Category: Uncategorized

The OCS Alumni Lunch in South East Queensland is on 15th July 2025. Timings are 11.30 for 12 noon. Planning is well under way and we have 80+ registered so far. This includes three members of the first class in June 1952.

Please note that partners and past staff are welcome. For this year, we have invited graduates of WRAAC OCS to join us.

Registrations close on 8th July 2025.

The lunch will be held at the Kedron-Wavell Services Club at Chermside on Brisbane’s northside. The club supports use with free use of their facilities.

If you wish to register, follow this link  – OCS Alumni Lunch

Listed in our book  list is a new one written by Ron Callander. Ron is a graduate of the first class from OCS.

R.N. (Ron) Callander is an award-winning* Queensland writer.  A Playwright, Author, Short Story Writer, TV Scriptwriter, and Journalist.  Much of his work is listed in the AustLit university website.  He is a former State Secretary of The Australian Radio, Television and Screen Writers’ Guild, (AWG)  and Committee Member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (Vic.).   In 2024 he is 91 years old and a 3-year veteran of the Korean War, in which he served as a Transport Officer.

(*The 1961 Henry Lawson Award, The 1996 Northern Territory Literary Award.)

By the same author:

‘The Third Witness’  ‘The Go-Go Shoe’   (Screenplays)
‘The Mavis Bramston Show’, ‘Homicide’ , ‘Bellbird’  (Scripts.)
‘MacArthur’s Pyjamas’  (Seaview Press – Anthology)
‘One Beat of a Butterfly’s Heart’ (30° South Publishing – African Memoir)
‘Echoes of Henry Lawson’ (Ansay – Anthology)
‘Enter’ (Flamingo HarperCollins – Anthology)
Contributor to: Australian Short Stories, Quadrant, Overland, Hlas Domova, (Czech)
Script Screen & Art, The Melbourne Age Literary Supplement, The Newcastle Morning Herald,
The Grenfell Record, Afloat, KG Murray Magazines, & other publications.

July 16 is fast approaching and will be on us before we know. The lunch is a great opportunity to renew friendships and catch up with classmates or others you may have served with.

It is being held at the Kedron Wavell Service Club in the Kittyhawk Room. The Club is providing the room free of charge – a great saving for us.

The lunch costs $55.00 and there will be a raffle providing support for Legacy. A four night mid-week stay at Caloundra’s Kings Beach is the first prize. Tickets available on the day.

If you wish to book, follow this link – https://kedron-wavellltd.iwannaticket.com.au/event/ocs-alumni-annual-lunch-MzA5NTQ

Please ensure that you include your class (e.g. Dec68) and the name of your partner if attending. Any special dietary needs should be included to assist with catering.

Please note that bookings will close on Monday 8th July 2023.

Following updates to the proposed Field Station design, the Point Nepean Research and Education Field Station team attended the Point Nepean Portsea Markets on Saturday 9 March 2024.

Warm weather and clear skies made for a wonderful day out, with project team members and researchers from both the University of Melbourne and Monash University in attendance to discuss recent project updates. The market provided an opportunity to answer questions, discuss research opportunities, and share the positive impact this collaboration will have on both local and global communities.

In the video above, project team member Tim Pearce and University of Melbourne researcher Dr Allyson O’Brien share the exciting vision for the new Home of the National Centre for Coasts and Climate.

The Rye RSL was busy at work getting the statue ready for the big day. John Wilson and his staff cleaned the statue and then laid a wreath in preparation for ANZAC Day.

John Goodchap (June 1974) visited for a dawn wreath laying.

David Irving-James (UK Ex Long Look instructor 1976) sent through his ANZAC Day experience from the UK. The notes are below including a poem he wrote.

ANZAC Day not forgotten in this little part of England .

Some gave a little,

and some gave their all .

               Your countrymen and brothers

               may lay in England’s distant lands

                but I make to you this promise.   

                 they lay safe in English hands

                They may never see the sunset 

                    on your Australian shore

              but they will share in my sunrise 

                safe in my land forever more 

David Irving-James

ANZAC Day 2024

Yes, it’s on again. Set the 16th July 2024 in your diaries for our next Alumni lunch. The Kedron Wavell Services Club (Brisbane) will once again be the venue.

Graduates, all staff, partners and friends of Portsea are welcome to attend. At our last lunch we had graduates from the first to last class attending including fly-ins from Hobart, Sydney and overseas. If you are travelling through why not join us?

Over 100 enjoyed the last event so let’s see if we can improve on that. Further details will be published once we have the finer details.

Following my email to you in April, I am writing to update you on further progress of the Point Nepean Research and Education Field Station.

As communicated, in April the university partners, Monash University and the University of Melbourne, agreed to inject additional funding to support the development of the Field Station, supplementing the $17 million in grant funding already received from the Commonwealth.

We are pleased to inform you that the project team has finalised the conceptual design for the Field Station. The design will be submitted for planning approval early in the new year, including the required consultation process.

The design envisages the Field Station as being a vibrant teaching, learning and research hub bringing together students, researchers and the local community in a unique coastal and marine environment. It will be capable of hosting significant coursework and research onsite, including immersive student experiences in a unique landscape rich with culture, history and biodiversity.

The Field Station will comprise the adaptive reuse of the existing Badcoe Hall, transforming it into a research and teaching facility, complete with laboratories and collaborative spaces. A new purpose-built short-stay university accommodation facility will be built between Badcoe Hall and Jackson Road, allowing students and research groups to stay onsite to maximise the teaching and research potential offered by the Field Station.

The design no longer includes the proposed seawater tanks and piping system for storing live marine samples onsite. This decision was based on the need to ensure the Field Station is sustainable in the long term given the ongoing maintenance and operational costs of the seawater tanks and piping system. This decision allows for greater flexibility in the design, meaning the Field Station can cater to the full range of teaching and research opportunities envisaged by our academics, allowing us to better maximise the use of the Field Station.

The study of marine life will continue within the breadth of research carried out at the Field Station, the location of which will readily facilitate the study of locally sourced marine samples without the need for permanent live-storage facilities.

With this exciting design milestone reached, the project team will advance our community engagement by returning to the Point Nepean Portsea Market in March 2024, providing the opportunity for the community to view and learn more about the designs. We are also planning further community briefing sessions in the new year.

We look forward to updating you further on the project and sharing visuals of the design in the coming months as we progress through government and regulatory approvals. Please reach out should you wish to discuss the project further or need more information, we are also more than happy to arrange tailored briefings with you.

Kind regards,

Jane Kasby

On behalf of the Point Nepean Research and Education Field Station project team.

Parks Victoria, the current managers of the Point Nepean National Park have asked for some support in relation to Portsea. The following is the detail of a request from them in relation to maintaining interest and history of the Officer Cadet School.

This request includes information from past staff as well as past cadets.

Please fee free to respond directly with a copy to the Alumni (webmaster@ocsportsea.org) for record purposes.

Welcome back to your Officer training grounds here at Point Nepean National Park.

I am collecting stories and memories from Officer Cadets that trained here with a view to using these in a future story telling display of the history of the OCS at the Quarantine Station. 

If you would like to share any stories, memories, or photos of your time here with the permission to potentially have them on public display please contact me via details below. They can be as brief or as long as you like – remember to include dates you were here, your Platoon and your rank.

Thank you –

PointNepean@parks.vic.gov.au

Pamela Fellows

Visitor and Community Engagement

Point Nepean National Park

T (03) 8427 2463

PO Box 485, Sorrento Victoria 3943

www.parks.vic.gov.au

Craig Poppy Johnston is running a test run on an OCS Mini Flag for the Christmas Market. Check out his post on the OCS Facebook page and order there.