Press: 2010 Mark Williams at Coffs Harbour

Following the policy of preserving newsworthy items and photos of our classmates, here's an article appearing in a Coffs Harbour newspaper in 2010 about Mark Williams:

Press: 2009 Peter Foley on the Ella Bache

Peter Foley (Year 12, 1982) has landed himself a position with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and occasionally has to front the media to give details of non-air transport incidents.

He's spoken about Jessica Watson's collision with a container ship on her way from Brisbane to Sydney to start her famous around-the-world trip.  Here's a news footage grab from 7 News on 20 Nov 2009:

He also appeared on national television when the Pasha Bulker ran aground at Nobby's Beach in July 2007.  Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a recording going at that time (probably before I had a PVR anyway).

Comments (please!!!)

Okay, Okay, Okay, I have finally figured out how to turn the comments on so you DON'T have to be a member of an obscure network in order to post a comment.  Mind you, if you DO have a Google identity (perhaps you have a Gmail account or have actually joined Google+) then it's probably the easiest and most convenient way to post comments on to this blog.

However for the not insubstantial number of you without membership of Google, OpenID or the other options, I've now opened the blog to comments from two other types of users.

Firstly there is the Anonymous user.  Obvious what happens, but gee, please don't use it unless you have a really good reason for hiding your identity.  Alternatively post from Anonymous, but leave your name in the actual comment somewhere.  However the other way of doing it is to use the Name/URL method.  You can enter your name and then add a website you're related to (if any) and it will come up after your comments.

For now (and hopefully all time) I'm not moderating comments, which means they will appear on the blog instantly.  I prefer this, but if objectionable content does get posted in the comments (eg excess profanity, racism, offensive material, etc) I'll be deleting them, and possibly turning on the moderation if it continues to excess.  This will mean comments will have to wait for me to read them and okay them before publishing.  But I most certainly don't ever want to resort to this.

Mind you, with live comments, a pair of you MIGHT get involved in a live slanging match - so please guys, it's only a hobby and take a step back if you should feel termpers fraying.  (This is, of course, assuming ANY comments at all go on the blog).

Another thing I'm interested in is whether or not to allow Google ADVERTISEMENTS on the blog.  I have turned them on at my other blog (ie Bustopher Said... ) so you can scroll down and take a look at what they might look like if we turn them on here.  They come up between every third or fourth blog post, and at the column over on the right-hand side (down the bottom).  They are supposed to be context sensitive (eg next to the blog entry about my Princess Cruise in March 2012, will probably appear an ad for a cruise liner).

Advertisements give the potential to raise a very small amount of revenue.  So far, from Bustopher Said... I have raised 42c over about two and a half years.  However we'd probably be getting more traffic on this blog, so it might accumulate faster.  Incidentally, once the total hits $150.00 they'll send me a cheque.  Mind you, I'll probably be over 350 years old before this happens...

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Ads, and please - just leave a comment to say hello and let me know the blog IS getting used - I need the feedback.

Aerial Photograph

Here's a satellite image of the site from Google Maps.

Wikipedia link (& history)

I suppose no site would be complete without a link to our entry on Wikipedia, which is here.

For those who can't remember the school opened in 1976 in fully demountable buildings in Dudley Street, Gorokan with only a single school year (year seven).

In 1977 the school moved to its permanent site in Goobarabah Avenue Gorokan (now technically Lake Haven) with a limited number of classrooms, but also a Science block, Hall, Industrial Arts rooms, Music Rooms, Special Purpose rooms (eg Art, Tech Drawing), Administration Building and Library.  At this stage it had both Year 7 and Year 8 students.

In 1978 major additions were opened including a few more science laboratories and a lot more classrooms.  The school is modelled on the US collegiate system of design which means there are large numbers of courtyards around which various classrooms are situated.

School Poem and Hymn

Yep, formality was the order of the day with Miss Foley.  She tried to instill a feeling of goodwill and community amongst us all.  Whether it worked or not was a different matter!  Here are the school's official Hymn and Poem as we used to hear frequently at assemblies and formal gatherings.

To open this up for search engines, here is the text of the above

School Hymn: Let there be peace on earth



Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be.

With God as our father, brothers all are we.

Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me - let this be the moment now.

With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow:

To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

School Poem:  All Beauteous Things

I love all beauteous things

I seek and adore them

God hath no better praise

And Man in his hasty days

Is honoured for them

I too will something make

And joy in the making

Although tomorrow it seem

Like the empty words of a dream

Remembered on waking

Absolutely incredible how non-secular, patriarchal and obsolete these things are.  The current school motto is "Pathways to Learning"!!  You'd probably get sued by people having this school poem and school hymn in this day and age.

Right... What now??

...phew!  As you may be aware I used to have a Gorokan High website up on my personal web space with my ISP IntergrityNet at Gosford (not a bad ISP - excellent service, but expensive).  When I changed ISPs back to Telstra BigPond, then that website disappeared, and it has been down for a lot longer than I had hoped it would have been.

We are now back with a vengeance, and with the option to include a lot more data (unlimited - it's hosted by "Blogger", which is a service provided by Google, so one can assume they have a big hard drive or two to keep the data safe).  My personal web space was limited to a mere ten megabytes, and at the time of it going offline, the thing was occupying 8.96 megs, so we didn't have far to go.

Putting the site on to a blog is going to be tricky, as the arrangement of the blog is primarily chronological.  IE the articles will come up in order of when they are posted.  However the hosting charges are nil and as mentioned we have unlimited space, so there are huge differences.

The old blog was restricted to just MY year at Gorokan High (Year 10/1980).  There is no reason to limit this blog to any year at all.  In the early days of the blog, my material will naturally come from the early years because that's what I've got, but if I come across anything else useful from future years (or the one before), I'll put it online.

- Yours truly.

In addition, Blogger allows user comments (and I want to see a lot of them, guys).  So it has the chance to be alot more interactive than the old web site. Another big plus is that it doesn't just have to be me adding the blog posts.  If anyone would like to become either an editor or blogger, and you have the IT skills to be able to do it properly, please send me a line by email.  (Finding my email address on the blog might be your first challenge - although it IS very prominent)!

Okay, so away we go.  What on earth am I going to make the first (substantive) post, I wonder...

Inaugural post

Okay, this is EARLY days, but the old Gorokan High site I used to have up will be transferred here in a new format shortly.  For now this blog is merely a placeholder.  But don't panic, we will be placing MANY things here in the near future.

-Peter Deane  (Year 12/1982)  (Second year of GHS)

Reunion: 2009 for 40-ish year olds at Wyong Leagues Club at Kanwal

This reunion was organised by Darlene Williams-Woodger. The message she posted on Facebook read:

If you are now 40-44 ish years old, we are having a Gorokan High School get together and hope you can join us.

VENUE - Wyong Rugby Leagues Club Auditorium
DATE - 10th of October 2009
TIME - 7pm
COST - $25 per person
PAYMENT DUE 22nd of Aug

You have to pre-pay for this event as TICKETS WILL NOT BE SOLD AT THE DOOR. The cost includes venue, security, finger food and music. Partners are welcome.

This was quite a well-attended reunion.  Naturally, I only hung out with a limited number of people from my school year.  So if you attended this and have more pictures, I'd love you to send them to me and I'll add them to the blog.  These pics were taken on Deahne Campbell's (nee Gray) camera - many thanks.

Deahne Campbell (Nee Gray) and Murray Howard

Sharon Deane (Woy Woy High) and Peter Deane (I did wake up later)

Doug Vincent and Deahne Campbell (Nee Gray)

Doug Vincent, Deahne Campbell (Nee Gray) and Murray Howard

Elizabeth  Bell (Nee Jenkins) and Scot Nieass

Craig Hemers and ???