H for History

‘If you’re going to be involved in something and you’re doing that commitment then you’ve got to be there, literally, from the grass-roots up. You’ve got to be there when the sods and soil is being turned. That’s what it’s all about – total commitment.’

These were Kay Beagle’s words as she handed to me an incredible example of that total commitment: nine carefully compiled, precisely labelled and impeccably presented scrapbooks which chronicle Radford’s early days from 1983 to 1993.

Her two eldest children, Jacqui and Stephen Mendl, were foundation students and were followed closely by little brother, Phil, who started in 1988.

‘It was like a big family in those days because it was only a small school… The warmth and caring of everyone from the Headmaster to the library and sports staff – there was a lovely feeling of them caring for you as a person. The pastoral care made you feel as if you were an individual and not just one of hundreds of families.’

Kay started photographing things when she was 10 years old. Her father had a photographic studio in Brisbane and he would have been proud when his daughter ‘followed in his footsteps’ by being selected by her school to take a photograph of the Queen’s Royal Visit in 1954.

As a youngster, Kay got into the habit of creating albums ‘of school excursions, things that I did, friends and family. I specifically started doing albums when I got married and moved away from home and went to live in India. If I could photograph things and make an album and send them back to my parents in Sydney, then they could share the story. I used to write in those albums, and when I lived in Egypt, Greece and New Guinea I did the same thing.’

She goes on to explain that she also created a ‘Book of Life’ for each of her three children – a pictorial record of salient moments in their childhood which they each now possess – and a further six for all of her grandchildren to receive ‘when they are 21’. And these will, of course, include lasting memories of their schooling.

As Radford is about to turn 35 and has arrived at that stage in life when one is more than ready to reflect on the past, the college is all the better for Kay having inadvertently commenced its own ‘Book of Life’. The nine scrapbooks contain invaluable images from the 1983 Laying of the Foundation Day; many colour photographs of ‘firsts’, such as sports carnivals, the school musical and other performances, fetes, building openings and of course 1986’s inaugural Year 9 Camp; youthful portraits of early staff and students; and myriad pictures of construction sites and before-and-after snaps as buildings were being raised and even ovals being cleared and flattened. (I use these photos to play “Guess the Building” with staff each month.)

It is just as well Kay recorded these for posterity and she reminds us to be mindful in capturing these vital stages in the Radford history in order to better reflect in future years, possibly centuries: ‘The moment is important. The here and now is very important’.

I ask Kay which of her photographs is her favourite. She struggles with this, so I mention a few of mine which include a candid portrait of History Head of Department Helen Rasmussen and another of Founding Principal Jock Mackinnon talking to students, both at early athletics carnivals. But my favourite would have to be a photo Kay took of the first day of school – students walk over the rough, rocky and bushy terrain (which is now the P&F Oval) bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the first day of lessons at a brand new school (all pictured below).

‘That encapsulates the real beginnings out there in the paddocks. All the young ones, enthusiastic to come to this new college, tramping up from the bus stop with the big open fields there. It’s a good one’.

This points Kay towards a possible favourite, a photo of her three children, Jacqui, Stephen and Phil, taken on Dedication Day: 11 February, 1984.

‘All I was doing in those days was just happily snapping away to capture the moment. And it just kept on going for as many years as I could possibly cram it all in.’

Radford is certainly proud of her own dedication and grass-roots commitment in doing this. The sharing of the early stages of the school’s story will now be enhanced for her diligence and care.

Above: The first day of school, 1984

Above: The land that would become the Radford Ovals

Above: Founding Principal Jock Mackinnon at the 1984 Athletics Carnival

Above: Helen Rasmussen, Head of History, at the 1990 Athletics Carnival

Above: Kay’s children, Stephen, Phil and Jacqui Mendl, 11 February 1984