The commemoration of the fallen is a time-honoured traditional of St Paul’s College. This is particularly meaningful because of the chapel memorial with the Pauline Roll of Honour that includes the names of John Mair who died in the South African War of 1899-1902, the 20 men who died in the First World War 1914-18, the 25 men who died in the Second World War 1939-45 and Ian Mathers who died in the Vietnam War 1962-72.
The College community gathers at 10 am on Anzac Day for a commemoration service and this year the College Chaplain, Revd Antony Weiss, is preaching about the sacrifices made in war with a focus on the first Australian officer killed in action in the First World War, Captain Brian Pockley, who was at St Paul’s 1909 to 1913. A link to his sermon can be found by clicking here
There are many links between St Paul’s College and the Supreme Court of NSW book-ended by the third Chief Justice, the founding chairman of the College Council Sir Alfred Stephen, and the Current and 18th Chief Justice, old Pauline and former College Council Vice-Chairman, Andrew Bell (pictured above).
17 May 2024 marks the bicentenary of the first sitting of the Supreme Court, a significant milestone for the law in Australia as this court is one of the oldest jurisdictions in the world. To commemorate there is a new exhibition gallery at the Banco Court level 13 of Sydney’s Law Courts building and a book celebrating the 200th anniversary, Constant Guardian: Changing Times – The Supreme Court of New South Wales 1824 – 2024. “It’s guarding the rule of law, with all that important phrase entails,” Chief Justice Bell says of the Supreme Court. For a recent news story CLICK HERE [The Supreme Court of NSW is turning 200. Here are some of its biggest moments – ABC News]
St Paul’s has a deep history of producing alumni who serve the greater good of society across all walks of life. Apart from many serving the law today Paulines who have served on the NSW Supreme Court are:
The Hon Robert Pring (1853–1922; in College 1870), justice 1902-22, and acting Chief Justice 1918-19.
The Hon Sir Philip Street, KCMG KStJ KC (1863–1938; in College 1881-83), justice 1907-33, 8th Chief Justice 1925-33, and Lieutenant-Governor of NSW 1930-38.
Richard Windeyer, KC (1868-1959; in College 1889-90), barrister, acting justice 1936-37.
The Hon Edward Stephen (1870–1939; in College 1890-91), justice 1929-39.
The Hon Sir Kenneth Street, KCMG KStJ QC (1890–1972; in College 1908-10), justice 1931-60, 10th Chief Justice 1950-60, and Lieutenant-Governor of NSW 1931-72.
The Hon Frank Stephen, QC (1901-71; in College 1920-25), NSW District Court Judge and Acting Supreme Court Judge 1953 and 56.
The Hon William Windeyer, AM RFD ED (b 1936; in College 1954-56), judge 1992-2008.
The Hon Henric Nicholas, QC (1941-2021; in College 1958-61, Fellow 1987-2006, Chairman of Council 2002-06), judge 2003-13.
The Hon Terence Cole, AO RFD KC (b. 1937; in College 1955-59), judge 1988-98.
The Hon Robertson Wright (SC) (b. 1955; in College 1978-85), judge 2013- , and first President of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The Hon Mark Leeming (SC) (b 1969; in College 1987-90), judge 2013- .
The Hon Andrew Bell (SC) (b. 1966; in College 1985-89, Fellow 2004-11), Chief Justice 2022- , Lieutenant-Governor of NSW 2022- .
Sir Philip StreetSir Kenneth StreetHenric Nicholas
Rowing Triumph. Exciting stuff for St Paul’s in early April during the Intercoll regatta at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith. The first event was the Rosebowl VIII with six crews and high expectations from their supporters. The St Paul’s crew took an early lead and their disciplined approach stretched their lead every minute of the race with a strong first place some 20 seconds ahead of St Andrew’s. This is a historic win for St Paul’s bringing in the first ever Rosebowl trophy.
In the Rawson Cup VIII again expectations were high and the usual rowing rivalry with St Andrew’s ensured a tense start. At the end St Paul’s crew was victorious beating St Andrew’s by a 14 second margin. This brings home the Rowing trophy for a fifth year in a row.
The ‘social’ event of the mixed VIII was going to be anyone’s at the start but right at the end St Paul’s crossed the line first giving the St Paul’s Rowing team a clean sweep of the 2024 regatta.
This results in two victory dinners for the one sport which is another first in the College’s history. A Rawson Cup Victory dinner was held in Week 7 and a Rosebowl Victory Dinner is planned for Semester 2.
Swimming 2nd and 5th. There are giants of the pool and there are great teams and the mix of these makes or breaks a competition like Intercol. On the night at the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre Women’s won the Rosebowl, St Paul’s came in 5th out of the six colleges and St Andrew’s won the Rawson Cup followed by St Paul’s in 2nd. Special mention to our winners: James Kerr 400m Freestyle; Archie Taylor 100m Freestyle; Ben Varela 200m Freestyle; Zac Warden, Charlie Rutledge, Jack Bailey and Alex Ranson 4x50m Freestyle Relay (B).
Netball done and dusted in March, 5th. The St Paul’s Rosebowl campaign got off to a great start with our Netball Team giving strong performances in all their games. Here are the results:
Round 1 Wesley def. Paul’s 32 to 15; Round 2 St Andrew’s def Paul’s 69 to 25; Round 3 Paul’s def Women’s 44 to 35; Round 4 Paul’s def Sancta 44 to 29; Round 5 St John’s def Paul’s 50 to 41.
Cricket in February, 4th. The Rawson Cup is a time-honoured tradition at St Paul’s and has provided 120 years of quality competitive sports. The cricket season was dominated by some excellent players from St Andrew’s and St John’s and Wesley. The Wesley game was a nailbiter with them hitting the winning runs 8 or 9 down. The St Andrew’s game was a tough one without too many highlights. The St John’s game had Axle Bailey score 80 odd runs. The final scores were:
vs Wesley won 8/136, Paul’s all out 10/135 (Baffsky 30, Lynch 29, Matthews 24, Bouvier 11, Craig 11, Taylor 8, Rowsell 1, Robbinson 0, Bailey 0, Brownie 0); vs St. Andrew’s won 6/185, St Paul’s all out 181 (Bouvier 36, Robinson 35*, Lynch 25, Mathews 17, Baffsky 16 Robinson 15, Taylor 9, Rowsell 5, Cole 1, Bailey 0, Dimmock 0).; vs St. Johns won 8/280, St Paul’s all out 156 (Bailey 86, Lynch 27, Rowsell 7, Taylor 6, Mathews 4, Craig 3, Robinson 2, Bouvier 1, Cole 1, Girle 0*).
The tally. ROSEBOWL: St Andrew’s 23, Women’s 15, Wesley 15, St Paul’s 11, St Johns 6, Sancta 5. RAWSON CUP: St Andrew 13, St Paul’s 8, Wesley 4, St John’s 2.
Graduate House Seminars provide an edifying forum for a range of topics that, so far this semester, have proven both popular and stimulating for post graduate and undergraduate members of St Paul’s.
The first dinner seminar on 19 February was presented by Dr James Dunk a research fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. His topic “Ecological anxiety and planetary mental health” explored the steep rise in anxiety caused by eco-anxiety, climate anxiety, ecological anxiety.
The second dinner seminar on 26 February was presented by old Pauline Dr Lukas Opacic on the topic “Religion, Public Reason, and Neutrality”. Lukas teaches constitutional law at Sydney Law School. He completed a PhD here in 2021 and has also taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at Macquarie University. He was a resident of St Paul’s 2011-13. His paper argued that public reason cannot form a fair basis for determining whether religious exemptions to laws of general application are justified. He created plenty of discussion amongst the jurors and philosophers in the room about partisanship. Lukas posed several questions including: should someone be allowed to discriminate in a modern liberal society? The discussion ventured into the space of religious law in places where there is no liberal democracy, as well as the tension between religious law and state law in places like India. The Q&A also drew out discussion about the benefits of widely held and wide-ranging public values in western-style democracies.
The third seminar on March 4 March with Prof Nick Enfield discussed the topic “Does language control you?”. Nick is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. He is the author of the book “Language vs. Reality: Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists”. Nick states, “we use language in all walks of life and it is like water for fish: it surrounds us but we are seldom aware of it.” He discussed some of the ways that people are both made by language and played by language. This produced some robust discussion and Nick concluded how language directs our attention and shapes our understanding of the world.
In week five the fourth seminar was held on 18 March. It was great to welcome our own Dr David Martinez-Martin who is one of the longest-standing members of Graduate House and is a physicist and innovator who has created multiple patented technologies that are already in commercialisation. David is Deputy Director of Sydney Microscopy and Microanalysis, co-chair of the sensors and diagnostics cluster of the Nanohealth Network and Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney. In his topic “Along my journey of innovation”, David shared his passion and journey through the exciting world of creating and translating new technologies to addressing key scientific and technological gaps. He discussed how the application of some of these technologies has enabled him to discover new phenomena that challenge the status quo in areas of physics and cell biology, particularly regarding our understanding of one of the most basic processes of life: the regulation of a cell’s mass and size, a process whose dysregulation is linked to many disorders including cancers, hypertrophies, obesity, and aging.
The tremendous value of these seminars makes them a very popular part of the offerings of being a Pauline these days. They also forge a strong bond between academia, the College and the University. The seminars are open to all residents and guests. The programme continues during semester weeks on a Monday at 6.10 pm in the McCredie Room.
Over the long break the College was surging with tradies completing much needed renovations of the student facilities and conservation of heritage items.
The bathrooms refresh this year included those in Tower and Albert Wings which were completely stripped out so remodelling and new waterproofing could be completed.
Throughout the residential wings re-painting and many repairs to the internal fabric occurred. External work included the sanding and repainting of many of the metal framed windows and in Blacket and Radford repairs to leadlight windows by a stained-glass window specialist.
An exciting refurbishment was done to the City Road Gates. This heritage item is part of the extensive university fencing that runs along City Rd from the corner of Carillon Ave to Broadway which was installed in the 1890s. The orange sandstone gate posts of the College are carved as cylindrical stone blocks with a semi-spherical and crenelated capstone which are in contrast to the square cut designs of the University gates. The Paul’s gates have wrought iron work and a pair of lamps atop the posts and both feature a Tudor crown. The metalwork has been sanded back, rust-proofed and painted in shiny jet black with gold leaf highlights.
The Senior Common Room was also renovated with new paint colours, new rug and sanded and coated floor timbers. The new decorative scheme will be completed in due course with gold curtaining to complement the traditional College colours.
The Hall dining chairs are a constant maintenance task and the in-house team provide the craftsmanship and care for these items year-round. Dr Antone Martinho-Truswell, our Dean of Graduate House, who is a skilled carpenter, has put the finishing touches on the new table legs of several of the refurbished hall tables and he is pictured above applying his hand-carved timber shields to the cross beams.
Scaffolding of the Ivan Head and McMillan buildings also occurred to provide safe work platforms for the corrective work being undertaken by the builders. All the balconies and some of the very tops of the external walls required realignment to rectify the problems resulting in rainwater intrusion.
The final touches to the Waddy Performance Centre and Tag Gym expansion were also underway. This large space has been fitted out as a theatre for music, drama, lecture and performance events. A large studio for ballet, dance, pilates, yoga, stretch and other aerobic activity has been built. Also a space has been provided for additional resistance training machines greatly expanding the ever-popular gym space.
Invitations to the official opening on Saturday 4 May will be sent out via email from the College soon.
The College is in mourning at the sudden and tragic death of Zac Lerner at St Paul’s on 16 March 2024. Zac came to St Paul’s in 2022 from Auckland Grammar School where he had been a school prefect, played tennis at the highest level and been in the Big Band. He was in his third year of a commerce degree and had followed in the footsteps of his two older brothers to St Paul’s, Jacob (2018-20) and Ben (2020-21).
Zac was a much loved member of the College community. He was a respected leader and had significant roles organising Surreal Sounds and the College Formal as well as representing the College in Tennis and serving as that sport’s Convenor in 2023. Zac was gifted academically and was excelling in his studies. He was known for his selflessness and always being willing to do anything for his mates.
With a wonderful sense of humour and an infectious smile, Zac arrived at St Paul’s with an impressive afro. He quickly became a well-respected member of his cohort. When he wasn’t representing the College himself, he was a proud supporter of his fellow students in their endeavours. He was a very devoted member of the Boomaladbrokes club and enjoyed all that was involved in their activities.
Zac will be greatly missed in our College. We will continue to hold Zac’s mother, Rachel, and his brothers in our prayers along with his close friends and wider family.
The Academic Dinner at the start of Week 3 acknowledged the highest individual scholarly achievements of 2023. There were 26 students honoured for attaining High Distinction averages and another 103 honoured for attaining Distinction average in 2023. That is a very healthy 40% of the 2023 cohort. Eleven of them were awarded University prizes for 2023. Another 41, all Freshers, are winners of University’s Entry awards for 2024. The full list is below.
The Guest of Honour was Professor Nicholas Davis who was at Paul’s 1997-2001 and is Industry Professor of Emerging Technology and teaches about artificial intelligence at UTS. Nick presented the College prizes and spoke to the gathering about his career, which included being a senior member of staff at the World Economic Forum, and how he structured his life and learning goals around a model rather than a plan.
Nick competed LLB while at Paul’s and later an MBA at Oxford. As well as a professorship at UTS he is also co-Director of the Human Technology Institute (HTI). HTI aims to put human values at the centre of Australia’s capability to develop, deploy and govern emerging technologies, thereby ensuring they are accountable, accurate, fair and fit-for-purpose. He was formerly the World Economic Forum’s Head of Society and Innovation and a member of the Forum’s Executive Committee.
Ben Varela (saxophone) and Alexander Back (piano) performed ‘The Swan’ from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) during the dinner.
The College is delighted to also acknowledge and congratulate its prize winners for 2023:
PRIZE FOR HIGHEST ANNUAL AVERAGE MARK (FRESHER): Ben Varela
PRIZE FOR HIGHEST ANNUAL AVERAGE MARK (SENIOR): Ed Taylor
ST PAUL’S COLLEGE TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD, awarded to the most outstanding Tutor nominated by their fellow students: Ed Taylor
MCWILLIAM PRIZE, Established through the generosity of Bruce McWilliam (College 1974-79),
later a Fellow and Bursar of the College, awarded for Law other than final year and for service to College: Jack Holt and Julian Visalli
JUDGE HUMFRY HENCHMAN PRIZE, in memory of Hereward John Humfry Henchman (College 1922-28), Acting Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW and Judge of all District Courts in NSW, awarded to a student in final year Law: [Not Awarded]
SIR IAN MCFARLANE PRIZE, in memory of Ian McFarlane (College 1941-44), engineer, economist, philanthropist and major innovator in exploration for shale oil in Australia, awarded for exceptional results in Economics and/or Commerce and for service to College: Alessandro Petagna
PORTUS PRIZE, in memory of Garnet Vere Portus (College 1903-04), the College’s first Rhodes Scholar, awarded for exceptional examination results in History, Economic History or Philosophy: Isander Mesimeris
UTHER PRIZE, established by a bequest from Allan Hammill Uther (College 1888-90), principal founder of the University Sports Union and Fellow of the College, awarded for three years’ distinguished examination results and service to College: Riley Jones
Examination Results 2023
High Distinction Average (85-100)
Jack Bouvier
Andrew Brennan
Kate Brenner
Ashley Buchanan
William Defina
Tia Durovich
Rebecca Galeano
Nicholas Horne
Riley Jones
Ben Lee
Jack Lockhart
Tommy Lu
Austin Markwick
Luka Mattani
Isander Mesimeris
Abbey Ridgewell
Miku Sugimura
Edward Taylor
Isabella Taylor
Elinor Trevelyan-Jones
Lucy Tucker
Ben Varela
Julian Visalli
Luka Vujanovic
Adam Wong
Andy Xie
Distinction Average (75-84.99)
Luke Amjah
Mitchell Arcus
Fergus Back
Alexander Back
Mia Baggett
Annica Bendall
Hamish Beveridge
Charlie Bishop
Henry Blackwell
Claire Blattman
Ryan Bond
Eric Bong
Sakura Brennan
Benjamin Broadley
Thomas Burge
Rohan Cameron
Allegra Carlton
Samuel Choi
Elodie Crichton
Jack Dawson
Alice Dawson-Damer
Gabriel Desiderio
Charles Dight
Lachlan Donaldson
Michael Dowe
Nicholas Dower
William Edwards
Alexandra Edwards
James Edwards
Louis Eglinton
Chloe Gunning
Joshua Hall-Johnston
Max Hammond
Phoebe Henry
Archer Howard
Finn Johnson
Annika Johnson
Harry Joils
Helen Jordan
Hugh Jordan
Dominic Kadmon
Caleb Kadmon
Elise Kraska
Armand Larché
Olivia Laverty
Matthew Leijer
Christopher Lennox
Leo Li
Ryan Lynch
Juliet Malcolm
Rocco Marcolongo
Owen Marschner
Velvet Martino Zlojutro
Samuel Matruglio
Sam McCredie
Zoe McHutchison
Michael Mingay
Theodore Mower
Lucy O’Brien
Eugenie O’Rourke
Jack Parker
Alessandro Petagna
Maximilian Philips
Mathu Pushpakumar
Thomas Ramsay
Alexander Ranson
Dylan Reid
Zoe Renowden
Samuel Richards
Holly Richards
Aidan Riethmuller
William Rivlin
Timothy Robinson
Alexander Robinson
Jack Sandelin
James Saywell
Harry Scambler
Joseph Scopas
Gabe Scott
Belle Sherlock
Aakash Singh
Toby Smith
Mia Sorensen
Georgia St John
William Stafford
Joska Steinbusch
Joshua Taleb
Phoebe Then
Alexandre Thevenon
Olivia Thoma
Orlando Throsby
Simon Toscan
Joshua Turner
Charlie Veeneklaas
Matilda Walker
Bligh Walter
Everett Whelan
Gemma White
Lucas Woods
Jason Zhu He
University Prizes and Awards 2023 (as notified to date)
Dalyell Scholar (awarded on 1st Year university results): William Edwards
Dean’s List of Excellence: Bryson Constable (Economics), Austin Markwick (Engineering), Luka Mattani (Vet. Science), Julian Visalli (Law)
Business School Change Maker Scholarship: Ryan Lynch
Ashurst Litigation Prize: Julian Visalli
PD Jack Prize: Rocco Marcolongo, Armand Larché
Walter Reid Memorial Prize: Charles Dight, Sophie Jones
A great tradition, thanks to our great oval, is ‘tip’ (touch footy). It began with a bang in Welcome Week and is a favourite excuse to burn some energy every day. Tip was occasionally played in the 1960s and “thanks to the marshalling efforts of James Bell, touch became a pre-dinner activity for everyone interested, freshers versus the rest, at least while evenings were long and warm” (A Atkinson, Hearts and Minds, 2017, p 418).
At about 5pm most days the Tip Convener encourages the residents with a call “tip, tip, tip…” which echoes through the Quad and beyond.
The Rawson Cup Cricket team played a scheduled pre-comp game last week. The College played I Zingari Australia which is one of the premier cricket clubs in the country, founded in 1888. IZ plays regular games and has an amazing schedule of fixtures every year. The match on 15 February was played on the Paul’s oval with a win to St Paul’s. We wish our cricketers well for the forthcoming campaign.
Musician and composer Jonathan Mills returned to College in January and had the opportunity to visit the Waddy Centre during its construction. Jonathan was in College in 1981 and during his BMus at Sydney University he studied under Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE.
Between 1992 and 2003 he made a significant contribution to Australian music through RMIT, firstly as research fellow and composer in residence, and studying a Master of Architecture, focusing on acoustic design and the role of sound in the built environment. Between 1998 and 2003 he was an adjunct professor. He was Vice-Chancellor’s (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne, director of the Alfred Deakin Lectures and an artistic advisor to the Melbourne Recital Centre (including Elisabeth Murdoch Hall).
As a composer his works includes two operas, an oratorio, a ballet, song cycles, concertos, and chamber music. In 2001 he wrote Sandakan Threnody, an oratorio for tenor, choir and orchestra, and in 2005 it was awarded the Prix Italia.
He was the artistic director of music festivals in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and in 2006 he was appointed director and chief executive of the Edinburgh International Festival. His term was twice extended, and concluded at the end of 2014.
Sir Jonathan has been recognised with the Australian Centenary of Federation Medal (2003), an honorary doctorate of the University of Stirling (2008), appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2010), appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), “for distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer and director of international festivals, through the promotion of cultural exchange, and to public debate” (2011), an honorary doctor of the University of Edinburgh (2012), he was knighted in the UK Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2013, appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2013), awarded the Zasłużony Kulturze – Gloria Artis medal of Poland (2013), an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of St Andrews (2013), an honorary doctorate of arts by RMIT University (2013), an honorary doctorate of music by the University of Sydney (2015).
The College community is indeed fortunate to have amongst is alumni one in Sir Jonathan who has made such an important contribution to the world of music which has been so well recognised in Europe and Australia.
