Welcome to the Spring Edition of the Alumni Newsletter.

2020 has been a challenging year due to COVID-19. As I sit here in my office at the Damascus College, having only returned to campus last week after the second period of remote learning, it gives me a chance to reflect on our College community and the strength and resilience within all of us.

Damascus College has a long and proud tradition, and together we have built on our Catholic traditions where we recognise and celebrate our foundation colleges; Sacred Heart, St Paul’s and St Martin’s in the Pines.

My role at Damascus is multi-faceted where as part of the College’s leadership team, I am responsible for the marketing, communications, development and community engagement of the College. Alumni engagement is a central component of my role, where I relish the chance to build opportunities for our past students and staff to re-connect and strengthen their pride in our College, as part of one Damascus community.

Our Development team is a small but committed team, made up of our dedicated Alumni & Development Officer, Korina Hegert, our Archivist, Natasha Adam and our Development Intern, Jamison Thomas. I wish to thank them for their passion, dedication and steadfastness in striving to achieve their best as members of our Damascus staff.

If as an alumni you weren’t based at our current Mt Clear campus, or if you haven’t visited our beautiful campus for some years, I encourage you to view it via our ‘Virtual Tour’ function which is accessible on the homepage of our new website – you will see many changes! We are fortunate to be able to offer our more than 1200 students and 150 staff, a contemporary learning environment set in an inspiring 20 hectare bush setting, where we enjoy access to innovative technology, flexible and modern classrooms and lots of open spaces and bushland.

We are excited to have recently launched a new College website, which features a fresh and clean look that enhances the user experience – why not take the time to explore it. The alumni section can be found under the ‘Community’ heading, where you will find a wealth of information regarding connection opportunities including reunions, events and other important information for our alumni.

I take this opportunity to encourage you, our alumni, to get involved in the life of your College, our College, and to re-connect in the variety of ways available to you.

I look forward to welcoming you back to Damascus College in the near future.

Sarah Boswell

Leader of Development

It was great to have St Paul's Technical College Alumni Vladimir "Val" Perovic, Class of 1968 at the Damascus Campus in July assisting with the construction of our new Gathering and Exam Centre.

During his time at St Paul's, Val began his illustrious football career and was a key player in the 1967 Premier team. Val was later recruited from his North Ballarat team to play with VFL team St Kilda in 1973 as a wingman and was widely regarded as one of the recruits of the year.

After 77 league games for the Saints, he moved to Carlton at the end of the 1979 season. While with the Blues he played some of the best football of his career, earning state selection once more, and playing in a back pocket in both the 1981 and 1982 premiership wins. In the 1982 Grand Final defeat of Richmond, he was one of the best players on the field.

Val was noted for his long left-foot kicks. During his time at Carlton, fans would shout "woof!" every time he kicked the ball. He was the first Carlton player whose kicks were acknowledged in this way.

Val retired from football in 1985 and is looking forward to retiring from construction later this year.

#TogetherWeAreDamascus

Dr Cathy Vaughan, Class of 1989, grew up in Rokewood just outside of Ballarat. As a teenager she enjoyed school, was good in some subjects but not all and found time to play and umpire netball. Following in both her mother and grandmother’s footsteps, she was enrolled at Sacred Heart and, as a day scholar, journeyed in and out of town on the bus.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child provides that all children have a right to enjoy special protection, to receive adequate housing and to be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. The Burdekin Report released in the late 1980’s acknowledged that Australia had a real issue with homelessness, especially for teenagers or children. As a teenager living in rural Victoria, Cathy was upset by these facts and volunteered with the Open Family Foundation to try and make a difference. Cathy then took it a step further and got Sacred Heart and St Martin’s involved with the respite centre that had been set up at Ellaine.

This early sense of community-mindedness has been an ongoing theme in Cathy’s life. She has travelled the world, gained an impressive list of academic credentials, accolades and awards but continues to roll up her sleeves to pitch in and help out where she can at the ground level.

As an Australian Volunteer Abroad in the 90’s Cathy travelled to Pakistan and spent 14 months working as a physiotherapist helping those most in need. Upon her return, she worked at the Burnett Institute, an Australian medical research institute that combines medical research in the laboratory and the field with public health action to address major health issues affecting disadvantaged communities in Australia and internationally.

Prior to undertaking a PhD, Cathy worked on youth-focused HIV prevention programs in Papua New Guinea and a number of south-east Asian countries.

Cathy leads research projects working to improve the health of women and to strengthen community-led responses to violence against immigrant and refugee women in Victoria and Tasmania. She has led projects exploring the impact of female genital cutting on women and families in Victoria and is currently involved in research into discriminatory acts against young people with disability; employment outcomes for people with disability; and media representations of violence against women. Cathy coordinates the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Women’s Health, hosted by the Centre for Health Equity and teaches post-graduate courses on Community-Based Participatory Research, Gender and Health and Women and Global Health.

Global health and development practitioner, writer, researcher, speaker, advocate and investigator, Dr Cathy Vaughan has worked in over twenty low- and middle-income countries in Asia, the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa. She works at the interface of development practice and theory, building new programs of research focusing on gender and women’s health in settings of poverty and marginalization.

Dr Vaughan is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Women’s Health in the Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.

The Damascus College Archives Needs your Help!

Here in the College Archives we are always looking to expand our collection. If you have any item you think may be of interest to us we would love to hear from you.

Of particular interest are:-

• Photographs (especially pre-1990)

• Uniforms

• Badges

• Yearbooks

• Student memoirs

Items can be donated or simply loaned to us to scan or photograph before being returned. Don’t forget we also hold memorabilia from our foundation colleges – Sacred Heart College, St. Paul’s College

and St. Martin’s in the Pines.

For more information please visit our Archives page

The strength and spirit of Mother Bonaventure is evident throughout Ballarat. Known as ‘The Builder’, where Mother Bonaventure saw a need, she found a way to build a solution.

Born in 1888, Eileen Mary Healy, along with her sisters Kathleen, Josephine and Gertrude, was herself educated at Sacred Heart College before gaining a Diploma of Music and Diploma of Education at Melbourne University. Then at the age of twenty, she returned to Ballarat where she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy and was professed three years later. All four sisters were particularly talented musicians and each left a lasting legacy on the College.

Mother Bonaventure’s many building projects included the development of Patrician House, a hostel for undergraduates of the (then) Aquin Teachers Training College, construction of many buildings at Sacred Heart College, four Ballarat primary schools and convents and schools in 13 other regional areas. When she decided that sporting facilities at Sacred Heart College were lacking, Mother Bonaventure planned a nine-hole golf course on unused land at Mount Xavier – the first public golf course to be built and owned by a convent. This was opened in 1949 and was well-used by Sacred Heart girls. In the early days of the Ballarat East Sisters of Mercy, ‘walking nuns’ would visit the sick and poor in their homes. Mother Bonaventure systemised this relief effort, which led her to inaugurate the Mercy Home Care and Nursing Service – an early version of the Mercy Health and Community Services we know today.

Perhaps the most well-known to us of Mother Bonaventure’s projects is the beautiful piece of land upon which Damascus College currently resides. By 1959, Sacred Heart College was bursting at the seams and Mother Bonaventure was dreaming of a spacious, modern senior school to meet the challenge of over-crowding. Land bequeathed to the Sisters in 1960 enabled this dream to become a reality, and Mother Bonaventure was involved in everything from planning to turning the first sod and laying the foundation stone. Her fervent prayers to St. Martin de Porres for the successful completion of the new school are reflected in the beautiful statue which now stands in the St. Martin’s Resource Centre. Sadly Mother Bonaventure died in 1966 before seeing the first students arrive at the Senior College, however she leaves us this wonderful place of beauty and learning.

On Thursday 12 March Damascus College held its annual Bright Futures fundraising breakfast for the Scholarship of the same name. The College was thrilled to welcome a large contingent of alumni, staff and community members to the event held at the Ballarat Golf Club. Other special guests included a number of Sisters of Mercy, leaders from the Catholic Education Office Ballarat (CEOB) and the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat offices.

The assembled crowd were welcomed to the breakfast by Assistant Principal, Tony Haintz who opened the festivities with a simple prayer of welcome. Sarah Boswell, Leader of School Development then shared with attendees, the details about the Bright Futures Scholarship, its benefactors and the need to support the scholarship through fundraising, before welcoming to the stage Year 10 student Megan O’Beirne. Megan spoke from the heart about what receiving the 2018 Sporting Scholarship meant to her and how it has impacted her life.

The special guest speaker for this event was Judy Brewer, Order of Australia. Judy, from the Class of 1979 is Chair of the Autism CRC since its inception in 2013. In 2017 she became Pro-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University. In 2019 Judy received a Churchill Fellowship as well as being named one of the inaugural Shining Light, Inspiring Alumni Award winner. She is the mother to two amazing boys Harrison and Dominic and widow of the former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer.

Judy spoke openly of her time as a boarder at Sacred Heart, the loss of her beloved husband Tim and her work with Autism CRC. Judy shared her journey as the mother of an autistic son with all its bounties and challenges. Judy then engaged with the audience during a lively and very entertaining Q&A session. She discussed the significance and importance of her personal motto “bloom where you are planted” and her journey to create a more inclusive and welcoming world for everyone, including autistic people.

Guests of the event were able to enjoy learning more about Damascus College and the educational opportunities available to its students as well as enjoying a sumptuous buffet breakfast.

The final speaker for the day was College Principal Matthew Byrne who thanked the assembled crowd for attending the event to support Damascus College and its Bright Futures Scholarship. He spoke of the importance that an education can make in a child’s life. As a Catholic school, Damascus College is committed to providing excellence in education, and it is our privilege to be able to offer opportunities that benefit our students and the wider community. He spoke of the importance of the welfare of our young people and hence the emphasis on providing an environment which is secure and safe, happy and productive.

He reminded the attendees that their generosity and commitment can help to make a real impact on the lives of our students.

“Your gift allows us to support an exciting and enriching educational experience for students”.

In holding this fundraising event Damascus College sees to extend the Bright Futures Scholarship to more than one Year 7 student per year. If you wish to Give towards this worthy cause, you can do this by calling the College office (03 5337 2222) or online at damascus.vic.edu.au

In order to address growing concerns around the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), as a College, we have decided to postpone the upcoming 2020 class reunions.

As with any reunion, attendees will be joining these celebrations from different locations around Australia, so we have postponed these events to minimise risk and to exercise the necessary caution, in order to maintain the care, safety and well-being of our wider community.

The new dates for these reunions are:

50 Year - Class of 1970 Sunday 9 May 2021

40 Year - Class of 1980 Saturday 1 May 2021

30 Year - Class of 1990 Saturday 8 May 2021

20 Year - Class of 2000 Sunday 18 April 2021

10 Year - Class of 2010 Friday 16 April 2021

If for some reason, you are unable to attend the new reunion date, and already have your ticket, a refund can be issued, minus fees. Please get in contact with Korina Hegert, our Alumni Officer (message At Damascus or email k.hegert@damascus.vic.edu.au or call the College at 03 5337 2222) should you require a refund.

The Damascus College website and social media platforms will be updated with new event details once they become available.

We understand that this decision may come as a disappointment, but in exercising our due diligence, it is the College’s responsibility to mitigate any risk to our community members.

Damascus College encourages you to stay connected to the College via our social media platforms and our biannual publication of The Road, which will be distributed in mid-November. If you need to update your postal address, please do so by clicking here:

We look forward to celebrating these reunions with you in 2021.