Old Lauristonians' Association (OLA)

Warmest congratulations to Chloe Dallimore AM (1992) on being made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the performing arts, particularly as a performer.

An award-winning musical theatre performer, Chloe is also an activist, unionist, director, and choreographer.  Chloe is a leading actor of Australia’s musical theatre stage. She is best known as Ulla in The Producer for which she won the Helpmann Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical and she has also performed in Chicago, Annie, The Wizard of Oz, and Oliver!

She has won awards that include the: Helpmann Award – Winner, Best Female Actor in a Musical – Role: Ulla. The Producer 2005; the GreenRoom- Winner, Female Artist in a Lead Role – Role: Ulla, The Producers 2005; Sydney Theatre Award – Winner, Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Role: Ulla. The Producers 2005; MO Awards – Winner, Female Musical Theatre Performer – Role: Ulla, The Producers 2004; and the Australian Dance Award – Winner, Outstanding Performance in a Stage Musical – Role: Ulla, The Producers 2004.  In 2013 Chloe was nominated once again in the Helpmann Awards for Best Female Actor in a Musical:  The Addams Family.

Chloe left Lauriston at the end of Year 8 and after winning a Cameron Mackintosh scholarship, moved to London at 17 where she undertook a BA in performing arts at the London Studio Centre.

On behalf of all Old Lauristonians worldwide, her cohort from 1992, and the school, we send our very best wishes and congratulations to Chloe for this most prestigious award.

Together with the Class of 1978, Lauriston Girls’ School is proud to congratulate Old Lauristonian Anne Hooker who has been awarded a Medal of the Order in the General Division for service to the community, particularly to youth, in the recent Australia Day Honours Awards.

Anne has been dedicated to young people throughout her career as a Court Counsellor and Probation Officer, Community Corrections Officer and for the last 23 years as a Youth Development Officer within the prison system.  Her role involves the responsibility for the design and facilitation of a young offenders unit within a prison facility, that includes developing and implementing programs that target the developmental needs of young offenders.

She has helped design and has implemented an educational small business program called ‘Doin Time’ where all profits are donated to charity.  Anne also designed and implemented an educational DVD called ‘Stories from the Inside’.

In 2007 Anne was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study programs for young male offenders in prisons where she travelled to Amsterdam, UK, New York and Vancouver.  She visited 26 prisons including 3 youth prisons and 4 community organisations.  Anne experienced first-hand, the latest development in rehabilitation for young offenders and was able to compare Australia’s programs to the rest of the world.

In 2010 Anne was listed in The Age as one of the 100 Most Influential People, and in 2014 she received the Inspirational Women Award issued by Hobson Bay City Council.  In 2014 Anne was the recipient of the ICPA Outstanding Correctional Service Employee at the Correctional Excellence Awards.

Anne is testament to Old Lauristonians all over the world who are impacting society and supporting those who are vulnerable.
 

Lauriston Girls’ School is very proud to congratulate Jennifer Hocking who has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to the preservation of Australian political history".

Jenny is an award-winning author, Emeritus Professor at Monash University, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and inaugural Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute, Western Sydney University. She is the author of numerous books including the acclaimed two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam, short-listed for several major literary awards including the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, The Age Book of the Year and the National Biography Award, and winner of the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Barbara Ramsden Award.

During her research into the life of Gough Whitlam, Jenny uncovered significant new material on the role of High Court justice Sir Anthony Mason in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. This has been described as "a discovery of historical importance".

Jenny has been influenced throughout her life by her father, Dr Frederick Hocking, a psychiatrist who treated survivors of long-term trauma, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, and her mother, Barbara Hocking, who was the first barrister briefed in the Mabo case in 1992. Jenny’s mother, Barbara Hocking (Browning, 1945) and her grandmother Joyce also attended Lauriston.

Jenny attended Lauriston with her sisters Barbara Hocking (1968), and world-renowned ABC Journalist Jillian Hocking (1976) who passed away in 2017. After graduating at Lauriston, Jenny went to Monash University where she graduated with both a Bachelor of Science and subsequently a Bachelor of Economics. Jenny holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney which examined the establishment of Australia’s counter terrorism framework and was published as Beyond Terrorism: The Development of the Australian Security State in 1993.

Together with her partner Daryl Dellora, they formed the film production company Film Art Doco and have co-scripted several award-winning documentaries including Against the Innocent (1988) and Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator (1991) – the latter, dealing with the former High Court justice and Attorney-General Lionel Murphy about whom Jenny also wrote a biography, Lionel Murphy: A Political Biography, published by Cambridge University Press. Since 2001 Jenny has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lionel Murphy Foundation and a National Committee member of the Australian Republic Movement 2020-2022.

In 2016 Jenny Hocking commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against the National Archives of Australia seeking the release of secret correspondence between the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen regarding the dismissal of the Whitlam government. These 'Palace letters' were held by the Archives and were under the embargo of the Queen, potentially indefinitely. The case was unsuccessful in the Federal Court and in February 2019 an appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court was rejected by a majority. However, in May 2020 Hocking's appeal to the High Court succeeded: in an emphatic 6:1 decision the High Court found that the Palace letters are "Commonwealth records" (not personal property) and instructed the Director-General of the National Archives to reconsider Hocking's request for access to the letters, as well as to pay all of Hocking's considerable legal costs. The letters were released in full and online on 14 July 2020.

Professor Hocking’s latest book The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam tells the story of this remarkable archival research journey and legal battle to secure the release of the Palace letters, and their impact on the history of the dismissal of the Whitlam government. It was published in November 2020 with a foreword by former Prime Minister the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull and has been described as ‘a political thriller’, an ‘absorbing courtroom drama’, and ‘vital Australian history’. The Palace Letters was awarded a Special Commendation in the 2020 Henry Mayer Award for best book on Australian politics, and a Commendation in the Mander Jones Awards.
Her works include:

Beyond Terrorism: The Development of the Australian Security State, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993,
Lionel Murphy: A Political Biography, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2000
Terror Laws: ASIO, Counter-terrorism and the Threat to Democracy, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2004.
Frank Hardy: Politics, Literature, Life, Melbourne: Lothian Books, 2005
Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History, Melbourne University Publishing/Miegunyah Press: Melbourne, 2008
Gough Whitlam: His Time, Melbourne University Publishing/Miegunyah Press: Melbourne, 2012
The Dismissal Dossier: Everything you were never meant to know about November 1975, Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2015.
The Palace Letters: The Queen, the Governor-General, and the Plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam, Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2020
 

Lauriston Girls’ School is bursting with pride for Shira Sebban (Moldofsky, 1980) who has been awarded a Medal (OAM) in the General Division for service to the Jewish community through a range of roles, as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Shira did not expect to be honoured. She told us: “I always say that I am a full-time volunteer, and when I do something, I give my whole heart. While it is lovely to be honoured, I would  be doing this work regardless."

Based in Sydney, Shira is a registered community migration agent and writer, who works pro bono for Human Rights For All, a law firm that supports asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people, particularly those in long term detention.
She also serves as a Holocaust and human rights guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum, with the aim of combining lessons learned from Jewish history and notably the Holocaust with her passion for social justice, and is a member of Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney (SASS).

Mother to three sons, Shira served on the board of Emanuel School for 14 years, including three terms as vice-president. A former journalist, she previously worked in publishing and taught French to university students while undertaking post-graduate research.

In her writing, Shira focuses on the challenges which life throws at us, Her first book, “Unlocking the Past: Stories from my Mother’s Diary“, is a series of creative non-fiction short stories about Israel in the 1950s, based on her mother’s diary, which was only discovered after her passing.

Shira is currently completing her second book, "Bridging Borders", a non-fiction account of how several volunteer advocates from around the world worked to support a group of Vietnamese refugee families on their journey to freedom. 

Her articles have appeared in online and print publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Biostories, The Australian Jewish News, Independent Australia, New Matilda, Eureka Street, Jewish Literary Journal, The Forward, Alzheimer ’s Reading Room, and Online Opinion.

Shira is also very close to her cohort and we know that her friends from the Class of 1980 will be so thrilled that she has been honoured.

Professor Clare Scott (Wells, 1982) has been awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to gynaecological oncology, as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Professor Clare Scott holds the Chair in Gynaecological Cancer at the University of Melbourne and is Joint Division Head of Clinical Translation and a Laboratory Head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Royal Women’s, and Royal Melbourne Hospitals. She has 25 years’ experience in clinical cancer genetics, including working in Familial Cancer Clinics. Her clinical expertise is in gynaecological cancers and coordinating care for patients with rare cancers. Her laboratory focuses on drug resistance in ovarian cancer and other rare cancer types, generating patient-specific models to understand and avert resistance to targeted therapeutics. In particular, she has been a leader in developing PARP inhibitor therapy for ovarian cancer, which has resulted in unprecedented efficacy.
 
Professor Scott chairs the COSA Rare Cancer group and the Board of the International Rare Cancer Initiative (IRCI) and has been awarded Clinical Fellowships from the Victorian Cancer Agency (2011, 2017), the Sir Edward Dunlop Cancer Research Fellowship from the Cancer Council Victoria (2012) and in 2018, the Jeannie Ferris Recognition Award in Gynaecological Cancer from Cancer Australia. In 2021, she was awarded the MOGA Novartis Oncology Cancer Achievement Award. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
 

The school is very proud that Sarah Stephen (1971) received a Public Service Medal (PSM) at the Australia Day Awards in January.  The Public Service Medal was awarded to Sarah for outstanding public service to strategic policy reform and delivery in Victoria, particularly in the areas of climate change and energy.  

Sarah attended her 50 Year Reunion in December last year, which was part of the Inaugural Lauriston Luncheon at Leonda. Sarah thoroughly enjoyed catching up and reconnecting with her friends from the Class of 1971 at this wonderful occasion.

Congratulations Sarah, on this fabulous acknowledgement.

Following the Australia Day Awards, we were excited to advise our community that Jess Morrison (2010) received the Order of Australia Medal in the General Division for service to sport after winning GOLD at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020.

Jess's achievements and the journey she has embarked on after leaving Lauriston has ignited so much interest in the students and the wider Lauriston community across the globe. 

It was very exciting last year to witness Jess’s fabulous win last year as part of the Women’s Coxless Four at the Tokyo Olympics, and the community also enjoyed reading Jess's story in the January edition of Lauriston Life.  All activities last year in celebration of Jess’s win continued to deepen her connection with her School.   

We thank Jess for being the most wonderful role model to so many.  Her dedication and hard work will inspire the next generation of athletes who walk through the Huntingtower gates.

Congratulations Jess!

Lauriston Girls' School and the Old Lauristonians' Association are proud to acknowledge that Erika Feller AO (1966) received an Order of Australia in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours List, for distinguished service to the international community, to the recognition and protection of human rights, and to refugee law.

Erika Feller is Vice Chancellor's Fellow at The University of Melbourne. From 2005 to April 2013 Ms Feller held the post of Assistant High Commissioner (Protection), one of the four top management positions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This was the culmination of a 26-year long career with UNHCR and had been preceded by 14 years service as an Australian diplomat, in Canberra and overseas.

For UNHCR, Erika served both in Geneva and in the field. She was the initiator and manager of the 2001-2 Global Consultations on International Protection, which generated the Agenda for Protection, the internationally endorsed global "road map" on protection policy for refugees. She has visited all major refugee situations during her time with UNHCR and is broadly respected as a refugee law advocate who has been widely published. She was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

Lauriston Girls' School and the Old Lauristonians' Association are proud to announce that a Medal of the Order of Australia was posthumously awarded to past student Mary Chandler OAM (1953) in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours List, for service to the community of Red Cliffs.

On reading the tributes posted online of Mary's contribution to her district and the wider Mildura community, she will be missed by many throughout the region, and we are so pleased for Mary's family and friends, that she now receives this esteemed recognition.  Apart from a wonderful friend and community member, Mary was also an author, historian, gardener, naturalist, actor and advocate.  

Lauriston Girls' School and the Old Lauristonians' Association are proud to announce that Jan Armstrong-Conn OAM (1963) received a Medal of the Order of Australia in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours List, for the service to the community through a range of organisations:

University of Melbourne Social Work Alumni Association

• Executive Member, 2006-2018.
• Member, Local Organising Committee, Joint World Conference on Social Work Education, 2014.

The University of Melbourne

• President and Committee Member, Friends of the Key Centre, Key Centre for Women's Health, 1993-1997.

Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (RCH)

•      Volunteer, Genetic Health Services Victoria, 2004-2005.
•      Board Member, RCH Foundation, 1980s-1990s.
•      Vice President, RCH Auxiliary Committee, 1980s.
•      Secretary, Lilian Frank Special Events Committee, 1980s.

Current Community Service

•      Co Re-Founding Member and Secretary, Melbourne South Yarra Residents Group Inc, since 2010.
•      Founding Convenor, Pasley Streets Precinct Group.
•      Founder and Secretary, South Yarra Readers' Book Club, since late 1980s.

Previous Community Service

•      President, Friends of Grammar, Melbourne Grammar School,1980s.
•      Supporter, Taralye Language Centre for Deaf Children, since 1980s.
•      Inaugural Member, Middle Park Primary School Council, 1980-1982.
•      Volunteer, Australian Breastfeeding Association (formerly Nursing Mothers' Association), 1970s.

The Lauriston community is excited to congratulate much respected past staff member Jeanette Gunn, who was recently awarded an AM for significant service to water polo at the elite level. 

Jeannette was manager of the Australian women’s water polo team that won gold at the Sydney Olympics, was a maths teacher and was instrumental in the introduction of Water Polo at Lauriston Girls' School. 

Jeanette was a valued member of the teaching staff at Lauriston for over 20 years, and we were delighted to invite Jeanette back to School in February to be part of the 120th Anniversary celebrations at Founders' Day.

On behalf of the entire Lauriston community, we would like to acknowledge Dr Alison Scott Inglis AM (1976) who was recently made a Member of The Order of Australia for significant service to education, and to the museum and galleries sector.

Alison is an honorary life member of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, an Associate Professor in Art History at the University of Melbourne and she has coordinated and lectured the Master of Art Curatorship Program at the university since 1995.

Alison has been director of Museums Victoria since 2015 and has been an Emeritus Trustee for the National Gallery of Victoria since 2010.

Alison was made an honorary life member of the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association in 2014 and was director of Heide Museum of Modern Art from 2005 to 2015.

On behalf of the Lauriston community, we congratulate Alison, another remarkable Old Lauristonian on this significant achievement.

The Lauriston Foundation was established in 1984 to help provide Lauriston students with the facilities and programs they need to achieve their potential. Since its creation, the Foundation has raised more than $10m which has helped fund important projects including the swimming pool (1989), the Howqua campus (1993), the Science & Resource Centre (2000) and the FabLearn Lab (2014).

Old Lauristonians have been involved with the Lauriston Foundation since its inception. There are currently three Old Lauristonians on the Foundation Board – Jane Freemantle OAM (Mason, 1966), Vicki Redwood (Canning, 1971) and Elise Gillespie (1999). All three are committed to ensuring that Lauriston students have access to world-class facilities and to helping provide scholarships to enable deserving young girls to experience a Lauriston education.

Jane Freemantle OAM (Mason, 1966)

Although Jane joined the Foundation Board in 2019, it is actually the second time she has been involved with the Foundation; in the late 80s, she chaired the Lauriston Foundation committee that ran a highly successful dinner auction fundraiser to build the swimming pool.

Jane spent all her school years at Lauriston, and credits her Lauriston experience with providing her with the skills to take on life’s challenges with grace, the courage to face adversity, the strength to stand up for others less fortunate, and the confidence to take bold and educated risks in her research activities.

Jane holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from the University of Western Australia.

Vicki Redwood (Canning, 1971)

Vicki has been a member of the Foundation Board since 2007. She has been heavily involved with the Old Lauristonians’ Association for many years, including 11 years as OLA President.

Vicki, who started at Lauriston in Year 6, loved everything about school – drama, music, sport and even ‘work’. She remembers Lauriston purchasing a ski lodge in the late 60s, enabling girls to take hikes and participate in winter activities, which was unusual for a girls’ school. In her final year she became School Captain.

After graduating from Lauriston Vicki studied Engineering at Melbourne University before moving into the fledgling Data Processing industry. She remains in the IT industry, architecting solutions for large government departments and global organisations.

Elise Gillespie (1999)

Elise joined the Foundation Board in late 2018.

Elise studied at Lauriston from 1989 to 1999, and has strong memories of her time at Lauriston. She credits her time at Howqua, where she developed a sense of adventure and excitement, personal resilience, and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone, as a key factor underpinning many of her personal and career choices. She also remembers many hours spent in the pool playing water polo and swimming.

After completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne, Elise and her husband spent a number of years based in North America expanding her family business, Bakers Delight, which trades as COBS Bread in Canada and the USA. Elise and her husband, Dave Christie have been the Joint CEOs of Bakers Delight since January 2017.

Jordyn Chodziesner is a first-year Project Firefighter. Here she tells us what it was like working to protect communities and assets when the fires hit so close to home.
 

"I wanted to do this work first and foremost because I wanted to spend a summer near where I grew up in Marlo in East Gippsland and be close to my family, and to spend some time up there in that incredible country and get out in the environment.

I’ve been studying environmental science for the past couple of years and I thought this would be an awesome opportunity to learn a lot and I’d heard that this particular job was going to give me a lot of life skills.

Also, anyone who’s ever lived in or near a country town knows there’s just an awesome sense of camaraderie, everyone comes together and I really wanted to experience that over a summer.

I’ve lived in the hustle and bustle of the city for a while and I just wanted to get away and experience something different. So I guess that’s what drew me in.

Rewarding job

I didn’t know fully what I was getting myself into until I got there and it’s honestly been extremely tough but probably the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.

I’ve learned things like how to use a chainsaw, how to four-wheel drive, fire behaviour, mapping skills, all sorts of different things.

I’ve also got to go to places that are literally untouched: bush that’s never been trekked through before, so it’s really awesome to have that opportunity and I think that’s a massive drawcard for me.

The fires in Gippsland started back in November on the day of my induction. We got to work and the fire alarms were going and our crew was sent out.

From then on, the fires were pretty much up in the bush for a solid month, then with those big spike days in January they started to move closer to communities and houses.

There were a couple of those days when we were worried about our own house. Just before new year we had a wall of fire surrounding us in Marlo, not within 20km of us at that point but it was scary knowing that the wind was pushing it towards us.

Often, it’s not the wall of fire that’s coming towards you, it’s the embers that get thrown up and fire creates its own weather so we were worried about embers falling on our house and starting new fires elsewhere.

Cape Conran fire

We had a fire east of Marlo that impacted my favourite beach at Salmon Rocks in Cape Conran, which was heartbreaking to see.

A few other assets were lost too, including a couple of holiday cabins but we managed to contain it before it reached Marlo. We were really lucky that it didn’t impact Marlo directly.

There’s so much that we deal with every day and that we get involved with as FFMVic firefighters. It’s really tough to understand that fire has such a negative impact on communities with such prolonged trauma. I had to help evacuate my grandma, we had our animals that we couldn’t relocate because the roads were blocked.

We cut off our horses’ manes to try and protect them that way and as the fires got closer there were quite a few people that work with me who lost their homes. One family that I’m quite close to lost their home in Sarsfield and relocated to their beach house near Cape Conran and then within a matter of weeks they were protecting that, hoping it wasn’t going to burn down as well.

Communities stoic

It’s heartbreaking but people are so positive about it. They grieve and then they keep going. It’s been so tough and I finally understand how much impact fires have on communities.

People are just so exhausted. They spend days and days trying to protect their homes, watering down the outside, making sure no embers are falling.

When you’re living in a community that’s so close, everyone’s worried about each other. It’s a hard stress for a really long period of time. I think it’s just been one thing after another.

It's hard working in those communities because you know a lot of people who have been affected. When you go to work you know people who have lost their homes or have had to evacuate. It’s been really tough but I know we can all come back from this."

This article was taken from a podcast Jordyn was part of, earlier this year. Listen to it here -https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kic-pod/id1457667995?i=1000465949410

 

 

Brooke Staughton is currently in training to attend the International Cheerleading World Championships at the end of April this year. Brooke began cheerleading after graduation when first commencing at Deakin University. Brooke was well-connected with a brilliant cohort of friends at Lauriston but found it difficult transitioning into University so decided to join Deakin University's Cheerleading Club in an attempt to create a new support network and to make more friends across campus.

Since leaving Deakin, Brook joined Melbourne Cheer Academy and is currently working at the Club as the Marketing, Social Media and Communications Coordinator. It is lots of fun working in an industry that she completely loves!

Brooke started training with the MCA Dragons last year when they got a bid to attend the World Championships in 2020. The World Championships are held in Orlando, Florida at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. There is 23 members in the team and all 23 are travelling over to 'Worlds'.

Cheerleading is very much still a developing sport in Australia so unfortunately the team doesn't receive any funding to assist with travel expenses and each athlete is left to pay the $8000 'worlds' package fee individually.
The team is doing their best to fundraise as much money as we can, to minimise the financial impact on each athlete and subsidise as much of the trip as possible and the team would appreciate any publicity or donations.

There are sponsorship packages available for any interested parties.

You can find more information about the team, the club and their journey via the links below:

https://www.instagram.com/mcadragons/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/mcacheer/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ4eALjH358
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ClpfhN1EE

Any donations can be made here- https://www.gofundme.com/f/r7cd3-road-to-worlds

We wish the best of luck to Brooke and the team!!!!

It was a very emotional day when Vivienne Harkness (1957) found out she would be awarded a Medal of the Order (OAM) of Australia for service to community health.

When she received the email from the Governor-General, her immediate reaction was a wish that her husband Peter was there so she could share it with him.  Peter passed away in 2016 after his fifth stroke.

It was after Peter’s first stroke in 2011 that led Vivienne to join Boroondara Stroke Support Group and since then, she has become one of the leading advocates to raise awareness of the condition.

“My husband was a very wonderful man, a great sportsman and very intelligent man, but he was not able to speak after his stroke, so he never said my name again or that of our children,” she said.

“We didn’t hold a conversation for five-and-a-half years."

Vivienne, who ran the national Red Nose Day campaign for its first three years to 1990, raising more than $10 million in what was “probably (her) greatest achievement, shared with other people”, said stroke was “a very neglected area”.

On behalf of the Lauriston community, we congratulate Vivienne for this significant achievement.

We are proud to announce that Deborah Conway (1977) was recently made a Member of The Order of Australia – for significant service to the performing arts as a singer, songwriter and producer.  She was very excited to release the following statement:

"I am thrilled to have been given an AM in 2020 for doing something that I love. Music is a shared pursuit and one of humanity’s oldest cultural expressions. To be able to write songs, play concerts, program festivals, produce albums and to be able to communicate something otherwise inexpressible to people, has been a lifelong endeavour for me. I have loved all of it, even the frustrating bits.

So I feel blessed to have been given the opportunities I’ve been given to ply my trade. I thank my family, my community, my country, my countless fellow musical compadres who have shared the journey and most of all my husband and collaborator without whom my life would have been the poorer."

Today we congratulate one of Lauriston’s distinguished alumnae Jane Freemantle (1966), who has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the General Division – for service to medical research, particularly to population health.

In addition to being a wife, mother and grandmother, Jane holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from the University of Western Australia.

Jane’s academic life has been focused on using large population databases to produce evidence that informs and evaluates policies and strategies addressing the unacceptable disparity in health and education outcomes being experienced by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.

Jane spent all her school years at Lauriston (K to 12). Her Lauriston experience provided me with the skills to take on life’s challenges with grace, the courage to face adversity, the strength to stand up for others less fortunate, and the confidence to take bold and educated risks in my research activities.

In the late 1980s, Jane chaired the Lauriston Foundation committee that ran the highly successful dinner auction fundraiser to build the swimming pool. Over thirty years later she has re-joined the Foundation and is committed to generating funds to provide world-class facilities at Lauriston and scholarships to enable other young women in the current and coming generations to have the same opportunities that Jane has had.