OSA CONNECTIONS NEWSLETTER

Dear Old Scholars

To celebrate St Hilda’s 130th Anniversary we have many events planned.

We invite you to the Women Lifting Women – International Women’s Day Summit on Wednesday 11 March, and to our annual OSA Bridge and Mahjong Day on Wednesday 25 March.

St Hilda’s Principal Fiona Johnston will be travelling interstate in April and would like to celebrate with many of you at the St Hilda’s 130th Anniversary Sundowners in Melbourne on Tuesday 21 April, Sydney on Wednesday 22 April, and Brisbane on Thursday 23 April.

This year the OSA is celebrating St Hilda’s 130th Anniversary with a very special Mother’s Day High Tea on Saturday 9 May 2026, open to the whole St Hilda’s community.

Please book your tickets for these events via the links below.

On 17 February, we were delighted to welcome back our newest Old Scholars, the 2025 graduates, to celebrate their academic achievements, hear about their plans for 2026, and share in the excitement of distributing the much-anticipated 2025 Chronicle. A big thank you to Lizzie Warburton, Alumni Coordinator, for organising the event, and to Claudine Mah (2016) for her lovely words of wisdom and welcome on behalf of the Old Scholars Association. Please read more about this delightful afternoon, below.

Enjoy this edition of the newsletter, which includes Old Scholar news, upcoming events, and an OSA Heritage focus on Headmistress Miss Melina Parnell and her contributions to St Hilda’s.

As always, we would love to hear from you. Please send us your news via oldscholars@sthildas.wa.edu.au, and if you need to update your contact details, you can do so at the link below:

Click Here to Update Your Contact Details

致以最美好的祝愿、

阿曼达-伯特博士（科德，1989 年）
President of the GHS & St Hilda’s Old Scholars Association

Following the August event we have welcomed feedback and tailored a bespoke evening to bring Old Scholars a wealth of career advice and experience from our exceptional speakers.  Last year was a highlight of the OSA Calendar; a fun night with key takeaways for everyone as to how they might recalibrate and re-energise their own careers.

Join us for an evening of inspiring speakers with sunset drinks and canapes afterwards in the beautiful reception rooms on the 37th level of QV1, thanks to our hosts Euroz Hartleys.

Buy Your Tickets Here

The GHS & St Hilda’s Old Scholars’ Association invites you to the annual Bridge and Mahjong Day on Wednesday 25 March.

Bring your tables and friends and enjoy playing bridge or mahjong in the lovely surroundings of the Heritage Centre and verandas.  This event is open to anyone so please do bring your friends and your club members (a light sandwich lunch and drinks are included in the ticket price).

Date:    Wednesday 25 March 2026
Time:   10.00am – 2.30pm
Venue: The Gallery, Heritage Centre, St Hilda’s Bay View Campus
Cost:    $45 (table $180)

Players will need to bring their own bridge cards, cloth and bridge table.

BUY YOUR TICKET/S HERE

Please purchase your tickets by Monday 23 March.

In 2026 we are celebrating 130 years since St Hilda’s was founded in Claremont as Miss Ross’ Girls’ School in 1896, and we have come a long since those days in the early 1930s when Catherine House was built on farmland and the school was given a new name; St Hilda’s Church of England School.

We now boast an Old Scholar network of over 10,000 Old Scholars, of whom over 6,000 are actively engaged. Our Old Scholar community stretches around the globe with an impressive network of professionals in a vast range of careers.

Principal Fiona Johnston will be travelling interstate in April and would like to celebrate this significant milestone with you.  Please join us in celebrating our history, connectivity and future by coming together across the nation on the following dates:

Melbourne – Tuesday 21 April – Loop Roof Top Bar, Level 3, 23 Meyers Place, VIC

Buy Melbourne Tickets Here

Sydney – Wednesday 22 April – The Licencee’s Flat, The Oaks, 118 Military Road, Neutral Bay, NSW

Buy Sydney Tickets Here

Brisbane – Thursday 23 April – The Regatta Hotel, 543 Coronation Drive, Toowong QLD

Buy Brisbane Tickets Here

Each sundowner event will run from 6pm – 8pm with drinks and canapes and we look forward to seeing you and marking this significant milestone.  If you know of students or people who reside or are visiting these capital cities for any reason, please forward this link to them.

• Hong Kong Sundowner- 29 June
• Bangkok Sundowner- 30 June
• Kuala Lumpur Sundowner- 2 July
• Jakarta Sundowner- 3 July
• Singapore Sundowner- 4 July

This year the GHS & St Hilda’s Old Scholars Association is celebrating St Hilda’s 130th Anniversary with a very special High Tea event on Saturday of the Mother’s Day weekend in May.

We invite you to join us for this unique occasion for a sit-down high tea starting with a glass of sparkling wine (for adults). We hope to see many Old Scholars attending with their families and friends.

We will also be offering a selection of items and produce at your favourite Boarders’ and OSA stalls, along with fresh cut flowers, especially for Mother’s Day.

This event is open to the whole school community with limited seating, so we encourage you to secure your ticket/s early via the link below.

Date:    Saturday 9 May 2026
Time:    2.30pm – 4.00pm
Venue: School Hall 

Costs:   $55 per adult and $35 per student.

Buy Your Ticket/s Here

We look forward to welcoming you to these upcoming events. Links to these events will be provided as the dates approach.

WOMEN LIFTING WOMEN SUMMIT – INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Date: Wednesday 11 March
Time:  4.00pm – 7.00pm
Venue: Euroz Hartleys Head Office

OSA CROCHET
Date: 3rd Wednesday monthly from 18 March (15 April and 20 May)
Time: 1.00pm – 3.00pm
Venue: Heritage Centre, Hope Nicholas House

OSA BRIDGE & MAHJONG DAY
Date: Wednesday 25 March
Time: 10.30am – 2.30pm
Venue: Heritage Centre, Hope Nicholas House.

IGSSA OLD GIRLS’ TENNIS DAY
Date: Thursday 26 March
Time:  8.45am – 1.15pm
Venue: Cottesloe Tennis Club.

INTERSTATE SUNDOWNERS

MELBOURNE
Date:  Tuesday 21 April
Time:  6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: Loop Roof Bar, 23 Meyer Place, Melbourne, VIC

SYDNEY
Date:  Wednesday 22 April
Time:  6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: The Licencee’s Flat, The Oaks, Sydney, NSW

BRISBANE
Date:  Thursday 23 April
Time:  6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: The Regatta Hotel, Toowong, QLD

OSA GRADUATE MENTOR DAY
Date: Wednesday 6 May

OSA MOTHER’S DAY HIGH TEA
Date: Saturday 9 May
Time: 2pm – 4.30pm
Venue: School Hall

INTERNATIONAL SUNDOWNERS

HONG KONG
Date: Monday 29 June
Time & Venue TBA

BANGKOK
Date: Tuesday 30 June
Time & Venue TBA

KUALA LUMPUR
Date: Thursday 2 July
Time & Venue TBA

JAKARTA
Date: Friday 3 July
Time & Venue TBA

SINGAPORE
Date:  Saturday 4 July
Time & Venue TBA

OSA 70+ MORNING TEA
Date: Wednesday 12 August
Time: 10.00am – Midday
Venue: School Hall

OSA COUNTRY LUNCH
Date & Venue:  TBA

OSA PIN PRESENTATION ASSEMBLY / LUNCH
Date: Monday 14 September
Time: 12.20pm – 2.00pm
Venue: Joy Shepherd Performing Arts Centre & Heritage Centre, Hope Nicholas House.

OSA ART EXHIBITION OPENING NIGHT 
Date: Thursday 17 September
Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: JSPAC Foyer

OSA ART EXHIBITION 
Date: Thursday 17 – Sunday 20 September
Time: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Venue: JSPAC Foyer

CIGS GOLF
Date:  TBA

OSA AGM & THANK YOU EVENING FOR OSA YEAR REPRESENTATIVES 
Date: Tuesday 13 October
Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: Gallery, Heritage Centre, Hope Nicholas House.

OSA SOCIAL GOLF DAY & LUNCH
Date: Friday 6 November
Time: 8.30am – 2.00pm
Venue: TBA

OSA CHRISTMAS CHAPEL SERVICE & REFRESHMENTS
Date:  Wednesday 2 December
Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: Whitby Chapel & Gallery, Heritage Centre, Hope Nicholas House.

On 17 February we were delighted to welcome back our 2025 graduates to celebrate their academic achievements, hear about their plans for 2026, and share in the excitement of distributing the much-anticipated 2025 Chronicle.

This is an exciting year for St Hilda’s as our newest Old Scholars are travelling far and wide for further studies having gained admission into West Australian, interstate and international universities to continue their studies.

Currently six students are confirmed to continue their studies abroad; three in the UK at Oxford and (x2) at Buckingham universities, and three in the USA at Princeton, Florida State and San Francisco universities (and another three students are still awaiting confirmation as the US regular decision period is in March).

Those Old Scholars who have chosen to study in Western Australia have gained admissions to all five universities: UWA, Notre Dame, Curtin, ECU and Murdoch.  Multiple students received scholarships to support their studies in a range of courses including Paramedicine, Medicine, Veterinary Science, Nursing, Engineering, Secondary and Primary Teaching, Physiotherapy, Agricultural Science, Pharmaceutical Health, Performing Arts, Design, Innovation, Law, Biomedical Science, International Relations and Philosophy.

In addition to completing ATAR and General subjects over 30 students also received additional Certificate 4 Qualifications in areas such as Business, Educational Support, Tourism and Fitness.  We also had our first Year 12 student receive a Diploma. 

We congratulate them all and wish them well in pursuing their individual subjects and pathways.

Date: Thursday 2 April
Time & Venue: 5.30pm – Heritage Centre & Tour of School
Next Venue: From 6.30pm @ Pep’s Wine Bar, 492 Stirling Highway, Peppermint Grove.
Cost: Buy your own drinks.

Book Here

Organisers: Ella Morison and Claudine Mah

Date: Saturday 18 April
Time & Venue: 4.00 – 6.00pm Heritage Centre & Tour of School
Next Venue: From 6pm at The Cottesloe Beach Hotel, 104 Marine Parade, Cottesloe.
Cost: $80

Booking Link:  Book Here

Organisers: Kirsty Packer & Cate Leedman

Date:  Saturday 19 December
Time & Venue: 4.30 – 6.00pm – Heritage Centre & Tour of School
Next Venue: From 6.00pm Mosman Park Bowling Club
Details: TBA

Organiser: Sarah Wallace 

SAVE THE DATE

Date:  Saturday 31 October
Details: TBA

Organiser: Kate Buffham

SAVE THE DATE

Date: Saturday 7 November (TBC)

Organisers: Pia Rigby Marazzi, Sue Ransom (Clarke) and Jane Henderson (Dadour).

Date:  Sunday 25 October 2026
Details: TBA

Organisers: Sue Gillett (Wisbey) & Ann Treadgold (Cariss)

SAVE THE DATE

Date:  Friday 11 September
Time & Venue: 

RSVP:  oldscholars@sthildas.wa.edu.au

Organisers: Deanne Newman (Benney) & Robin Creswell (Cummins)

SAVE THE DATE

Miss Melina Florence Parnell – Headmistress GHS 1905-1926.

Melina Florence Parnell (1870-1944) was born on 2 July 1870 at Bow, on the east side of London, one of six children of Frederick Charles Parnell, a watchmaker, and his wife Melina Sarah.  She was raised in London and in Luton, Bedfordshire (about an hour north east of London), where her grandfather was a Baptist parson.  Although Melina wished to attend university, her father wanted ‘no blue stockings’ in the family, nor for his daughters to engage in any ‘worldly occupation’.

Melina’s uncle was an organist at the City Temple and kindly paid for her music lessons at the Guildhall School of Music, where she won many prizes. She was also a talented painter and musician, with a fine singing voice, and became a qualified music teacher with credentials from the University of Cambridge and the College of Preceptors.

Miss Parnell outside the Girls’ High School, Claremont, in the 1920s.

In about 1887 the family migrated to Victoria, Australia, for the health of one of the children. During the 1890s depression era Melina had to find work and even earned an income by making buttonholes on blouses.  She eventually took up a teaching position in Victoria and later at Burradoo Park, near Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, where she later became headmistress.

When the owner of the school died, Melina returned to England, where she taught and worked as a governess, while the rest of the family relocated to Western Australia.  At her mother’s request, in 1897, she took up a position at Amy Best’s Central High School for Girls which was located in the city centre of Perth and educated girls up to the age of 18.

Seven years later, in 1904, Melina purchased the Claremont Ladies’ College and Kindergarten from Miss Allan and renamed it the Girls’ High School (GHS).

As a woman, and single at that, her options to raise the required funds for school improvements were very few. No bank would lend her the funds so she turned to the fathers (not the mothers, who were similarly restricted in dealing with money) and sought private loans from them to finance the purchase.  She was able to pay back the loans in swift order.

Melina Parnell’s influence, first on the GHS, and on the St Hilda’s of today, cannot be overstated.  Her experience of improvements in girls’ education in England greatly benefited girls’ education in Western Australia. She understood the demand for a more rigorous approach but also the need for first class establishments to appeal to the middle class parents, who did not necessarily intend their daughters to work after leaving school but required them to be given an education suited to their class. She disapproved of the appearance of the social classes in school and disliked uniforms and examinations. However, after a pupil wore a white fox fur to church, she agreed to the introduction of uniforms.  Examinations were also introduced because they enhanced the school’s reputation.

1906 GHS. The first six boarders. Maud Crane at bottom centre. Eileen Crane second from top.

With the addition of boarding facilities in 1906, and a permanent home on the Swan River at Claremont, Miss Parnell’s GHS prospered, partly because it catered for girls from all over the State, from kindergarten through to university entrance.

From 1908 the GHS was recognised as a private school at which Education Department secondary scholarships were tenable. Melina Parnell was the only representative of a private school for girls to sit on the Examination Board of the University of Western Australia on its establishment in 1913. She was the first President of the Girls’ Secondary School Sports Association, and she formed the GHS Old Girls’ Association with herself as President in the same year.

Miss Parnell with students in 1915.

As a champion of women’s education, in her 1918 Speech Night Address to parents Miss Parnell said, “We hear on every side what the boys who have left school have done. Does it ever occur to any of us what the girls have done?”  She then listed post-school achievements of her graduates in teaching, nursing, the armed forces, in banking, pharmacy, the Civil Service, dentistry, music and academia. Former GHS and other private school pupils were employed as teachers, and her past students also taught in other schools or established their own.

In 1926 Parnell retired and sold the GHS to the West Australian Church Schools Limited, where upon a former GHS student, Miss Marjorie Rooney, became headmistress in 1927.

Miss Rooney was born in Western Australia in 1898 and had excelled academically and become a prefect while at GHS. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia at a time when few women gained university qualifications.

She had returned to teach at GHS for a year before becoming headmistress. Miss Rooney was well respected and loved by former pupils and was renowned for always knowing the girls’ names.

In 1930 she resigned when the Church of England purchased the Girls’ High School, renamed it St Hilda’s Anglican School and appointed Miss Catherine Small as Principal. Miss Rooney moved to Tasmania where she became a much-loved Headmistress of Broadland House School, and there she remained until she retired having held the position for 30 years.

Allison Temple (1987) and Elizabeth Kelly (Cullen, 1956)

In January 2026 two Old Scholars from opposite sides of the country, caught up with each other at the Australasian Recorder Festival in Armidale NSW. 

Allison Temple (1987) has been attending these festivals regularly since 2005, and this time was delighted to also see first-time attendee Elizabeth Kelly (Cullen, 1956). 

Elizabeth was the first person to achieve an AMuS (a prestigious diploma awarded by the Australian Music Examinations Board, known as an Associate in Music), while still studying at school and later returned to St Hilda’s as a music teacher, mostly as a piano teacher with some primary classroom music.  Elizabeth also led the school’s Junior and Senior Recorder Ensembles for a number of years. 

Whilst a student, Allison was a member of the Recorder Ensembles for six years, and Elizabeth’s first individual recorder student.  It was fantastic for both of them to catch up at the 2026 Recorder Festival and play together again for the first time in many years.

We are very sorry to announce that the following Old Scholar and a member of staff have passed away.

1946 – 14 January 2026

It is with great sadness, we share the passing of our beloved mother, Susan Fergus, who died peacefully on 14 January 2026.

Mum dedicated a decade of her professional life to St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls during the 1990s, under the principalship of Mrs June Jones. As a proud member of Fitzroy, she taught History, Politics and Philosophy; subjects she believed shaped not only sharp minds, but strong character. She adored her students and often spoke of the privilege it was to teach young women at such a formative time in their lives. She believed deeply in nurturing independence, critical thinking and courage, and saw education as a lifelong gift.

We were profoundly touched that so many of her dear friends, and former St Hilda’s colleagues and students, joined us to celebrate her life on 29 January. Their presence was a testament to the lasting impact she had as a teacher and friend.

As her children, Claire Fabb (Fergus, 1994) and Sarah Fergus (1995), both of Gascoyne, and Joshua Fergus, we are so grateful for the kindness and messages we have received from the St Hilda’s community. Mum truly loved her time at St Hilda’s, and we know she would be deeply moved to be remembered in the hearts of her students who meant so much to her.

Claire Fabb (Fergus,1994)

1936 – 8 February 2026

1951 Basketball “A” Team Back L-R: Anne Minchin, Audrey Ralston, Helen Smith, Joan Gray. Front L-R: Margaret Rex, Margaret Pascall, Lee Brown.

Our beautiful Mum, Helen Maidment (Smith, 1954), passed away on Sunday 8 February.  Our family is mourning the loss of such a wonderful matriarch who cherished her family and many friends.

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