80 Years on…

During June, the College welcomed back some of our senior past students to celebrate our history and remember the school’s evacuation in 1942 when the Oxenham St campus was commandeered by the Australian Army at the beginning of WWII.

Following the evacuation, our College established makeshift schools at Kingswood Homestead (on Canningvale Rd) and North Toolburra Station (on the Allora back road), where they remained for the duration of the war.

It’s often said that friendships forged during hardship are strong enough to withstand the test of time and all of the challenges in between. These types of friendships are abundant among our past students and it was truly wonderful to hear stories from times gone by and reflect on what a different world our students were living in some 80 years ago.

This gathering provided the opportunity for past students to visit both the Kingswood and North Toolburra homesteads and reminisce about ‘the good old days’. Our past students also took a walk around the College, located their names on honour boards, chatted, laughed and marvelled at how the boarding facilities of today are vastly different to what it was ‘back in the day’.

Thank you to all who attended and special thanks to the Kingswood and North Toolburra folks for welcoming us again. A tremendous day!