By Cam Lucadou-Wells
More than 100 ex-Cleeland and Dandenong Girls high school students were on the hunt for history in a ‘last-hoorah’ reunion at their former school on 3 December.
It was the last gathering at the Ann Street campus, prior to the disused classrooms and offices being bulldozed for sports fields in early 2023.
There was a “lot of sadness” as the old boys and girls reminisced and gazed at the honour boards, banners and photos, says ex-student Laurel Cox.
Among them were the “girls of 1957” – some of the first intake of Dandenong Girls Secondary School students 65 years ago.
“They’re the special ones,” Ms Cox said.
In 1957, the site opened as one of only two public girls schools in Victoria. A tiny school with only 10 students in Sixth Form but attracting students from as far as Beaconsfield and student-teachers living in a flat on campus, Ms Cox says.
In the spirit of the recent Melbourne Olympics, its houses were named after Australian sports stars Marshall, Landy, Strickland and Cuthbert. And its school magazine The Torch was a nod to the Olympic flame.
Flicking through past editions of The Torch, students’ flair at needlework, art and cookery shine through, with the making of baby clothes and soft toys to donate to hospital, she says.
When it closed in 2007, it was the co-ed Cleeland Secondary College.
“The first boys here were absolute heroes. We then had males in our drama class and male voices in our choir at long last.
“We started winning at sports.”
Looking up the boarded-up buildings and weedy grounds, Ms Cox said it validated why the proposed sports field was a better option.
At the reunion, she had hoped to unearth long-buried time capsules from 1965 and 1985.
They were thought to be under a sundial, which was built from a concept by then-student Carole Matthews (nee Marsh). The sundial will be shifted to Dandenong High School, but the capsules have so far not been found..
The 1985 capsule is thought to include a greeting from the then-principal to readers in 2035.
There were also copies of the curriculum and essays from students about what life in the year 2000 might be like, copies of The Torch, newsletters, school uniforms and photos of the school, staff and students, news clippings and a commemorative wine glass and other artefacts.
Ex-teachers and students like Greta Jungwirth and Margaret Haywood did much to preserve the school’s heritage. It’s hoped that its physical history will be kept in a room at Dandenong High School, Ms Cox said.
“We are their history. They have to look after us.”
