By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
ALMOST shut down for good in 2011, Cornish College has been looking forward to this day for more than three years.
Taking just half an hour to get into formation and be snapped at 125 metres above ground – 620 Cornish College students, parents and staff members lined their oval for a momentous occasion.
Assistant principal Nicola Forrest said the aerial photograph is phenomenal for the college.
“This was a school that was proposed to be shut down by St Leonard’s College and here we are four years later booming, this photo is physical evidence of our growth and what we’ve achieved,” Ms Forrest said.
Opening in 2012 with 200 students Ms Forrest said the school would have struggled to pose for a photo of this grandeur in the past.
“We currently have 540 students and we thought it was time to do a historic photo,” she said.
The image was captured with a multicopter drone courtesy of the Melbourne Radio Controlled Helicopter Club which has shared the school campus since 1987.
Treasurer of the club Roger Chapman said it was the first time he had used such expensive and exciting equipment to take a photo.
“It was a very rewarding experience and great to see the school happy with the results,” Mr Chapman said.
Long term member of the club Mr Chapman said he didn’t want anything to go wrong and employed the help of Craig Cahill from XM2 Aerial Photography who flew the drone while Mr Chapman took the photo.
“We parked the ute at the edge of oval and set up the electronic equipment and I used what looked like an iPad to watch when to take the photos,” he said.
Mr Cahill used a remote control and inbuilt GPS system to fly the drone to the right location.
“Once you fly it up to the best position and put the brakes on, it will hold that position until you give it more instructions – it’s very spooky to watch, it just sits there in the sky as if there’s wires holding it up,” Mr Chapman said.
The colourful image includes the school’s rings of sustainability.
Ms Forrest said the rings were created by the school more than 10 years ago as a thinking disposition to help educate students on a sustainable future.
“The four rings are interlocking because when there’s an impact in one area it impacts other areas as well,” she said.
The sentimental photo including their numbers en masse and their core message of sustainability makes the image one for the history books and will be blown up and hung in their office foyer.
See the video the college made of the event:
