PRINCIPAL REPORT

From the College Principal

Dear Parents and Friends,

You will be aware that, this year, we changed the names of our school houses. We did this for two main reasons. Firstly, because we felt the previous names were no longer particularly representative of the diversity of the society we live in, and secondly, because we wanted the people our houses are named after to represent the school values.

One of our houses, Kirby, is named after retired Supreme Court justice Michael Kirby. In selecting Kirby as a house name, we knew of his great service to the Australian people, his passionate support, and prosecution, of human rights, and of course, the fact that he is one of Australia’s most high-profile gay men.

He appeared as a guest on Anh Do’s Brush With Fame television show this week. If you would like to better understand the man who’s name graces one of our houses, it is available to view on ABC iView.

I, personally, found it quite inspirational. From his core philosophy for life, handed to him from his father which says, we’ve always got to make the future better than the past, to the fact that his partner of 40 years had to remove all the photographs of himself from the house he shared with Kirby before Kirby could invite guests from the legal profession there, and to the fact he came out as a gay man to benefit the lives of younger gay people, illustrated his brilliance, the hardships of growing up as a gay man in the 1960’s and 70’s, and his compassion. To me, the most powerful words he uttered in the show were, ”Sexual orientation and gender identity is just part of the miraculous variety of human beings.” 

If you want to view an uplifting and inspirational program about a great Australian, I commend the show to you.

Yours sincerely, 

Richard Minack 

Principal