full of beautiful moments. We had a fantastic experience when my niece Pepa Almazán came in 2004 to spend a few months with us. She attended Stuartholme as an exchange year 9 student and was immediately made part of the school. Teachers and students welcome her with open arms, and she gained a beautiful life experience. So when it came to choose high school for Ana, even though we live in West End, we didn’t doubt it would be Stuartholme.

Ana started year 8 in 2010, and we couldn’t be any happier. Academic and sport achievements are important, but what makes Stuartholme a really special place is the sense of transcendental meaning to life, the importance of social justice and the compassion that the girls show continuously. We can only wish for Ana’s younger brothers Oscar and Victor to enjoy their school experience as much as Ana is enjoying hers.

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Charlotte Clark, Fiona Soper, Val Chapman with Marysia, Pat and Cassandra Hacon.

”Millenium Memories”

Charlotte, Fi and Cass started boarding in 2000 (and Marysia finished that year). They chose to be dorm mates and their parents were close friends throughout and remain so. The three girls went on to UQ. Fiona was born in Zimbabwe and lived in the Canadian arctic before settling on the Sunshine Coast. She left Stuartholme with an Academic Medal and graduated as a plant scientist. She is currently studying at Cornell in the USA for her PhD. Her father, Robert Soper, is an archaeologist and Val, a nurse, was a co-founder of the Boarder Parents’ Network and a member of the Boarding Committee for several years.

Stuartholme was chosen for its Catholic values and traditions and its beautiful location.

bought into the Nelia district in 1959. Parents Rob and Pat Hacon chose Stuartholme for their girls’ secondary education for its picturesque views and leafy surroundings, which appealed to the sisters from the bush. They knew that Stuartholme would provide a sound, Christian education.

The girls chose to remember:Sr. Nancy singing “Somewhere over the rainbow” to Grade 8s at bedtime. “We felt bad if we misbehaved afterwards”!

(Fi) Midnight pizza deliveries hauled up to dorms in schoolbags tied with sheets. (Cass) Hiding from boarding mistresses on the Common Room roof. (Rish) Everyone’s wardrobe suddenly expanding tenfold!

(Charlotte) “Bah, humbug”. (Maryke) RIP Missed by us all.

Charlotte was born in London and moved to Mt Tamborine with parents Andy and Lee (a psychologist). She is a vegetarian and avid music fan. She recalls the excitement of returning to Stuartholme after each vacation.

Five generations of Hacons hail from N W Qld. Marysia and Cassandra were raised on Euraba near Nelia and their brother and his family live nearby on Bunda-Bunda. Their great grandfather was a shearing contractor, originally from Victoria, who settled on property in Cloncurry. Their grandfather

Stuartholme

Phoebe Avenell 2008 – 2012 Julie Cleary 1976 – 1978

Stuartholme was chosen by my mother because she needed a Catholic boarding school in Brisbane and my God Mother had also attended as a boarder.

My best friends today were my best friends at Stuartholme.

I was glad that Phoebe could attend a school where she would get to know the daughters of some of my friends.

Mum chose Stuartholme because we live close and she went to the school.

We were also impressed with the Music and Drama departments. They are my two favourite subjects but it is the girls that make the school so special to me.

Phoebe

It has been lovely over the past three years seeing some old faces and meeting the daughters that they are now proudly sending to the school.

I am looking forward to my 40 year reunion! It will be a chance to again catch up with some fabulous girls!

Julie

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Next was Emily who graduated in 2000 followed by

When my parents decided to send their eldest, Maddy graduating in 2006. me to Stuartholme, I was very excited. I was thrilled to go to a school founded by the French Sacred Heart order.

Currently, Meg is Grade 12 in 2011. I also have two Our heritage is 4th generation Irish, Walsh with a brothers, Sam who graduated from Marist Ashgrove in 2002 and Joe who is in Grade 10 in 2011. quarter French, of which I was always so proud.

Since the first day of classes in 1989, my parents I was eager to get there and ask if Yoplay really was have had at least one daughter currently enrolled in french for yoghurt. I had asked my french grandmother Stuartholme, non-stop ever since. if it was and she agreed, but after loosing several school yard fights about it, I had my suspicions about her When my youngest sister graduates in 2011, she will hearing. bring to an end an era lasting 22 years. I am wondering if my loving mother, who has driven everyone of her My family consists of my father Michael, mother Catherine, myself Sally, married name Darr, married seven children to and from school every day of their to Jason in 2004, children, Lachlan 4, Hammish 2 lives, will find herself in robot mode, still heading for Toowong. Please if you do see her, redirect her home! and baby Malcolm 5 months. Sally graduated from Stuartholme in 1993. Next came Jean, married name Sally Madden, married to Tim (in photo) in 2004, children, Harvey 4 and Gerard 7 months old.

Back row is Maddy, Sally Darr with sons, baby Malcolm and Lachlan, Middle row - Tim and Jean Madden with sons, baby Gerard and Harvey, Emily, Meg, Michael, Hammish Darr, Catherine, Joseph and Bottom row, Sam.

Cor Unum

Top row - Meg, Cathy, bottom row - Maddy, Jean, Emily and Sally.

Realising the negative effects lack of sleep and sleeping on concrete has on physical and mental health, Jean Madden designed the Street Swag made from a lightweight waterproofed canvas with a highdensity foam mattress that also has room for extra belongings.

Funded by the community, prisoners sew the Street Swags gaining work readiness skills and qualifications; Aboriginal Communities gain government employment, and home industry skills and school children roll and package them adding other essentials.

Together with the help of numerous aid organisations, and volunteers Jean’s team have distributed over 15,000 Street Swags to our homeless ‘sleeping rough’ across Australia. Along with founding and running the charity Street Swags Ltd, Jean has begun its wholly owned subsidiary Walkabout Beds Pty Ltd, which sells a commercial version to the public and provides both models to aid and relief organisations in other countries.

Jean was the 2010 QLD Young Australian of the year and was the first Australian winner of the world’s largest design award, the INDEX: People’s Choice Award. Jean’s initiative is about keeping people alive.

Jean with a street swag

If you would like to help please visit www.streetswags.org

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Cheryl Collett and Saskia Edwards

Stuartholme in Winter Fog consumes the mountain.

The ghostly haze slinks through the trees, Ominous towers encrusted in a frosty glaze.

All clad in scarves and stockings, Navy figures swarm the pinnacle.

Lingering winds and misty vision, This is Stuartholme in winter.

by Saskia Edwards Graduated 2010

Stuartholme

Emily began Year 8 in 2007 and has enjoyed four years of Stuartholme life. Most important in that time have been the many lovely, bubbly and positive girls she has been friends with, and the fun and caring teachers she has been taught by.

Some of her favourite experiences have been the success and fun of school tennis and hockey, being a Green Ribbon, helping at Sony Camps, travelling to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008, Madeleine Sophie Day and the Year 10 Camp.

I have proudly watched her receive academic awards and the Sharon Beirne Memorial Scholarship. We both were delighted when Coen won the House Cup this year and hope that, as House Sports Captain, Emily can help Coen repeat this effort in 2011.

I have worked at Stuartholme since 2006, producing the weekly newsletter and co-ordinating school functions. Both roles have kept me closely involved in school events and I have enjoyed knowing so much about the girls’ success in many different fields. It has been a pleasure over the years to work with and meet so many delightful parents and staff at school

functions, on the hockey sidelines and overlooking our magnificent tennis courts.

Recently I joined the P&F as Treasurer and hope I can help make a difference in my last year as a Stuartholme parent.

My husband John is a local State School Principal, and we are also the proud parents of Daniel, who has just completed his first year of Engineering at QUT, and Josh, 13, a happy Marist Ashgrove student.

Karen Collins

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Tina, Suzie and Peter Colvin Hi, we are the Colvin family.

In this photo I am with my mum, Tina and dad Peter.

I am the first person in my family to attend Stuartholme from 2006 to 2010. I chose Stuartholme because I loved the friendly feel of the place and the library lounge area looked awesome.

I live at Sunshine Beach so I also became a weekly boarder. On the very first day at Stuartholme I wasn’t sure I would make friends, but I did. Before Stuartholme I had never met another person named Suzie, so when I met another Suzie at Stuartholme, I knew there was something special about this school.

Even to this day Suzie and I are still great friends and I have Stuartholme to thank for that.

Being a Stuartholme boarder was the best experience for me while going through high school. I learnt many life lessons that I will never forget but most of all, I met many lovely and unforgettable girls who taught me about friendship.

Suzie

Cor Unum

Claudia, Gordon and Philippa

Izzy and family

Claudia Cramond commenced her education at Stuartholme School as a grade 8 student in 2009, following in her Aunt Izzy’s footsteps. Claudia’s parents, Gordon and Philippa have been very impressed with the warm welcome and nurturing education she has received. She is a keen member of the equestrian and water polo teams.

The staff and facilities have enhanced Claudia’s enjoyment of the school,and she has flourished, enjoying the academic, spiritual, musical, sporting and social aspects in that special Stuartholme environment – perched high on the hill, between bush and city.

Philippa and Gordon Cramond

Humphry and Tess Cramond

Memories of my years at Stuartholme are fond ones. Starting in 1971 as a boarder, arriving from a small country town out west (Dalby), friends were quickly made from all over Queensland. In our new home, we forged life-long ties over the next 5 years, sharing the ups and downs of growing up.

Life was never dull, with spacious grounds for all kinds of sport, tennis courts, a pool, piano rooms and a drama/theatre group, we were always on the go. Many of us still stay in touch and now share the ups and downs of adult life!

Now I’m a mother of two grown-ups, living in Switzerland since 21 years and when asked I am happy to say “I went to Stuartholme”.

I am sure my niece, Claudia Cramond, now also a Stuartholme girl since January 2009 will experience and appreciate the diverse options and enjoyable years ahead of her, and I look forward to hearing her stories too....

Izzy Luescher. (Cramond)

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Yasmine, Anna and Nicola Alroe

Nicola and Yasmine are the first Alroe girls from our family who have attended Stuartholme. While we are originally a Brisbane family, we more recently spent over a decade living in Sydney; Yasmine being born there.

When Jonathan decided to retire three years ago, the family moved to Byron Bay. So, we needed a boarding school and the proud and happy stories of an ex-Stuartholme student were brought to mind. We visited the school and were moved by the forthcoming and welcoming boarding staff. The motto on the front of the boarding manual says, ‘Come as you are and we will care for you’ and in a world of quick slogans and promises we have been absolutely delighted to see it is a living promise brought to fruition.

There is no doubt that during boarding close members of staff end up co-parenting your children. It may be through the modeling of their behaviour or in the specific conversations that staff have with boarders; but regardless of how it happens the strong support has helped make our daughters secure in their own abilities and keen to make their way in the world looking after others. Considering the usual preoccupation of teenagers with their own small worlds, we see this as no small feat.

Stuartholme

Anna, Tom and Susan

World War Two Calls For Extraordinary Measures.

I am from the most select group of old girls.

The old boys. Yes I was one of only three boys to attend Stuartholme.

It being a girls’ only school this should have guaranteed us many exciting times. I am sure there were, but the passing of 70 years and the tenderness of my age then, have dimmed the memories.

1940 was around the beginning of the second world war.

Three boys have the distinction of being the only other opposite gender to go to Stuartholme, so Hugh Curnow, Peter Hickey and Tom Cullinan rolled up to the school to commence our lifetime studies. I don’t know what the good Sacre Coer nuns thought of this additional challenge.

I assume my enrolment came about through having my older sister Beverley at the school.

old Italian man called Giueseppe. His route to school took us past the back entrance to the Exhibition grounds down O’Connell Terrace. There was a great bump in the road where it rose to pass over the rail line underneath. An elderly nun always sat in a separate seat in the rear of the bus. Our enjoyment for the day, every day, was to yell at Guieseppe to accelerate so that our guardian nun would hit her head on the roof of the bus.

Why would such a crazy memory leave such a lasting impression on this young lad?

But the best part of my school year was the instruction to bring a blanket every day so that we could have a “siesta”. Clearly the education was not a highlight of my Stuartholme experience, but I am not at all embarrassed to declare myself a Stuartholme alumni, along with my daughters Susan (1974 to 1978) and Louise Cullinan (1976), and current Stuartholme Year 11 granddaughter, Anna Gibbs.

Tom Cullinan

A group of about a dozen small kids were picked up and driven to the school each day in an extraordinary minibus. At the time we lived in Tower Street Ascot and the driver of the bus I clearly remember was an

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Bill, Susan and Laura The Danby family

One of Laura’s first impressions when she visited Stuartholme for an orientation visit was the friendliness of the students. She told her parents that she wanted to attend this school, because everyone smiled at her and she felt very welcome. After having just completed her third year at Stuartholme, this initial impression of warmth and community spirit remains true. It’s also true for parents, who always find a smile and a warm welcome from students, other parents and school staff when they attend events.

Laura is in Yr 10 this year. Extracurricular activities are an important part of Stuartholme school life. The orchestras and music ensembles at Stuartholme offer an influential program that promotes strong participation and supports the students to achieve musical excellence.

Cor Unum

Hon Justice Martin Daubney, Rosemary (nee O’Brien) and Hannah Daubney,

Time flies, but the memories and influence of Stuartholme pervade the Daubney household.

Hannah Daubney (Cor Unum Head, 2007) is now well advanced in her studies in Arts and Business Management at the University of Queensland, but counts her years at Stuartholme as instrumental in her formation.

“The most important thing I have taken away from Stuartholme is the spirit of Cor Unum which encourages an eternal bond between the women of the Sacred Heart.

It does not matter what graduating year you are from, where you came from from, or where you are now, the Cor Unum spirit provides a synergy which binds Sacred Heart women all around the world. I have friends from different classes and years from Stuartholme, friends from Kincoppal Rose Bay and Sacre Coeur in Melbourne, and friends from Baradene College in New Zealand and Marmoutier in France. It is a special spirit that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Wherever she goes in the future, Hannah will carry the unique memories shared by Stuartholme students– meeting her friends everyday in a uniquely beautiful school setting, being taught and mentored by women and men who were both teachers and friends, enjoying musical and drama activities in the Joigny Auditorium, playing tennis on courts with spectacular views of Brisbane, and sitting in the Chapel, watched over by its soaring stained glass windows.

Those same windows were the stunning backdrop to Rosie and Martin’s wedding in the Chapel in 1989. Apart from the obvious Sacre Coeur connection, the artistic beauty of the setting cannot be matched, and reflected Rosie’s warmest memories of her years at Stuartholme in the 1970s.

“Art surrounded us every day. Pieces from the Behan Collection hung in the Australian Room and all along the corridors. Davida Allen was our art teacher. How could we not have artistic inspiration?”

Rosie reflects on the graciousness of the Sacre Coeur sisters – those who taught, and the older sisters who were retired but still ever-present in the life of the school: “They were wonderful examples to us of independence and strength.”

As has happened so often over the years, the Sacred Heart connection was also present in Rosie’s marriage to Martin, a past student of Downlands College, and now a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, who served for many years on the Stuartholme Foundation.

Time might fly, but the memories of Stuartholme will always be fresh for Hannah, Rosie and Martin..

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Madeleine, Sandy, Jeremy and Lucimay

“Stuartholme to our family is a place of learning, reflection, growth and tradition. We were newcomers to the school in 2009, and have a daughter, Lucimay, currently in Year 9 and another daughter, Madeleine, starting at Stuartholme in Year 8, 2011.

We selected Stuartholme initially because we were drawn to the sense of community that radiates from within. We also wanted our daughters to have a well rounded education - one that focused on the development of the spirit and body, as well as the mind. The surroundings are simply spectacular and the location is apart from the distractions of the city; all things conducive to learning.

We have been involved in the life of the school through the rowing and tennis communities, as well as by availing ourselves of the numerous celebrations and social activities that occur throughout the year.”

Sandy and Jeremy Davey

Stuartholme

Grace, Jack, Lynda and Keith Davidson “High on a Hill”

I remember entering the Stuartholme gates for the very first time. Everything was so new, so wonderful, so Stuartholme. I didn’t know what to feel when I stepped out of the car and gazed at the amazing view. Stuartholme was truly “high on a hill”. Here I was, this little Year 8 girl, standing in the middle of Joigny forecourt not knowing what to expect. I was then approached by a girl wearing a green ribbon; she introduced herself and guided me to the rest of the group. At that moment I knew I belonged.

That was 3 years ago and since then I have achieved so much in my time at Stuartholme. However my journey doesn’t end now. Even when I leave school, Stuartholme will always be in my heart, and high on a hill. “I belong” Thank you Stuartholme. It is a privilege to be a Stuartholme girl.

Grace Davidson Year 10

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The Day Family

One Heart One Mind rings true in so many ways as being a part of the Stuartholme community. There is something special about a Stuartholme girl. I have life long friends from my days at Stuartholme - friends we keep as growing families today and that is something I hope Maddie will also experience. In fact you can find us in this book as a big group.

What an amazing place to go to school every day!

It was the education of the whole person we considered when deciding to send Maddie to Stuartholme.

As a Coen girl I was extremely proud when Maddie was elected Vice Captain Sport of Coen in 2010. A highlight for all the girls was wining the House Cup! Something that had eluded Coen for many years.

Kellie Hunter (1979) Madeleine Day (2010) Robert Day (my husband) Hamish Day (son) Robert attended Terrace (1981) and Hamish is now at Terrace and will finish in 2015

Cor Unum

My association with Stuartholme has spanned over the past 15 years. It started when I joined the Stuartholme council in 1995, two years prior to my daughter commencing at the school in 1997. When the School became incorporated in 2000, I was appointed as a Director, and then Chair of the Board in 2006. I will finish my time on the Board at the end of 2010.

The strongest impression that I will take away with me from this time is the commitment, drive and passion of the people I have worked with. The School is blessed to have people like this across the spectrum of activities involved in running a school - ultimately their objective is to improve the education experience of the girls at Stuartholme.

Best wishes for the next 90 years!

Carol Dickenson Dr Carol Dickenson Chair, Stuartholme School Board My high school education at Stuartholme was a time of many happy memories.

I met some of my best friends, whom I still remain close to today.

Carly Dickenson Student of 2001

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Back row - Sarah (Sally) Follent (1961–1967) Eliza Doneley (1995–1999), Sarah van der Westhuizen (Doneley) (1987–1991) Middle row: Martha Follent (1965–1970), Sheila Clowes (Doneley) (1990–1994) Front row: Jane Doneley (Follent) (1960– 1965) holding Saffron Clowes, aged 1 month (future student)

In 1965 the three Follent girls and Sybil Doneley were all boarding at Stuartholme, Martha in Year 7 (5th Class), Sally in Year 10 (2nd Class), Sybil in Year 11 (1st Class) and Jane in Year 12 (Upper 1st Class), Jane being privileged to be Head of the School that year. Stuartholme named its grades in the Sacre Coeur tradition: progression through the years meant a lower class number.

Jane studied Physiotherapy at The University of Queensland, graduated in 1969 and still works part time. She married Tyson Doneley (Sybil’s brother) and they have four children, three girls and one boy. Jane has been closely associated with Stuartholme throughout her life, with the Alumnae, various committees and presently as a Director on the School Board.

Sally Follent was a Prefect in 1967. She did Social Work, and later Art History at The University of Queensland.

She is now executive editor of an art publishing company Eyeline Publishing and of the art magazine, Eyeline. She writes: ‘In 1961 I was in the Junior School (6th Class). I loved the Feast of St Madeleine Sophie when we had a holiday and the junior schoolers were given the traditional ‘School Spirit’, a drink that we thought was extremely special (I realise now it was just warm red cordial!), and we played cache. Each girl in the Junior School was allocated a garden bed outside Joigny, where we gardened each weekday after breakfast from 8.00 to 8.30am. I wasn’t great at this as by the time I had weeded from one end of my patch to the other the weeds had returned at the first end and I started over, repeating this all year! Rosemary Kirby’s was the best garden.’

Martha Follent did Speech Pathology at The University of Queensland, then Audiology, and she has worked clinically in both disciplines. Martha also followed her passion for drama and studied at NIDA, graduating with a Diploma in Directing and working as both an actor and director. Martha worked for Cochlear Ltd in various roles; Area Manager for

North East Asia, Regional Clinical Manager for Asia Pacific and Global Training Manager. Martha now runs her own consultancy company, providing private and corporate coaching and training. Martha’s strongest memories of Stuartholme are: midnight feasts and the excitement and hilarity they seemed to engender in the middle of the night; the Feast of Saint Madeleine Sophie — being woken up at 6.00am by the senior girls, running to the Hall in our PJs to watch ‘Squash’ (not the ball game!), attending Mass followed by a BBQ breakfast on the Hill, then fun all day. Stuartholme has stood us in good stead for life. Curiosity, enduring friendships (we have just had our 40th reunion), a strong sense of belonging to an international community, are some of the many gifts Stuartholme has given me. We are grateful to our parents for their generosity in sending us there.

Sarah van der Westhuizen studied Medicine at The University of Queensland after finishing Year 12, and is now working as a Consultant Anaesthetist. She married Rudolf and they have two boys, Jack and Thomas.

Sheila Clowes graduated in Architecture from the Queensland University of Technology. She worked in several architecture firms before establishing her own practice. She is married to Daniel and they have a daughter, Saffron.

Eliza Doneley, after leaving Stuartholme, did Physiotherapy at The University of Sydney and then Medicine at Griffith University, graduating in 2008. She is still studying, pursuing a career in Anaesthetics.

Sarah, Sheila and Eliza thrived on the academic challenges Stuartholme offered and participated in its cultural and sporting activities. Sarah was Captain of Debating, Sheila was Vice-Captain of Stuart, and Eliza played A Grade tennis for two years.

We are all grateful for the nurturing Stuartholme provided us, and the friends we made who still share our lives.

Stuartholme

Sybil with Frances and Mary Ellen

My Mother Molly Doneley (nee Allen) commenced at Stuartholme in 1922. After ten years she left for the University of Queensland and in 1934 she graduated with a B.A. I was at Stuartholme from 1962-1966 and then went onto UQ, graduating with a B.Pharm in 1970. One of my first Stuartholme memories was as a young boarder living in the original Joigny with bush fires on the slopes of Mt Cootha. A colourful and frightening experience at night. I made many wonderful lifetime friends including my sister-in-law Jane Doneley.

My daughters Mary Knox (nee O’Keeffe) (19921996) and Frances O’Keeffe(1995-1999) both graduated from Queensland universities. Mary with B.A./B.Bus (UQ) , Frances with LLB./B.Bus (QUT). Mary and Frances were actively involved with sport at school. Mary was swimming captain, and Frances won the Sports award in her final year 1999. Frances was also Stuart Captain in 1999. Their great love was tennis and in 1996 they constituted half of the Stuartholme tennis team that won the National School Girls’ Tennis Title.

Sybil O’Keeffe (nee Doneley)

My Thoughts of Stuartholme

Stuartholme is a great place for music, religion, friendly staff and making long lasting friendships.

I have made so many great friends at Stuartholme.

The music talent here is fantastic. I spend almost every morning in the music department.

The grades feel so integrated because almost every person at Stuartholme knows someone else from a different grade.

It is wonderful that the school is celebrating 90 years of being open and it is all thanks to staff, parents, students and alumnae.

Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat’s memory is always with us and the new statue will help us to remember her each time we walk past her statue.

Bridget Doyle, Grade 10.

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The Ellett Family Rebecca, Steve, Madi and Tom

I was at Stuartholme from 1976 to 1980 ….

I was very happy there. The school was much smaller in those days, and you knew everyone. Boarding was a bit of a shock after growing up in the bush and being home schooled but so many of us were in the same boat which made it easier.

Sister Muirhead was in charge of the boarders, and I have very fond memories of her. We all had enormous respect for her, and now when I think back I realize how very young she was at the time she was looking after us.

Sister Toohey was the headmistress, and she appeared to have extraordinary powers of intuition. She had the habit of appearing like an apparition when particular midnight “crimes” were going down, such as raiding the kitchen or climbing the stairs for a peek at “E” Floor (the Nuns’ zone in those days – totally forbidden territory).

As we were all convinced the place was haunted it didn’t take much to scare us.

I’m sure she was well aware of this and used it to her advantage. To me, she had a heart of gold and instinctively knew when anyone was upset or in trouble.

In 1985 I went to work in Kununurra, in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. The Intention was to go for 6 months but I met my husband up there and stayed. Two children and 23 years later, we moved back to South East Queensland. We live in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, a place I’ve always loved and I really feel like I’ve come home.

Rebecca Tully

Cor Unum

Front row – Francoise Baudet, Alexandra Buzzard.

Mercia Ferrier, Grace Ferrier and Elizabeth Ferrier Samantha Howkins, Catherine Baudet , Patricia Ferrier Alice Ferrier, Anne Noble, Holly Ferrier and Mary Fowler.

The Ferrier Family

Mercia and Ian Ferrier chose to send their girls to Stuartholme because of Ian’s close family association with the Sacre Coeur Order. Ian’s cousin, Mary Jane Ferrier, is a Sacred Heart Nun in North America, where Ian spent some years during and after WW2 living with her family. Mercia and Ian’s five daughters, Mary, Anne, Catherine, Patricia and Elizabeth attended Stuartholme in the 1960s and 1970s, and their six granddaughters, Samantha and Alexandra Anderson, Francoise Baudet, Grace, Holly and Alice Ferrier have continued that tradition at the school.

Years at Stuartholme

Mary Fowler – 1965 - 1969 Anne Noble – 1965 - 1969 Catherine Baudet 1966 – 1971 Patricia Ferrier 1967 – 1972 Elizabeth Ferrier 1972 – 1776

Samantha Howkins 1995 – 1999 Alexandra Buzzard 2000 - 2003 Francoise Baudet 1996 - 2000 Grace Ferrier 2008

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I was a Stuartholme girl from 1977-1978.

When I started at Stuartholme in year eleven the first thing I noticed was that the teachers were more welcoming and friendlier than the teachers at my previous school. Although I was” the new girl” I was included by the girls from day one. It didn’t take long before I found many friends who I am still close to today. I thoroughly enjoyed the two years I spent at Stuartholme.

My Aunt’s and many of my relatives went to Stuartholme, as well as my older sister, so when I first walked up the front steps I felt as though I was already a part of the Stuartholme family. I have three daughters and they all went to Stuartholme and enjoyed the same experiences and made close friendships as I did and I look forward to the day when they have daughters who will also become Stuartholme girls.

Barbara Forde nee: Murphy 1977-1978 I was at Stuartholme from 1994 to 1998. While there, I was inspired by my biology teachers Mrs Johnston and Mrs Bold and continued my education in the Sciences. I now work for the Ear Science Institute of Australia, managing the Lions Hearing Clinics in Perth. In May 2010 I got married in Byron Bay. The previous year, my husband and I spent 12 months travelling and back packing through South America, paragliding, mountaineering and high altitude multi day treks. Stuartholme and the teachers, who taught me, encouraged my educational and personal development.

My girlfriends and I are now enjoying the benefits of both.

Rebecca Bennett nee: Forde 1994-1998

My name is Alexandra Forde and I was a Stuartholme girl from 2000-2004. My mother went to Stuartholme, as did my older sister, so when I got there I felt like I was already part of the Stuartholme family. It was a great high school and I believe the teachers who taught me, and the friends I made while I was there, have certainly helped to shape me into the young woman I am today. I look forward to one day sending my girls to Stuartholme so that they can experience the same positive high school experience that I did.

Alexandra Forde 2000-2004 Macrae House Captain My name is Jacqui Forde and I graduated from Stuartholme in 2007. I spent a lot of time in the water polo community coaching and playing as well as being elected water polo vice captain in my senior year. Stuartholme is a great school with a lot of spirit where all the girls are proud to wear the red and gold.

Jacqui Forde 2003-2007 Water Polo Vice Captain

Stuartholme

Freer Family Links With Stuartholme

The Freer family has links with Stuartholme dating back to 1929, in which year Anna Maria Freer, known to family as Annie and Auntie Annie, visited Stuartholme and made her formal request to the then Mother Superior. Her request was to join the ranks of the Sacre Coeur. Eventually in spite of her tender years and small physical stature, Anna was accepted as a novice, trained and professed, taking her final vows.

In the era before Vatican Two, the Sacre Coeur Society was a semi- enclosed order with the convent’s business conducted by an extern. Sister Anna’s prayer and working life in the Sacre Coeur saw many changes during the late 1960s and 1970s and during these times she worked with boarder pastoral care and in the office. She gained her driver’s licence with great persistence as a tiny grey-haired lady in her sixties.

Over the years, Sister Anna worked at Stuartholme, elsewhere at Canungra during World War 2, and at Kincoppal, Rose Bay in Sydney. She was a founding member of the Esk Community in the Brisbane Valley, initiating Meals On Wheels in that region. She also worked with the Psychiatric Pastoral Care team in Fortitude Valley.

As a child and in her teens, Annie helped care for her younger brother, Gerard along with her sister Monica.

Their father,Will Freer, having died of a work injury when Gerard was a baby, and with their mother and two teenage brothers earning a living as best they could, the youngest trio were placed in care with nuns at Oxley for a time then boarded with relatives in various locations. They survived, as did their Catholic faith.

From these humble beginnings, Annie’s “baby brother” Gerard went on to qualify as an industrial chemist in food technology, holding Senior Chemist position at Queensland Country Traders and factory manager at Mynor. He married Darling Downs girl, Maureen Evans who resided at Duchesne College for three years while she studied arts and journalism and worked at the Inns of Court.* Together they bought acreage land at Bardon on which to build a home and raise a family. This land they named St Joseph’s Forest. * Maureen was living at Duchesne when she and Gerard met. Quite some years later she was appointed Duchesne’s delegate to the National Council of Women.

She lived well into her nineties, independent and healthy, spending a few fruitful years at Sydney’s Karlaminda with her co-retirees, enjoying visits from next-of-kin as well as fellow religious.

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Keen to establish their own food manufacturing business, Gerard and Maureen managed to secure a few more acres fronting West Ithaca Creek, an acreage which adjoined the large parcel of land held by Stuartholme.

Thus began a long and harmonious relationship between Convent of the Sacred Heart, Stuartholme , now known as Stuartholme School and Freers/Red Seal which became Freer Foods.

But there were other more important links, apart from Freers as a Stuartholme neighbour producing potato chips, snack foods and prize-winning Charolais cattle. One key link, which endures to this day in 2010, is the Sacre Coeur education enjoyed by the five Freer daughters and six granddaughters.

Stuartholme’s education system was of a high standard and many of its graduates have excelled in the professions and in the areas of art, music and performing arts. Apart from son , Michael, who works as a lawyer and Special Counsel**, the five Freer daughters, Mary-Anne, Genevieve, Alannah, Catherine and Elissa each attended Stuartholme for their years of secondary education spanning a period of time from 1968 until 1979.

Since completing their education at Stuartholme, the Freer girls are working in education, medicine, dentistry, counselling and orthodontics respectively. As for the next generation of six young ladies they are studying and working in the fields of pharmacy, medicine, physiotherapy, health sciences, creative arts and retail. Undoubtedly of most importance, due to the link with Stuartholme and its fund of wisdom and ideals as practised by Madeleine Sophie Barat, is the kind of human beings with which Freers have to this day become identified, from the time when a timid impoverished Anna Freer in 1929 spoke of her wish to join the ranks of the Sacre Coeur.

Anna’s younger brother, Gerard always wished to own his own business. He had a hearing loss which first became apparent in his late teens. By the time he met Maureen at

age 24, he had no hearing in one ear and half in the other. It seemed possible that if total deafness eventuated, it might be necessary to supplement their income with farming. And so their search for land from the early 1950s onwards was not just for a house block, but arable land on which to grow fruit, vegetables and raise a few head of cattle. ** As a matter of interest, Michael was a post-graduate student residing at Duchesne College when it was co-ed in the late 1970s. It was there that he met his future wife Rita McKenna. Their two daughters, Diana and Nicole attended Stuartholme from the late 1990s.

Having secured 5 acres (St Joseph’s Forest) in 1953 and some of the vacant 12 acres adjoining Stuartholme a few years later, they leased other Bardon land nearby as well as fertile acreages in the Redland Bay district on which they employed farmers to grow potatoes. Their very first trial crop of potatoes, on the block they named “the Stuartholme paddock”, was not very successful, but this initial failure did not deter Gerard who promptly looked elsewhere for the right type of soil.

Whilst in the Redland Bay area, Gerard’s staff helped the Carmelite nuns with their early attempts at farming. These attempts proved fruitful probably due to the rich volcanic soil as well as to prayer!

By 1959, Gerard and Maureen had three children and had registered Superfoods Pty Ltd, which made bacon crisps and fruit juice cordial with added Vitamin C .

Cor Unum

By the time their fourth child Alannah was born (1960), Gerard had set up manufacture in a small factory he assembled from an ex-airforce shed on the block of land next to the Stuartholme paddock. Thus, business had started. Gerard and seven staff were the production team, there was one van salesman, Maureen was “the office” and 24-hour phone support. Before long the business grew and a full-time bookkeeper was engaged.

Soon other snack foods made from potatoes, rice, corn and wheat were on the production line, and cattle were in the paddocks nearby.

By 1967, they had bought a sizeable irrigation farm at Gatton to supply potatoes and pasture cattle. The same year, Freer’s Coottha Coottha Charolais stud had been registered and later produced prizewinners at the Ekka, including Champion Cow of the Show which headed the Grand Parade. And Freers/Red Seal van salesmen were venturing into northern New South Wales and parts of the southern States.

All of the six Freer children worked in the business: factory, office or farm for short or extended periods of time, and especially during the Exhibition selling sample bags or over school and university holidays.

Highlight of 1981 was the family’s National Small Business Award. Gerard and son Michael went to Canberra for the presentation. The judges said they liked Gerard’s “vertically integrated” style of industry which went from primary (growing raw materials eg potatoes and hybrid popping corn) to secondary (processing the potatoes to crisps, corn to punnets of Freer’s caramel corn) to tertiary (distribution – Red Seal had a fleet of vans selling direct to schools, hotels and shops).

The judges noted it was also an “environmentally friendly” industry with on-site recycling.

For example, the potato wash water was pumped out over pastures for the cattle instead of being discharged down the sewer. The left-overs from grains like potatoes, wheat, rice and corn were regularly fed to the livestock, night and morning, a procedure which eliminated trade waste.

By the 1980s, Red Seal was exporting on a modest scale to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

In 1998, Gerard was approached by a group of Queenslanders who wished to buy his food manufacturing business, allowing him to retain ownership of the eight acres of land and buildings. Their intention was to move the business to Darra into larger premises. Having just been diagnosed with a medical condition, Gerard agreed to the proposal.

Within a few years, production ceased. The handsome brick cavity factory and two-level office grew quiet, the old farmhouse, once the office, was removed, as was the large shed. The factory building with its acreage on either side stretching along West Ithaca Creek was handed over to Stuartholme School. The stated plan was to convert the factory to a sports centre, with the paddocks eventually to be transformed into ovals.

By 2005, the last of the Freer livestock had been moved, a few to St Joseph’s Forest, others to Condamine.

Today, on the western end of the factory property close to where the old farmhouse once stood, there is a sign FREER FARM. This tells a little of the site history.

But how does one do justice to a story which spans 81 years, a story which perpetually links Stuartholme with Gerard and Maureen, their six children and fourteen grandchildren, and prior to all that, with the courageous tiny Sister Anna Freer who knocked on the convent door in 1929?

Mrs. Mary Anne McLaughlin (nee Freer), Miss Louisa Stephens, Dr Alannah Freer, Mrs. Catherine Dodemont (nee Freer), Miss Lisa- Marie Dodemont, Miss Juliette Stephens, Dr Genevieve Freer, Mrs. Maureen Freer, Mr. Michael Freer, Dr Elissa Freer, Miss Amelia Stephens, Miss Nichole Freer.

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Zac, Lisa, Brad and Montana Gray

Montana Gray’s story.....

My family have always been nomadic, I was born in Cairns in 1995, then at the age of four we moved to the Northern Territory, where I started my schooling at St Mary’s Primary School with my brother. My parents then decided our high school education should be completed in the city, so we moved to Brisbane. My mother set out to find schools suited to our belief ’s and personalities. She dragged us to every open day from Ipswich to Morton Bay, but once we arrived at Stuartholme we knew we had found our “perfect fit”.

I’ve just completed year 9 and can’t believe year 10 is just around the corner. I enjoy touch football, home economics and all my great friends.

Montana

Stuartholme

The Hallinan Clan Celeste (nee Doherty 1987), Peter, Brittany (2012), Georgie (2015)

Our Family has had connections with Stuartholme School for over 30 years, including Sisters, Daughters, Mothers, Aunts and Cousins. It is the common bond, Cor Unum meaning “One Heart”, which we share with each other.

Sister Carroll and Sister Bannon gave Peter and I a beautifully framed picture of Mater Admirabilis as a Wedding gift many years ago. This gift has been a constant reminder of the special connection we have with Stuartholme.

Mater Admirabilis is a fresco depicting the Virgin Mary at the Trinità dei Monti, a church in Rome. It is an important symbol for the Sacré Coeur Family, therefore this year, my husband and I took the girls to visit Mater Admirabilis in Rome. It was a very special and spiritual occasion and it helped the girls have a better understanding of what it means to be part of the Sacré Coeur World Wide Family.

Brittany, Celeste, Georgie and Peter Hallinan

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Daryl, Trish, Richard and Nicholas Hanly Patricia Springer Patricia was a boarder at Stuartholme for 9 years. She commenced her schooling in 1961 in year 4, when her oldest sister, Loretto, was in year 12. It was a busy year for Loretto, managing her Senior studies, her duties as head girl, and the homesickness of her little sister. However, Patricia soon settled into boarding life, and thoroughly enjoyed receiving her education in the tranquil environment provided at Stuartholme.

Patricia’s sisters Jill and Anne also boarded at Stuartholme. The Springer girls’ association with the school spanned 19 unbroken years, during which they eagerly awaited the weekly letter from home, as well as joyous telegrams which would be sent to advise of rain having fallen on the family property, Roseneath, outside Longreach. Sadly, Anne (Kissner) passed away in London in 2009 after a long illness.

Patricia’s nieces, Siobhan and Macushla Macgroarty, and Katherine Springer, also attended Stuartholme.

Her grand-niece, Madison Springer, is a current student.

Patricia married Daryl Hanly in 1973 and they have two sons, Richard and Nicholas. Richard married Madeleine Hoy in 2009. They are now undertaking specialist

training in their respective fields of Orthopaedics and Anaesthetics. Nicholas is a solicitor and is currently employed by Legal Aid Queensland, after commencing his working life as an Associate to His Honour Judge Milton Griffin SC DCJ. Patricia is also a solicitor, and after many years in private practice, was sworn in as an inaugural full time member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in December 2009.

Daryl is the first lay Principal of St Joseph’s Nudgee College (2002 - present) and is currently the Stuartholme Board Chair.

Cor Unum

Kate, Wendy, Noelene and Anna

The Hanrick Family Noelene Hanrick nee Kelly attended Stuartholme as a boarder from 1943 – 1947.

Noelene and her husband John live in Brisbane after spending much of their time in Western Queensland.

Wendy Maguire) nee Hanrick attended Stuartholme as a Boarder from 1977-1981. Wendy and her husband Gary have 2 children, Paul and Anna and have a farm on the Sunshine Coast.

Anna is currently a boarder at Stuartholme in Grade 10.

Sue Hogden nee Hanrick (absent from photo) attended Stuartholme as a boarder from 1968 -1973. Sue and her husband Peter live in Townsville and have 3 children Michael, John and Kate.

Kate attended Stuartholme from 2001 -2003 and is in her final year of medicine.

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John and Pamela Healy and Family

This photograph is of our extended family. The group comprises five Stuartholme alumnae and one current student, six Marist College Ashgrove old boys and one current student, two St. Joseph’s Gregory Terrace old boys, one All Hallows’ Brisbane and one St. Ursula’s Toowoomba alumnae. We are mostly fourth, fifth and sixth generation Australians, descendants of brave men and women whom travelled to Australia from Ireland, Guernsey, Wales and England to ensure their Children and their children’s children would have more choices in life and that poverty would not rule their existence.

Like Madeleine Sophie Barat and Marcellin Champagnat they knew that freedom from poverty would come through education. Each generation since our ancestors’ immigration has been given the gift of an education and most in Catholic schools. This photo is of people who are teachers, nurses, barristers, future lawyers, accountants, business owners, artists, designers, actors, musicians, filmmakers, students and part-time workers. But mostly we are just an ordinary family doing the best we can for each other and those we meet in our day.

The littlest member of our family is a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people whom have traversed this area we call South East Queensland, for millennia.

These people also fought bravely for the survival of their children and their children’s children and for their land. His story and his ancestors’ story is now a part of our story and we carry it forward to remind us that this place is ancient and we must preserve it’s natural resources and tread lightly.

Back Dominique Gardiner nee Healy All Hallows’ senior 1982 Marguerite Berkeley nee Healy Stuartholme senior 1981 Pamela Healy nee Bougoure St. Ursula’s Toowoomba Louise Hall nee Healy Stuartholme senior 1979 Front Lily Berkeley senior 2009 Prue Berkeley current student year 10 Harriet Berkeley senior 2007 Amelia Hall senior 2006

Stuartholme

In the following photos of the Henderson family we have Philip Henderson, Rebecca Henderson (nee Jory), Jack Henderson, Kirstie Henderson and Pippa Henderson.

We saw Kirstie quickly settle into boarding life, and we knew that Stuartholme was the right school for her as we quickly saw positive changes throughout several areas of her life.

Kirstie was welcomed into the Stuartholme family this year, starting in year 11 as a boarder on Amiens Floor.

Many new memories and friends were quickly made in the boarding house, and Kirstie was able to form close bonds with girls from all over Australia and abroad.

Rebecca previously boarded at another school in Brisbane, and didn’t want her girls to miss out on an opportunity to experience this way of life. With only warm remarks being offered about Stuartholme School from extended family and friends, she knew that this school would be the most rewarding opportunity for her own children.

We hope Pippa also chooses this experience at a later stage, as we hope that she will also get the privilege to experience boarding life.

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Clockwise- Rosslyn Héro (nee Walsh), Michèle Héro, Anne-Marie Héro, Jean-Marc Héro, Nicole Atkinson ( nee Héro ), Martine Héro

Rosslyn Walsh and her daughters Michele Hero, Anne – Marie Hero, Nicole Hero and Martine Hero. Son Jean- Marc Hero.

Stuartholme was a second home to me, especially for the four years I bordered there. My mother had died - Dad was in hospital and my brother and I were like orphans.

I went there in 1933 and with three or four others, was picked up by Guiseppe , the Italian driver of the school’s station wagon. Then from grade nine to twelve, I bordered and loved it.

There were only about 40 pupils and the discipline was strict, from the parade beside the beds in the morning (with the pleated curtains perfect!) , strict silences walking between classes with a “clicker” telling us when to stop – to the silent meals.

We were read to, or once a week or so, were allowed to speak french only. (We had two French nuns there, originals, from when they were forced to leave France.) Study after dinner, lights out at 9.30 – up at 6.30 for daily Mass.

So, school holidays were a much looked forward to joy! Sleep in – special breakfast of a boiled egg in the gazebo – paper chases, bush picnics – time to read novels (only the classics of course) concerts, etc, etc... The nuns planned these days on a theme with loving care and much work!

We played tennis against the other Catholic girls’ schools – no boys ever! No swimming pool either – but a very happy time.

No Science was taught at the time until I was in senior when Chemistry was introduced.

When I left school and went to University to study Physiotherapy, I stayed the first year at Duchenne College which was on the first floor of Stuartholme. We took the tram from Toowong to the city - walking through the Toowong cemetery. The University of Queensland was at current QUT campus.

After university I always kept in touch through the Alumni meetings.

When I married Georges Hero, we had four girls, Michele, AnneMarie, Nicole and Martine and then finally a boy, Jean – Marc. I always took the babies from the hospital up to see and be blessed by Mother Kirby, Mother Leyne, Mother Cohen, Mother Percy – Dove, and all the other nuns.

So our four girls all went to Stuartholme and I hope they all loved it as much as I did – though many things had changed by then – Stuartholme taught me a deep sense of religion – to be always honest and reliable, I hope and a punctuality that’s stayed with me all my life, and a sense of great gratitude for what the nuns at Stuartholme did for me and my girls.

Rosslyn Walsh ( Married name HERO)

July 2010

I was the third Hero daughter at Stuarthome, my sisters Michele and Anne - Marie preceding me. Martine came later. We all had different experiences of our lives there. I went into grade 7 in 1968 – There were 11 of us in the class, and we didn’t see much of the rest of the school – spending most of the time in our little room next to the fish pond, where we’d see Sr Parker feed her fish.

I always enjoyed meeting the borders – mostly girls from the bush –though some were from New Guinea, and some French girls - they all expanded my education!

I remember the nuns when they were still in their dark habits with the white frill around their faces. Many things changed during the 60’s and 70’s. There was much guitar playing in the chapel!

I left in 1973, after six happy years at Stuartholme, ready to embrace the world!

I now have three daughters of my own, and although they did not go to Stuartholme, I hope they have benefited from the strong values and the love and respect for a good education which Stuarthome helped to instil in me.

Nicole Atkinson ( nee Hero).July 2010

Cor Unum

The Hole Family

In 2010, there were four Hole girls attending Stuartholme.

Sisters - Madeleine (Yr. 11), Claire (Yr. 10) and Georgia (Yr. 9) were joined by their cousin, Evangeline, who started in Yr. 8.

The girls all live close-by to the school, in the Toowong/Bardon area. At Stuartholme, they have made some wonderful friendships and enjoy being involved in all aspects of school life, including sport, where rowing and waterpolo are particular favourites.

Stuartholme offers a varied curriculum which enables students to grow in self-confidence and to develop spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.

This is why we sent our daughters to Stuartholme and feel confident that the schooling they receive will help them to be successful in their future lives.

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The Holley Family

Our Stuartholme journey began in December 2003 when we first saw Stuartholme while on holiday from South Africa.

It was a stunning sight and we could only imagine the many traditions and stories that were held within those walls.

Two years later we moved to Brisbane and after quizzing our friends, we felt that Stuartholme was the place for our daughters.

In 2008, it was with great excitement that Lauren walked up the front steps on the first day of Yr 8.

This year, Lisa joined her sister as one of the fresh and eager Yr 8’s.

Happily our journey will continue for many years to come with Michelle looking forward to her chance to join the Stuartholme family in 2013.

Our girls are delighted with their schooling! It is reassuring to know that the decision we made all those years ago was the best choice we could have made.

Deanne and Donald Holley

Stuartholme

I am Delia Jaksic. My parents are Steven Jaksic and Margaret Cranitch. I am the first member of my extended family to attend Stuartholme School. However, my late maternal grandfather, Pat Cranitch, worked for the Sacred Heart Sisters at the University’s Duchesne College during the 1970’s.

As a Stuartholme girl, I am constantly embraced

by St Madeleine Sophie’s Vision - “In coming to a School of the Sacred Heart, you have come into a family and come into a home.”

I am therefore thankful to my peers, teachers and all college staff who have contributed, through their nurturing, to my development as a well rounded young adult.

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I was born in Brisbane 1955, and grew up with my younger brother and three sisters travelling and working beside our parents in the 60’s as field workers in rural and Nth.Queensland. My Grandmother and father were from Bigambul country on the Qld/NSW border. Many people hunted as a necessity in those days, bushcraft was always a fair percentage of the conversation, we made and used bush tools all the time in the backblocks and camps when I was growing up, spears were still used frequently by kids and adults as they still are in some lucky places today.

As a professional artist my works have been acquired by major collections, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Public Art...

I have presented Indigenous art and culture internationally at events and festivals.... from Hadrians Wall in the West to The Great Wall of China in the East...right down to the Nullabour...visiting every Gallery and Arts space I can in between!!...

The local tribe is Turrbal The installation at Stuartholme commemorates the many ancient trade routes known as Dreaming trails and the circular meeting places, usually referred to as Bora Rings where cultural exchanges took place. ....In this way new dances, songs, stories and ideas travelled along the Dreaming trails, and for thousands of years travellers could move through otherwise hostile territory.

Rick Roser www.rickroser.com

Grandmothers Country‌....Bigambul (Qld / N.S.W. Border) Indigenous Artist - Rick Roser

Cor Unum

Geraeugh Bowen, Courtney Minniecon, Shannon Castors, Zora Walsh and Shonae Hobson

There is a long history of indigenous students studying at Stuartholme. In recent times this has been formalized in an agreement with the Cape York Peninsula Institute’s Higher Expectation Program.

Girls selected for this program are viewed as leaders in their communities and have been selected on the basis of academic achievement and personal qualities.

Stuartholme is proud to be associated with such a wonderful program and the girls add a rich sense of cultural understanding to the multicultural face of the Boarding House.

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The Joyce family from St George.

Bridgette (14), Julia (12), Odette (8), Natalie, Barnaby & Caroline (10)

We feel so privileged to send our daughters to a Sacred Heart Convent, Stuartholme. The school is one of the most beautiful in Queensland and the girls reflect that happiness and focus in what they do.

It will be a big sacrifice with four closely aged girls but it is worth it for this formative time in their life.

We hope the girls get the faith, foundation and friends that will guide them through life.

Stuartholme

The Kenny Family History:

Our story goes back to Ursula Kenny nee O’rourke 1936 to1940 a boarder from Winton - 3 days travel from school to return home by a train that would stop for freshly cooked scones by the local railway station mistresses on the way!

Ursula loved Stuartholme was school captain (in those days) and had lifelong friends till her death in 1989.

Bill and Ursula had 3 sons so skipped a generation! but David and Louise had son Duge then Elizabeth “Ellie” 2009 and Leith 2011 became boarders from their home in Nanango and love the school too!

Louise

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Nick Nelson, Anna Nelson(Kirby), Margot Kirby (Cowley), Bill Kirby, Brioney Kirby (Mondin), Charles Kirby. Front row: Josephine and Elizabeth Kirby

School days 1956 - 1959

At the beginning of 1956, I arrived from Western Queensland at the entrance gates of Stuartholme with a jumble of thoughts, exciting and scary. As we progressed along the windy road up the hill ‘scary’ tended to describe my feelings better. The building appeared so majestic and massive and I was feeling so small and insignificant setting out on this new unknown path.

My courage seriously wavered as my mother kissed me good bye and she stepped slowly down those stairs (I can still see it), knowing I was in tears. She was probably feeling awful, (an appreciation of how she felt sprang to mind as I walked down those same stairs leaving my own daughter at the top, looking very terrified and feeling “what is going to happen to me now?”!). Mrs McCormack gathered me, my tears, Pam and Margot and posted us through the door.

Joan Carmody then collected me and took me down the stairs telling me how much I was going to enjoy my years at Stuartholme. (Words, words, words - how could I ever enjoy being so far from home!).

But Joan was right. I loved my years at Stuartholme and I have the most rich and wonderful memories. I was well prepared to meet the world, as we did at 18, to walk the walk of an adult (a bit like getting a driver’s licence) – I had now to live it.

Little did any of us know lifelong friendships were being forged during these wonderful years – spaces here and there as our lives were busy with careers, getting married, raising children, travelling and all the things that go with life. Four short years forged friendships that now span more than fifty years. These friendships have proved enduring, interesting and are enjoyed with much pleasure.

I married Bill Kirby and we have two children, Charles and

Anna. Charles is married to Brioney and they have two beautiful daughters, Elizabeth and Josephine. We all live in Brisbane. Anna, an Alumnae of Stuartholme, is married to Nick Nelson and lives in Melbourne.

If I only say one prayer in my whole life it is, “Thank you, Lord”.

Margot Kirby (Cowley) Mum remembers how she felt. I remember what I wore! I can see it so clearly, that outfit I planned all summer holidays to wear on my first day of boarding school.... army green safari style jacket, three quarter knickerbockers and black and silver ankle lacing jelly beans... very 80’s!

When asked to explain what made my days at Stuartholme so special, I can’t really put my finger on it. But the very fact that the seven girls I went to schoolies with after Grade 12 are still so very near and dear to me, decades later, speaks for the strength of my ties. My years at Stuartholme were wonderful, we each were given the space to become the women we are now. All the girls I went through school with were spectacular – smart, creative, adventurous, wicked, beautiful and so very much fun.

Reading a news article today, I realise just how important these friendships, born so many years ago are. It’s been officially, scientifically, proven that friends are good for your health. A circle of close friends and strong family ties can boost a person’s health more than exercise, losing weight or quitting cigarettes and alcohol, psychologists say. And so, because of Stuartholme, I can expect to live a long and very healthy life.

Anna Kirby

Cor Unum

The Lalieu family have enjoyed 11 wonderful consecutive years at Stuartholme.

Cassie (2000-2004) graduated in 2008 from The University of Queensland with a Business degree, and is currently traveling and working in Europe/UK. Alyce (2002-2006) finishes her degree in Arts/Literature/Media Studies  from the University of Queensland in 2010, and Ginny is currently completing her final school year. She intends to study a Bachelor of Primary Education in 2011.

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From the moment you come up the drive way, you can feel it, there’s a swelling of pride and respect.

You can see it in the beauty of the buildings and the landscaped ground, and on the faces of the girls waiting for their friends to arrive.

It’s magical and inspirational. You cannot quite put your finger on it, but its here, it fills the air around us all.

The promise of an amazing day.

That’s my Stuartholme.

Abeni Lawback

Abeni started in 2009.

Maya is due to start year 8 2015

Maya and Abeni Lawback

Stuartholme

Lily, Grace and Coopa

The Lines Girls

Grace Lines, currently in year 9, is pictured here with her Sister, Lily Lines, who will be joining Stuartholme in 2012 and their beautiful dog, Coopa.

Grace is enjoying her time at Stuartholme.

Lily is looking forward to being part of Stuartholme and their pet, Coopa, just enjoys life!

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Margaret went on to study physiotherapy at the University of Queensland, and is now married to Robert Farmer. They have two daughters at Stuartholme, Celeste and Astrid, whose photos appear here with their cousins. Their son, Lincoln attends Roberts old school, Marist Brothers College at Ashgrove.

Second daughter, Susan, married John Taylor, a Churchie old boy, and their son, Lachie, also follows in his father’s footsteps at Churchie.

Third daughter, Kathy, married Villanova Coorparoo old boy, Damian Druery. They have four boys, Ben, Chris, Jack and Alex and in 2011 she will have all four at VIllanova. Kathy has returned to teaching, which she enjoys very much.

The Leightons

A Rose Bay Alumna, Janet Miller married Tom Leighton from Queensland in 1959, at the Star of the Sea Church, Watsons Bay. As was the custom, the bridal party visited the Convent Chapel after the wedding for Janet to leave some flowers before the picture of the Mater Admirabilis in Mater`s Chapel which, in those days, was opposite the doors to the main Chapel. Many years before, this area had been a classroom in the Junior School where Janet and her three younger sisters attended. Custom also dictated that the entire Senior School, which consisted of 150 girls (all boarders) lined the long corridor to curtsy to the newly weds.

The young couple built their home at Rainworth, not far from Stuartholme. One day, Janet answered the doorbell to find the gardener from Stuartholme with two very young trees, one a jacaranda and the other a poinsettia, their roots wrapped in hessian, which had been sent down by Mother Macrae. Those trees are now taller than the house, and many a Leighton bride has had her wedding photograph taken in front of their beautiful blossoms.

Tom, a Gregory Terrace old boy, had hopes that any sons he may bear would follow in his footsteps to St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace, and agreed that any daughters would be educated by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart at Stuartholme.

That decision was never regretted - although, with one son and four daughters, the young couple sometimes only just managed to pay the bursar on time!

Eldest daughter, Margaret, wrote in a grade 8 essay set for the newcomers to describe the first days at school...” From the moment I walked up the stairs... I felt I belonged”.

Youngest daughter, Deborah, went onto study law and became Queensland’s youngest barrister at 21 years of age. She married Salvatore (also a Villa Old Boy) and their sons Dominic and Xavier also go to their father’s old school, whilst their girls, Raphaelle and Alexandra, attend Stuartholme.

Big brother, Julian, a GP in Hervey Bay, walked all four sisters down the aisle within three years of each other, whilst their father Tom, Janet`s much-loved husband who suffered a stroke in 1989, waited at the altar in his wheelchair to give his daughter’s hands in marriage.

Janet cherishes her memories of her schooling at Rose Bay, and that of her daughters at the beautiful Stuartholme School, where the philosophy of St. Madeleine Sophie, and her goals for the students, are perpetuated by the wonderful and caring staff to this day.

Jan Leighton

Cor Unum

I began my journey at Stuartholme in 1981. In keeping with tradition, Sister Polly Parker (fondly nicknamed for the parrot she’d nursed on her shoulder) inducted the year 8s into the history and meaning of the Chapel’s stained glass window.

I remember sitting in the deep window frames looking out at the stunning views, and skylarking in the summer house with my friends. I remember how the Birdwood Terrace No. 10 bus would lumber all the way up the (much narrower) driveway to collect the girls of an afternoon; and how the whole school community used to fit in the hall on B floor (now offices) for assembly with Sister Toohey.

I remember the two telephone cubicles at the bottom of the internal steps and how, if a caller were lucky enough to have their call answered, they had to then convince the person to run up four flights of stairs to inform the boarder they had a call. (More often then not, though, the person would run up one flight and then yell the rest.)

The appointment in 1983 of David Manning, the first lay principal, led to an injection of fresh ideas. I remember the school being a construction zone as “the hill” was removed to make way for “the oval”. But sadly my years of waiting for the privilege of a senior common room in which to make toast and hot chocolate, were in vain as student numbers rose and room became scarce.

And I remember so clearly the inspirational teachers of Stuartholme, such as Mme Morrison, Peter Wright, Tony Carroll, Zoe Knowles, and many others, whose impact upon me has continued through the years. Twenty-five years on, with two daughters and four nieces at Stuartholme, I notice some things never change. Girls still try to hitch a ride up the hill, or slip into the lifts unnoticed. And the spirit of Cor Unum, so central to this education, still strongly binds together the Stuartholme community.

Deb Vasta

Stuartholme is in a beautiful location with the best city views on one side and the mountains on the other. The stained glass window in the Chapel is amazing. Every time you look at it there is something new you hadn’t noticed before. The library is great, with a huge couch along the back wall and windows looking out to the bush. It has thousands of books to read, and lots of resources that are very useful for assignments.

At Stuartholme each person is accepted for who they are; so you can be true to yourself. The teachers are great and really help you to be the best that you can possibly be. You make really good friends at school and even have the opportunity to travel interstate or overseas to one of the other Sacred Heart schools around the world. St. Madeleine Sophie Day is great fun every year. We have a theme, rides, food stalls, games and a Mass. We feel so lucky to have been a part of this school and know that it will forever be a part of who we are.

Celeste, Raphaelle, Astrid and Ally

Margaret Farmer (1975-1979) Robert, Celeste, Lincoln and Astrid

Susan Taylor (1976-1980) with John and Lachlan

Kathryn Druery (1979-1983) Damian, Ben, Chris, Jack and Alex

Deborah Vasta (1981-1985) Salvatore, Dominic, Raphaelle, Xavier and Ally

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The Lynch family are from Brisbane and all of their four daughters have attended Stuartholme.

Isabella was Captain of Boats and graduated in 2009.

Chloe was Public Speaking Captain and graduated in 2010.

Xanthe is in Grade 10 and Phoebe is in Grade 8.

All of the Lynch girls rowed for Stuartholme.

We chose Stuartholme for our daughters because it develops the ‘whole person’.

Dad Paul is a Brisbane lawyer and his wife Helene is completing her Natural Medicine degree.

Stuartholme

Edwina Maher (nee Brennan) attended Stuartholme as a boarder from 1978 and went on to pursue a Nursing career in the area of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, her daughter Briana completed Yr 12(2010) at Stuartholme as day scholar and is embarking on studies at the University of Queensland.

David Maher her husband who attended Brisbane State High School is a solicitor with his own legal practice. David’s maternal grandmother, Elsie (Patricia) Zimmerle attended Kincoppal Rose Bay.

During the years I spent at Stuartholme, the SJC were remarkable individuals who led by example teaching us grace, dignity, patience and kindness. Sisters’ Spruson, Parker, Muirhead, Bannon and Carol enriched our high school years and equipped us to embark on the world with robust confidence in ourselves and the knowledge we would always be part of the Cor Unum family.

Hunter is currently attending St Josephs Gregory Terrace and Bentley is at St Peter’s Indooroopilly Junior School. They live at Brookfield and are keen travellers.

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I had many years at Stuartholme starting in the Junior School as a Boarder and leaving after I completed

“When I first came to Stuartholme in grade 8, my Junior as it was known then. Stuartholme was my 2010, one of the things I noticed was that spirit of the second home for all those years and made many great girls. From rowing to house events, the competitiveness friends while I was there, some of which I am still in was surprising. But for me, the best thing about contact. While I was at Stuartholme I played a lot of Stuartholme is the boarding house. Being a boarder means Tennis and also played in the School tennis teams, and that you get to spend years with your friends and build a remember vividly one of the Tennis coaches at the school stronger relationship with them. called Miss Francesca.

Over the years I have been to quite a few school Reunions The girls at Stuartholme are amazing and I hope to maintain my friendships with all the girls there.” at the School and also many other functions including Grandparents Day at the School. These are always Coco Armstrong very enjoyable catching up with a few old faces and of course seeing the achievements and activities of my Grandchildren whatever they maybe.

Two daughters now Susan Hicks and Penny Armstrong attended Stuartholme as Boarders in the Eighties.

Their daughters Kimberley and Anna Hicks were also Boarders at Stuartholme and Coco Armstrong is going into Year 9 in 2011 Maree Mars

Cor Unum

Tess, Pat, Zali, Mim and Georgia The Matthews Family

This is my first year here at Stuartholme and I am really enjoying it! I have made lots of new friends and some of us are already talking about traveling together when we finish in 2014.

I know my sisters Zali and Tess will love the school as much as I do, and with the stories I tell, they are already looking forward to their adventures up at Stuartholme! Zali is so excited starting in 2012 with some of her primary school friends and we are both hoping Tess well be the first of the year 7’s to start in 2014. If this is the case it will mean we will all have a year together at Stuartholme before I graduate, which would be great!

Once the three of us girls go through it will amount to 10 years in total that we would have been apart of the Stuartholme family.”

Georgia Matthews

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Emily, Nadine, Vivianne and Deborah

My first day in grade 8 was as a new student to the school and also a new family to Brisbane.

Stuartholme has formed an integral part of the Sayers family. I (Deborah McDonald nee Sayers) attended from 1974 -1978, my sister Nadine D’Arro nee Sayers attended 1979 -1981 when she left to attend the Inaugural Queensland Dance School of Excellence.

My daughter Emily McDonald attended 2000 – 2004.

Nadine and I both had the privilege of being married in the chapel. We all still have very close dear friends made in the days of our Stuartholme life.

new ballet parents see the school for the first time and our pride in saying we have been a part of this school family since 1974.

Today I also hold a position on the Alumnae committee and together with the other members enjoyed planning the 90 year anniversary.

I look forward to seeing our family continue to have ties with the school for many years and hopefully future generations.

Mum, Vivianne Sayers also has ties at the school, every year her Ballet school (Sayers Dance Centre) has their concert in Joigny . At this time Mum, Nadine, Emily and myself get to enjoy the praise received when

Stuartholme

The McSweeney Sisters

Ellen, Mary, Majella, Catherine, Patricia, Clare. All six girls started and finished their high school years at Stuartholme between 1972 and 1988.

Our mother Mary, nee McCafferty, attended from 1939-1941. When the school was taken over by the American Army her father did not want her to board in Canungra. She finished her senior schooling at Mt St Michael’s.

Swimming was a prominent part of our schooling life, as were other pursuits including studying!

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Peg, Judith, Annabelle, Pat and Frankie

The Power Sisters Patricia Power (now Murphy), Frances Power (now Doran) and Judith Power (now Hodgson-Beal) were boarders at Stuartholme from Gympie.

Pat from 1944 - 1947 Frankie from 1950 - 1952 and Judy from 1955 - 1957.

Their elder sister, Peg Power (Curran) went to another private girls school but always shared the pride and love of Stuartholme as that of her sisters.

Pat Power (Murphy) recalls that the whole school consisted of 100 pupils and all of them were boarders when she was there. She also recalls - “ The boarders left Stuartholme during the World War II years as it was used as an army hospital , and we returned to Stuartholme after peace had been declared at the end of WWII in 1945.

I remember standing on the School balcony at night looking out over Brisbane city which was ablaze with lights. It was such a spectacular sight to see after the city had being in total darkness for many years. “ I loved my years at Stuartholme and made wonderful friendships that lasted many years” Pat’s sisters, Frankie and Judy share the same sentiments.

Pat Power Murphy’s granddaughter, Annabelle Murphy is currently yr 10 at Stuartholme. Annabelle has been a boarder since 2008 and is from from a property at Talwood in Southern Queensland.

Pat Murphy

Cor Unum

The Murphy Family

We chose to send out girls for their education to Stuartholme for several reasons. Mainly the school was focused on education of “girls”, we wanted a Private Catholic education and as the 3 girls were very keen on their horse riding, we wanted a school with a Strong Equestrian team.

Friends of ours, the Burke family’s girls were attending Stuartholme and the family was very involved in the Stuartholme Equestrian movement. They spoke fondly of the spirit of the team and the dedication of the Equestrian Co coordinator Anna Starosta.

Hannah attended Stuartholme from 2005 to 2009. She was one of the Equestrian Captain’s for Stuartholme in 2009.

Over the 5 years Hannah attended 4 State Titles on her mare RP Arabella (Bella) and represented the QLD Interschool equestrian team in 2008 for 110cm Showjumping and placed 7th at this National Championships.

Laura commenced at Stuartholme in 2007 and again joined the team. Laura has represented Stuartholme at 4 State Titles on both Colman’s Mac and Cutaslide Joe. In 2008 she was State Champion for 90cm Showjumping and National Reserve Champion for the QLD Interschool Equestrian team.

Laura is the Equestrian Captain for 2011.

Brittany commence year 8 in 2010 and could not wait to join the team. Brittany attended the 2010 State Championship in Stuartholme colours. She placed 3rd in the 90cm Show jumping and was selected for the Interschool QLD team.

We travelled to Sydney for the Interschool National Championship in September 2010 and Brittany placed 5th at this National Championship. She looks forward to 4 more years competing on her two horses Peace Image and Cutaslide Joe.

We live on 10 acres in Bellbowrie on Brisbane’s western corridor with our 6 horses, 2 dogs and a multitude of bantam chickens. Our horses run on the 10 acres and the girls can catch a bus up the road to Stuartholme.

Every morning before school the girls feed and unrug the horses. This means getting up at 5.30am in winter to have the horses done before going to school. Often a few scraps of hay are found in their blazer pockets!

Although our girls are involved in a multitude of activities at Stuartholme, our whole family is involved in the Equestrian team. The sense of community and togetherness within the team is something we all treasure.

Hannah still comes along and helps at Interschool Equestrian events with the family.

Lorelle and Brendan

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Diane Therese Neve (Class of 1978)

I enjoyed every moment of the 5 years I spent at Stuartholme; from the first chaotic week of Grade 8 as we tried to cope with the aftermath of the 1974 floods, to the wild celebrations on the last day of Grade 12 in November 1978. I regularly see a close group of my school friends and our ‘girls weekends’ are the highlight of my year. There are no pretentions when you are with a bunch of girls who have known you since you were a pimply-faced, irrational 12 year old.

Just as I loved everything about Stuartholme my husband, Bernie Fitzsimon, loved Marist Ashgrove. He too has weekends away with his school mates, but some his friendships go back to Grade 1!

My middle sister Rosemarie (Class of 1971) had the unique position of being in the youngest grade in the school for some 4 years. Stuartholme had decided to phase out the junior school and, one by one, dropped off the grades behind her. It is funny to think that some 40 years later we are looking at reintroducing the junior school!

Over the years the spirit of Stuartholme has crept into my very bones. I love that you can see glimpses of the buildings from all over Brisbane. It is like she is always with me. Every time I walk up the drive a sense of peace seems to settle over me and I know that I belong here.

We love that our daughters have the chance to be a part school based family. Bethany (Fitzsimon) has just about finished her first year at Stuartholme and is thriving. Dominica doesn’t officially start until 2012 but she has already thrown herself headfirst, literally, into her sister’s water polo team. We wonder if they will have such fond memories of their schooling as we do. We certainly hope so.

I was so proud of following in the footsteps of my two sisters.

My eldest sister, Cherie (Class of 1969) loved her time as a boarder while the rest of the family was with in Thursday Island where our Dad was Harbour Master for a couple of years.

I think she may have been a little put out when she had to become a “day bug” when we returned to Brisbane.

Stuartholme

Bernie and Diane

Dominica, Diane and Bethany

Stuartholme is a great school and has a really close community; I noticed that as soon as I arrived. Every girl is included and everyone stops to help you when you look lost. (I got lost a lot in my first week.) Oh, and just in case you may not know it, all the girls love our Chocolate!

Bethany (Age 13)

I really don’t know what to expect of Stuartholme. It is all a bit of a mystery. I wonder who my friends will be, what I will be during the day and what the teachers are going to be like.

My Mum had fun there and my sister seems to be enjoying it. So I guess it is going to be just fine.

But one thing I’ll never know is why they don’t have a play ground and what on earth do they do at lunch time?

Dominica (Age 11)

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Stuartholme was an amazing experience for me.

Music has always been a part of who I am, and I gained so much from the many opportunities I encountered in my time at Stuartholme. I was given the opportunity to be a border in my first year! I loved my time at Stuartholme. I made so many friends and I was given the Captaincy of Music Captain in 2009 (my graduating year), and I was honoured to receive the school’s Cultural Award and become an Honour Music Student for 2009. I have many great memories of Stuartholme. I am very proud to say I am and I will always be a Stuartholme girl!

Chantal O’Brien 2005-2009

Stuartholme offers a canvas of opportunities for the girls, whether they are interested in Music, Art, Sport or Academia.

Chantal was able to experience a myriad of wonderful opportunities in all of these areas and her life was enriched by this. Chantal has made wonderful friendships that continue to enrich her life today. My most precious involvement as a parent at Stuartholme was seeing our daughter grow and become herself in a wonderfully supportive environment.

I also became heavily involved in other activities such as becoming the President of the P&F, being a member of the Ladies Committee (SLC), Parent Co-ordinator, Heritage Committee etc. Through my involvement in these areas I was able to experience the kindness and generosity of so many parents, and their commitment to make Stuartholme a better place for our daughters. Through our time there, there were significant achievements aided by parents such as the transformation of a dirt area under the trees in front of Joigny into a beautifully developed and paved courtyard with the wooden tables and chairs the girls now enjoy, or the transformation of the area surrounding the cemetery into a beautiful garden of reflection and an outdoor learning area.

Stuartholme holds wonderful memories for our family and we will always be grateful to the wonderful Sisters of the Sacred Heart Society who made it all possible.

Machus de Ponte

Cor Unum

Harriet O’Hare, Rachel Beehag (Kollar), Mary-Therese O’Hare (Dowling), Jennifer Rafter (Dowling), Carolyn Gardiner (Dowling), Elizabeth Greene (Kollar) and Rebecca Scott (Kollar)

Childhood trips up to Stuartholme to visit my older cousins, who were boarders, created an impression of our school upon my young self that has proved more pertinent than I then realised.

My belief in their stories that Stuartholme was, in fact, a fairytale castle, was not entirely unfounded: its halls doubtless harbour a type of magic. It is present in the fact that our family has now seen two generations of girls through the school during the years between 1965 and 2009, and that each of us fondly recall tales of allegedly haunted lifts and untiring battles with the stairs leading up (and up) from the bus stops.

the entirety of our family.

For its true origins are the rigor, care and empowerment of Sacred Heart education, and these are situated not simply within Stuartholme’s walls – they are embodied in every Stuartholme girl, and equally enchant all who meet our alum. Indeed, they have led the women of my family down career paths ranging from law to nursing, as well as to lifelong friendships.

The (née) Dowling sisters – our beloved Sally Kollar (who died in 1999), Carolyn Gardiner, Mary-Therese O’Hare and Jennifer Rafter – comprise the first generation, while Sally’s daughters, the (née) Kollar girls – Rebecca Scott, Elizabeth Greene and Rachel Beehag – along with Mary-Therese’s daughter, me, form the second.

However, though Carolyn’s and Jennifer’s children are all boys, and even if a third generation of girls doesn’t attend Stuartholme, this ‘magic’ will continue to permeate through

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Lucy, Sophie, Tom and Emily Palmer

Emily Palmer (commenced Year8 2009) Sophie Palmer (commenced Year 8 2010)

Stuartholme is a haven of opportunities just waiting to be tapped into. It has provided the girls with a wonderful framework to develop as a person in all aspects of their lives. The school activities are very inclusive and the opportunities to get involved in the school are many.

In the space of the girls first couple of years they have taken part in soirees and musical performances, piano and singing lessons, school tennis, the Knowles Cup and Sacre Cour Shield, a European tennis trip including Wimbledon, athletics, cross country and the Bernie Cup, touch football, rowing, Science Day of Excellence, High Tea, a school exchange with Kincopple and even trialled the boarding house to see if it is right for them.

The girls will remember Stuartholme for all the fun and opportunities they have had with the friends they have made up on the hill.

Clare and Tom Palmer

Stuartholme

Adjunct Professor Clive Palmer is one of Australias’ leading Mining entrepreneurs who shows a genuine and generous interest in the community.

Emily, his elder daughter, is in Yr 11 at Stuartholme and will graduate in 2011. English is her favourite subject and reading occupies much of her leisure time.

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Peta and Natalie Partridge

While Natalie and I may not have officially been at Stuartholme together, it continues to be a shared sister experience for us.

Natalie was born in my Grade Eleven year, and spent a good part of her first year of life at events and concerts up at school, so when she started herself in 2009 it was already a familiar and welcoming place. Stuartholme for me, Peta, meant music making.

I have many fond memories of music at school – the regular evening and lunchtime concerts, the fantastic classroom music program, tours and even impromptu singing and playing sessions with friends.

The music program was exceptional, and gave me a place to learn confidence and be myself. Music quite easily was the highlight of my school life, and I appreciate the opportunities and love of music it fostered.

While at Stuartholme the spirit of loyalty and love for the school was always apparent, and it was a community of security, joy and friendship.

Since graduating in 1997 I have completed a music degree, and worked in arts management, working with some amazing international musicians with orchestras here and interstate, married, and now back at uni, studying afresh.

Natalie and Peta

Cor Unum

Jacqueline, Leigh and Mary

The Peters Family

Mary Peters (née Taylor), the first of 3 generations at the “Convent of the Sacred Heart Stuartholme,” as named in 1950 and renamed “Stuartholme School” when my two daughters attended: Leigh Hughes (née Peters), who is a secondary school teacher in Mackay and Monique Harris (née Peters) who has a Veterinarian practice in Taringa. Both were boarders in 1974-1977.

Leigh’s daughters: Loishan Hughes (boarder 2007-2008) is a soccer coach and is a second year Art student majoring in Psychology at the University of Queensland. Loishan is living at Duschene as did her mother before her.

Jacqueline Hughes is currently a boarder and received the position of Administrator for Macrae House. She loves Stuartholme, studies hard and is very talented in Music.

Monique’s daughters: Rosemary Harris is a day scholar who excels is her studies, Music and Debating, and another daughter Francesca Harris will commence Grade 8 in 2011.

“My ideas about boarding school life were quite fanciful.

I imagined boarding school life as an endless round of midnight feasts and pillow fights. What a shock boarding school life proved to be to the naive young girls of twelve years from the unsophisticated north!

Observing the progress of Stuartholme over all these years I have found that discipline has changed dramatically since days gone by. Some old traditions I dreaded have died of natural death such as ranks, changing our writing to Sacré Coeur style, very limited conversation … all gone! Stuartholme from what I see works hard to equip girls for life today, as it is vastly different from the early years. What a wonderful job they are doing.”

Mary Peters

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Amelia Hall, Louise Hall (Healy), Diane Therese Neve (Fitzsimon), Susan Cullinan (Gibbs), Kellie Hunter (Day), Barbara Forde (Murphy), Deborah McDonald(Sayers), Emily McDonald.

Front row - Dominica Fitzsimon, Bethany Fitzsimon, Holly Gibbs, Madeleine Day, Jacqueline Forde, Alexandra Forde, Rebecca Forde.

Stuartholme is a school of families, many whom cover the generations, We went to school graduating in 1978, and have kept in contact and been friends ever since. Susan’s father was one of the few boys who attend the junior school.

The school means so much to us, without it we would never have been brought together. Now many of our daughters have also finished, are going to , or will be going to Stuartholme, they too have formed lasting friendships and memories of a great school. The five goals of Madeleine Sophie have helped form the people we are today.

Stuartholme is in our hearts forever.

Barbara Forde (Murphy), Louise Hall ( Healy), Deb McDonald (Sayers), Diane Therese Neve (Fitzsimon), Susan Cullinan (Gibbs), Kellie Hunter (Day).

Stuartholme

The Poole’s

From 2005 when we first arrived at Stuartholme until now have been wonderful years for our family.

Through the girls involvement in rowing, netball, debating, waterpolo, drama, basketball, softball, volleyball and from our own involvement in the P&F, the SLC and attending social functions we’ve formed great friendships with the parents of all grades as well as the teachers and staff at the school.

When Charlotte leaves in 2012 it will be with sadness that we will no longer have the pleasure of the daily ascent up the magnificent drive but I feel that Stuartholme will remain in our hearts forever.

Christine Going to a school built in the early 20th century made my educational experience unique. For one, sensitive fire alarms designed to protect the beautiful old buildings are prone to sound at the most inconvenient of moments.

Often sleepy-eyed boarders would arrive at school and tell of midnight fire drills on the oval.

In Year 12 an unexpected alarm disrupted our maths exam, much to many student’s relief! Stories about nuns haunting everything from the graveyard to the lifts defined my first few days at “Hogwarts” much to the delight of my Year 12 Big Sister. The tradition continued when we were in turn Big Sisters. It’s these small things that make Stuartholme one-of-a-kind.

Rachel

Stuartholme is such a good school due to the uniquely fun and friendly atmosphere. The sport and other curricular activities make life outside studying something to look forward to.

Georgia Even before I started at Stuartholme I looked forward to wearing the uniform and walking around the school and belonging. I haven’t been disappointed and I know I’ll miss it when I leave.

Charlotte Stuartholme holds a special place in the heart of the Poole family, it has given all our girls the opportunity to strengthen and develop their innate talents in the classroom, on the sporting fielding and with their friends.

Since our arrival in 2005 the school community of parents, teachers, staff, rscJ and board members have embraced our family. It will be a sad day when Charlotte finishes at the end of 2012.

Ian

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Emma Pradella began at Stuartholme School in 2009 in year 8.

Her favourite subject at school is drama and she loves to play netball.

Her sister Lucy currently attends St. Ignatius Primary School at Toowong.

She will begin year 8 at Stuartholme in the year 2012.

Her favourite subject is sport and she enjoys playing netball, touch football and swimming.

Cor Unum

The Raftery Family Brendan and Fiona (Cioccarelli) graduated 1983 Sarah Raftery 2009 - current Sophie Raftery to commence in 2013

We have lived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea for the last six years and when it came time to send our girls to high school, Stuartholme was it.

Why we chose Stuartholme was easy as someone recently said “once a Stuartholme girl always a Stuartholme girl�.

So true as when we took Sarah to start school and walked through the front doors, after being away for so long, I was overwhelmed by the memories of my own time at Stuartholme. My own wedding day after finishing school was also at the school chapel being a culmination of not only these years at Stuartholme but also the start of the next chapter of my life.

I realise now this was exactly what Brendan and I wanted our daughters to experience in not only attending a wonderful school but also being able to make many lifelong friendships along the way.

Fiona Raftery

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Rebecca (O’Connor) Reuter and daughters; Sarah, Emily, Alice and Julie.

Rebecca (O’Connor) Reuter spent three most enjoyable years as a boarder at Stuartholme, finishing school in 1972. Only twenty-nine girls graduated from this senior class, many still keep in touch, and often share memories of the happy, special environment they shared at the top of the hill all those years ago.

After initially being very homesick after leaving home in Toowoomba I soon settled readily into school life.

Some vivid memories remain where the classroom was only twenty steps form the C-Floor dorm, pranks like changing solutions around in Sister Spruson’s Chemistry classes, sunbaking on the verandah roof, being hoisted through the skylight to remove ice cream during frequent midnight kitchen raids, and being driven all over the city in the sports teacher’s blue MGB to partake in various sporting events. Somewhere in the middle of all the fun and friendships, the class of ’72 did take their studies seriously, with many of this graduating year going on to tertiary studies.

With married life, living close by in Toowong, I was eager for my four daughters to follow me to Stuartholme. The girls were to subsequently spend fourteen continuous years from 1995 until 2008 at Stuartholme. During this span, the school dramatically increased in student size, and hugely benefitted from the much needed and beautiful Joigny auditorium. There were also many process changes, and many long serving teachers moved on.

With their varying personalities, the four girls have had rather diverse, yet equally memorable experiences at Stuartholme. They have all embraced the schools opportunities in their own manner. Sarah, Emily and Alice have gone on to complete tertiary studies, and Julie is in the process of doing so. All were very involved in sports, with the early starts of the winter rowing months, and the equally cold winds of White’s Hill for 8:30pm touch football games in July. Waterpolo and tennis were also embraced, as were drama classes and the senior art projects with Mrs Chesterman were amazingly detailed, and took over the whole house!

I will always be grateful that Sarah was able to be a boarder for two terms in her final year, as she was able to experience even closer friendships with her peers.

It was a joy to have Emily’s wedding in the chapel in June 2009, and for many of her classmates, some from overseas, to come back to school for the first time in the eight years since they left. We are all looking forward to a new member of the next generation to be born in early February, possibly a future student of Stuartholme.

Our fifteen year old son, Sam, who spent many hours and hours waiting outside Stuartholme for his sisters to be collected from their various activities now enjoys his all boy experience at Gregory Terrace.

Rebecca Reuter

Stuartholme

The Rinaudo family’s association with Stuartholme commenced when Giuseppe Rinaudo, our father and grand-father, was a student in Brisbane in the 1940s. Mr Rinaudo sometimes worked in a clerical capacity for Archbishop Duhig and through that work he became aware of Stuartholme Convent. Everything about the school impressed him, and he decided that if he had daughters he would like to send them there for their education.

The Rinaudo family’s first daughter Maria boarded for her seven years at Stuartholme. She was elected President of the Student Council in her final year in 1972, and went on to study at the University of Queensland. Maria married and had two daughters, Madeleine and Julia-Rose Lewis, who commenced study at Stuartholme in 2000 and 2002 respectively.

Having grown up in the bush both Madeleine and Julia were attracted to the beautiful, leafy surrounds of Stuartholme and felt instantly at home.

The setting served as inspiration to them both, Julia going on to complete her Bachelor of Creative Industries in 2010 and Madeleine to travel around Europe and America.

Maria is a Barrister employed in-house by the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (Qld) Ltd. She maintains close contact with many friends she made during her time at Stuartholme.

Josephine, the Rinaudo family’s youngest daughter, completed her final two years of schooling as a boarder at Stuartholme in 1979 and 1980. She was Vice-Captain of Coen in her senior year and went on to the University of Queensland to complete her Bachelor of Social Work.

Thirty years on she continues to enjoy many friendships from her small, but close knit class of 1980.

Her two daughters Isobel and Rose Dagg commenced in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Isobel was Coen House Captain in 2010 and had an impressive year by leading her team to win the House Cup for the first time in 13 years. Isobel also received significant recognition for her leadership ability, including being a co-recipient of the Cor Unum Shield in 2010. Rose is looking forward to completing her final year in 2011 and will be leading the Goal Four Society in their very important social justice activities.

Stuartholme provided a supportive environment in which we were each encouraged to grow whilst having the freedom to pursue our personal interests. We all developed a strong sense of individuality and our place in the wider community. We continue to carry the strong sense of social justice that our parents envisaged would come from our education at Stuartholme.

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Phoebe (Current Student since 2009) and Shaneen (1966-1973) Roche (nee Ash)

“I started going to Stuartholme in grade 5 and there were only 5 of us. Mother Percy Dove was the Mother Superior and she was an outstanding woman, gentle, loving and kind, a great contrast from the harsh school environment I came from. Stuartholme had a no corporal punishment policy instead using loving care.

Sister Parker taught me to love animals. Sister Josepha taught me that no matter were you come from we are all the same inside and we are not to judge people for the colour of their skin but for who they are. Sister Freer taught me to do any job to the best of my ability even though you may not like it. She worked so hard at the washroom, washed and pressed clothes endlessly.

I never heard her complain.

The nuns did not speak unnecessarily to us except for teaching, so instead they used clicker boxes. Various clicks would indicate orders such as standing and sitting.

Phoebe has grown so much in her two years at Stuartholme. Phoebe’s needs have been catered beyond my wildest dreams, her marks have improved and she is just so happy. Stuartholme has provided a wonderful supporting environment and Phoebe’s lovely group of friends have made the world of difference in her life.”

Shaneen Roche (nee Ash)

Cor Unum

My families association with Stuartholme began in 1969 when my eldest sister Sue commenced Grade 8. She was then followed by my other sisters Jane in 1972 and Gill in 1973 and eventually me in 1976.

Victoria, Alexandra & Emma Ross

In 2008, 39 years on, my eldest daughter Victoria commenced Grade 8, followed by Alexandra in 2010 and soon to be joined by their youngest sister Emma in 2012.

Stuartholme has always held very fond memories for all of us not only for its physical beauty but for the friends we have made and the laughter shared throughout the years.

Philippa Ross (nee McLeary)

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Sadie Rossi (nee Clarke) 1978 – 1983 Annabelle Rossi 2010 – 2014

“I treasure the memories of my years at Stuartholme and some of the friendships formed at school remain as my closest and most trusted. I am thrilled that my daughter, Annabelle is able to have the same opportunity.

Stuartholme has grown in many regards but retained it’s warmth and intimacy which I believe will be a cornerstone for the future success of the school. I look forward to my daughter’s future years at the school and believe that her time there will prepare her well for her future.”

Stuartholme

Annie, Tess, Mark and Kerri Salter

Mark and I, (Kerri) have enjoyed living in Emerald, Central Queensland as a family for the last 18 years. Together with Annie, who has passionate interest in drama we choose Stuartholme where she started in the 4th term of Grade 10 in 2009. Tess who decided to join her in 2010, to start year 10. Tess and Annie are the first girls in both of our families to attend Stuartholme. As a Fitzgerald from Gatton, my paternal and maternal (Byrne) family have a strong connection with another predominate catholic boarding school in Brisbane, but Stuartholme felt like a good fit for our girls and their interests.

Stuartholme we have been impressed by the quality and conscientiousness of the teachers and supervising staff, along with the school’s attitude of inclusiveness and community conscience. A highlight was sharing the tremendous school spirit at the Head of the River, which flowed onto the atmosphere of the dinner. As parents we believe all the experiences the girls are having at Stuartholme, both at school and as boarders are preparing them well for the next stage of their lives.

Mark and Kerri Salter (nee Fitzgerald)

As boarding parents there are some big adaptations to make, but knowing what experiences were open to the girls made this time easier. As we have learnt more about

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Andrea and Lovica Sharma Lovica commenced Year 8 at Stuartholme in 2008, Andrea in 2010.

Cor Unum

Renu, Nirupa, Sandesh and Ashok Singh

Sandesh started at Stuartholme in year 10, 2010.

Nirupa started at Stuartholme in year 8, 2009

The Singh family began a very long time ago. 100 years ago, our family were brought over by the British to work in the sugar cane industry in Fiji. Doesn’t sound too classy does it? Generations passed by, until our great grandmother, Grace Deoki decided to take a stand, and make a change. She married a man named Rev. Ramsey Deoki. He was the first ordained minister in Fiji for the Methodist church. My great grandmother made a great success of her life. She was the first girl guides commissioner as a local in Fiji. She was a lover of charity and giving, as her husband inspired her.

Grace received an OBE from the queen for her hard work in inspiring the girls from girl guides to bloom into young, wonderful, women, and for all her charity work.

Grace’s daughter, Irene Singh (my Grandmother) once told me that girls were looked down on in Fiji. They weren’t worthy to be educated, but her Mother thought otherwise.

Our Grandmother said she was the only girl in a class of fifteen boys, which I imagine would be tough. She had three sons, her oldest which is my father, Ashok Singh. Raising him in the belief that education was a large key to success, he went to the finest school in Fiji, Suva Grammar School.

He then moved to Australia where he was bright enough to attend the University of Queensland.

Australia, opening a new world of opportunities for us.

My little sister began at Stuartholme in 2009, year 8, and I began in 2010, year 10, two years after she started at Stuartholme. Nirupa is now in year 10, and I in year 11.

Being at Stuartholme School, inspires us to follow our great grandmother’s dream of education and success for young women, with God always in our hearts. Stuartholme encourages my sister and I to become a bigger and better generation for our family to be proud of. The Singh family has worked together, with one heart, and my sister and I will continue to demonstrate the love of education that young women are now able to embrace at Stuartholme. This beautiful school has shown us that young women can do the impossible, and no matter what, God will always be here for us, watching over us. I believe the Singh Family’s journey is just beginning, and with one strong heart, God will show us a bright future to look forwards to, with many experiences and opportunities ahead, and encouraging us to show the world that young women have the power to do anything.

Sandesh Singh

Nirupa and I were the first generation to be born in

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Emma, Jill, Josephine and Eylece

Jill Sloman and Eylece White (nee Scanlan) commenced at Stuartholme in February 1945 when the school returned from Southport after the school buildings were handed back to the Sacre Couer Community by the American Occupation Forces.

Jill spent nine happy years at Stuatholme and Eylece spent 11 years, celebrating her “Tin Jubilee” in 1955.

Jill and Eylece recall many happy memories at Stuartholme which include the school holiday in 1946 when pupil numbers reached 100, their first years in the Junior School with Mother Grace Thompson and on special feast days, movie nights on the outdoor picture screen which was left by the U. S. Army.

In 1988 Emma Sloman, Jill’s daughter, commenced her secondary schooling at Stuartholme School and now Eylece looks forward to having her grand-daughter, Josephine White, commence at Stuartholme in year 8 in 2011.

Stuartholme

The Spain Family Helen and Jim, Madeleine, Jonathan, Meg and Dominic.

My first impression of Stuartholme was that I was finally going to the school of my dreams- Hogwarts. No, I didn’t expect to have Dumbledore conducting my interview for Yr 8, or to have Harry Potter as my best friend, but I saw the same magic evident at Stuartholme as there would be in the fictional school Hogwarts. The magic of an education, the magic of finding new friends and the magic of being a part of the school community. To many Harry Potter fans here, the old school perched on top of the hill is about as close to Hogwarts as you can get.

Madeleine will graduate in 2012 and Meg in 2014

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Emigrating from ones home in the UK was always going to be a challenge but working in the Physical Education department at Stuartholme was even more so !!

Zoe Knowles and I worked together for 20 years until she retired. In that time we certainly enjoyed developing the sporting life of the Stuartholme students until we had 18 sports in place across the curriculum and the extra-curricula activities. Four years ago I moved into the role of Head of Amiens House in the boarding school and was teaching part time.

The boarders have a very different vitality to that of the day students so another challenge had to be taken on board, and I have to say a very enjoyable and satisfying one too.

My last big challenge came in the form of an unexpected illness last year which I seem to have overcome thanks to the support of my family and friends at school.

Equestrian is my sport now and I love working with the school team. They have had some wonderful successes at Interschool, Regional, State and National level. To try and keep up I am having Dressage lessons which helps to relieve and relax the mind from daily concerns as you can only think of one thing - the horse.

My daughter Anna (alumna 1999) and her husband Dominic now have the most endearing daughter, Sofia, who I am sure will follow in her mothers footsteps and be a sporting fiend and an equestrienne too. This is a new and vibrant dimension to my life and I love it.

Anna Starosta (1987 and still here)

Cor Unum

Shane, Josephine, Jack and Madeleine

When mum and dad first took me to see Stuartholme I was full excitement that I would soon be a boarder at the gorgeous school on the hill that looked suspiciously like Hogwarts.

Grade 8 brought the beginning of one of our most longed for dreams: high school. We were out of primary school and ready to take on the world! We became obsessed with all the latest trends, boys and of course, who was going to which dance?

Then came year 9, we were a year older and of course more mature. But we soon realised that we could no longer use the excuse, “But were only grade 8’s.” Our creativity was put to the test as we tried to think of new excuses why we hadn’t done our homework or why we didn’t have our hats.

Now that I’m in grade 10, I can look back on the past 2 years I’ve been at Stuartholme and laugh at all the fun times and memories that this amazing school has given me. Though the workload has increased and I’m usually buried under a pile of school books, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Last year I took sailing lessons.

Next year? I look forward to it. Sure sometimes I have my momentsdoesn’t everyone?

But anything is possible at a school where you have so many supporting and helping hands to help you on your way. (As well as Harry Potter Day and the quidditch matches to keep you entertained.)

I hope that one day when I have a daughter of my own I will be able to send her to such an amazing school such as Stuartholme.

Maddy Stone, year 10, Amiens

This year, 2010, I went on the school skiing trip to New Zealand. Having grown up in Darwin and being used to the tropics, seeing snow for the first time was quite an experience.

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Rachael, Charlotte and Courtney

Stuartholme became the ‘house on the hill’ for Courtney and Rachael, who boarded for their senior years, graduating in 2006.

Charlotte followed suit starting year 8 at Stuartholme in 2009.

Rachael is currently studying psychology at Australian Catholic University and is planning a trip to travel around the US in 2011.

Courtney is studying law at QUT and is a clerk in the Royal Australian Air Force Active Reserves.

Courtney, Irene, Rachael and Charlotte

Once Charlotte graduates she hopes to use her creativity in the design industry.

Irene owns and operates, along with her daughters, a newsagency nestled in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

Stuartholme

Deslyn Taylor, Paul Taylor and Kym Larkin

My time at Stuartholme began in 1985 when I applied for the position of “Computer Teacher”. This was a very unusual opportunity at that time when computing in schools was in its infancy but Stuartholme has always been at the forefront in this area, as it is today. In 1986 I became the Computer Co-ordinator and later the first Director of Information, Communication and Technology. The past twenty-five years has been an exciting, challenging journey which I have enjoyed very much.

The Stuartholme family became much more personal for me when my own children also started working there. Paul started work at the school in September 2005, after completing his IT degree and is currently working as the AV Administrator, Web Developer and in IT Support. My eldest daughter,

Kym was married in the school chapel in 1995 and commenced as the school’s Human Resource Officer in February 2010. Even my youngest daughter, Leigh, spent some time working at Stuartholme while she was studying for her IT degree. At one stage, until my retirement in July 2010, there were three members of our family on staff at the same time. We have all enjoyed the many opportunities and support that Stuartholme has provided over the years.

Des

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Jessica, Sophie and Sarah Ulcoq

Claire and Helen Ulcoq

Holly and Mia Thompson

Lauren Younger

Our beginnings with Stuartholme was in the year 2000 when our eldest daughter Sarah and her cousin Lauren Younger began in grade 8, they were shortly followed by their Uncle Bob joining the staff in 2001 as Head of Science. he following years there have been more family members come and go from the school. Another niece Holly Thompson started her Stuartholme experience in 2003 as a border, Bob’s eldest daughter Claire in 2004 and Holly’s sister Mia in 2005.

Our second daughter Jessica and cousin Helen, Bob and Anne’s youngest followed in 2006 and now the last of the family our youngest daughter Sophie commenced in year 2008.

Personally, I am proud to be associated with the school as part of a committee beginning the Father Daughter dinners in 2005 that still continue and in 2010 – 11 season as Swim Coach.

Stuartholme holds memories for all of us in many ways, congratulations on your 90 year anniversary.

Sharyn and Jeff Ulcoq

Cor Unum

Susan McDonald, Patricia Mitchell, Kate McDonald, back: Adelaide McDonald and Elle McDonald

The McDonald family connection with Stuartholme dates back over 60 years, spanning two generations, with the third generation of girls due to attend the school within the next few years.

Marjorie and Jim McDonald, of Brightlands Station, via Cloncurry, Queensland, had five children, Mary, Patricia, Donald, Robert (Bob) and Angela. Mary (now Noort) attended the school from 1951-1954, followed by her younger sisters, Patricia (now Mitchell) from 1952-1957 and Angela (now Withers) from 1957-1967. Patricia was the School Captain in 1957. She also served on the Stuartholme Council from 1985-1989.

Christine McDonald (neé Fisher) attended the school from 1955-1960. She married Donald McDonald in 1969.

Susan McDonald, only daughter of Donald and Christine McDonald, attended from 1982 - 1987. She was Coen Captain in her senior year.

Bob McDonald and his wife Susan had four daughters and a son. The girls attended during the 1990s and 2000s: Marjorie (now Daley) (1990-1994), Kathryn (Kate) (1992-1996), Adelaide (1998-2002) and Eleanor (20012005). Marjorie was married to Stephen Daley at the school in 2002. Adelaide was in the same class as Genevieve McDonald (neé Turner) (1998-2002). She married Marjorie, Kate, Adelaide and Eleanor’s brother, Alistair, at the school in 2010.

All of the women mentioned above were boarders at the school as they came from regional Queensland.

The second generation of McDonald girls to attend the school commenced in the late 1970s. Patricia Mitchell’s elder daughter, Louise Martin (neé Mitchell) attended from 1978-1982 and her younger sister Sophie Ward (neé Mitchell) attended from 1981-1985.

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Catherine Baldwin, Geoffrey Walker with Ross and Jessie

Art Buchwald once said, “The best things in life aren’t things”. I believe this quote summarises the beliefs of a Stuartholme girl and a Stuartholme education.

I come from a family which puts particular emphasis on the importance of education, especially on education empowering women. My family chose Stuartholme because they believed that the school shared these values, and would provide an intellectually and spiritually nourishing education.

So far, I have absolutely loved my time at Stuartholme, and continue to love it even more with each passing year.

The main reason I love being a ‘girl from the hill’ more and more as time goes on, is the way in which my grade

becomes closer with each year, school spiritual retreat, camp and even just a day to day classes.

By the time grade twelve is reached, I can say with full confidence that my year level will not be a selection of individual friendship groups and circles, but a unified bunch of girls, the Stuartholme class of 2012. I hope that students over the next ninety years come to love their Stuartholme experience and fellow Stuartholme classmates as much as I do.

Jessie Walker

Stuartholme

Jennie with daughters Kate and Emily Spittle

We have always lived in Bardon, just near Stuartholme School. This is my fourth year teaching at Stuartholme, and I love coming to work in these beautiful surroundings filled with students and colleagues, who embody the spirit of Cor Unum.

What an environment to share with my daughters!

Kate is currently in year 8, and Emily will be a student at Stuartholme from 2012.

Even when the girls were tiny, they watched the Stuartholme girls walk past our home and hoped as little girls do, that one day they could wear that blue-striped uniform too. We would wander up to the auditorium for their ballet concerts and imagine what it would be like to sit in the classrooms, have lunch in the grounds and feel at home in the historical buildings we looked up at together.

We are proud to be a small part of Stuartholme’s recent history, and look forward to being a part of its future.

Jennie Warrick

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Margaret “Meggie” (Class of 2012) Maree, Keith, Alex and William

Meggie is the first member of our family to attend Stuartholme.

As a child, I [Maree] remember noticing the buildings of Stuartholme on the hill as my family drove through Brisbane on the way to the Sunshine Coast or the City. I don’t recall if I knew they were a school but it looked like they were watching over us all.

When my own family settled in Bardon, we began to meet girls attending Stuartholme. Those finishing year 12 were self assured, caring and knowledgeable and ready to face the next part of their life’s journey. That’s what Keith and I wanted for Margaret.

their performances, we were introduced to the [physical] school. The buildings and grounds not only emanated a sense of history and structure, but of welcome and belonging. She felt ‘at home’ and since commencing year 8, has continued to feel ‘at ease’ at Stuartholme - among her friends, with her teachers, and in being able to be herself and develop her own sense of style, her interests and self. We only wish we had more girls to follow Margaret to Stuartholme.

Later, prior to year 8, when Meggie’s ballet school began to use the Joigny Theatre for

Cor Unum

To our family, Stuartholme can be described in three words- nurturing, challenging and unforgettable. Friendships and ties are made at this school, which makes Stuartholme seem more like a family than just a place of learning.

As we, the Woodward Family, will eventually leave Stuartholme to achieve future ambitions; the fond memories and the skills that we have gained from Stuartholme, will lead us out of this chapter of our lives into a new chapter.

This community feel is what we, the Woodward Family, have come to love about Stuartholme.

During Alex’s years at Stuartholme, she has been involved in the musical life; participating in musical ensembles, specialising in violin and piano.

In this new chapter we will hopefully still have the love and support from Stuartholme, but with new challenges and new opportunities ahead.

Alex and Chelsea Woodward, 2010

In Alex’s senior year she was the Music Vice-Captain of Strings. Alex graduated in 2010 and is looking forward to University in 2011.

In Chelsea’s past three years at Stuartholme, she has been involved in the sporting and arts life of the school; participating in Netball, Waterpolo and Rowing – and taking interests in Debating and Drama.

Chelsea has completed grade 10 as a Green Ribbon Recipient and looks forward to graduating in 2012.

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Richard and Rosemary Woods

Stuartholme provided our girls with a wonderful holistic education. Every aspect of their school life was embedded in Sacred Heart Spirituality. Each had individual gifts that were nurtured and as parents we were encouraged to journey with them in their academic, sporting, and spiritual growth.

There were so many opportunities given to each of our girls which they embraced in true Stuartholme spirit. The girls’ time at Stuartholme was a significant time for us all and we were very proud of them but also very grateful for the wonderful foundation they received.

Being a Stuartholme girl has always been something they hold dear.

Stuartholme

Caroline Woods 2001-2005 – currently completing a Bachelor of Arts/Laws at the University of Queensland. I could not have asked for a better high school experience than the one I was given at Stuartholme. The sense of community that is developed and nurtured through the Goals of Sacred Heart Education is, I think, one of the school’s most special features. The support, attention and love shown to each student is unique and empowering, presenting every Stuartholme Girl with a host of opportunities to embrace both at school and later in the ‘real world’. I was very grateful for the leadership opportunities I was afforded during my time at Stuartholme. My sisters and I valued the chance to work as Cor Unum Head with students and staff to honour the legacy of St Madeleine Sophie.

Georgina Woods 2004-2008 - currently studying a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at the University of Queensland. I was so happy that I was able to go to Stuartholme for my high school education. I had wonderful teachers that really inspired me to learn and work hard. Learning did not only occur in the classroom and extended to all extra-curricular aspects of school life. I played sports such as tennis and rowing and was lucky to have coaches that not only taught me about how to be a better player but also how to be an active and supportive team member.

I really enjoyed playing tennis and improving my game was important, but it was the positive life skills that were taught and exemplified by my tennis coaches Dot, Bill and Chris Deacon as well as Dennis Sheard that really have had a lasting impact on me. I consider myself very fortunate to have gone to such a wonderful school and also to have served as Cor Unum Head in my final year; it was an experience that I was honoured to be a part of and will always value.

Elizabeth Woods 2005-2009 - currently studying a Bachelor of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Queensland I spent a very memorable five years at Stuartholme where I was taught by many dedicated teachers and made lifelong friends. I enjoyed being a part of the extra-curricular life of the school and really valued the spirit and ethos of Sacred Heart Education. I take pride in the fact that I went to a school with such spirit, where students are welcomed and supported throughout their whole high school education.

For my sisters and I, serving as Cor Unum Head proved the ultimate honour. The role taught us much about the inspirational work of St Madeleine Sophie and the order she founded.

I will never forget my time at Stuartholme and I will always be proud to call myself a Stuartholme girl.

Caroline, Georgie and Lizzie

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Since we were little, our grandfather, Daniel would talk and tell us stories about horses. We knew that as soon as we were older we would learn to ride horses and get a horse of our own. He fondly remembers spending time at his family’s farming property.

We learned to love animals from listening to his interesting stories and exciting experiences.

He taught us to be gentle and treat animals like we treat ourselves.

At a young age, our grandfather would take us up to Stuartholme and tell us that is where we were going when we were older. Kiara started at Stuartholme in 2009 and Aleira is starting in 2011.

Our mum, Monique Woodward also went to Stuartholme and she graduated in 1988.

Kiara and Aleira Woodward

Now we are both in the Stuartholme Equestrian Team.

We enjoy going to training clinics with the other team members and look forward to competing. We are also part of the local hinterland trail riding club.

About twice a month we go on an all day trail ride with our grandfather.

We take our horses to the beach, rainforest and other scenic places.

Cor Unum

Our grandfather is a great inspiration to us.

He encourages us to aim for our goals.

He has always taught us to follow through with our dreams and sets an example by fulfilling his own dreams and supporting us to fulfill ours.

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Bridget, Annabelle and Harriet are the first generation in our family to attend Stuartholme. As a parent the hardest decision that we ever had to make was to send our daughters away to Boarding school.

Moree is in the far north of NSW, home for Bridget, Annabelle and Harriet.

The girls recall watching the day girls going home each afternoon and feeling homesick with the thought that the girls would be greeted at home with a kiss, cuddle and a wonderful home cooked meal [something that the three girls all miss] We treasure the school holidays when we have the girls at home and cherish the values that Stuartholme has instilled into our three beautiful independent daughters.

The Journey

Bridget and Annabelle, Harriet too, Became students of Stuartholme To start life anew, In a boarding Community Where good times are shared.

But on education no effort is spared.

The environment’s friendly,warm and secure.

The Stuartholme journey’s through a welcoming door.

For our Christian faith we thank our dear Lord, And our fellow students with whom we live in accord.

Poem by Ron O’Mullane OAM

Bridget Young- Graduated in 2008 Annabelle Young -Year 12 Harriet Young -Year 8

Stuartholme

Alumnae Daughters / Granddaughters / Great Granddaughters

Back Row: Alexandria Wishart, Jessica Tselepy, India Lynch, Annabelle Murphy, Alexandra

Conry, Amelia Tynan, Rose Dagg, Madeleine Day, Katelyn Podger, Briana Maher,

Isobel Dagg, Jory Anast, Chloe Ovenden, Lucia Skewes, Laurie Eadie, Bridget O’Sullivan.

3rd Row:

Clara O’Sullivan, Charlotte Border, Victoria Ross, Sarah Hogarth, Mayaimi Stack, Christie Maloney, Anna Maguire, Isabella Creswick, Zoe Goodman, Phoebe Roche, Alexandra Vasta, Astrid Farmer.

2nd Row:

Sarah Hain, Genevieve Border, Bethany Fitzsimon, Lydia Tynan, Alexandra Ross, Phoebe Avenell, Coco Armstrong, Kiara Woodward, Leah Hartley, Grace Henderson, Rosemary Harris, Brittany Hallinan.

Front Row:

Georgina Dignan, Isabelle Kennish, Kimberley Whiting, Georgia Perkins, Jennifer Goodman, Alexandra Lynch, Annabelle Rossi, Brittany Campbell, Isabelle McAnally, Sarah Raftery, Alice Sinclair, Emma Doyle, Celeste Farmer, Jacqueline Hughes.

ABSENT:

Prue Berkeley, Madeleine Border, Bridget Dean, Maria Ferrando-Ovenden, Rose mary Frayne-Wright, Claudia Gaines, Anna Gibbs, Rachael Gough, Isadora Herron, Kate Hodgkinson, Aphra Macdonald, Laura Magnus, Elizabeth O’Callaghan, Bridget Owen, Georgina See, Jordan Tselepy, Raphaelle Vasta.

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Photography by ...

What a delight it has been spending time with you all capturing the true essence of the Cor Unum spirit, the families, Sisters and staff of Stuartholme.

What impressed me the most is the sheer joy and pride in all the old girls and students. They love their school.

There is a real sense of family amongst all the past and present students, Sisters and staff. It’s a magical thing to observe. I’ve heard the loveliest and funniest stories about what the girls got up to but I promise I won’t tell!

During the last 18 months of my visiting the hill up at Stuartholme I have been spoilt with an abundance of gorgeous backdrops to choose from, it’s such a beautiful setting for a photographic book.

I was a student at Marist Brothers and St Mary’s in Lismore graduating 1985 and they are now collectively called Trinity Catholic College. I studied photography there and came first in my class. Following on from high school I was accepted into the QLD College of Art in Brisbane (majoring in Photography) and I graduated in 1987. It was the start of something great because I also met my husband Michael there. He is a Brisbane Boys’ College Old Boy and Mr Graham Thomson was his principal! We have 2 wonderful daughters, Jasmin and Anita.

Creating this book has given me the opportunity to get to know so many wonderful Stuartholme families and their stories. It has been an absolute pleasure. My favourite thing in the world is to capture the love and connection between families. My camera is like a window to that love and there is nothing better than returning to your homes with the beautiful Art Works and seeing the joy in your faces - it’s priceless.

Thank you for making this year so much fun.

Margherita : )

Cor Unum

“On January 23rd 1920 at about 3pm an unusual sight was seen passing swiftly through the streets of Brisbane and disappearing in the direction of One-Tree -Hill.

It was a large motor containing five nuns and much beside...” These are the opening words of an account written by one of those five sisters of Stuartholme’s foundation.

The “much beside” included “a clock which struck at every jolt, several statues, a clothes line, a bucket, a dust pan, some pictures, a broom, a rake, some flower cuttings and a large painting of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat”. It is that large painting that gives us the clue to the spirit that inspired the sisters – “Cor Unum, One Heart.”

Over the years the spirit of Cor Unum has strengthened and bonded the generations until now when this wonderful collection of family portraits is able to capture beautifully the true essence of the Stuartholme family as it has grown and flourished from such humble beginnings with its first six students.