Scotch College

Scotch in the Arts

Monash on Parade

General Sir John Monash (1881), one of Australia's greatest soldiers and servants and arguably Scotch's most distinguished Old Boy, is one of ten Australians whose lives are being honoured in a special exhibition at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to mark the centenary of Federation. Under the title Forging the Nation: Federation - the First Twenty Years, the exhibition opened in October and runs to 4 February 2001. Sir John's medals are displayed for the first time. The editor of Great Scot would be delighted to hear about any Old Boys (past and present) who are commemorated or involved in any of the centenary of Federation celebrations around Australia.

Leading Melbourne architect Bill Corker ('62) and his partners in Denton Corker Marshall have every reason to be proud of their acclaimed design of the recently opened Melbourne Museum. Old Boy architects have (naturally) spent a good deal of time in hotels. In the chic boutique Adelphi Hotel in Flinders Lane (opened in 1991), Bill's firm designed everything from the furniture to the lighting and even the spectacular cantilevered rooftop swimming pool. Robert Peck von Hartel Trethowan - including Bruce Trethowan ('69) - are responsible for what might be called the 'jazz/post-moderne-style' Westin Hotel adjoining the Regent Theatre in Collins Street. Simon Swaney's ('69) firm Swaney Draper designed the Hotel Lindrum in Flinders Street for David Marriner. Says Simon, 'Melbourne has its own style. It's about its grid pattern of wide streets and intricate lanes. Like the city, this hotel is about discovery, rather than brazenly screaming at its guests as soon as they walk through the door'. Swaney Draper is one of the firms of the moment in educational architecture, with clients including Lauriston, St Catherine's, Geelong College, Geelong Grammar and (even!) Melbourne Grammar. Over the years, Scotch's architects have made an indelible contribution to the built environment. We'd be glad to receive samples of others' work.

In black and white

Ward O'Neill ('69), veteran cartoonist for the Australian Financial Review, is among those featured in a collection of biographical interviews by Ann Turner: In Their Image: Contemporary Australian Cartoonists (National Library of Australia). As a reviewer noted, a common thread among the males interviewed is the difficulty of being any shade of arty when growing up in Australia - 'limp-wristed', says Ward, divining his father's opinion. Fortunately, Ward pressed forward. As satirist John Clarke says of cartoons, 'If you took them out of the paper, people would only buy it to read the notice of their own deaths. There'd be no other reason because that's where the perceptive part of every reader resides - the cartoons'. Another of the book's subjects is Peter Nicholson ('63) of newspaper and Rubbery Figures fame.

Other books released recently by or about Old Boys include a biography of Jeff Kennett ('65) - Jeff: The Rise and Fall of a Political Phenomenon by Tony Parkinson (Viking) Jeff's own anthology, Dog Lovers' Poems, and The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia, co-written by Simon Marginson ('68), one of Satura's most innovative editors who is now in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and regarded as one of Australia's leading educational academics. This is Simon's second magnum opus for the year: his Monash: Remaking the University was launched in May. Ita Buttrose, who was informally inducted as an honorary member of Scotch Family when (in 1994) she became the first female to address the OSCA Annual Dinner, has published a romantic novel, What is Love? (Penguin). Having been let loose among a record roll-up of 936 Old Boys, she should surely have the answer by now!

Mastery of ceremony

We needn't rehearse here the high praise universally heaped on Ric Birch ('61) for the simply stunning opening and closing ceremonies which he masterminded for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The editorial in The Age will suffice: "Without a hint of jingoism, we say that the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympics has done Australia, Sydney and the principal architect of it, Ric Birch, proud. From the opening moment when a lone horseman galloped at full speed into the stadium with the Olympic flag streaming behind him, to the climactic moment of the lighting of the cauldron, the ceremony was a triumph".

Finally, we congratulate Tom Healey ('69). As Director of Music at Geelong Grammar, he led that school's choir on a three-week European tour which was highlighted by the award of second place in the mixed choirs section of the 29th International Youth and Music Festival of Vienna. This initiative of Tom's (Captain of Music in 1970) echoed the Scotch Music School's pioneering overseas tours under the legendary George Logie-Smith.