By Marcus Uhe
The original students of Lyndale High School gathered at The Dandenong Club on Saturday 19 March to mark the 60th anniversary of their alma mater’s opening on 8 February 1961.
33 former students gathered to reminisce and reconnect with old classmates 23 years since holding their last reunion, with some travelling from interstate and others, like Cheryl Floyd, who lives in Bendigo, making the trip from outside of Melbourne.
From humble beginnings in the girls’ gymnasium at Dandenong High School on discarded desks that Head Master Godfrey Munro had recovered, the 44 students (32 girls and 12 boys) from Form one (Year seven) and Form two (Year 8) formed an intangible spirit, according to Ms Floyd.
“It was like picking up from where we were when we were still at school,” Ms Floyd said. “Nobody stayed at their tables.
“It was a momentous occasion and it brought back a lot of feelings similar to when we started at the school, because our lives are really changing again now.
“We had such a wonderful time, looking at old photos, all the hairstyles and laughing.
“The sense of community instilled in us at Lyndale has never died.”
Ms Floyd and her family moved to Dandenong from Kew before she started at the school as a recently-turned 11-year-old in 1961, making her one of the youngest in the cohort.
Being new to the area, Ms Floyd found that the connections that she made at Lyndale helped her and her family to settle into the new, dievrse environment.
“We were looking for that sense of family and we found at it Lyndale High School.
“For me, Lyndale High really does epitomise what Dandenong is all about. I think that spirit of community is still very strong and that’s what we had.
“We did lots of things socially that other schools didn’t do and I think part of that was the socioeconomic group we were in. It was a new area and people were looking to connect.”
She fondly recalled going on hikes, bike rides, attending dances and hosting bonfires in the paddocks, along with punching above their weight in school sports carnivals.
“We didn’t have a lot of sports equipment but we had a lot of school and sporting spirit.
“Lyndale High School was a very big part of our lives in a family sense and social sense.
“It wasn’t just the school we went to five days a week and I really saw that in our get together.”
Particular highlights of their time together at Lyndale included the annual October Spring fair, which was proceeded by a week of fundraising and culminated in a fete.
Lyndale High School now goes by Lyndale Secondary College and has undergone some reconstruction work over the years but Ms Floyd believes those changes don’t effect the way that her former classmates think of the school.
“We say that our school spirit still very strong, that hasn’t left us. Distance doesn’t mean anything.
“It’s not about our legacy to the school as the first students, but the school’s legacy to us.
“We had such a wonderful time, and we all went home thinking we’d love more people around for future gatherings.”
If you were a member of the original student group at Lyndale and would like to attend a future reunion, contact Wendy Martin at wendy@audaxconsulting.com.au
