Miss Handley Memorial Book 2021 Digital

Vale Miss Oriel Ethel Handley OAM 26 May 1927 – 15 April 2021 1

How blessed we were to have you in our lives Your path was determined

2000 Year 10 Excursion This publication was prepared by Mrs Diane Perkins (nee Beach) 1960 – 1962 in conjunction with Mrs Victoria Matthews (nee Leggoe) 2000 – 2004, in memory of Miss Oriel Ethel Handley OAM, who passed away on 15 April 2021.

As you make your way through this publication you will learn about Miss Handley’s life, her career and how much she meant to the Moreton Bay College community, through quotes and comments made following the news of her passing.

This project was a combined effort between the MBC Old Girls’ Association, Moreton Bay College and The Moreton Bay Colleges’ Foundation.

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The Early Years Born in Goondiwindi, South-West Queensland, you were destined to be endowed with the appropriate qualities for a life of service, a life of devotion and the capacity to love unconditionally. Your father was an Ambulance Bearer, skilled in the ways of dispensing healing and peace in the community; your family was respected.

Moreover, born into a family of girls, you were well aware of the importance of solidarity, love and support. Being a girl from the bush who had to go away to boarding school, little did you realise that you were treading a path that would equip you to empathise with those young ones who were sent away to school.

Your nurturing of them kept their spirits afloat during the long terms.

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Term 3 1951 Miss Goessling and Miss Handley

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Your mother was a strong lady who endowed you with the knowledge that a woman’s role was not circumscribed by her gender, but that gentility and culture were essential qualities to invariably maintain.

Your parents’ name selection for you was prophetic: The Oriole bird is both beautiful and melodious in its renditions; and the Oriel window stands out from the strict façade of a building, allowing vibrant light and beauty to stream in.

You fulfilled both these attributes with aplomb.

The leadlight windows in the Bay Terrace College encapsulated the spiritual aspect to the establishment of the school by the Greene sisters. Moreover, they allowed the glow from outside to enlighten the girls, in their attitudes and their aspirations.

Miss Handley, you were effectively this medium for those of us whom you mentored so gently over those selfless decades in the second half of the twentieth century. Bless you.

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Desley Agnoletto:

“As well as teaching me typing and singing at school, Oriel was my very dear cousin. Her mother and my father were sister and brother so we spent lots of lovely Christmases and family celebrations together. We will miss her awfully.”

Kathryn Lawrie:

“Very sad news. Such a rich and valued life; ceaselessly giving of her knowledge, skills, and love to so many people. We will be forever holding Miss Handley in heart and in mind. A dear, true friend and mentor to so many.

Vale, Miss Handley.”

Rhonda Rasmussen:

“There was no-one like her. She had such an incredible talent for bringing out the best in everyone she came into contact with. She was amazing with the thousands of students she taught. She was what Moreton Bay College typified.”

Tanya Poole:

“A true angel on earth, never bearing her own child yet mothered thousands. RIP beautiful angel.”

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Embracing the Greene Sisters Legacy We know you studied for your teaching diploma under Ms Hilda Greene and then gained a position at the school as a music teacher and resident mistress in the boarding house in 1951. You were, in fact, imbued with the precepts of the very foundation of the College. You were the link in the chain that facilitated the continuity and the concepts of enterprise and achievement.

The naming of two of the dormitories in the Bay Terrace boarding house were indicative of the intellectual and political bent of the Greene sisters: Astronomers and Suffragettes. The stained glass windows depicted maestros in their various fields of science, art, writing and philosophy. Did you ever have conversations with Ms Hilda about the fact that South Australia gave women the vote in 1896 and New Zealand prior to this date, and how anomalous it was that the United Kingdom lagged behind?

When you entered the corridors of Moreton Bay College, did you have any idea what a pillar of the School you would become? The Greene Sisters were pioneers, whose dedication to cultural education was undertaken in a spirit of Christianity: music, art, eurythmics, speech and drama were set alongside academic subjects. Effectively, you were handed the musical mantel from the Greene Sisters, in quality

1992 Retirement and dedication and you embraced it wholeheartedly.

each giver as if they were members of your enormous extended family.

Do you remember when you were asked about moving to another school, your reply encompassed the idea that other schools did not have that “sisterhood” which distinguished MBC. Sarah Kingston recalls your stories of the people you have known, were delivered in soft, measured vowels that reflected decades of teaching elocution, and devoid of any ‘um’s. She remarked that your house was tiny and harkened back to another time but was full of keepsakes from the girls whose lives you have touched. She was amazed that you remembered

Do you remember Chris Thomas from Roma in the 1960s – she was a tearaway but what she wrote of you encapsulates the general consensus: “To me as a student, Miss Handley was a teacher who genuinely cared about all her students. She saw the goodness, the potential, the positive in each of us. She had a deep Christian faith and she lived those values and encouraged us to be our better selves. She was like our magnificent Queen Elizabeth – impeccable.” Praise indeed, Miss Handley!

7 Sept 1985 Farewell to Bay Terrace - Handley and Drewe Mrs Millicent Drewe was a drawcard for quality teachers who were competent, charismatic and committed. The resumerequirements ensured the academic teaching was excellent and the music programme received accolades from near and far.

1956

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April 2012 Anzac Day

2005 Anzac Day

All occasions were treated with dignity and respect. You never dropped your standards, Miss Handley. You gave us a high benchmark to aspire to, Bless you. Thank you for making Moreton Bay College your family, the focus of your life - as beneficiaries, we are truly grateful.

2005 Founders’ Day

1968 Whitfield House

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Sharing the love of music Irene Morrison:

June 1988 Choir at Pleasantville

“That is the saddest news. Rest in peace Miss Handley. The heavenly choir had better shape up now! And St Peter’s diction had best be perfect too.”

Leah Mertens:

“What an inspiration and guiding light for us Bay Terrace girls. She was so proud of us singing in her choirs and acting on those one-act plays to show off our speech and drama skills. MBC has lost an icon. May she Rest In Peace.”

Melinda Pawluk:

“This is absolutely heartbreaking for me. I got very lost in my teen years but Chaplain Don Hann And Miss Handley pulled me back from the abyss with Sacred Choir and what then was ISCF or Breakaway.”

1985 MBC Choir April 1996 Easter Service

c. Early 1970s Oriel Handley

Marleene Brooks:

“Such a beautiful, caring, patient, and kind lady, I had the pleasure of knowing my whole high school life. She taught me how now brown cow walking with my head held high with a bible on my head, also helped me one day by darning my stockings.”

1980 Junior Choir

Nicole Boldt:

“RIP Miss Handley. She was the dearest and most kindest lady who dedicated her life to MBC. Every student was treated like her own daughter to her.

She touched so many lives, including mine.”

2011 Sacred Choi

Pre-1958 wedding Ailsa Gibb, Miss H,Ena Duffield 2006 JHA Commissioning Service

You inculcated that ladylike demeanour, that decorum that was a quintessential trademark of Moreton Bay College.

1992 Formal 12

Thank you for being involved in the full range of educational opportunities at Moreton Bay, Miss Handley. No matter what activity you were involved with, you gave it your everything.

1988 Equestrian

c. 2019 Miss Handley and the girls delivering Easter Eggs at Regis

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1972 Whitfield House The students were your family. They loved you and knew you would walk over hot coals for them. For boarders, you were the mother they had left behind on the property back home. Thank you.

1966 Form VI 14

1981 Seniors The warmth and love you gave to each child has created bonds that are beyond the confines of the College grounds. You have endowed these students with a strong sense of self-worth that has carried them through their adult lives, contouring the professions they have chosen and the families they have created. Bless you, Miss Handley.

2018 Miss Handley’s Friendship Chair unveiling

You must have had no doubt of the degree of love this College had for you, Miss Handley. You have given your life to the school - and so many thousands have been enriched by your loving nurturing.

1994 Induction of Captains 1992 Retirement

Though you “retired”, you continued to give and give, attending functions and being that important link between the Greene sisters’ concept and the fruition of a first-quality school for young ladies. Your world trip with your sister was a small gift in recognition of your generosity.

These images capture your devotion to teaching, Miss Handley - you engage, you connect and you love. How blessed we have been to have you in our midst for so many decades.

1988 Presentation of Processional Cross, gift of College architect Don Roderick 16

2015 Happy Birthday

1992 Retirement

1986 Induction of College Captains

1992 Retirement

November 2016

2 June 2017 90th Birthday Assembly 1 17

Stepping Stones of Transistion During those difficult years when ominous changes were on the horizon, you were the major supportperson for the Head, Mrs. Viola-Winchester. Despite her exceptional academic qualifications, your leader was especially shy and suffered greatly through the politics which seemed to pervade during those challenging times. You certainly needed to cling to your faith, and know that there would be a revival of your beloved Moreton Bay College. And indeed, as an answer to prayer, this came about.

By 1985, there was hope and a new direction forward!

In the 1980s you played an important role in Moreton Bay College’s rebirth; as Deputy under its first male headmaster, Ken Waller, your influence was critical.

According to the thorough writings of Noel Quirke, the dynamic between you and Mr Waller was a key part of the school at the time, despite your finding it challenging to work with men because “they think differently”.

According to Ken,“There was a caricature of us done by one of the senior girls, and it was [Miss Handley] going by waving at the crowd like the Queen, with the tiara and pearls, and I’m standing there in a Superman suit.” recalled Mr Waller. “I think that sort of sums up the relationship – she was the Queen of the school, and I was Superman.”

We got on famously because she made it so.

She could have been quite horrified by some of the things I was proposing…to save the school, but she realised it had to be done. She always presented any reservations or doubts she might have had in the most polite manner. She had this wonderful expression…‘no doubt you have thought of this already, but perhaps we might do so-and-so.’

Of course, I’d never thought of it already.”

You continued to be an integral part of the celebrations at the College: as Deputy Head, you were revered and loved.

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Ken Waller and Oriel Handley 1982

Julie Nunn:

“What an amazing life with so many accomplishments.

I’m sorry for always having holes in my stockings Miss Handley...I’d like to say that things have improved but I think we both know that would be stretching the truth just a little too much.”

Libby Parkinson:

“Rest in peace Miss Handley. You were the heart and soul of MBC. The students and staff were so fortunate to share their lives with you.”

2005 Fashion Parade 2007 Miss Handley’s Birthday

1986 Open Day Miss Handley, Mrs McQuillan, Christine Stache and Leonie Flynn During the hard times, there were still moments of celebration and joy. The refurbishing of this special chair is just one instance of this reverence for the past.

Your birthdays were a great source of celebration!

You were, indeed, regarded as royalty in a regal domain.

1992 Visit of Moderator of UC

1987 Official Opening Oriel Handley Hall

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While there were special visits from the Moderator General, the opening of your Hall was a momentous occasion – did you reflect back to the old creaky, firehazard hall from the old Bay Terrace school, and then open your eyes to this modern, beautiful hall: it was unimaginable. Did you have to pinch yourself that this degree of progress had occurred? Even the windows were embraced into the school at the new location in Wondall Road.

No doubt you felt at peace when you attended occasions such as this - it was indeed, Miss Handley, the beautiful school to which you had given your life.

You richly deserved these accolades of love and gratitude.

1986 Stained glass in secondary reception

2014 Science Centre Opening

2019 92nd Birthday

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Your Continuing Legacy You are to be applauded for your adaptability, Miss Handley. Girls were your service-medium. You knew them inside out. Yet you embraced the concept of the Moreton Bay Boys’ College to ‘complementing Moreton Bay College in Wondall Road. The precinct for the boys College was ideal - being close to the girls College, and with ample room for future expansion, it was a forwardthinking concept. The Greene sisters would have been amazed at how their mustard seed had proliferated!

There seemed to be an urgency to capture you for posterity - to ensure that the Miss Handley magic be retained to safeguard the continuing success of the Colleges.

2013 Turning of Sod

We farewelled you at a crowded Memorial Service in your own hall, and your Sacred Choir singing just for you. We know you will have enjoyed this tribute, remembering it was your nurturing that created such a joyous chorus.

And is this really goodbye? Ah, Miss Handley, your influence will be felt in waves for generations to come – that warmth, that love, that commitment. May future generations be imbued with those qualities of Christ that drove you forward to create and maintain your beloved Moreton Bay College. 1 Corinthians “Love is patient, love is kind” has been your modus operandi throughout your decades of devotion to Moreton Bay College. Miss Handley, you have been a blessing to generations of students and an inspiration to all of us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Amen.

Back Cover: May 1990 Julie Dodd Wedding Special Choir 22

2014 Scholars Assembly

Dear Miss Handley/Oriel,

Thank you for being the catalyst for my being sent to Moreton Bay College in 1961. Your parents were neighbours of my mother’s in Goondiwindi, and with MBC being located near Moreton Bay with its healing salt waters, I was parcelled off into your care. While your musical talents did not, unfortunately, engulf me, I remember collecting the winning cup for the Choral Competition in 1962, much to my embarrassment because of my deficiency in this domain. Your colleagues, Mrs Viola Winchester, Miss Ida Kennedy and Mrs Eacott, were pivotal in my education and the trajectory of my future life. Mrs Drewe, your friend, was invariably a prototype leader who inspired all of us.

When Mrs Winnie recruited me to return to MBC as a Maths teacher, you were a colleague, and I have wonderful memories of the camaraderie of Mrs Joy Willis, Mrs Kate Manifold and Mrs Betty Churcher. I loved the girls, as you did, and am still in close touch with a number of them, some sixty years later. The closed-social life of being a young boarding mistress at the tender age of 21, propelled me to accept a position at Mount Isa Mines, which contoured my life from them on. I see MBC as being integral to the exciting, quality life that I have enjoyed for three-quarters of a century – and you were the mustard-seed that started this journey. Thank you and bless you, my friend, mentor and colleague.

May 1992 Miss Oriel Handley

Di Perkins

Such a Blessed Life, Miss Handley OAM

2007 Miss Handley’s Birthday 23

Moreton Bay College OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION

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