100 years ago, before the name Kilbreda had even been adopted, one of my favourite photos shows Kilbreda in 1925 before the addition of the Colonnade Wing. This was the school as my grandmother would have known it. The wooden building to the left will be remembered by some past pupils as St Joan’s, which was situated at the end of the Colonnade until it was demolished in 1967. In the plans for the Colonnade, it can be seen that the building, which had probably been built in the decade prior, was still solid enough to move and repurpose and can be seen to the left of the plan.

In 1925, the boarders would have eaten lunch in the Dining Room, but day pupils, such as my grandmother, ate lunch in this building. While interviewing past pupils for our centenary history, I travelled to Ballarat to meet Iola Tuddenham (aunt of Collingwood footballer Des “Tuddy” Tuddenham who had come here in 1925). Her father was Principal of Heatherton State School and took it upon himself to take a photo of his daughter and her schoolmates for posterity. Fortunately, Iola had labelled it back in the 20s but had not done the front row as she didn’t know the younger girls. Luckily, the girl third from the right is my grandmother and a few of that row were still living at that time.

The image below shows the register from 1924-25 showing ‘Mang’ as we called her, Mary Kelly coming to the school in 1924 and her sister Rose in 1925.

Damian Smith

Archives