2024 - Edition 2
Congratulations Class of 2024! We had a lovely time welcoming you to MSM Alumni at the Year 12 Mother-Daughter Garden Party and we can’t wait to find out what the next chapter of your lives will bring.
2024 has been a successful year for MSM Alumni with reconnecting classmates and improving the accuracy and size of the Alumni database, just in time for the College Centenary in 2025.
Since the last newsletter, the Classes of 2004 and 2014 have had their 20 and 10 Year Reunions respectively, with impressive numbers attending. And the Vintage Reunion earlier in the month, was 3 times the size of last year’s event. It was a fun afternoon of storytelling, memories and the surprise return of a College library book from 50 years ago! See photos from the event below.
Planning is well underway for “Back to MSM”, our super-sized reunion day on Saturday 22 March 2025. We’ll be hosting 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50+ year reunions, as well as for any cohorts who’d like to get together, and individuals and family groups. We’re particularly keen to celebrate multi-generations of MSM students eg grandmother, mother, daughter. Bookings for this event will open in early 2025.
Make sure you join your Alumni Year Facebook group – it’s the year you either did, or would have, finished Senior, eg if you completed Year 10 in 1984, your alumni year is 1986. And if there isn’t a Facebook group for your cohort, let us know and we’ll set one up. You’ll find the list of groups on the MSM Alumni Facebook page.
We are on the lookout for memorabilia, including old uniforms and photos, to display at our 'Back to MSM' day and other Centenary events, so please have a look in that old storage box or cupboard and contact MSM Archives to contribute.
Good luck to those who’ve submitted a Keep In Touch form recently. It’s not too late to make sure your details are up-to-date and be in the draw for a fuel voucher. If you know someone who doesn’t receive this Newsletter, please encourage them to fill in the form before Thursday's draw.
Yours In Faith And Love,
Anne O’Keeffe (Class of 1986)
President
The planning for the introduction of Year 5 in 2025 has been a major focus throughout this year. In January I introduced Ms Katie Jordan as Head of our Junior School. Ms Jordan has been working closely with myself, our College Leadership Team and other key staff as we have worked through the multitude of issues that need to be considered. These included the recruitment of the Junior School staff, enrolment of our foundational cohort of 50 students (two classes of 25 students), designing age-appropriate uniforms, refurbishment of classrooms and writing a contemporary curriculum and an engaging co-curricular program. Welcoming the Class of 2032 will be an exciting start to our centenary year.
Our planning for our special centenary celebrations is well underway. I would like to take this opportunity to share some exciting ‘date claimers’:
- “Back to MSM” Alumni Reunion Day – Saturday 22 March, 3-5pm at MSM.
We look forward to welcoming back all MSM Alumni for this day of celebration. This will be a ticketed event and bookings will open early 2025.
- Mary Aikenhead Day Mass – Friday 25 July at 12noon.
This will be held offsite at Riverlife Baptist Church, 47 Jennifer Street, Seventeen Mile Rocks. This much larger venue will allow us to accommodate not only our current students and staff, but also our Alumni and members of our extended MSM family including former staff and parents.
- Centenary Gala Dinner - Saturday 26 July.
More details to come!
In Faith and Love
Sharon Volp
Principal
Can you help contribute to our Centenary celebrations?
We are calling on the wonderful network of MSM Alumni to share your talents or expertise. The College is looking for masters of ceremonies, musicians and live acts as well as services including florists, cake suppliers, photographers and more. If you have something to offer, we would love to hear from you. Contact [email protected]
The various choirs of MSM have warmed hearts for many decades. As we approach our Centenary Year in 2025, we welcome expressions of interest from Alumni who have a passion for singing and performing to join the Centenary Past Pupils' Choir. If you are interested in knowing more, please email [email protected]
Share your Story
As we prepare to celebrate the College’s Centenary in 2025, we invite all members of our community, past and present to share in the stories that celebrate our rich past, delight in the present and imagine the possibilities that await.
We invite all current and former students, staff and families of Mt St Michael’s to share your story or your favourite or lasting memory of Mt St Michael’s College for consideration in our Centenary History Book – 100 Voices in Faith and Love.
Please submit your story and image/s . A selection of stories will be published on our website and shared in our history book.
Last chance to go into the drawn to WIN 1 of 6 fuel vouchers.
Have you a new email, changed jobs/career or living abroad? Make sure that your details are up-to-date so that we can keep you informed about reunions, events and more.
Send in your Keep in Touch form to go into the draw to WIN 1 of 6 fuel vouchers.
All KIT forms received between Thursday 11 September 2024 and Thursday 28 November will go into the draw. Entries close midnight Thursday 28 November with the winners drawn on Friday 29 November at 10am AEST.
By supporting this great raffle, you are helping to support the Light the Way Capital Campaign, assisting the College to light the way for current and future generations of MSM students through the enhancement of new educational facilities.
Ticket sales close Wednesday 26 November with the winner to be drawn on Thursday 28 November at 10am AEST.
We want to hear your experiences since leaving Mt St Michael's College, from cherished moments, challenges overcome, goals accomplished, or your favourite or most interesting anecdote.
A mission of Love
Forty years ago, the Sisters of Charity opened Australia’s first HIV/AIDS ward at St Vincent’s Hospital. As Sister Clare Nolan tells The Weekly, today they have much to grieve for but also to celebrate.
WORDS by SUSAN CHENERY
So many of them were so young. Young men, brothers, sons, lovers, friends; full of promise with whole lives ahead of them. “They were lawyers,” says Sister Clare Nolan. “They were doctors, accountants – they would have done so much.” Instead they were handed a death sentence, condemned and ostracised. “They just wasted away in front of your very eyes.”
Sister Clare first heard about HIV/ AIDS in 1982 when immunologist Dr Ron Penny returned from a conference in Haiti. “As soon as he landed,” she says, “he came to the hospital and said, ‘There is this disease, it’s affecting the gay community and we must get ready for it’.” Three days later, “this beautiful man arrived with HIV/AIDS. Never have I seen such a sick man, and our journey began.”
1984 was a phenomenal year for the Sisters of Charity. That year, St Vincent’s Hospital performed Australia’s first heart transplant and opened the country’s first methadone clinic to treat heroin addiction, which was a cruel killer in their local community of Darlinghurst, Sydney. But most visionary and courageous of all, the sisters opened Ward 17 South, the first and only dedicated HIV/AIDS ward in the country.
As Director of Nursing, Sister Clare and the St Vincent’s board did not hesitate. Years before, she had taken a vow of service to the poor and marginalised and nothing was going to stand in her way. “It’s about respect and dignity for the individual and giving the best care you can.”
Today, over a lunch of sandwiches and fruit on an embroidered tablecloth, wearing a brightly coloured dress, Sr Clare is a forceful (in a good way) and vibrant personality. After a lifetime of leadership and service, she now lives at St Vincent’s hospital in Brisbane. Having taken a vow of poverty, she has never been paid a salary. “We are on a mission until the day we die,” she explains.
Ward 17 South was part of that mission. It was set up at a time of hysteria, vilification of gay people, hostility and condemnation, both from within the church and without. But built on compassion, it would become a refuge and a sanctuary. St Vincent’s was in the epicentre of an epidemic. This was happening in the community of people who lived around the hospital – “our community,” she explains. Of course the nuns were going to respond. And their response sent a message of tolerance and understanding across the country.
“The Sisters of Charity were very brave to insist that patients should be cared for here,” said Professor David Cooper, former director of the Kirby Institute. But the sisters firmly believed in “the provision of health care to people no matter how they became ill”.
Without their courage and compassion thousands of men would have died alone, uncared for, suffering terribly. They were the lepers of their time. In some hospitals their meals were left on trays outside the door. Not at St Vincent’s.
Within weeks they were overwhelmed with patients. At full capacity, Ward 17 South was admitting 50 patients a week.
It was like battlefield nursing, a war zone. “We had to get out of our comfort zone,” Sister Clare explains. People were dying as soon as they were admitted. “It was a really tough time. Tough for the darlings who had HIV/AIDS – no one knew the treatment, no one knew how it was spread.”
And that lack of understanding spread fear. “Our staff, our kitchen staff, our laundry staff, the nurses – their families would say, ‘Don’t come home during the week, or Lysol [disinfect] yourself before you do’. It affected every single person in the hospital. It turned the hospital around because we didn’t know what it was or how to fix it.”
Former CEO of St Vincent’s Professor Anthony Schembri was a young social worker at the time. “Somebody had died,” Sister Clare recalls. “Anthony was very upset, he was crying. He said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. Why are we doing this?’ Sister Margaret Mines, the pastoral care worker, told him, ‘We’re here to do the hard stuff. That is what St Vincent’s is all about. We’re not here to judge, we’re here to make this as comfortable a journey as possible for these men.’ Our attitude was one of loving the person with no condemnation. It was as simple as that.”
The Sisters of Charity have been doing the hard stuff here since 1838. The order was founded in Ireland by Mary Aikenhead, who opened an orphanage in Dublin in 1815, then extended her ministry to visiting women in Kilmainham prison and starting a school. Confined to a wheelchair because of a spinal disease, Mary opened a convent and cared for the ill and dying during the cholera epidemic of 1832. In 1834, she established St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, naming it after St Vincent de Paul, who three centuries earlier had dedicated his life to the poor.
In 1838 five Sisters of Charity volunteered to travel to the penal colony in New South Wales. Wearing their long black habits, they arrived at Sydney Cove in the stifling summer heat on December 31, and immediately established their first ministry, in the female prison at Parramatta.
“They were in prison for silly things,” says Sister Clare, “and treated abominably. They were dressed in grey clothes. So the first thing these nuns did was sew nice colourful clothes for them.”
In 1857, the nuns moved to Potts Point and established St Vincent’s Hospital.
Almost a century later, as word spread about their compassion and care for men with HIV/AIDS, very ill patients began arriving at Ward 17 South from all over the world. There were drag queens, leather men, dance boys, party boys. Ward 17 South never minded when visitors dropped by at midnight and had a party.
Yet there were never enough beds. And often the patients had been shunned by family and friends.
“Usually the dads found it harder than the mums,” Sister Clare says. Some men had never told their parents they were gay, or had never told their wives that they were having relationships with men.
The nuns prayed and prayed for one young man who was dying. All he wanted was for his father to meet his partner, but his dad just couldn’t do it. Then, one day the roster got “mucked up” and the dad and partner accidentally met over the bed.
“This fellow who could hardly lift his hands, he was so sick, put his arm around his partner and his arm around his dad, and he died two hours later,” Sister Clare explains.
She also remembers “this beautiful man” from New Zealand, who she met in the early days of the epidemic, when no one knew what was safe. No airline would take him back to New Zealand. It was Christmas Day and he was alone. Sister Clare took him a bottle of champagne and shared a polystyrene cup with him. “He said, ‘I hope it’s safe, Sister.’ And I said, ‘Who cares?’ He was more worried about me. Back then, everyone thought you could get AIDS by touching someone.”
The hospital’s specialists were working around the clock to understand the disease and find a cure. “The doctors would set up clinical trials. You had these young men apologising to the doctors because it hadn’t worked and they were dying,” Sister Clare remembers.
David Polson is a medical miracle. He was one of the first 400 diagnosed with HIV in Australia. He was admitted to Ward 17 South in 1992.
“From then on, it was almost my permanent home,” he tells The Weekly. “I was in and out all the time. The next 23 years were pure hell. I lived with nausea for all those years.”
When he was told he had HIV/AIDS, “I felt as if I was falling down a big, black, bottomless pit,” he recalls. “These dreadful thoughts were going through my head. Disbelief, suffocating terror. It was just dropping down this big, black hole. And, in the next breath, it was ‘don’t tell anyone’. They did that for our own safety because, at that time, the hatred and fear were so intense.”
David decided to fight for his life. He volunteered for every trial going.
“There was this thought at the back of my mind that just said, ‘No, you are not going to die. This is not going to kill you’.”
He undertook 28 drug trials in all. Some of them failed spectacularly and the drugs were riddled with side-effects. “They were awful, just dreadful,” he explains.
He so desperately wanted the drugs to work. “Of course I did. But I also said to David [pioneering researcher and inaugural Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Special Unit in AIDS Epidemiology, Professor David Cooper], ‘If these drugs don’t work for me and you’ve got data there that can help someone else … ’ We knew it was a 50/50 thing.”
David never gave up. “A lot of those poor boys were told they had AIDS and just went out and died. They accepted it. I never accepted it. I refused to. I was always optimistic.”
He remembers going to visit his best friend, Dr Brett Tindall, who was Professor Cooper’s colleague in Ward 17 South. “They put him in a private room at the end. That meant I had to walk all the way down the ward. And as I walked down the corridor past those rooms, in every bed there was someone I knew – either a friend or a colleague I’d worked with who was sick and dying. That was one of the blackest days because, for the first time, I didn’t know how to cope.”
Dr Tindall died of AIDS in 1994. “He used to keep me updated on the research and what was happening. In the early days there was nothing happening so he couldn’t tell me anything.”
But slowly, that changed. Treatments were developed in Australia and around the world, many of them as a result of the research undertaken at St Vincent’s and the courage of volunteers like David.
In the intervening years, David has been an outspoken advocate for people with HIV/AIDS and for the LGBTQI+ community generally. He is founding chair of Qtopia, a museum charting the history of the queer community in Australia, which includes a very special tribute to Ward 17 South.
Meanwhile, David and Sister Clare have become lifelong friends, and he is still grateful for the care he received at St Vincent’s.
Ward 17 South, he says, was “a haven. We were obviously very, very sick. But I called it a haven because you’d go in there and you’d feel the love. I know that sounds wanky but it’s not. It was pure love in that place. From the sisters, from the nurses, from the cleaning staff, the doctors, the administrators. It was love and caring. And it was such a safe place to be. I didn’t like being there, but I loved them.”
David was 29 years old when he was diagnosed. He has just turned 70.
“I really am happy to be here,” he says. “I am truly blessed.”
Keep the news coming! Whether it’s special news from an Alumni, reunion updates or something you would like to see featured in our Alumni newsletter – we’d love to hear from you! Email: [email protected]
Year 12 Mother-Daughter Garden Party
We were blessed with glorious weather on the Convent Lawn as our Year 12 students and their mothers/caregivers celebrated at our annual Year 12 Mother-Daughter Garden Party, hosted in partnership with the MSM Alumni. This traditional event provides an opportunity for the College to bestow well wishes on our Year 12 cohort as they prepare for their final assessments and impending Graduation, and to remind them that their connection to the College continues beyond graduation through the MSM Alumni. Thank you to our wonderful Senior Strings who played so beautifully throughout the afternoon. A special thank you to MSM Alumni Executive, Anne O’Keeffe (President) and Kate Taylor (Secretary) and MSM Alumni, Ciara Morgan (Class of 2018) for their presence and support of the event.
It was a pleasure to capture a photo of current MSM Mothers, who are Alumni of the College at the annual MSM P&F Mothers’ Lunch held at Rydges Southbank.
The College welcomed MSM Alumni to the Vintage 50+ Reunion, a special event that brought together alumni who graduated over fifty years ago. The day began with a warm welcome and a tour of the campus. The tour provided a wonderful opportunity to see how the College has grown and evolved, sparking many memories and stories. This was followed by a delightful lunch where old friends reconnected and reminisced about their time at MSM. Adding to the charm of the event the talented String Quartet performed an enchanting selection of music, creating a beautiful and nostalgic atmosphere. The reunion was a heartwarming celebration of the College’s rich history, and the enduring bonds formed within its community. It was a day of joy, reflection, and renewed friendships, leaving everyone with cherished memories and a sense of belonging.
We were delighted to capture this photo of the joint dux of 1966. Pictured left to right Lesley Hooper (nee Courtman) and Dianne O’Brien (nee Harison)
The Class of 2004 gathered at The Woods Bar in Mitchelton to celebrate their 20-year milestone. The venue buzzed with excitement as old friends reconnected, sharing stories from their school days and catching up on the past two decades. The atmosphere was inviting, with laughter and heartfelt conversations filling the air.
The Class of 2014 celebrated their 10-year reunion at the Osbourne Hotel with a night filled with nostalgia and laughter. Attendees reflected on the past decade, reminiscing, sharing memories, and catching up on each other’s lives. It was a memorable evening that strengthened old bonds and created new memories.
Milestone Reunions in 2025
If you graduated in 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 or 2015 you are celebrating a decade-milestone in 2025 - our Centenary year! Join us on Saturday 22 March 2025 for our 'Back to MSM' Reunion Day from 3-5pm in the Sophia Centre, MSM. Bookings essential.
Reunions are a fantastic way to reconnect with your Mt St Michael’s College classmates. When was the last time you made your way back to Mt St Michael’s College? Last year? Last decade? Not since graduation? Although your school years may be far behind, the friendships that began at MSM still remain, or are waiting to be rediscovered.
Stay up-to-date with details of this special celebration. Join the MSM Alumni community: https://www.facebook.com/MtStMichaelsCollegeAlumni
We warmly invite you to join us at our Alumni meetings held at 6pm in the Chapel, Mary Aikenhead Building, MSM.
Please visit the College website for a list of 2025 meeting dates.
2025 Student Leadership Team
Introducing our 2025 College Student Leadership Team.
College Captains: Ava and Ellen
Academic Captains: Lucy and Sarah
Cultural Captains: Max and Lily
Mission Captains: Tully and Sophia
Sports Captains: Abigail and Aisling
Aikenhead House: Finlay
Grantuly House: Georgia
Rush House: Hannah
Stewart House: Ella
We congratulate these students and wish them all the best in their leadership roles.
MSM Sports Celebration Breakfast
The MSM sports community gathered in the Sophia Centre to celebrate a truly remarkable year in sport. In their respective addresses, Principal, Ms Sharon Volp and Director of Sport, Mrs Kay Roy spoke of the research and correlation behind women who play sport and women who lead. Throughout the morning, students were recognised for their outstanding achievements across various sports. Both individual and team successes were highlighted in front of proud parents and peers, fostering a spirit of camaraderie and pride. A heartfelt thank you goes to our special guest, Australian Olympic Swimmer and MSM Alumni, Meg Harris. It was a true honour to have Meg back to the College to share her incredible journey. Meg’s words were both motivational and enriching, adding a special element to our event.
The College community gathered for MSM Celebrates - an evening that recognises the outstanding achievements and excellence of students from Years 7 - 12 in all facets of our College life including, academic, sporting, cultural and service. The evening was a wonderful celebration with MSM students taking centre stage, exemplifying the unwavering spirit of excellence that permeates MSM.
The MSM community celebrated the Class of 2024 at our Graduation Assembly, themed around Taylor Swift's Eras. We honored the Year 12 cohort for their impactful contributions and the wonderful legacy they leave behind.
(Philippians 4:8-9).
.”Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me – put it in to practice. And the God of peace will be with you“.
Every member of the Mt St Michael’s community, past and present is invited to purchase a heart on our Light the Wall Legacy Wall and help us light the way for future generations.
Our Light the Way wall will proudly recognise past or present students, celebrate a graduate, commemorate your family or a loved one and leave a legacy for years to come. This beautiful art installation will remind us that the future is bright at MSM.
All heart purchases are a tax-deductible donation to the Mt St Michael’s College Foundation and the funds will be used to support the continued advancement of buildings for future generations of the College.
Click here to secure a permanent spot on our Light the Way Legacy Wall.
Don't forget to spread the word to fellow MSM Alumni. Forward our Keep in Touch form to an Alumni friend!
2025
Year 5 - Waitlist closed.
Year 7 – Waitlist closed.
2026
Year 5 – Accepting applications. APPLY NOW
Year 7 – Waitlist Closed. Waitlist applications will be reviewed mid 2024.
2027
Year 5 – Accepting applications. APPLY NOW
Year 7 – Applications closed.
2028 and beyond
Year 5 & 7 - Accepting Applications. APPLY NOW
Incorporation Number: IA34417
Our mailing address is:
Mt St Michael's College Alumni Inc
Mt St Michael's College
67 Elimatta Drive
Ashgrove, QLD 4060
Australia
