Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Past Student Awards

The Old Girls’ Association congratulates the winners of the 2025 St Margaret’s Past Student Awards – Prue Galley (’61) is recognised as the Distinguished Past Student, Ria Bhagat (’12) as the Young Past Student of Distinction, and Annabelle Brayley (’72) as the winner of the Spirit of Service Past Student Award.

Prue Galley (’61) – Distinguished Past Student Award Recipient

Prue Galley attended St Margaret’s from kindergarten. Her family had been connected with the school from the early 1900s. In 1961, she was School Captain and Old Girls’ Prize winner.

Prue graduated with Honours in Physiotherapy from The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1965 then worked as a clinician in Australia and the UK. She later completed a Master’s Degree in Educational Studies and an Advanced Diploma in Choreology (Clinical). She was a Lecturer at UQ for many years.

Prue’s vision and advocacy in the 1970s led to the adoption of patient self-referral to physiotherapists. This practice had not been previously allowed. Australia led the world with this change and since then first contact practice for physiotherapy has been adopted in many countries. 

The World Confederation for Physical Therapy awarded Prue with its International Service Award (Practice) in 2011. She is an Honoured Member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (London). She is a Dame in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller.

In 2019, Prue was shortlisted by the International Physiotherapy History Association in its project to determine History’s Greatest Physios.

Prue considers that her years at St Margaret’s profoundly influenced her ethical thinking, enabling her to face the many professional and personal challenges she has met during her life.

Ria Bhagat (’12) – Young Past Student of Distinction Award Recipient

Ria has served as a diplomat at the Australian High Commissions in Vanuatu and Kenya, working in foreign policy and international development. In Vanuatu, Ria established deep relationships across government, civil society and media to strengthen Australia’s engagement in the Pacific. She assisted humanitarian responses to Category 5 tropical cyclones and supported Vanuatu to host the landmark Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival, featuring indigenous performers from across the Pacific. 

Ria also coordinated Australian assistance for Vanuatu’s national elections, leveraging her experience in democratic governance and human rights. When posted in Nairobi, Ria advocated for Australian trade and investment interests in Kenya and Tanzania. 

Having worked and volunteered in rural Queensland, Myanmar and India, Ria brings a depth of intercultural experience and a passion for community engagement to her work. Ria received a Student Leadership Excellence award for service to the community while studying law and journalism at QUT. 

Prior to joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ria interned at the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS). 

Annabelle Brayley (‘72) – Spirit of Service Past Student Award Recipient

Annabelle Brayley has lived in the Charleville area in South West Queensland since graduating as a Registered Nurse in the late 1970s. She has worn many hats over the years and is fiercely committed to the belief that community should always have a seat at the decision-making table particularly in relation to health and education.

Annabelle was the first community director appointed to the board of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and founding Chair of its Community Reference Group. She recently assembled a Community Advisory Group for NewMed, a new medical school that will, once approved, enable aspiring doctors to study their first three years of medicine online from their home communities.

Annabelle is founding Chair of Remote Australians Matter (RAM), a national organisation established in 2023 to address the lack of equitable access to Primary Health Care in remote Australia.

A published storyteller, Annabelle considers her most significant work to be a book that honours all the RAAF, Army and Civilian Surgical Team nurses who served in Vietnam. She is the curator of the Morven community’s Vietnam Nurses Memorial, Australia’s only memorial dedicated solely to those women.

Please join us in celebrating Prue, Ria and Annabelle at this year’s Past Student Awards Dinner on Wednesday 26 March. Tickets are available online: https://paststudents.stmargarets.qld.edu.au/event/past-student-awards-dinner or by calling the Development and Community Office via (07) 3862 0768.