My 30 year High School Reunion

East Doncaster High School 30 year Reunion

Form 1B 1974

On the 10th October I attended my first ever school reunion - East Doncaster High School 30 year school reunion. It was great to meet up with people I went to school with and to see my best friend, Sally from high school again after 33 years.

I went to three high schools with East Doncaster High School (EDHS) being the first one in 1974.
In 1976 my family moved to Costerfield when I was in Form 3 and I went to Flora Hill High school in Bendigo and then in 1978, form 5 I moved to Koonung High School when my parents separated. Instead of completing for 6 I did TOP (Tertiary Orientation Program) which was an equivalent qualification at the time at Swinburne TAFE. I still have my name registered on the 'Friends Reunited' website so it will be interesting to see if these schools hold a reunion at some stage in the future. Even though I attended 3 different high schools most of my memories from my high school years are ones I have from EDHS.

Over the years I have often thought about Sally. I hadn't had any contact with her since I left EDHS in 1976 and had no way of contacting her. A few years ago I registered my name and details of a website called 'Friends Reunited' in the hope that one day I may be able to contact her again. I was surprised and excited in June to receive an email asking if I would be interested in attending a school reunion in October.

I really enjoyed the reunion and catching up with different people. I was a bit nervous beforehand wondering if everyone was going to get drunk and wondering if I would know anyone and if anyone would remember me however everyone was really friendly and no one drank too much.

One of the things that really stood out to me was how people seemed to be genuinely interested and cared about each other. I wonder if this comes partly from being the first students to start classes at the school, giving us a special bond of being the first students to attend the school. Also, with most of the students having gone to East Doncaster primary school everyone already knew a lot of the other students.

Whatever the reason I really enjoyed the night catching up with people that I hadn't seen for over 30 years.

This is me in form 1.....

and me now....



Form 1 art and craft projects




There is nothing like a reunion to make you think about your life, where you lived at the time, what life was like, who your friends were, what you were like at school and what others thought about you. It also made me think how little we really knew about each other and what our lives were like away from school.

With these thoughts prior to the reunion I wondered if many people would remember me and if they did what their memories would be. I was always very quite at school, one of the 'daggy kids' so I was really surprised at how many people did remember me and that I was remembered as being a nice girl who was always happy to help.

Prior to the night of the reunion I was able to 'met' a few people on Facebook and am now enjoying the continued on-line contact with different people. I am also looking forward to more regular contact with my school friends