BALLARAT & QUEEN’S OLD GRAMMARIANS’ ASSOCIATION NEWS AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

The Ballarat and Queen’s Old Grammarians’ Association AGM was held on Monday, 27 February 2023.

President Tom Hunt spoke of the initiatives of the Association over the past 12 months. He thanked the Committee and the Development Office for the time and effort they have contributed to the Committee’s goals for this past year. Tom expressed his honour to be a part of the extended community in his second year as President and is excited to see what 2023 holds for the Old Grammarians' Association.

The Committee was elected, and the members for 2023 are: Tom Hunt (2012) (President), Lorraine Austin (1982) (Secretary/ Treasurer), Jill Coote (1980), Emily Oliver (2017), Neil MacDonald (1979), Tony Rowlands (1980), David Perrin (1989), Ewen Nevett (1977).

To become a member of the Association or to express your interest in becoming a member of the Association’s Committee, please complete the alumni update your details form by scanning the QR code below.

If you are unsure if you are a member of the Association, or for any Old Grammarian enquiries, please contact our Alumni and Community Engagement Coordinator, Gemma Kelly, via email at development@bgs.vic.edu.au or phone +61 3 5338 0950.

Building on the success and growth of our Careers events over the past few years (including our Year 10 City Cite experience and Careers Breakfasts), our goal is to harness the Old Grammarian network of experienced individuals to provide support, career development and networking opportunities for Old Grammarians.

The Ballarat and Queen’s Old Grammarians’ Career Mentoring Program is designed to support young Old Grammarians who are in the first 5-10 years of their careers.

This program brings mentoring and career networking together to:

+ Support young Old Grammarians (5-10 years post-secondary school) to establish lifelong professional connections and build networking and career strategy skills by connecting with a mentor in a relevant field; and

+ Allow experienced Old Grammarians to share their time and valuable expertise and to make real contributions to the career progression of a young Old Grammarian.

Mentees are matched with a suitable mentor who provides one-onone mentoring with a focus on industry knowledge, networks, career planning and personal development.

The mentors’ connection, guidance and inspiration will assist mentees in transitioning to the workplace and beyond.

We plan to begin this pilot program with a small number of mentees and mentors. With your support and feedback, we offer this program into the future and aim to build this great network into something even more rewarding for our Old Grammarians.

We are excited at the opportunities this program will provide and are hopeful that it will benefit Old Grammarians both individually and as a community.

Should you have any queries regarding the program, please contact: Gemma Kelly, Development Office development@bgs.vic.edu.au +61 3 5338 0950

The last year was a busy year for the Ballarat & Queen’s Old Grammarians’ Association with a return to a full calendar of events and reunions. We were able to catch up on our rescheduled reunions from 2021 and our 2022 reunions; we held two Careers’ breakfasts; and the boys’ and girls’ Heritage Football Matches.

We look forward to another busy year of activities and events. We are excited about the projects and reunions we’re focusing on this year, including launching our new Ballarat and Queen’s Old Grammarians’ Career Mentoring Program, refreshing our OG merchandise, inviting more Old Grammarians back to our Heritage Football matches, and being involved in the refreshed Ballarat Careers and Futures Festival.

So that we can keep in touch with you, if your contact details have changed, please complete our alumni update your details form.

Tom Hunt (2012) President, Old Grammarians' Association

We were excited to welcome back a wonderful guest speaker for International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March, Old Grammarian, international lawyer and LGBTQI+ advocate Alex Lia (2012)*. Sarah Lia, long-serving Ballarat Grammar Board member, and Terry Lia, long-serving teacher at the School, are Alex’s parents, and were incredibly proud to hear them speak.

Alex spoke about how we can embrace equity in our community and shared how their passion for social justice was sparked at school.

Alex had a strong interest in social issues from a young age and realised that some people experience the world differently for reasons outside their control. Their brother, Nicholas, has an intellectual disability and other medical conditions. As they got older, Alex experienced firsthand societal barriers that were being presented to Nicholas that Alex was never going to have to face, and they started to understand the considerable inequity that existed. Alex became passionate about removing these barriers for disabled people and their families, which soon grew into a broader interest in creating a fairer community.

While studying a double degree in law and international relations at Monash University, Alex had some incredible opportunities. They studied international law subjects in Italy and the UK, spent a summer working at a human rights law firm in Cape Town, South Africa which provided legal services to people living in township communities; attended United Nations General Assembly events in New York that related to sustainable development and human rights; completed internships with Oxfam Australia and Humanitarian Advisory Group; volunteered with some amazing organisations, including Amnesty International, World Vision and Refugee Legal; and started a student-led legal services business.

When Alex spoke to the school, they were practicing as public international lawyer in the Office of International Law at the AttorneyGeneral’s Department in Canberra. In this role, Alex advised the Attorney-General and Australian government agencies on Australia’s international law obligations.Alex now works as a diplomat at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, focusing on arms control and the application of international humanitarian law to emerging technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence). Alex also teaches international law at the Australian National University in Canberra. In 2019, the Institute of Community Directors Australia awarded Alex a Future 500 Leaders Women’s Governance Scholarship for their contributions to the community sector. In their speech on International Women’s Day, Alex spoke about the need for all of us to think about the experience of women and girls in all their diversity. Many non-binary, gender diverse and transgender people have overlapping experiences with women and girls, especially those who were assigned female at birth or otherwise present as a woman.Alex encouraged us to reflect on how we can embrace equity for women and all people with intersecting identities.

First, it was Covid; then we were hit with flooding, so we were not able to get together in person to open the Hayhoe Time Capsule contents that was buried on September 1st, 1999, by the girls of Hayhoe House (then one House combined with Larritt). Luckily for me, as this Time Capsule was my Year 11 Communication Project, I have been able to go through it and post most of the letters we wrote to ourselves at the time. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, and I’ve been able to clearly remember the amazing memories I have of boarding at Grammar.

A few special items to mention:

+ A video of boarding life recorded on film that I’ve now digitised for viewing with the girls

+ A phone card that we used for the payphone to call home

+ A pizza token and note about how much we loved Dart Wigan pizza!

+ A life-sized poster of Dawson’s Creek from the common room.

The plaque for the Capsule and a few of these items will be now kept in the Butler Archives for future generations. I hope everyone involved in this project at the time gets as much joy from their letter to themselves as I did. Now to write a new one to open in 2042...

Beginning in 2020, when the pandemic first struck, the Year 12 Dart mentor group wanted to find their way to leave a legacy for the House, given that many of the traditional rites of passage that would typically occur in the last year of boarding, were not possible due to the COVID-19 lockdown periods.

With the support of their mentors, Keith Romanis and Peter Curry, the boys decided to investigate having the Dart House Bell recast, as it had fallen into disrepair. They began a very important process in understanding the history of the bell and collaborated with local specialists to have the bell recast be new once again. The 2021 Year 12 group then picked up the baton, having the bell polished and installed back in the House for another generation of Dart House members to continue maintaining what is an important daily ritual just before meeting.

Heroes are important for people when they are at school, inspiring hard work and passion in the pursuit of knowledge.

G. F. J. (Jack) Dart, Headmaster at the Boys’ School for almost 30 years, always encouraged students to follow their passion.

We were inspired to study languages: Martin Winkler taught Biology and German and encouraged students to learn many languages. Latin teacher, Michael Boyle, taught some of us Greek three evenings a week. Our French teacher, Michael Rasmussen, coached hockey and also taught Russian on Saturday mornings. Michael and Graham Watts took busloads of students to plays in Melbourne and to recite long Latin poems at University of Melbourne competitions.

Geoff Tunbridge was so skilled at football that he coached the Ballarat Grammar team to a premiership win against St Patrick’s College – at a time when the School had a total of 160 students, in comparison to 800 students at St Pat’s. Geoff Tunbridge taught Ballarat Grammar for 36 years, and he was part of premiershipwinning teams at Melbourne Football Club. Identifying heroes during your time as a teenager is important and can help shape your life.