Welcome to the final OGA newsletter for 2023. As the year draws to a close, I would like to acknowledge the work of all those who have supported the OGA in 2023. Thank you to Ms Ros Curtis, Principal of St Margaret’s, for her support and guidance for the committee and continuing to value the Old Girls’ community. To Lara Pickering and Georgia Mitchell from the Development and Community Office: your unwavering support and understanding is much appreciated as you support us in so many ways.

The Old Girls’ community is a large and vibrant group, and we the committee are just a small section of this group, and I encourage you to get involved if you can. The role is not time consuming, but you get to reconnect with and work with many amazing Old Girls.

This year, we also welcome 147 new members of the Old Girls’ Association. As the Class of 2023 complete their final exams and finish their formal schooling at St Margaret’s, we welcome them as the newest members of the Old Girls’ Association.

This year has been a year where we have worked to reinstate some functions of the OGA after the global pandemic. One of the initiatives we have been able to start again is the OGA Overseas Study Scholarships. This year, we were pleased to award funding to Emily Woods (’19) to undertake a five week clinical placement at the Gent University Hospital as part of her final year of a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) through The University of Queensland, and Emily Vittone-Taylor (’13) to present at the World Congress of Music Therapy in Canada.

In this issue, we hear from Old Girl and boarder Annabelle Brayley (’72) and Kate Gibson (’96). Annabelle is the bestselling author of a myriad of books, including Bush Nurses (2013), Nurses of the Outback (2014), Outback Vets (2015), Our Vietnam Nurses (2016), and Bush Doctors (2017), while Kate is an international criminal lawyer who has been practising before the international criminal courts and tribunals since 2005, working on a trial before the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda in Tanzania.

We were also fortunate to have Old Girl Dr Sally Magoffin (’14) join us at Speech Night as our guest speaker. Those of you who attended or joined  the online live stream no doubt enjoyed Sally’s honest, humorous, and inspiring address, sharing the values instilled in her at school as a boarder that have carried her through her journey to becoming a surgeon. If you missed it, the link to watch the recording is included in this eNews.

A number of Old Girls have also written in to communicate to our community a range of life milestones and achievements in our Class Notes section, while Archivist Mary Surtees features a piece on The Sisters’ Chapel.

We hope you enjoy this final issue of the OGA News for 2023, and we look forward to our continued connection with you all and seeing many of you at our events next year.

Wishing you all a happy and holy Christmas and festive season.

Per Volar Sunata

Nicole Devlin (’90)
President, St Margaret’s Old Girls’ Association