A few words from Annette

Annette Brook (Pownall)

1965 – 1968 (Year 11)

Memories of my time at IGGS


Fond memories of the bus trips to Lang Park and the Valley Pool to cheer on our school
teams. Singing on the bus “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain –
Singing Hi Yi Yippy,
we’re the girls from Ippy,
singing Hi Yi Yippy, Yippy Yi!)
Packed lunches for us all from the dining room – sangas and cream buns!!
Trip to Festival Theatre in Brisbane to see Professor Julius Sumner Miller instigated by Miss
Brown.
Competing in the Goethe Poetry Competition at UQ organised by Mrs Andonov in 1965 and
1966.
The 1968 Snowy Bus Trip in the August Holidays – what a great week that was! Miss
Mansfield was one of our chaperones, maybe someone else can remember who the other
one was – maybe it was Miss Kennedy.
Not so fun memories of being made stand in the corridor late at night as punishment for
talking after lights out or peeping out the windows when the Seniors were having a social in
the Assembly Hall – yes, it happened more than once!!

My story
For a “kid from the bush”, my days at IGGS were certainly an “education”. Thanks to
relatives in Brisbane and the generosity of other boarders, I had somewhere to go on my
weekends away from school – was it once or twice a term? Trips home for the school
holidays were either a five-hour drive by car or part bus/part car to reduce the “ordeal” for
my parents.

I married at almost 25 and by my 34th birthday, we had welcomed three sons into the world.
We encouraged our three sons to complete their education either at university or getting a
trade qualification. We are very proud of them all – a town planner (who moved to
Tasmania after 4 years at UNE), an electrical/instrumentation tradesperson (currently
working as an engineer in Dubai) and an environmental scientist (currently working in
London). So far, we only have one grandchild and he is in Launceston.

Now that we are retired, we spend most of our time travelling around Australia towing our
off-road caravan into some very remote places. We still have our home base at Tannum
Sands – really, we just go home to tidy up the gardens and get ready for our next trip.
Best wishes to all for a great Reunion – we will be thinking of you from our camp
somewhere along the road from Lake Eyre to Broken Hill and onto Birdsville!!

You can take the kid out of the bush but not the bush out of the kid – author unknown.

Annette's FB page: Annette May.