SPOSA PRESIDENT

What was the most important thing for you about your time at school?

LLEWELLYN JONES Sposa President and Old Scholar (1983)

What was the most memorable thing you did at school?

Was it something you did on a school trip or at Ironbark? Something on the playing field or the concert stage? Or perhaps, some high jinks in the Boarding house?

This was something I reflected on recently when asked to speak with the Boarders at their Four Colours Dinner during National Boarding Week. A few tall tales were recounted. But all true, I swear!

Crazy April Fools’ pranks, Boarding house feasts and awfully bad film nights in Luther House. Who could forget the time the Boarders had to lay the first turf on the new Stolz Oval, known at the time as “Oval No. 2” (circa 1978)? We, the amateur landscapers, laid the surface so poorly it had to be torn up and laid again, though not by the Boarders this time. That story did not make it into The Review back then, so naturally, I had to share that tale. It is a ‘spoken history’ thing. Whether a Boarder or a Day Bug, it is easy to forget the rich range of experiences we have had at school. The good and the bad, they all go into the melting pot of who we are today and hopefully make us better people, considerate citizens, caring neighbours. There is much to be grateful for. We should thank our parents for sending us to St Peters and pay tribute to the College’s Lutheran founders – those who banded together to improve the outcomes for their children at a time when having a German name was a handicap in Australian society. Their endeavours helped level the playing field for them and founded a school for us with warm liberal values and an open heart for all who walked through the school gate.

Among the many people who opened their hearts to this skinny kid from Kowloon was a slightly older skinny kid in the Boarding house from Hope Vale, Far North Queensland. At thirteen-years-old, Noel Pearson was already a teacher in the true sense and provided my first insights into Australian First Nations culture. We also played dorm cricket with a ping pong ball and a flip-flop for a bat. A home-spun, universal culture with good memories.

I take my hat off to Noel right now when we are about to go to a referendum on a Voice to Parliament in The Constitution. Those of us who have followed the trajectory of his efforts to improve recognition, social outcomes and a level playing field for First Nations people in this country can be proud to see an Old Scholar of our times doing his best to make a better world. It is something that the Lutheran founders of St Peters would recognise and applaud.

That is truly something memorable.

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