NBHSOBA REPORTS - NBHS OBA - Newcastle Boys' High School Old Boys' Association

Since our last lunch there have been more events both in Australia and internationally that have had significant impacts on our lives one way or another. Between cost of living rises, housing issues, shootings in Bondi and events in the Middle East, among others, we have all been affected. I trust that our members get through these trying times without too much tribulation.

ROSS KERRIDGE
Unfortunately, also during the last few months, our alumnus Dr Ross Kerridge has had to resign from his role as Lord Mayor of Newcastle for health reasons and we wish him all the best in his latest ‘fight’.

PETER MORRIS
We have lost quite a few more members over the last twelve months. One I would like to formally acknowledge is the former, long serving, Labor Member for Shortland, Peter Morris. Vale to all.

OUR WEBSITE – www.nbhsoba.net
I normally express my thanks to all the Committee members at this time for their hard work during the last year and I again do so. A special repeated mention needs to go to Greg Kentish for his work on our website. We would ask that if you are looking at the photos there and you come across one with names missing that you please let us know who they are if you can. We have added more obituaries of deceased Old Boys to our website which are quite interesting. If you know of anyone whose family would not mind having theirs added please forward them to our webmaster, gkentish@gmail.com.

ANNUAL LUNCH
A reminder that the lunch documents are available on our website and can be used by any ‘Old Boy’ who has not received our email. Please ensure we have your current email address and that it is kept up to date whether you are financial or not.

GUEST SPEAKER – Michael Blaxland
The guest speaker last year, Michael Back, entertained us with his talk on environmental and planning law. This year’s Guest Speaker will be Michael Blaxland OAM.

NBHS PHOTOS, MAGAZINES etc
We are still after items which may be of historical significance, including photos and magazines, please contact Dick Sanders at dicksanders@optusnet.com.au with a view to either providing them to the OBA or at least having their whereabouts noted.

MEMBERSHIP
Our financial Membership has only slightly decreased to 903. despite the passing of a number of Old Boys as it was partially offset with new or renewed membership from the Year of ’75. We hope this trend continues. There is still a significant number of non-financial members and we would appreciate their renewing their commitment to the Association.

WE NEED YOUR HELP
We are still hoping that some “champions” will come forward for each year to encourage attendance at the lunches and/or to obtain memorabilia. If there are it would be appreciated if they could make themselves known to me during the Lunch.

50 YEAR REUNIONS
We get nearer to the time when there will be no further years to draw membership, or year specific Guest Speakers, from when the Year of ’78 is reached in 2 years. It is therefore important that we look to increasing our membership from the ‘younger brigade’ of former students and we seek your assistance in this regard. I would ask the Year of ’77 to think about who they will nominate as Guest Speaker for next year.

I was unable to attend the School Presentation at Newcastle East Primary School last year and John Beach filled in for me there. However, I did get to the presentations for Waratah and Newcastle High Schools. What some students achieve across a number of fields of endeavor is astonishing at times. Your donations go to the student awards so we are always grateful for any you make. We would also be very grateful for any bequests you may wish to leave in your Wills no matter how small. We are willing to offer more awards if any of you would like to fund them and advise a name for the award and field of achievement for which it is to be awarded.

SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS
The prize recipients in 2025 were:

NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL –
Roy Davis Prize for School Community Achievement $200
Luca Crakanthorp
Keys Family Prize for Best Science Student Year 10 $200 Charlie Smith
Dr Allen Knott Scholarship $1000 Kynan Jackson
Caesar Smith Prize for Creative Writing $200
Nicholas Slater
Caesar Smith Prize for Creative Writing Year 10 $200 Orla Muddle
OBA President’s Prize for Legal Studies $200
Koby Pascoe
Colin Keys Dux of the School (2024) $1000
Cassidy Hight

WARATAH CAMPUS of CALLAGHAN COLLEGE –
F.H. Beard Prize for School Community Achievement $200
Madie Costelloe
Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 7 $100
Euan Carmichael
Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 8 $100
Cooper Steele
Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 9 $100
Bram Sijpkes
Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 10 $100
Otis Downer
Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 7 $50
Daniel Horgan
Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 8 $50
Minh Vu
Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 9 $50
Archie Kellett
Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 10 $50
Zoe Rice
Keys Family Prize for Best Mathematics Student Yr 10 $100
Ayooluwa Mercy Olatunji
Dr David Stewart Scholarship $500
Zoe Andrean

NEWCASTLE EAST PUBLIC SCHOOL
Dux of School $100
Clara Bailey Hepburn

SINCERE CONDOLENCES
The Committee extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Old Boys who have passed away since our last Lunch. We are always appreciative of any information you can pass on about any of your cohorts that have passed away so we can keep our records up to date. It can be distressful for the families if we unknowingly attempt to contact a deceased member about the lunches.

Please supply our Membership Officer, Greg Wilson via email to gawilson@bigpond.com with any information.

AGM – Thursday 25 th June at 5.15pm
Please attend the AGM on Thursday 25 th June at 5.15pm if possible and note it will be held in the Fredman
Hall below the Newcastle Synagogue, 122 Tyrrell St, Newcastle. We would more than welcome some new blood.

I wish all of our members good health for the remainder of 2026 and on.
Remis Velisque
Norm Rodgers (President) 12 May, 2026

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
June 2025 AGM

The year since our last dinner has had its moments. Whatever your political persuasion, you could say there have been some interesting events both in Australia and internationally. We have had some pretty powerful weather occurrences and an upswing in the number of earthquakes in the Hunter area.

On a more positive note, we have had another of our alumni elected as Lord Mayor of Newcastle – our congratulations to Dr Ross Kerridge.

On a more sombre note, we have lost quite a few more members over the last twelve months. Two I would like to formally acknowledge are the pre-eminent architect Brian Suters and a former long standing Committee member and well-known lawn bowler, John Hammal. Vale to all.

I normally express my thanks to all the Committee members at this time for their hard work during the last year and I again do so. A special repeated mention needs to go to Greg Kentish. Greg has totally revamped our website over the last 12 months using a new platform and giving it a total new look.

Our enrolment registers are now there to view and, with the assistance of Dick Sanders and Peter Scaife, many more photos are available on the site. We would ask that if you are looking at the photos and you come across one with names missing that you please let us know who they are if you can.

We have added more obituaries of deceased Old Boys to our website which are quite interesting. If you know of anyone whose family would not mind having theirs added please forward them to our webmaster to gkentish@gmail.com.

A reminder that the dinner documents are available on our website and can be used by any ‘Old Boy”
who has not received our email. Please ensure we have your current email address and that it is kept up to date whether you are financial or not.

The guest speaker last year, Peter Gittens, was also recently elected as a Councillor for Newcastle. His
speech was well received and suitably entertaining.

This year, Michael Back the Captain from the Year of ‘75 will be our guest speaker. Michael attended University of Sydney following his HSC and graduated with Honours in Law. He is currently a senior partner of Freehills in Brisbane and specialises in environmental and planning law.

A reminder call again for any members who have items which may be of historical significance, including photos and magazines, please contact Dick Sanders at dicksanders@optusnet.com.au with a view to either providing them to the OBA or at least having their whereabouts noted.

As alluded to above our financial Membership has decreased roughly 5% to 906 due to the passing of Old Boys. However, there is still a significant number of non-financial members and we would appreciate their renewing their commitment to the Association. We are still hoping that some “champions” will come forward for each year to encourage attendance at the dinners and/or to obtain memorabilia. If there are it would be appreciated if they could make themselves known to me during the night of the Dinner.

We get nearer to the time when there will be no further years to draw membership, or year specific Guest Speakers, from when the Year of ’78 is reached in 3 years. It is therefore important that we look to increasing our membership from the ‘younger brigade’ of former students and we seek your assistance in this regard.

Because of a clash of times between schools I was unable to attend all the School Presentations with John Beach filling in at Waratah High on one occasion. Once again it is revealing learning about the achievements of many of the students we award prizes to.

During the year we undertook a review of the prize allocation with the aim of both prolonging our capacity to award them and to bring them back into line with their original intent.

Your donations largely go to this part of the reason for our existence so we are always grateful for any you make. We would also be very grateful for any bequests you may wish to leave in your Wills no matter how small.

The prize recipients in 2024 were:

Newcastle High School
Roy Davis Prize for School Community Achievement $200 Athulya Pasupuleti
Keys Family Prize for Best Science Student Year 10 $200 Finn Hardy
Dr Allen Knott Scholarship $1000 George Allman
Caesar Smith Prize for Creative Writing
$200 Imala Cash
Caesar Smith Prize for Creative Writing Year 10 $200 Finn Hardy
OBA President’s Prize for Legal Studies
$200 Lachlan Groenendyk
Colin Keys Dux of the School (2023)
$1000 Annika Sommer

Waratah Campus of Callaghan College
F.H. Beard Prize -School Community Achievement $200 Marley Purcell
Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 7
$100 Benjamin Fuller

Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 8
$100 Isabelle Smith

Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 9
$100 Silas Moyle-Mackaway

Brian Donegan Prize for Most Improved Mathematics Student Yr 10
$100 Aiden Parciany

Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 7
$50 Misheal Ajmal

Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 8
$50 Peter Geluk

Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 9
$50 Rudy Astwana

Charles Goffet Prize for Creative Writing Yr 10
$50 Scarlett Pritchard

Keys Family Prize – Best Mathematics Student Yr 10
$100 Nashariah Reese

Dr David Stewart Scholarship
$500 Eden Sykes Stewart

Newcastle East Public School
Dux of School $100 Otto de Witt

The Committee extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Old Boys who have passed away since our last Dinner. We are always appreciative of any information you can pass on about any of your cohorts that have passed away so we can keep our records up to date. It can be distressful for the families if we unknowingly attempt to contact a deceased member about the dinners. Please supply our Membership Officer, Greg Wilson via email to gawilson@bigpond.com with any information.
Please attend the AGM if possible and note it will be held in the Fredman Hall below the Newcastle Synagogue, 122 Tyrrell St, Newcastle. We would more than welcome some new blood.
I wish all of our members good health for the remainder of 2025 and on.

Remis Velisque
Norm Rodgers (President) 15 May, 2025

The next Annual General Meeting will be held in a venue to be advised at 5:00 pm on Thursday, 25th June 2026 prior to the normal Committee Meeting.

Norm Rodgers,
President

MEMBERSHIP REPORT

2026 Membership Report