The Anchor. Williamstown High School Ex-Students & Staff Association Inc A A SEPTEMBER 2017

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1 The Anchor the committee which we would love to fill with a couple of new faces so if you or any-one else would like to join us you would be very welcome. At the AGM the meeting resolved to make a significant donation to WHS from the accumulated funds of the exies. These funds were accumulated over several years in order to enable us to fund the publication of the school history. As luck would have it we didn t need to spend as much on the book as we expected. Williamstown High School Ex-Students & Staff Association Inc A A SEPTEMBER 2017 President s Report Welcome to the September 2017 edition of the ANCHOR. The 2017 AGM was held on Sat 29 th July in the library at Pascoe St. You will see copies of the President s report and the Treasurer s statement later in this Anchor. We had the School Council President, Mr Andrew Egan, give a short presentation to the meeting. Andrew focussed on the role of school council in the running of the school and praised the involvement of the exies in the life of the school. The committee of management was re-elected unopposed again. This is both a blessing and a curse. We have a couple of vacant positions on This year the committee will be having discussions with the school to determine what they need and what we would be comfortable with providing funds for. As always I am looking for news from exies to fill the pages of the newsletter. If you have anything of interest please don t hesitate to drop us a line. Hold Fast Fred Cumming ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO: The Committee of Management WHSESSA PO Box 81 WILLIAMSTOWN VIC 3016 Articles or comments for the newsletter can be sent to the above address or to WHSESSA@gmail.com Enquiries Fred Cumming (03) Iris Whitehurst (03) Williamstown High School web site :- WHSESSA inc. web site :-

2 KEN BARNES By, Geoff van Wyngaarden WILLIAMSTOWN HIGH SCHOOL HAS PRODUCED MANY GREAT SPORTSPEOPLE OVER THE YEARS. A.F.L. footballers are no exception. More recent examples include Ian Fairley (North Melbourne), Callan Ward (Western Bulldogs) and Bruce Davis (South Melbourne) who all played senior football whilst still students at the school. Previous to this, students who would later on play senior football after they left the school included Richard Luke and Ken Barnes who both played with South Melbourne. Williamstown at this time was in South Melbourne s recruiting zone. Here is the story on KEN BARNES. Williamstown Football Club has been connected with many local families, but the Barnes family connection has seen multiple generations involved. Ken is the son of legendary local sportsman Jack Barnes who played cricket for Victoria and both football and cricket for Williamstown. The family connection is extensive a couple of uncles, two cousins, a son and a grandson all being connected to Williamstown Football Club. Ken attended the Williamstown State School and then Williamstown High. There were no junior football clubs in the area at this time and so Ken played baseball with the North Williamstown Baseball Club in the winter months. When this baseball club folded at the end of 1958, Ken joined the Williamstown 3rds Under 19 team as a 17 year old playing 3 games in his first season. The following year in 1960, with Wally Ward the coach, Ken hurt his back in the first game and missed the rest of the season. Back at the club in 1961, the skinny Ken coming in at 12 stone 7 lbs and 6 foot 4 inches made the senior list. Under coach Neville O Connor in the reserves, ken played 12 games and was promoted to the seniors under the legendary Gerry Callahan for the last 6 games. Ironically in the last game of the year against Box Hill, Ken actually played against his brother Ted. Ken describes Gerry Callahan as an excellent speaker who was held in awe by all the players. At this point in time there was no interchange at all- just 17 th and 18 th men who when they came on then stayed on for the duration of the game. As well as that if you didn t come onto the ground then you didn t get paid. If the trainers brought out a grey blanket then you didn t have to be told what the message was. You could be taken off on any portion of the ground - sometimes in front of opposition supporters. In one incident my friend Jimmy O Toole once tossed the grey blanket at Gerry Callahan. In season 1962 Ken came second in the Best and Fairest Award and at the end of the season was invited to train with South Melbourne. At this stage in his career Ken had played 12 senior games and 20 reserves games at Williamstown. At the start of the 1963 season Williamstown refused to clear him to South Melbourne. Ken then started the season playing 2 practice games at South Melbourne, went back to Williamstown where he played the first 3 games for the seniors and then got dropped back to the reserves. He eventually got his clearance to South Melbourne by the June 30 th deadline.. 2

3 At South Melbourne Ken played a total 15 senior games and 2 night games. Ken returned to Williamstown by the June 30 th deadline in 1967 playing the last 10 senior games for the seagulls. Season 1968 saw the arrival of South Melbourne champion Max Papley as the new senior coach of the Williamstown Football Club. Max came over at his peak and brought a breath of fresh air, he was that bloody good. Max brought in the attitude that we should never lose at Williamstown because it was our home ground. In one memorable incident Max hated Preston so much that he told reserves player John Cashews Allard to make their change rooms as uncomfortable as possible. So just before Preston arrived their rooms were totally hosed out- ceiling and all walls making it as cold as possible on an already cold day Williamstown lost the 2 nd Division Grand Final in 1968 by 2 goals against Geelong West at the Toorak Park ground. We made up for it the following year in 1969 with a great premiership victory over Sunshine. We destroyed Box Hill in the semi final then Coburg in the Preliminary Final. On the night of the premiership victory we all went back to the Williamstown Town Hall, then back to the ground where we drank for 2 nights. Celebrations continued afterwards at various local hotels as publicans of the time Harry Hayward and Ron Marett both followed the club. Local bookmaker, Tommy The Governor Stewart also gave great support to the club. The footy trip to Tasmania in 1969 was memorable indeed. Ken lists his best players in his first stint at Williamstown as Ray Smith, Daryl Ward, Jimmy O Toole, Bob Carmichael, Lindsay Murphy, Graeme Clough and Bob Murrie. In his 2 nd stint at the club he rates Max Papley, Tommy Russell, Terry O Mara, Bob Smith, Bob Lane, Andy Camilleri, Ian Johnson, Bob Percy, Dallas Patterson, Kevin Jackman and Micky Mulligan. His favourite trainers were Bob Major the Head Trainer, Bob The mangler Cairncross and Jacky Tookar Orr. Sunday mornings down the ground were enjoyable with a good bath followed by the traditional Sunday pleasant morning. Ken played great football in 1 st Division in 1970 when the club did the impossible by making successive Grand Finals. Unfortunately, Ken did his knee in the Preliminary Final victory over Waverley and missed the Grand Final loss to Prahran. Ken was captain of the club in 1971 after Max had retired and later retired from the club himself at the end of the 1972 season. Ken played a total of 96 senior games for the seagulls kicking a total of 56 goals even though he wasn t allowed by his coaches on the forward line. He wore glasses in civilian life but played football wearing contact lenses which makes his efforts even more memorable. Ken highly rates being nominated in the best 100 players of the club in 100 years as very special. The team of the 1960 s decade night was very special to him and very proud to be named. Ken cannot believe that Gerry Callahan is not in the AFL Hall of Fame for all his VFA achievements. (Port Melbourne have one representative in this Hall of Fame) After his playing career finished Ken coached at the Williamstown Thirds, Spotswood and Altona City. Later Ken returned to football coaching as the ruck coach at the Western Jets TAC Cup side for 5 years. News from the Centenary Theatre A Spring Concert was held on Thursday 14 th September. There was a 6:00 pm and an 8:00 pm performance which were both well attended filling most of the 300 seats in the theatre. Very talented musicians from years 7 to 12 provided a wonderful concert. The program included two concert bands, two stage bands, a vocal ensemble and a guitar ensemble. A wonderful treat was the Yamaha grand piano (which WHSESSA donated a significant portion of the cost) was played in the foyer before the concert. There are now 10 music staff doing a wonderful job at WHS. Iris Whitehurst 3

4 For those who were unable to be present at the AGM in July here is a copy of the Presidents report and the Treasurers statement for the financial year. WHSESSA inc. A A Annual General Meeting - 29 July 2016 President s Report The last year has been a year of quiet industry for the WHSESSA committee. We all owe a debt of thanks to the committee members for their hard work. Iris Whitehurst as Vice-President, Ray Price as Secretary, Geoff King who took on the Treasurers role this year, Barbara Muster and Bill Dagg who rounded out the committee all contributed during the year. We continued our tradition of offering six scholarships ($250 per scholarship) to students at WHS. The Anchor continued to produce 4 issues per year. We always need more stories to add so please put pen to paper and send them in! An increasing number of Anchors are now going out via . This is helping us to reduce our running costs, especially as postage becomes more expensive. Financially we are very well placed. The treasurer s statement shows that we currently have around $14,250 in the bank. This year we have focussed some attention on our web site. This sits on the Williamstown High School web page. To access it try and navigate to about and Ex-students. We are hoping to install all of the back copies of High Tide magazine on the web site in the near future. We have seen the completion of the Centenary Theatre this year. Along with that came the arrival of the grand piano that we contributed $5000 to a couple of years ago. It s great to see this instrument finally in place and in use in the new theatre. On the downside our membership continues to drift. Our traditional members are very loyal and we value your contributions and donations. Unfortunately none of us lives for ever. Our problem is that we need to attract the younger groups to the WHSESSA. They already have the means to stay in contact with each other so we need to develop some other way to attract these people. Along with our dwindling membership is our inability to attract people to volunteer for our committee. Without a viable committee the organisation cannot function effectively. Fred Cumming, President, WHSESSA 4

5 WILLIAMSTOWN HIGH SCHOOOL EX-STUDENTS & STAFF ASSOCIATION INC. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 29 JULY RECEIPT & EXPENDITURE REPORT FOR THE PERIOD 1/7/2016 TO 30/6/2017 OPENING ACCOUNT BALANCE [30 JUNE 2017]: $12, ADD: RECEIPTS: Membership subscriptions: $ Holding Fast sales and reimbursements for postal delivery of books: $ Sundry: $9.35 TOTAL RECEIPTS: $ SUB TOTAL: $17, LESS: EXPENSES: Printing & stationary: $ Postage: $ Catering: $ AGM 2016 Expenses: $45.25 Scholarships: $ Fee to lodge annual statement: $55.80 Post Office box hire: $ Sub-total: $ Presentation of cheque # 345 drawn in April 2010 on 7 October 2017: $22.35 $3, LESS EXPENSES $3, CLOSING BALANCE: $14, NOTES: 1. Expenses include unpresented cheques # $200.00, # $12.85 & # $ There may be unpresented cheques from earlier financial years as unpresented 30/6/16 totalled $ The assets of the association include unsold copies of the book Hold Fast 3.Operating expenses continue to be covered by membership subscriptions and donations generously made to the association by many of its members. GEOFFREY KING, Treasurer. Reunion Wednesday December 6 th 2017 from 10:00 am till noon (ish) in the library at the Pasco St Campus of WHS. The annual end of year reunion is on again. All ex-students and staff are welcome so put the date in your calendar and let your friends know that it is on again. We would love to see as many people as possible along on the day. We especially would like to see as many from the class of 1967 as a celebration of 50 years since they would have completed their matriculation. If you know any-one who was at WHS in the period please invite them along. We will also manage a tour of the Centenary Theatre for those who haven t had a good look yet!! 5

6 If undelivered return to Williamstown High School Ex Students and Staff Association inc. PO Box 81 Williamstown VIC 3016 Anchor Newsletter POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA PrintPostApproval PP347477/