Public secondary education in Dubbo will take a bow this weekend when an estimated 500 people including the Governor of NSW David Hurley celebrate 100 years since the city’s first high school was opened.
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The Centenary of Public High School Education in Dubbo will draw together current and former students and staff of “all high schools” in the city since Dubbo High School opened in 1917.
The celebrations include a lunch at Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre (DRTCC) on Saturday with the governor as guest speaker.
Co-chair of the centenary celebrations organising committee and former principal of Dubbo High School Jim Carey said the lunch would be an “event of some pomp”, much like the outdoor feast held on the grounds of Dubbo High School 100 years ago.
An official opening will be held on Friday evening at Western Plains Cultural Centre (WPCC), featuring the launch of the centenary publication called Milestones and Memories. The lunch on Saturday will be followed by tours of the three campuses of Dubbo College and a “gathering from all years and all schools” at Dubbo RSL Memorial Club at night. On Sunday, services at Holy Trinity Church and the Cenotaph will be followed by a performing arts spectacular called Saecularia at DRTCC from 2pm. Elston Park will host families on Monday.
Mr Carey thinks infrastructure and aspiration will carry the celebrations, planned across several years. “I think the most amazing thing that people will see is how the original Dubbo High School has been transformed into an icon of the city of Dubbo,” he said in reference to its physical inclusion in WPCC.
Mr Carey said participants would also see how the uniting of three schools under the banner of Dubbo College was a “terrific thing for education in this city”.
Tickets to the lunch on Saturday and Saecularia on Sunday can be bought at www.123tix.com.au. They will also be sold “at the door” of the Sunday afternoon event at DRTCC. The program can be found at www.bindyi.com, the website of the Bindyi Club made up of former students of Dubbo High Schoool and Dubbo College. The Bindyi Club has underwritten the centenary celebrations.
Dubbo High School served the city for almost half a century before Delroy High School was opened in 1966 followed by Dubbo South High School in 1980. The current providers of public secondary education in the city are the Dubbo School of Distance Education,the Mian School and Dubbo College.
