On my 19th birthday, Sunday 17 February 1974, the day before O’Week, I presented at the front door of Goodbury. With little other than a passion for reading history, I was not to know this would be the embarkation point for a transformative life shaping journey.
For this farm boy from the South Burnett, the next four years were spent juggling a busy college life with study and knocking out assignments and a thesis on my Remington typewriter. I made deep and lifelong friendships and secured career shaping connections. Later these would take me beyond St Lucia to Cambridge and Chicago, leading eventually to a career in public history, politics and government, and universities.
Why St John’s still matters to me also explains the resurgent popularity of university residential colleges among young Australians. It’s the people thing. More than a century ago the College founder, Archbishop St Clair Donaldson, recognised that the essential element of a university education was the social and intellectual context afforded students in a college where they might have the “intellectual chance” to benefit from living with both mentors and peers in a place grounded in a set of rules. Looking back through the pages of ‘Argo’ from my time at college – the mid-1970s – the founder’s prescience was clear then, as it is today.
From day one, the university experience is enriched uniquely for college students by them living and socialising with others from different disciplines, including those older members further advanced in their studies. It fosters a rich learning environment beyond formal education. Studying history at St John’s, I remember lengthy discussions late into the night (sometimes all night) with equally ardent advocates of a good argument studying in fields as diverse as economics, law, science, medicine, engineering, theology, and agriculture. Besides one’s college and social life, discussions could touch on anything from music, sport, movies and books, to politics, people, values, and philosophy. These room gatherings invariably involved a few beers or cups of instant coffee and powdered milk – before Bernie Gerber set off in his VW Beetle to Harry’s Café on Petrie Terrace for the nightly 11 pm order of burgers and chips.
Ours was a rebellious, rambunctious, long-haired, irreverent generation which emphasised casual egalitarianism and strained against the formality of the Oxbridge traditions that persisted, albeit in muted form. More broadly, many of the young “boomers” grew up in a popular culture that questioned skeptically or satirised past customs and standards. It was the era of Monty Python and Aunty Jack. Invited to say Grace at dinner, a visiting scholar my later Cambridge mentor, the eminent historian Peter Laslett, naively launched into the ‘long version’ of “Benedictus, Benedicat…” only to be greeted by a noisy spoon bang - much to the Warden’s mortification and my embarrassment for the visitor.
The rising secular tide was a national trend not limited to College. Nevertheless, our clerical trio, Peter Carnley, Ron Marks and Ron Henderson, quietly countered with their mature consideration and caring pastoral example, reminding always of the spiritual opportunity that came with college - as well as the enjoyment of supper at the Lodge after Wednesday evening chapel.
With a few notable exceptions, the student body was a moderately conservative group, amply evident in the Country Party prevailing over the Peter Beattie led “Labor Government” in the 1974 Student Club mock parliament, and the refusal of some to hear Slim Dusty drowned out by Led Zeppelin. Former Prime Minister John Gorton was well received when he came for dinner, a JCR talk and a few drinks with the student executive. He epitomized the laid-back informality of the 1970s and much to the wonder of an American member of the senior common room walked up to the University with us the following morning without staff or security.
In the Reverend Dr Peter Carnley we had a Warden who consciously emphasised social and ecumenical diversity in the college intake, making for a more dynamic mix by drawing from State and Roman Catholic schools as well as the long-established GPS catchment. He wisely counselled through the college magazine that the best way to make the most of the College opportunity was for students to live “charitably and responsibly but not too seriously.” It was a challenge many practiced somewhat unevenly, erring too much to the frivolous, but never without charity because we lived well by sharing and drawing collectively on our common resources, living as a community, especially through student club activities.
After the January floods which inundated lower parts of the college and the advent of a semester timetable, 1974 also marked the beginning of an era of free tertiary education and a means-tested student living allowance. It meant students like me from ordinary backgrounds could pay our college fees and secure entrée to a world which afforded the making of a well-rounded Johnian.
“Spirit” was a word much used to describe an attitude, a community ethic, epitomised by a willingness to contribute and add to the life of the place. Like “whip out,” it is a term that resonates just as strongly in today’s College. For this Johnian, it meant taking the archbishop’s “intellectual chance,” writing articles for Argo or pithy poems with Grant McLennan, or putting on directed plays like Edward Albee’s ‘Zoo Story’ with Geoff Johnson in 1974 and Robert Bolt’s ‘A Man for All Seasons’ in 1975 with Kevin Johnson and a cast that seemed to involve half the college. And of course, there was always the ICC sporting competitions affording ‘whip out’ opportunities as player or supporter.
Equally important was an active role in the student club, the core instrument of student life, which provided an excellent training ground for social and project organisation, financial and events management, and yes - politics and leadership. While the lengthy list of arcane and archaic student club titles and functions that harked back to earlier eras has not survived, still in place is the committee structure with responsibilities that attend to organising the informal social infrastructure that defines the special qualities of college life.
At first glance, there might seem to be a stronger emphasis these days on social justice, sustainability, and other issues commonly lumped under the acronym DEI “diversity, equity, inclusion” – but go to the old Argos and you will see we discussed and wrote about similar subjects but in the language and context of the world half a century ago. Our College has always attracted people who are positively engaged with the world at large.
College life helped me navigate the storm of early adulthood. It was a safe place where one’s social, cultural, and sporting activities helped form identity and purpose beyond the core mission of studying for a degree. Participation has always been the secret ingredient to personal growth and success in college, learning to live with others, functioning as a community member and being “only intolerant of the intolerant.” It is a mantra I have carried through life, and it well serves as an antidote to the hyper-partisanship, cultural tribalism, and incivility served up by social media.
The essence that draws from that participation and community building does not change over time – the fellowship and friendships last as long as life itself among Johnians wherever they may be. This continuity of college ethic, shared experience and connection is the best thing about belonging to the college community and today it can be seen in the making of another generation at St John’s. It is why college will matter long into the future.