The Past Student Awards have been established to:
- recognise the many achievements of St Margaret’s Past Students, both professionally and personally
- celebrate the diverse achievements of Past Students and provide an opportunity to share stories of success
- increase connections between the School and Past Students to honour their legacy.
There are two award categories:
- Distinguished Past Student (for alumnae who have passed their 20th reunion)
- Young Past Student of Distinction (for alumnae in their 20th reunion year or younger)
Nominations for the 2024 Past Student Awards are now open and can be found here, or you can nominate online.
Submissions close Friday 10 November 2023.
2022 Young Past Student of Distinction
Grace Tobin (’05)
Grace Tobin is an investigative reporter at the ABC's premier current affairs program, Four Corners. She previously worked as a reporter at 7:30 and as a producer at Nine's 60 Minutes, where she travelled the world extensively on overseas assignments.
Grace is a two-time Walkley Award winner for excellence in journalism. In 2019, she produced a joint investigation with Nine Newspapers on Crown Casino, which sparked two Royal Commissions and the Bergin Inquiry in NSW and triggered a clear-out of the board. In 2017, she was recognised for the 60 Minutes story on the death of Matthew Leveson, subsequently authoring the true crime book Deal with the Devil, a first-hand account of the Leveson family’s ordeal throughout the four-year police reinvestigation of the case.
Grace completed a Bachelor of Journalism (QUT) and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s Summer Investigative Reporting course. Her journalism career began in regional Queensland as a crime and court reporter.
Young Past Student of Distinction 2021 Ashley McCarthy-Griffiths ('12) (PDF 1MB)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2020 Mikaela Seymour ('09) (PDF 1.1MB)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2019 Lucy Shaw ('09) (PDF 1.1MB)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2018 Emma Sievwright ('11)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2017 Penelope Twemlow ('00) (PDF 1.3MB)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2016 Nisha Srinivasan ('00) (PDF 707.8KB)
Young Past Student of Distinction 2015 Gwyneth Olsen ('00) (PDF 650.8KB)
2022 Distinguished Past Student
Christine Wells ('91)
Christine Wells is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author of 14 historical novels. Her books have been published by New York houses Penguin, HarperCollins and Macmillan, as well as Penguin (Australia), with more than 250,000 copies sold worldwide and translations in nine languages. Her new novel, One Woman's War, A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny, is out from HarperCollins (New York) in October 2022, and her next book, The Royal Windsor Orphan, will be published in 2023.
Christine was school captain in her final year at St Margaret’s. She then completed a Bachelor of Laws and became a solicitor specialising in corporate law at a city firm, while writing in her spare time. She was the first Australian to win the American Golden Heart Award for her debut novel, which was published by Penguin (New York).
Christine is also a writing teacher and mentor, helping people achieve their dreams of becoming published authors of commercial fiction.
Distinguished Past Student 2021 Professor Doune Macdonald ('76) (PDF 1.1MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2020 Kate Gibson ('96) (PDF 1.1MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2019 Dr Hannah-Gerti Krause AO ('85) (PDF 1MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2018 Helen Meredith ('53) (PDF 1.3MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2017 Associate Professor Louise Gustafsson ('87) (PDF 1.4MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2016 Professor Desley Deacon ('59) (PDF 2.3MB)
Distinguished Past Student 2015 Keri Craig-Lee ('75) (PDF 687.5KB)