Former Gordon Wool School students from throughout Australia will gather back in Geelong later this month to catch up with old mates, reminisce and enjoy the camaraderie of the wool industry.
The Gordon Wool School Old Students’ Association expect about 120 past students and partners will attend the annual dinner on Saturday, May 30.
It will be a particularly special event for the 1985 group, which will celebrate its 30-year reunion.
The association president Campbell Brumby is among the cohort that graduated in 1985, when, he said, the wool industry was booming.
“The Australian Wool Corporation reserve price scheme was still in place and demand for trained and competent wool people was very high from the shearing, processing, buying and broking sectors,” Mr Brumby said.
He hops as many of the around 30 students who did the specialist course with him when make it to the reunion.
“We had a terrific year group that entered the 2.5-year course in 1983 …[when] most of us where fresh out of school and bright-eyed 16 year-olds looking for a career with adventure.
“The Gordon Wool School had an excellent reputation worldwide for turning out capable graduates since after World War I, and were integral in preparing the Australian wool clip throughout the boom years of the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
“The staff and instructors at the Wool School were seasoned and experienced men that had not only taught students the finer details of wool handling and preparation, but how to conduct yourself and what was, and was not acceptable behaviour.”
He and his former classmates have witnessed significant changes in the industry in the past three decades, for example The Gordon, which is now Victoria's largest regional stand-alone TAFE, no longer has a wool faculty. Mr Brumby said a percentage of those who graduated with its specialist training now worked in other agricultural industries.
The annual dinner on Saturday, May 30 will be held at the Highton Bowls Club, corner of Barrabool and South Valley Roads, Highton. It will start at 6pm with pre-dinner drinks. Entry is $50 per head which includes dinner. Drinks will be at bar prices.
The 1985 group are invited to a pre-dinner gathering at the Sawyers Arms Tavern Geelong from 4pm.
