Work Party 2024

This year the College celebrated 60 years since the first Work Party was organised by College Founder, Rev Dr Fred McKay. It was marked by a dinner and singalong with the great bush balladeer Chris Tudor. Part of the celebrations involved a special Sunday service in the Swag Chapel and below is the Sermon delivered by College Historian John Lamont.

“WORK PARTY TALK SUNDAY JULY 23rd/2024

Today we celebrate 60 years of the Work Party tradition at St Philip’s College and while there has not been a Work Party here every year in those 60 years there has been at least 50 here in that time. That’s pretty amazing, and when you consider the numerous work parties that came up during the 1950’s to work on Griffiths House, (the forerunner to St Philip’s), you get some idea of how much has been contributed by the expertise and labour of volunteers. The first Work Party here at St Philip’s goes right back to when Fred McKay organised almost 300 people from all round Australia to come here over a three-month period in the second half of 1964 to help get the College up and running.

Of course, they didn’t all come at once but in five separate groups and if they hadn’t come, I don’t know how the College would have begun in 1965. All there was here were two buildings, the principal’s house which stood out like a pimple on a pumpkin and the swimming pool. It was very basic and in those days, it should be remembered there was no heating or cooling, and those first students and for a number of years after really did it tough. Kids would come down from the dormitories in the summer and sleep by the pool.

The first Work Party in 1964 removed 50 tons of rubble from the building site, quarried stone to help pave the driveways including the construction of a causeway across the Charles River, erected fencing, made curtains for the dormitories, broke up anthills to use in the laying of the tennis courts, carried out landscaping and dug a massive storm water drain 300 metres in length from up near the chapel right down to the river. It was a bricked in drain not just a trench! They planted lawns, erected rotary clothes lines…. ….cleaned and polished, laid hundreds and hundreds of metres of water pipes to the bore where water had just been discovered (during Work Party 2), graded the oval and then planted it with kikuyu grass.

Subsequent work parties from the Geelong and Wimmera areas continued throughout the 60’s during Bert Bell’s tenure as principal and contributed greatly to the maintenance and the gradual “greening” of the College. But none of them as I understand it came at the height of summer as did a number of the groups that came during the 1970’s. Yes late December and January. Starting work folks…and get this…starting work at the crack of dawn and working till 1pm. Chris Tudor’s late wife Jill was on one of those parties. Thank goodness for the swimming pool I say. (I have since discovered that Ewan, who is here on this Work Party, came with a group during the summer of 1965/66). On another occasion in the early 1980’s a group from East Doncaster in Victoria got stuck here for an extra two weeks when heavy rain in mid- January caused massive floods cutting the road and the Ghan rail line.

One really big work party that came during this period ….although they didn’t come in summer…was the 1978 work party from Horsham Uniting Church. And it began a tradition for two of the people on that party, who after they retired later, would come on a further seven work party’s including being here 10 years ago at the 50th anniversary. I am talking about Clem and Margaret Dickenson. Sadly, Rev Clem Dickenson, who was one of the giants of the Uniting Church, died just two weeks ago his funeral being only a week ago in Melbourne. There were 45 in that group, and they rattled up the unsealed south road with its severe corrugations in a bus bringing their own food and cooks.

The work party from Greensborough Uniting Church that came in 1992 under the leadership of Brian and Val Willis began a tradition of work parties every year, bar one year during COVID I think, that has continued ever since. That’s more than 30 years continuously. Quite amazing commitment! Brian managed to liaise with Dulux Paints that year for a donation of 990 litres of paint to be delivered. Are you topping that this year Graham? It was from then on that the College provided meals and accommodation for the volunteers. Brian recruited lots of tradies who had retired, but it required special skills to clean the air coolers…”the swampies” every year. There were 33 cleaned in 1997 and of course by this stage the school, which had begun in 1989, had grown in size and that same year 486 lockers were repaired, under-coated and re-painted. Awesome really!

Ill health slowed up Brain and Val and in 2004 David and Margery Pettingill took up the leadership and by my reckoning they led pretty much until 2021 (nearly 20 years in all). Geoff and Val Kirkham helped out with leadership on occasions too. 2021 was the year you remember very well Margery when you couldn’t get COVID clearance as the tests were sent to Perth and the results took days to come back. That was the year Alice Springs went into total COVID lock-down for three days and Sarah Pollitt's daughter Laura had to change the day of her wedding. Incidentally Joe you were first listed on the 2004 work party and many of you here today have along with Joe been on many if not all those subsequent work parties. Bennos Cousins (Hull) for example who was here in 2021 had been on the original, second and third work parties in 1964 and there is a photo of her with Maureen and Margery in the official history of the College at that 2021 Work Party.

One further thing needs to be said. Under Brian and David’s leadership over the years it wasn’t just St Philip’s you came to work at. No, you organised work parties right across the country…Cape York, Katherine, Darwin, Tennant, Mareeba, Mt Isa, Kununurra, Wyndham, Lake Tyers and Amata in the APY Lands. An incredible contribution over many years! The two weeks you folk have given every year over 60 years has added up to millions of dollars of work that has been contributed voluntarily. It really can’t be measured in dollar terms. I mean Jim and Maureen, who are now here on their twentieth work party, have now totaled up 40 weeks which is almost a year’s labour….how much is that in dollar terms?) The College farewelled two Gap year students from the UK on Friday and the applause those two young men received at the final assembly for the semester almost took the roof off the Minnamurra Hall… Billy who was here a year and Tim 6 months and the contribution they made here made a huge impression. Kids get wide eyed these days when you talk of doing work for nothing. Take a bow yourselves…you are in a similar league!”

Part of the Work Party duties for 2024 were

Replacing and repairing over 470 taps and cisterns
Replacing and repairing all external lights and exit lights
Setting up the new archive facility in the Maintenance Shed
Planting and putting in irrigation in the new Discovery Centre
Landscaping around parts of the new Discovery Centre
Replacing fluoro’s in the App Tech to LED.
Renovating and painting rooms in App Tech area
GBH curtain repair and replacement.
Sanding and oiling Fred Shed deck, outdoor chairs, outdoor lattice around Chris Tudor Science Centre.
Repainting Paul Bailey’s paint job on the Year 12 Fence
Assisting with the erection of the Chicken Palace in the Sustainability Centre
Painting external area outside The Minnamurra Hall including the toilet block.
Painting poles, handrails in around the college.

And various other jobs.

A special thankyou to the Maintenance Crew for assisting them with their duties.