The Principal, Term 2 Week 6
Founders’ Day Speech 2023
The Right Reverend Bishop Denise Ferguson; Chair of the Board Mr David Reynolds; Deputy Chair of the Board Ms Megan Mathews; Members of the Board of Governors; Captains of the School Ella Wood, Michael Trenwith, Sienna Brownrigg and Ross Koutsounis; Old Scholars of Pulteney, colleagues, students, parents and guests, today marks the 176th anniversary of the founding of Pulteney Grammar School.
We gather today at St Peter’s Cathedral, an Adelaide landmark, home to the Diocese of Adelaide. The cathedral itself was built in 1869; some 22 years following the founding of Pulteney Grammar School down the road on Pulteney Street. Whilst over two decades apart, both Pulteney and the Cathedral share in common the vision of the same person: Bishop of Adelaide, the Right Reverend Augustus Short.
It was Bishop Short who arranged for the purchase of land at 228 Pulteney Street at the cost of 250 pounds; Bishop Short who arranged for the appointment of Pulteney’s first Headmaster, The Rev E.K.Miller; and Bishop Short who made the first proposal for the new school’s name. And while we sit here this morning grateful for the vision that Bishop Short held in aiding the establishment of the School, we are equally grateful that his suggested name – The Diocesan Training and Central School of Adelaide – was graciously rejected.
Later, some years after Bishop Short’s death, the cathedral sought to add spires to its already impressive nave. Completed around 1900, the spires, visible from the banks of the River Torrens, the stalls of the Chappell Stand just a good cover drive away, or the window of an aeroplane as it makes its way into land, were commissioned and designed by Walter Torode: masterbuilder, stonemason, early motorcyclist enthusiast, and Pulteney Grammar School Old Scholar.
The connection between the cathedral therefore and Pulteney is one that transcends our Anglicanism; it is a history that unites us in a parallel and intertwined journey. Histories indelibly linked with the city of Adelaide itself.
It is this connection with the city, with its institutions, its heritage and its landmarks that defines the modern Pulteney of today. When you join Pulteney Grammar School you weave yourself into something deeply embedded into the fabric of this city. You become part of something that is greater than yourself. Something for which legacy matters more than personal aggrandisement, for which empathy, service and care are more important than success. To be part of Pulteney today is to commit your cause to the future of Adelaide: to its hopes and ambitions and what contribution you may make to it.
Like Old Scholar Walter Torode whose legacy stands above us this morning and dominates the skyline of our fair city, many other Old Scholars have contributed to what became the future of Adelaide at the time and now is present in which we live. This, I pose to you students of Pulteney, is your challenge and your opportunity, to consider what will be your legacy to the world. How will your journey unfold and contribute to the history of this school and to its indelible connection with the city of Adelaide for the next 175 years. Torode’s spires will be a constant: how will you join them?
O prosper thou our handiwork.
Cameron Bacholer
Principal