Gosford High School Reunion

This year the ABC is celebrating 90 years since its formation. It seems appropriate to make mention of the late Caroline Jones (nee James). Sadly Caroline passed away in May this year after a bad fall at her Greenwich residence.

You may not have been aware that Caroline Jones AO completed the latter years of her schooling at Gosford High School attaining a high level in the Leaving Certificate in 1954 studying English, French, Modern History, Biology, Geography & Agriculture.

Caroline had a long association with the ABC and is regarded as a true Australian “Living Treasure” and an inspiration to all who worked with her and knew her well. She excelled in all the following areas with the ABC and beyond as a:

• Broadcaster
• Journalist
• Reporter
• Storyteller
• Writer
• Trailblazer for female acceptance and participation

In her list of acknowledgements to people who have helped her and inspired her over the years she particularly makes mention of two teachers from Gosford High School Miss Phyl Bennett and Mr Carl Sundstrom (Master English & History Department pre 1955).

There is a Wiki with more information on Caroline’s rich life Here.

Her deep love of our country Australia and its people will live on through her inspirational storytelling and compassionate actions. May she rest in peace.

Does this sound familiar?  Well things could be worse. Following is a report from our 1950′s colleague and now roaming reporter Brian Raffan domiciled and surviving in the UK.

• Predicted Heatwave – 39° to 41° (don’t laugh it could beat the record here – Portugal has been 47°
• COVID Variant BA.4 & BA.5 cases up 30% in a week!
• ‘Sacred cow’ NHS overwhelmed – over 6 million backlog of routine operations e.g. hip replacements (possibly needs a ‘Check-Up’)
• 3-day train driver strikes (arranged by RMT union)
• 400 migrant/asylum/illegal(?) dangerous channel crossings in a day (13-14,000 this year to date)
• Petrol £100 to fill average family car
• International Airport Heathrow overwhelmed (through lack of staff)
• UKRAINE War – Varied European responses ( Putin’s got them by the ‘proverbials’ /OR/ What! No Sunflower oil? )
• PM ‘Boris’ ousted – No fibbin’ here! Don’t change horses in the middle of a stream (Tower of Power – 2009)( I said that … or rather – erh… nicked it)

So – WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? RIGHT !

And … all’s well and God’s still in Heaven
(Jack LONDON said that – People of the Abyss)

A nice photo above of the what Ros Mort described as a number of GHS “old” cronies on a visit to the NSW Art Gallery to view the Archibald Exhibition on 23rd June.

The Archibald along with the Wynne and Sulman Prize Exhibits are open until the end of August 2022. See information and the Archibald finalist’s work on the Art Gallery web site Here.

Of the visit Ros reported. “The first port of call was of course coffee at the Café to warm us up ready for action..(for some it might have been a toilet stop!) There was a lot of building construction going on in front of the gallery entrance, so we had to carefully navigate our way along the maze of twists and turns and we magically arrived at the front of the building in one piece. There were plenty of important looking uniformed officers (males and females) guarding the entrance. (“gender equality” it’s called) They were on the lookout for “odd ones” trying to slip through but somehow miraculously we all passed the “pub test” and got admitted. COVID rules were in place.

The exhibition was certainly worth visiting and it was impossible to take it all in with our limited time. There were definite themes that permeated throughout many of the works of art as the Artists attempted to put on canvas their feelings and thoughts that have dominated our lives in Australia and the World beyond, over the past almost 2 years. Some were sad, some were joyous.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Young Archie Exhibition with some really incredible up and coming new artists in the making. Many of us were blown away with the talent.”

Ros Mort has joined the growing ranks of bionic men and women after a bad freak fall from her front steps at home on (for her not so) Good Friday April 15.

After being out of action for 2-3 months she is now OK following some fine specialist medical attention at Hornsby Hospital and the addition of titanium metal plates and screws.

She says that she is almost back to normality and is very grateful that the incident was not more serious.

Fay Ted and family with grey nomad transport

Sad to hear the recent passing of Fay Moxon (nee Ongley).

After finishing secondary education at Gosford High School Fay had a career in midwifery, psychiatric and general nursing. With partner of 57 years Ted raised a girl and three boys.

The family survived being burnt out in a bush fire and rebuilding. Fay and Ted did a lot of travelling in their retirement years in their combi and caravan which she wrote of in 2012 in a post Here

Video of Fay’s memorial service is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLFjoTdfrss

Hope all those in COVID lockdown are managing Ok.

It has been a worrying time which we have managed better than most.

Now thanks to the brilliance of our scientists in coming up with vaccines in record time we have a way out.

Take care and stay safe.

Doug 1960 GHS and 1996 CEO Gold Coast City Council

One of our G.H.S. colleagues, Doug Daines has passed away.

The following Death Notice appeared in the Melbourne Age on 28th April 2020

DAINES Douglas Robert 16/4/1944 – 25/4/2020

Devoted and loving husband of Bronwyn. Adored father of Amber, Nicole and Kelly and their partners David, Stephen and Sherileigh. Grandfather to Zeke and Remy.

Dearly loved and missed. Forever in our hearts. RIP

After leaving Gosford High School in 1960 Doug undertook degrees and postgraduate study at the Universities of Sydney, New South Wales and Macquarie. He was awarded a PhD. Doug followed a long and distinguished career in the areas of Property Management, Town & City Planning and the role of Company Director. These various appointments took him interstate and overseas. Doug’s profile written for our 2006 reunion is HERE.

A number of folks from our year met up with Doug in September last year at the 90th Anniversary of Gosford High School. He had made a big effort to get there and it was great to see him after all those years.

Ros Mort was in touch with Doug’s wife Bronwyn who said that Doug had passed away peacefully at Bethlehem Hospital not far from his beloved Brighton and where they had lived for many years.

Ros sent the message HERE to Bronwyn (on behalf of our G.H.S. cohort) expressing shock at his passing and forwarding our thoughts and condolences to the family.

With the current restrictions on gathering Doug’s family have provided access to the video of his service which is HERE. Some nice photos of Doug’s life are HERE.

Message from Ros Mort and Ros Wheeler today.

Hope everyone is well and in good health.

A week ago last Tuesday we  spent a day around Gosford visiting the various possible venues for our proposed 60th Reunion later in the year.  We met with Events Organisers, viewed the available rooms and discussed menus, pricing etc.

As you are all aware the situation re COVID-19 has changed quite drastically in the last week and has gone exponential. In view of the present and predicted “climate” the decision has been taken to …..POSTPONE THE 60TH G.H.S. REUNION UNTIL 2021.

We believe this is the correct decision to make at this time and hope we have your support. It might be possible to look at an earlier time in the 2021 year.

Stay Safe

Best wishes to you all

Ros & Ros

And for good advice from people who have way too much time on their hands and too large a stock of toilet paper look HERE.

Message from Ros Mort on the proposed 60th and she says final re-union gathering proposed for this year.

The idea was raised last year to have a final Reunion for our GHS Group 1956-1960. Some discussion already seems to favour the following:

• Location: Gosford general area
• Time & Date: Late October – November 2020

We’d like everyone to have the opportunity to submit their ideas for consideration. Could you please put in your 10 bobs worth and send back to me. We will have a small group assisting with the organisation. It won’t just be me! This email is an initial one just to get the ball rolling.

SURVEY

1. Time of year
2. Dinner at night or a luncheon
3. Venue Golf Club, R.S.L. (being refurbished), Central Coast Leagues Club, Sailing Club or other

Please send comments and ideas for 1,2, 3

FYI The GHS group before us (1955-1959) held their 60th last year in November during the horrific bushfire period.
It was a luncheon, held at the RSL. Margaret Foot & Chris Brodie (2 of the organisers) said they had around 50 in
attendance and it was very successful. Our “Rusty Russ’ was in attendance.

The Gosford High School 90th Anniversary Celebration was held Saturday morning, 21st September 2019. On the bright, sunny day large crowds descended on the school for the celebration of 90 years since the first official opening in 1929. There were many ex-students in attendance, present students and teachers and members from the local community along with visitors.

The official Opening Ceremony was held at 10.00 AM in the School Hall next to the Golf Club and it was a full house. At the conclusion of the Opening Ceremony everyone was free to wander the grounds and visit classrooms and corridors and absorb the tradition and history of the school.

There were around 18 of our 1956-60 cohort in attendance.

After the tour some of our group adjourned to Golf Club for a quiet drink, a bite to eat and some further reminiscing as captured in the photo by Colin Langlois below.

Ros Mort’s account of the day is  HERE.

A note from Ros on the GHS 90th plans.

Just a reminder that the GHS 90th Celebration is only 2 weeks away ie. Saturday September 21st.  I hope those of you who live not too far away  will be able to attend on the day. Let’s hope the weather is a lot warmer and the wind has dropped.

Our Sherlock Holmes, Ian Carroll has been on the case tracking down details of the GHS 90th Anniversary Celebration. Ian has discovered that Celebrations for the community and ex-students will be on one day only, Saturday 21st September.

Our ever diligent Ros Mort has come up with the following arrangements.

In her words. “I hope many of you will be able to come along on Saturday 21st September to be part of the Celebration. It will be great to catch up and meet with as many as possible. Initially quite a few did indicate they hoped to be able to attend so lets hope you’re still available on the 21st.
Of course it’s your choice as to what you do. Ros Wheeler will be coming along with me so we’ll keep a lookout for prospective partners in crime from our era.

As the School Hall is right next to the Golf Club, the suggestion is to meet informally at the Golf Club afterwards possibly for a snack, drink, coffee and plenty of talk and catch up. (1pm? earlier or later…..very flexible) I’ll ask Les to check with the Club.

Some might like to move off later to the Central Coast Leagues Club if you wish to “party” into the night!

One of the spin offs to this gathering is to get some more feedback regarding a 60th REUNION next year 2020 (prob. Oct or early Nov).
Thanks to those who have already passed on their thoughts. There seems to be quite a bit of interest.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS  THE INFORMATION ON THE 9OTH  ANNIVERSARY OF GHS TO ANY OTHER EX-GHS STUDENTS FROM OTHER YEARS.”

Wonder what the old school looks like now? Well the school’s web site has some great 360 degree views of its various areas and fabulous facilities HERE.

If, like me, you haven’t been involved in education for a while you can really admire the range of activities and how well the school seems to be equipped especially compared to a gazillion years ago when we were there. But they still have the Boys and Girls marking over the side entry doors.

The “new” (to us) School Hall which will be the initial meeting place for the activities on the 21st September for the GHS 90th Anniversary Celebration catch up – see the post above.