Vaucluse Boys' High School
Class of 1968
When Vaucluse Boys' High School was opened in 1960 it took as its emblem the nearby Macquarie Lighthouse (designed by convict architect Francis Greenway) and adopted as its motto "Lumen Scientiae" - the Light of Learning - for just as the lighthouse guides ships into the harbour, so the light of learning, as taught at the school, guides its students into the harbour of a secure adulthood.
Write-ins
Great to see the start up of a website for Vaucluse Boys High School. In order to illustrate my initial participation, due to time restraints, I have added the following for interest.
The site, corner Laguna Street and Old South Head Road was auctioned Saturday, 19th February, 1938 at 3 pm by Raine & Horne Ltd, 70 Pitt Street, Sydney in conjunction with Fred Davison of 62 New South Head Rd., Vaucluse (page 33 from the following website...) Further historical notes also to the above, refer to the website http://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/105239/M._Demolition_and_Heritage_Report_-_Part_3.pdf . Sir Edmund Barton is buried at the Old South Head Cemetery, including members of the Fairfax family and many more famous Australians.
I came across a website which displayed an abandoned Vaucluse Boys High School. Full of of graffiti and derelict. How sad it has declined after it “began life in 1960 as Vaucluse Boys High School. It became coeducational in 1981 and went on to be recognised as a Centre of Excellence for Senior Studies in New South Wales”. See: http://tubby1.com/abandoned-vaucluse-boys-high-school-vaucluse/. Also, after its closure in 2006, “The land on which Vaucluse High School stands was sold for an undisclosed, large, amount of money. A Development Application was filed with Woollahra Council to convert the site into a retirement/nursing home.” In 2010, a fire was deliberately lit in the Hall which was subsequently torn down, along with the Canteen, change rooms and the Woodworking classrooms.” What has happened since?
Richard Raab
I understand the site was purchased by the Moran Healthcare Group in 2006 for an aged care development but Moran was unsuccessful at that time in getting the necessary approvals to proceed. I am not sure if one of those approvals (not obtained) was a DA from Woollahra Council. It may now be simply uneconomical to proceed with an aged care facility of that size. It truly looks like a war zone at the moment. The best thing that could that could be done now would be for it to be demolished.
Ian Cohen
Dear Sir,
Although I didn't attend Vaucluse High in 1968 I am impressed by this website and envy those who did attend such an outstanding school that no longer exists except in memory.
The school songs are very professionally written with excellent use of Latin which adds to a positive scholarly image. The use of the Lighthouse symbol together with the school motto Lumen Scientiae (it means The Light of Learning) is similarly brilliant. I think many people must have spoken Latin at your school. The school photos are not as good as one could have hoped, with the lighting and choice of lens the main problems. Was there anything the school was particularly famous for? If so, you might like to mention those on your website.
Overall, congratulations: I would be happy to contribute something new for your Albums Page but it would be from my school if that's OK.
Yours sincerely, Anne Dharm
Dear Ms Dharm,
Thank you for your kind words. Obviously, courtesy was taught in the school you attended and in your home. Yes, the songs were very impressive and, together with the inspirational messages of the principal and his deputy, empowered the student body every Monday morning to face the challenges of the ensuing week.
The use of the lighthouse as our symbol was a masterstroke for sure. Coincidentally, there was an actual lighthouse not very far from the school premises. You can Google it. No, Latin was not spoken at school - it was sadly considered to be a "dead language" even back then - though several students, recently arrived from overseas, could be heard to converse quietly among themselves in their mother tongues.
In retrospect I also feel that the photos are somewhat disappointing. Believe it or not, they were considered excellent back in the 1960s, having been taken with modern cameras by a professional firm from Bondi Junction. I understand that school photos are almost always in colour (and in focus LOL) these days. The school was famous for many things, among them sport and rowing though I somehow felt that it would be immodest to boast about them on a public website. But when the old boys get together for reunions and so forth, you can hardly keep us quiet!
It is kind of you to offer a contribution to the albums page. Please send it in and we'll see if we can accommodate it. We are thinking of adding a new page called "Other Schools".
Yours sincerely, VBHS '68.
Doug,
You might enjoy this blast from the past: vauclusehigh.wix.com/1968
All the best, J.
John,
I assume this reply will find its way back to you. Thanks for sending the link to the "past" - I did enjoy reading it. We are living the US but unfortunately have not been back to Australia for several years.
Keep well and all the best,
Doug Daft
Dear Sir,
I was a pupil of Vaucluse Boys High during its glory days. I believe that a pinnacle was probably reached in 1968 from whence a steady inevitable decline began.
In the wee small hours I lie awake thinking what became of the many gilt-texted honour boards for academic and sporting achievements, not to mention associated trophies, that were hung near the boss's office and in the assembly hall. When Vaucluse Boys' High ceased to be, were they carefully removed from the grubby brick walls and fragile glass trophy cases and preserved to this day in a secure education department storage facility? Or were they left hanging and trashed by vandal skateboarders who, as you can see to your horror on Youtube, have been using the assembly hall as an indoor skate park and graffiti gallery. One imagines that if one of the makeshift ramps was turned over it might turn out to be the Dux board from long ago.
What happened to the Hume Barber? Did he return to his salon in Holbrook? When was the heavy trophy last presented and where is it now? Are the names Einfeld, and Pakula still engraved on it?
These things trouble me more than the arguments for and against school uniforms, and homework.
Yours faithfully, Bob Bumsworth.
Dear Mr Burnsworth,
Thank you for your thoughtful letter. It is a feature of the aging process that one looks upon one's youthful years with rose-coloured nostalgia. My understanding is that there were numerous achievements in 1969 and beyond. Interestingly, the school went co-ed and dropped the word "Boys'" from its title some years later. I do not possess any records of the school's standards of achievement after that time.
Your insomnia is understandable. I myself won a trophy once (Best Cadet) and have often wondered where it is. As for the honour boards, they are now most likely housed at Rose Bay Secondary College. I am sure they'd let you look if you made an appointment. I have seen the notorious You-Tube video also. I don't suppose the skateboarders did much harm though and anyway, the place is slated for demolition.
Hahaha. That was not Hume-Barbour (as commonly believed) it was Demosthenes! Harry Kresner used to say "Don't point your finger when you debate; do like old Demosthenes down there: extend your palm and gesture with your whole hand."
The Board of Studies has identified a syndrome known as: "abandoned alma mater anxiety". They are very helpful in referring sufferers to a group which can help them work through the associated issues. You can google it.
Yours sincerely, VBHS '68.
Dear Sir,
Duly contacted Wendy in the office at RBSC in search of the missing VH trophies and honour boards. Wendy offered to do a walk-around her college to have a look, on walls and in any storage place however she doesn't recall seeing anything. She said 'Surely someone would have taken them down and stored them safely somewhere when VH closed, but who if anyone did that and where did they put them?'
Dr Robert Bumsworth (please note spelling of my name).
Dr Dr Bumsworth,
That is interesting, because I used to wander around and look at the DHHS and DHGHS honour boards when visiting someone who worked in the office at RBSC, before the Dover Heights and Vaucluse campuses amalgamated. I shall attempt to follow up some leads.
Please forgive my misspelling of your name. I would hate you to think that I found anything untoward or embarrassing about it. Indeed, there used to be a beloved comic strip character named Dagwood, whose surname was "Bumstead" and this never aroused any negative comment or snickering among the youth of the day. Please let me know if new information comes to light.
Sincerely, VBHS '68.
STOP PRESS! The Honour Boards ARE at Rose Bay Secondary College at the back of the Assembly Hall, upstairs in a locked room. Wanna borrow them for our next reunion?
Rob Domabyl
Editor's note: I wonder if Victor Ludorum is there?
Dear Mr Burnstein (may I call you Bob? Please call me John),
It is very kind of you to take the trouble to express your complimentary sentiments.
Yes your stationery items were located. Forgive my saying so but your memory is erroneous (rhymes with Coroneos haha). A4 was not invented in 1968. The pad was foolscap. The photo on the right is Room 16. Your stuff had been carelessly strewn on the floor, presumably by some skateboard louts. I'm usually near Vaucluse High on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; you can pick it up from me there if you like. The finger bun was unpalatable so I fed it to my chickens.
"Listen all and all beware!", John.
Dear Sir,
I am impressed with your excellent website and firmly believe it will prove useful in ways that none of us could have imagined as students all those years ago. At the end of fourth period on Tuesday May 7 1968, I left an A4 notepad in a dark blue plastic ring binder together with some ballpoint (Bic retractable) pens and a Staedtler eraser plus a buttered finger bun in a white paper bag, in the desk in room 16. The folder contained my history notes. I need these for study and wonder has anyone seen them. The finger bun is offered as a reward.
Thank you for publishing this and thanks in advance to anyone responsible and honest enough to hand them in.
Yours faithfully, Bob Burnsworth
My dear cohort,
Thanks for everyone's participation in the recapitulation of VBHS and other topics. No easy thing for JP John to act as a moderate moderator when those old school days can still raise red hot welts as well as rosy memories. Still, I'm sure he relishes the role, as much as Sid enjoyed opening the First XI bowling with a bouncer or two. Watching from the relative safety of second slip I thought that first over was often poetry in motion.
At the top of the stairs, looking through the meshed windows, waiting for the cuts I would wonder about the architectural thoughts that placed the Masters' Room in a direct line of sight to those tomb stones. Black humour? Religious zeal for admonishment? If so, was it Old Testament righteousness? Or New Testament suffering?
Here's a couple of short clips on the topic of caning from a 1974 doco called Stirring: http://www.abc.net.au/aplacetothink/#watch/mh_1970/stirring/watchVideo
I was shocked by my first view of HK Harris. My father had died the previous year, much older than my mother, Stanley was a man of HK's vintage, similar size, with that tidy vanity and martinet manner, HK slid uncomfortably into my psyche as a too familiar father figure of authority.
He did me one good turn, he still enrolled me as a prefect despite the fact I had entered the records of the NSW Police Dept by January of '68. For information regarding entering the records of the Greek Police Dept a year later you can consult the following document. Postcards from the Hippy Trail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASar0uwR3iw
Studiously yours, Murray Cox.
What a pleasure to find this website reminding me of the trials and tribulations of youth. I like your philosophy emphasizing bonds originating from shared experiences.
My years at VBH began with the school opening in 1960. I remember being on the first rowing team under the expert tuition of Ernie Tucker at Sydney Rowing Club, resulting in my first encountered with Blue Bow lemonade as well as having the school flag stolen at our first carnival.
Other memories include being a CUO in the cadet unit; doing French with Miss Dan then Mr Jerebek; Wood Work and Tech Drawing with Phil Billings, who practised his golf swing on naughty boys; History with Mandy Tunica; English with Mrs Langker; duties as a prefect in the canteen; and watching the ocean and any girl that happened to walk past the school.
Reading your letters makes me wonder what happened to different people in my classes. I found myself inspired by dynamic teaching staff and subsequently followed an education career in rural NSW. Looking forward to seeing more comments on VH website in the future.
Mark Dixen
Dear Sir,
One of my happiest memories from 1965 was the Monster Fete held on Friday, October 8, in the school grounds and in various rooms...as I recall. The principal attractions were the Sweets stall, which that year included a popcorn machine, the White Elephant stall, the Groceries stall, the Snack Bar, the Hot-Dog stall (conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland), the "Purple Puppy Dog" Coffee Lounge, a Chess competition, a Picture Show, and numerous games and competitions. The most popular games appeared to be the old favourite, "The Roll-a-Ball" where the skilled players were able to win boxes of chocolates, the "Wheel" where many excellent prizes were won, the "Lucky Squares" and the "Ring a Coin". The Cadet Unit and the Photography Club each had a section of the Hall, in which were displayed their particular items of equipment.
The "Hoop-La" again proved to be a popular attraction and the Drinks and Ice Cream stands did good business. There were many bargains on the Book stall. In conjunction with the Fete, the P&C conducted a Guessing Competition, the winners of which were (I hope I have remembered this correctly):
1st: Portable T.V. - L. Stern (4A).
2nd: Radio - Mrs. Samuel, Dover Heights.
3rd: Record Player - Mrs. Moon, Bondi Junction
I remember, sadly, that this Fete was the least financially successful one yet held, the total nett proceeds being just about six hundred pounds ($42,000 in today's money). You don't see many school Fetes these days, and that is a shame.
(Name withheld by request)
Speech Night, 1963
To this day I recall with much fondness the address by Mr. Justice G. Amsberg at what was for us our first speech night at Vaucluse High.
Although "ORTA RECENS, QUAM PURA NITES" is the motto of the state of NSW, it could well be applied to Vaucluse Boys' High School in its glorious year of 1963. This was the theme of the fourth annual speech night. The motto was quoted by Mr. Justice Amsberg, who, as a delightfully refreshing and effervescent guest speaker, was the highlight of the night. After proclaiming himself the least qualified man for such an honour, and admitting that this was, in fact his "maiden voyage", Judge Amsberg went on to show himself a highly diverting informal speaker.
He contrasted the grade of youth he so often finds arraigned before him in the dock with the rows of fine, clean, upstanding boys of Vaucluse High. Judge Amsberg referred to growing evidence of juvenile delinquency, and exhorted the boys to pursue a path of virtue.
Mr Harris, the Principal, expressed this same theme when he said that not even the "most imaginative optimist" would have pictured the success of the School in the past year. The winning of the Hume Barbour and Royal Commonwealth Society trophies is, in itself, a feat to be marvelled at, he said. "Ours is the first of the new schools to break through to success, and this should inspire us to win again". The headmaster reiterated the year's triumphs, which, apart from the Oratorical trophies, included the selection of the school for the performance of "Richard III" in Hyde park, and the Leaving Certificate results. The latter, he pointed out, while not spectacular, were very good. For the first time, the Honours Board was inscribed.
How clearly I remember his advice to the boys that night. Mr. Harris illustrated the difference between the popular misconception of the word "tough" and the meaning he attributed to the word. In general, the tough boy is looked on as one who makes an outward show of "being a man". He is influenced by the daily papers, which give excessive publicity to teenage behaviour and teenage idols. His interpretation of "tough", Mr. Harris said, was the manner in which a boy resisted outside influences, and was able to remain at home studying. He could withstand present day propaganda and sacrifice pleasure to give his best in examinations.
Gary Jackson
