OGA eNews Archive Issue 1 2021

Each year the Old Girls' Chapel Service is held and each year there is a retiring collection that is given to the School Chaplain to help in the maintenance of the School Chapel.

For the last few years this money has been saved so that the Processional Cross could be re-coated and polished. This year, The Reverend Susan Crothers-Robertson (School Chaplain) found someone to do this, and in the process uncovered a piece of history. 

The Processional Cross has been restored to its original glory and this piece of history reminds us all that we have many past staff and students who have made their mark on the history of St Margaret’s. The Processional Cross was engraved with the name Miss Bessie Ham. Our school archivist Bronwyn Perry found the following in the 1952 Link about Miss Bessie Ham.

As we begin this year, I am pleased to share with you the 2021 Executive and Committee of the Old Girls' Association.

Patron Sister Gillian SSA

Vice Patron Ms Ros Curtis

President Mrs Nicole Devlin (nee Bender)

Vice President Mrs Sally Thomson (nee Harris)

Treasurer Ms Kimberley Middlemis

Secretary Mrs Norma Ticker (nee Wight)

Committee Members: Ms Kelsey Booth, Ms Bianca Christophers, Ms Lilly Devlin, Mrs Jacky Garnsworthy (nee Roebuck), Ms Elizabeth Fowler, Ms Grace Mullins., Ms Georgina Papworth, Ms Elizabeth Hook

Front Row (Left to Right): Norma Tucker, Sally Thomson, Nicole Devlin, Elizabeth Fowler, Lilly Devlin

Back Row (Left to Right): Kimberley Middlemis, Georgina Papworth, Grace Mullins, Bianca Christophers, Elizabeth Hook, Kelsey Booth

Absent: Jacky Garnsworthy

Dates for noting

24 April                 Past Student Awards Dinner

20 May                 Giving Day (see information included in this Newsletter)

23-25 July            Reunion Weekend

25 July                  Old Girls’ Day Chapel and Afternoon Tea

26 July                  VIP 60+ Reunion Luncheon

23 October            OGA Awards and Cocktail Evening @Arts Centre Foyer

26 November        Annual General Meeting

There is a growing number of you sharing your stories of success with us and I encourage you all to continue to do this.

If you have any other suggestions, please also feel free to email me directly at ndevlin@stmargarets.qld.edu.au.

Nicole Devlin
President of the OGA

This year we have adopted the One Book, One School initiative and at St Margaret’s – our parent community, our staff and our students – have been encouraged to read The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku. I encourage you to consider adding this book to your reading list this year and to be part of our One Book, One school program.

I was reading recently about strong cultures and successful organisations bringing the best out of each person and it referred to this quote by Rumi, a 13^th century Eastern poet,  where he encourages us to ‘Be a lamp, or a lifeboat or a ladder’. As we said goodbye to our Year 12 students last year, I couldn’t help but question was St Margaret’s a lamp, a lifeboat or a ladder for them? I hope we were and that that they knew we were. As a lamp, did St Margaret’s help point students in the right direction and throw a light on the value of lifelong learning; as a lifeboat, how often did we offer a solution, help solve a problem or provide perspective when study was a little stressful; as a ladder, how often did we encourage young people so that their unique abilities and hard work could be celebrated? A school focused on being a light, a lifeboat and a ladder is a great one and it is a lovely metaphor for the focus of our practices to strengthen the St Margaret’s experience for our students.

Now that we can welcome back visitors to the school, I am pleased that our volunteers in the Development and Community Office are back. Sheena Dyason, Anne Muggleton, Dawn Rees and Suzette Purdy are still working on our project to ensure past student details are up to date, with Bev Fox and Trish Barlow to rejoin them soon. Please help us by advising the school if your details have changed.

Per Volar Sunata

Ros Curtis

The Past Student Awards Dinner is a wonderful opportunity to connect with fellow Old Girls and parents, and to hear from this year's amazing award recipients, while enjoying canapes on the Arts Centre Foyer Terraces, followed by a sit down dinner and drinks.

St Margaret’s has been extremely lucky to have already held our first Professional Women’s Networking breakfast which took place on Thursday 18 March. We welcomed guest speaker Jenny Stevens (’73), who delighted us with her speech. Jenny advised the audience that  'a well lived life involves risk and I encourage you, the women of the future, to embrace fear of failure and make it your friend". Jenny talked about how she has fought her fear of failure, and how young women can live the lives they deserve to live.

Jenny has grown Attune Hearing to over 65 clinics servicing the medical community across five states. She is an advocate for patient care and innovation and has worked extensively on a number of fundraising committees for children with special needs.

As many of our Old Girls will be aware, we held our inaugural Giving Day back in March of 2020. Our goal was to raise $100,000 and the end result was $162,883! We are excited to announce that on 20 May 2021 we will run our second Giving Day and we welcome all support from our community in making this day as successful as possible.  Our new ‘Every Girl, Every Opportunity’ appeal encompasses a number of planned building developments and refurbishment projects, as well as raising much needed funds for bursaries and scholarships. Further information will follow shortly as we launch this initiative.

Thank you for your ongoing generosity and support.

Lindsay Khushal

Becoming a Durack College Associate also provides social connections within the Durack College community. It is great for students who are commuting to university, new to Brisbane or living in accommodation where meeting like-minded women is difficult. Find out more here (PDF 399.4KB).

She still enjoys keeping in touch with friends from school and also recalls the positive and motivating influence of her teachers – particularly Mrs Miller, Miss Stevenson, Mrs Hair and Miss Platt. In the secondary school, Miss Rees and Miss Jones were inspirational teachers of French, Latin and Ancient History.  She also remembers her music teachers with affection – Sister Hope and Miss Baird.

Following school, Judith completed a Diploma in Education before travelling overseas for four years with her husband, primarily in England and Sweden.   

After starting a family, she furthered her studies in education, completing a Bachelor of Education at Queensland University of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at The University of Queensland. Asked why she decided to become a teacher, Judith says she always thought of teaching as the highest calling, being the nurturing of other people’s children. Playing a part in a student’s development or hearing of their success – sometimes years after their time at school – was extremely rewarding. Judith says she was delighted to hear of past students topping pharmacy, finishing a house painter’s apprenticeship, starting a career in drama, law, medicine, architecture…all wonderful outcomes.

In 1995, Judith became one of two women to be appointed to the Board of Trustees of Brisbane Grammar School, the first in 130 years. At the time, the appointment of women to boards was not all that common and the government was calling on organisations to address the lack of female representation at senior levels. While being the first, and often the only, female in the boardroom was a challenging prospect, she came to relish her role and developed friendships with her fellow board members. Judith held the position for 16 years and played a part in some of the biggest projects undertaken in Brisbane Grammar’s School’s history, describing it one of the highs of her career.

Later accepting roles with The University of Queensland Senate, Judith then worked as a part time Commissioner to the Crime and Misconduct Commission from 2008-2013. Judith was selected as a Community Representative. 

In 2003, Judith was one of The University of Queensland’s recipients of the Centenary Medal, commemorating 100 years of Federation, for distinguished service to the community.  Earlier this year she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia, for significant service to the administration of justice, to the visual arts, and to education.  This recognition is a testament to Judith’s belief in the importance of service in one’s career and life. 

Judith is now retired and enjoys time with her children and grandchildren, catching up with friends and former colleagues and when time permits the odd game of bridge.  She and her husband share a love of art, with Judith having sat for both the Archibald and Brisbane Portrait Prizes, with her portrait having been a finalist in the 2018 Archibald. 

Judith’s commitment to education led to a dynamic career at a time when fewer opportunities were available for women. She is an inspiration to all of us.

Written by Grace Mullins (’08)

After initially starting as a flight attendant, Janette worked her way up the corporate ladder at Qantas, where she was General Manager North America in the late 1980s, before going on to hold a number of senior positions in companies such as Mastercard and the Harvey World Travel Network. Presently, Janette serves as the Chair and Director of Little Wings Ltd, a NSW essential service which supports regional families who have sick children by providing free and safe transportation to and from ongoing treatments at Children’s Hospitals in Sydney and Newcastle. Janette is also a director of Qantas Foundation Memorial Ltd, the parent company for the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach, Member of the Orange F.O.O.D. Committee, Australia’s longest running regional food festival, and a consultant to Orange360, the destination marketing organisation for the Orange region in New South Wales.

We asked Janette about the origins of her interest in regional communities and leadership, and of any particularly fond memories from her time at St Margaret's.

"When I was at St. Margaret's my family had land… a whole fifty acres of it out near Albany Creek. I worked with my father building fences, planting bananas and digging roads.  I loved roaming through the bush collecting stuff.  Although it was just 18 miles from the Brisbane GPO along a dirt road, with a creek to ford and kangaroos at dusk, it was “the bush” for me, and I was free.

At the other end of the rainbow were my visits to country properties where others at school had been brought up  – giant acreages, red dust to the horizon, a dozen light aircraft lined up at the front gate, weekends of picnic race meetings, and that to them was “the bush”. I loved all of it. 

As I clocked up more than fifty years of commercial life here and in the US, I realised that if I were to have a go at country life I’d better get on with it! So, as I was about to turn seventy, I found a one hundred year-old cottage on a cattle property in the central west of NSW, I packed my car to the hilt and headed out to Orange!  And there, in that beautiful part of Australia, my love of all that country stuff was rekindled in spades.

That few years helped me to look deep into the eyes of those who lead a country life, especially in far out regional areas: the dread of another day without rain; the loss of even one calf, because the mother could not cope with two; and the strength required to get up every day and do virtually the same routine as the day before.Their granddaughters are at St Margaret's and they are the lucky ones!

My passion for those families, particularly those with children who need ongoing specialist medical treatment, led me to the children’s aeromedical charity LittleWings of which I am Chair.I can feel the difference it makes to a family whose small child is required to be at the Sydney Children’s Hospital every week for the next three months, and they live an eight hour drive from Sydney.  Then there's Tractor Trek, amazing country guys who restore tractors and raise money for others, and the dozens of other strong, brave and caring people who grow things, sell things and care for others.It’s an amazing community of which to be a teeny part. Those who buy a raffle ticket from you at the check-outs of country IGAs are always the ones who look as if that five dollars is more than they spent on groceries!

So, back to St Margaret’s.

I was one of the lucky girls with post-war parents who believed so strongly that my sisters and I would have a great education regardless of what that took.From them I learned that if I tried really hard, as they both did for the whole of their lives, I too could make a difference.That belief is the driver for me today, as strongly now as it was way back then. 

I am grateful that I am a St Margaret’s girl!"

Written by and as told to Georgina Papworth (’11)

Distinguished Past Student Award Winner 2020: Ms Kate Gibson (’96)

Distinguished Past Student Award Winner 2021: Prof Doune McDonald (’76)

Young Past Student of Distinction Award Winner 2020: Dr Mikaela Seymour (’09)

Young Past Student of Distinction Award Winner 2021: Ms Ashley McCarthy-Griffiths (’12)

You can read their stories at this link https://www.stmargarets.qld.edu.au/community/past-students/past-student-awards