The Principal, Term 2 Week 3
The official opening of the newly landscaped quadrangle was a wonderful evening where some 600 current and past students, parents, and staff gathered to enjoy each other’s company in what has been since 1921 the heart and soul of the School campus. The evening was a particularly important opportunity to acknowledge the generosity of Old Scholar Ian Wall AM (’47) and his wife, Pam Wall OAM whose contribution made the project possible. Robert Taylor, well known to the School, provided a Welcome to Country and a smoking ceremony to cleanse and renew the quadrangle for the next generation of Pulteney Grammarians.
The Quadrangle landscaping has been the fourth project in the quad precinct to draw together the heart of the school: the first was the refurbishment of the Nicholls Building as the performing arts centre in April 2020; the second the conversion of three classrooms as the new staff common room; the third, a refurbishment of Wyatt Hall that was undertaken during the April school holidays and has seen the tiered seating shifted to the northern end of the hall, together with the installation of blackout curtaining.
The Quad, as it has always been known, received its last significant landscaping in 1954. At the time, then Headmaster Canon Ray wrote regarding the newly laid slate:
The third section of the alterations concerned the Quadrangle… the effect of these alterations has amazed visitors, and has given a completely different air to the School. Little of this alteration is visible from South Terrace, so that visitors are surprised when they walk to the back of the Nicholls Building and see the large area of the quadrangle, with Gare wing on its northern side. The tree planting scheme has helped to make the view an impressive one.
From the School’s point of view, the biggest gain is in free times – at recess and lunch time – when there is no longer any feeling of crowding in the quadrangle. What is more, the area, when floodlit, is even more impressive by night than it is by day. These alterations and extensions have given our School added dignity and beauty.
In preserving the legacy of the 1954 landscaping, all the Mintaro slate that was laid in 1954 has been reclaimed with much relayed in the new Quad and more to be kept for laying elsewhere on the campus as landscaping projects provide opportunity in the next few years.
It is quite remarkable how Canon Ray’s words of 1954 mirror the recent landscaping. What was once, is once more and, dare I write, in re-reading Canon Ray’s words, I feel confident that the man to whom the modern Pulteney owes a great debt of gratitude would approve of the dignity and beauty that has been added, once more, to the Quad.
Cameron Bacholer
Principal