School Principal, Alan Jones, acknowledged the enormous contribution Bill has made to the School's swimming program, "His experience in the pool and passion for the sport has had an invaluable impact on the success of our swimming program. In his time as Head Swimming Coach, Christ Church Grammar School has won 12 PSA Swimming Championships and thousands of our students have learnt an important life skill which they will carry with them their entire lives. Bill has been more than a coach, he is an exceptional educator and has been a mentor to many students in his time at Christ Church. His humility, care for others and the ability to build authentic relationships has enabled him to get the best out of students in his care and to make them believe in themselves" said Alan.   

Bill will remain at Christ Church Grammar School as the Manager of the joint Aquatic centre and will be a mentor to new coaches.  

Please Save The Date: The Old Boys' Annual Lunch on Friday 16 September at Claremont Football Club. Watch for event details in the next newsletter and OBA website.

It was great to see family participation from Chris Shenton ('83) and sons Jeffrey ('21) and Thomas ('12), and an endurance performance from Rob Merrell ('66).  Coach of the 1st XV, Jacob Marai, said, "One more fast OBA runner, or one of the top CCGS runners not running, and the score could easily have been reversed."  Special thanks to all involved and to Jacob for organising a great event that's expected to continue in future. 

The show tells the surprisingly true story of the only domestic military conflict fought on Western Australian soil, which the Australian army lost... to a flock of emus. "Using a combination of musical satire and good old Aussie folk-storytelling, we are bringing this farcical tale to life from the point of view of the emus, because history is written by the winners." said Cal. "Think of it as like Cats, but with emus… and a plot." 

In the past twelve months Cal's work has included performance of a song he was commissioned to write for the Lester Portraiture Prize; touring production of MISS WESTRALIA which travelled around regional WA; and performance in NEVERMORE as the lead role of Edgar Allan Poe at Subiaco Arts Centre. Watch for Cal's name up in lights as his career progresses.

With six crew allocated to each of the three Foundation 36 yachts entered by Christ Church, we set out for the start line to get the 5-race program underway. Team 1 was skippered by Pete Gilmour ('77) and Will Hammond ('70), Team 2 by Pete Bowman ('77) and David Yu ('86), and Team 3 by Lachy Gilmour ('14). 

It was pleasing to see the interest from 'younger' old boys this year with Lachy's team comprising lads all under 30 years of age. By contrast Pete Bowman's team consisted of four of the team in the over 60 category – a wise lot though. 

The wind in the first two races made sailing difficult with many boats failing to finish within the set time limit. This meant that each of the Christ Church crews had to carry a Did Not Finish in their three race points total. That opened the way for a clear victory by Scotch Team 1 as they were the only team to finish in all three races. But to our credit Christ Church finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the seven boat fleet. 

Beers and great chats after the event completed a fun morning on the water. No sheep stations to be won. But great Christ Church comradery to be had. 

If you would like to be involved next year, please contact Pete Bowman – pcbint@bigpond.com  

Pete Bowman ('77)

On a visit to Perth from the UK, Chris addressed the Senior School students about fusion energy and the emerging global technology to address climate change with abundant, safe, reliable and economic solutions. In an enlightening presentation, Chris inspired the boys with world leading developments and supreme technical challenges of developing commercial fusion energy – a clean energy solution to mitigate climate change from fossil fuels and maintain energy security. 

Questions from the floor indicated keen interest in the subject and future of the industry. Thank you, Chris, for a presentation that brought to the classroom relevant and exciting opportunities at the forefront of our technological evolution.