Alumni and friends of St Mark’s from many generations recently enjoyed an evening of recollection and celebration at our Perth reunion.

Perth treated alumni and friends of St Mark’s to a gloriously sunny spring evening for a reunion at the University of Western Australia’s Club Café & Bar, where views of the university gardens and the beautiful Matilda Bay provided the perfect backdrop for recollection and celebration.

Alumni and friends were joined by Professor Don Markwell AM, Head of College, and Ms Karin Dunsford, Director of Centenary Engagement, who had travelled from Adelaide to be with them.

Bringing together a group of Old Collegians who were at St Mark’s across different generations yielded some interesting stories that illustrated the arc of the College’s history.

One of many highlights was the reunion of a group of Old Collegians who all came to St Mark’s from Western Australia in the 1950s because, at the time, there was no medical school in Perth. Many medicine hopefuls found themselves needing to relocate to the nearest university that did, which happened to be the University of Adelaide.

St Mark’s provided an enriching home for these self-proclaimed “West Australian Invaders” while they completed their studies, and they in turn enriched the College with their contributions. In fact, between 1948-1957, four of the College Club Committee’s Presidents, five Secretaries (one serving for two years), and two Treasurers were students from WA.

After finishing their studies and leaving St Mark’s, these Old Collegians went on to enjoy impactful careers in diverse areas of medicine. Despite the years that have passed, they’ve retained a sense of pride in being amongst the West Aussies to come to – and, indeed, help to define – St Mark’s.

Representing another important part of our history at the reunion were Old Collegians who were amongst the first female students to enter St Mark’s when the College became coeducational in 1982.

Going to Perth also allowed Professor Markwell to share our plans for our Centenary Gala Dinner. As the headlining event of our Centenary Gala weekend, the dinner will be 100 years to the day of our founding in 1925.

Ms Dunsford spoke with guests about the opportunity to become a Table Captain for the Gala Dinner, eliciting much interest in bringing old friends together in celebration (if you’d like to express an interest in being a Table Captain, please contact Karin here).

Adding to the excitement, Professor Markwell also presented the Centenary flag at the reunion. The design, combining nostalgic elements with a jubilant “100” in acknowledgement of this special milestone, struck a chord and was met with much enthusiasm.

We’re delighted that many of our Western Australian friends are planning to visit Adelaide for our Centenary Gala weekend. With people coming from all over Australia and the world, it’s going to be a fantastic and memorable event! You can learn more about the special events we have in store on our Centenary page.

Our thanks to St Mark’s Old Collegian Dr Glenn Cardwell and Karin Dunsford for capturing these lovely photos of the reunion.