Parramatta High School now has 65 nationalities and all major religions represented. This is a tangible reflection of the success of multiculturalism. The school’s youth and teachers work together to achieve great results from which we as a community benefit. Its students, past and present, are prould of their school and its history. I had the pleasure of being shown around the schools history room which has been put together with the dedication of Mr Peter Dunn and Ken Blundell. The collection of memorabilia was remarkable. Of particular note was the very special academic hat of 1913 which, I am told, was inspired by the founding principal’s desire to replicate traditional English universities like Oxford and Cambridge. The school’s colours of light and dark blue were adopted from the blues of Oxford and Cambridge universities. In fact, Parramatta high was designed to become “The Oxford of Australia”.

Over the years a number of Parramatta High School students have gone on to great achievements in their lives and excelled in many aspects of society, and I wish to acknowledge some of them: in sport, the Benaud family, Louis, John and Richie, and Harry Hopman and Ken Kearney: in the Armed Forces, Group Captain William N. Gibson, and Vice Admiral Sir Henry Burrell: in teaching, Mark Bishop and Lilian Whiteoak: in writing and the arts, Evan Green, Wilbur Kentwell, Heather and Joy McKean, Chips Rafferty and Rod Taylor: in academia, Emeritus Professor William Henry Edward Hanley Stanner and Professor John Croucher: in medicine, Professor Bede Morris and Dr Ronald Winton: in the law, Gordon Champion and High Court Justice Sir Cyril Ambrose Walsh.

Additionally, there have been community welfare activists such as Ted Noffs: an astronaut, Antartic explorer and rocket scientist, in Dr Phil Chapman: and also a Cardinal, in Edward Idris Cassidy. Parramatta High School has also produced its share of politicians, in Leo Port, who was Sydney’s first popularly elected mayor; also Justice George Weir, Jack Hough and Richard Heally, who all came here to Macquarie Street. Justice Goerge Weir was the Minister for Conservation from 1946 to 1953, and Richard Heally was the Minister for Youth and Community Services in 1973 and in 1975 he went on to become the Minister for Health.

Parramatta High School has continued to honour its students, and last Friday two very special former students were honoured. Jack and Dora Freeman, who recently celebrated their sixtieth anniversary, each received a Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the school. On acceptance, Dora told the very funny story of how the principal of the time, Miss Mackanees, had seen her and Jack walking together from the train station to school. Dora was called to the principal’s office and informed that if the principal ever saw her “with that boy again, she would no longer be a prefect”.

Obviously, love conquered all in the case of Jack and Dora Freeman. Parramatta High School is a remarkable school – it was in 1913, and it still is in 2003. I congratulate its sudents, both past and present, and would like to place on record the thanks of the people of Parramatta to (Mr) Taylor and (Miss) Campbell, who have worked hard to make the history of the school come alive so that it may be celebrated.