SOPHIE BAUM (Keegan, 1989) met her husband in London where she had a jewellery boutique in Notting Hill. They moved to Hamburg ten years ago due to her husband’s family business duties and have been living here ever since. Sophie started her jewellery making at the Sturt Workshops when she was in Year 11 and has not really stopped since then, besides having three boys in between. Her collections are sold in a beautiful boutique called Alex Eagle in London and in a beautiful store in Munich called Lodenfrey. Sophie also does private trunk shows and has built up a very loyal international clientele over the years. It is still a lot of fun and she loves to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Her website is www.sophiekeegan.com. She regrets that with three sons, there will be no Frensham girls - but perhaps there will be some female grandchildren. 

SUZUN BENNET (1968) writes that Frensham and the Fellowship Centenary were both in her heart, particularly on the special weekend of 6 and 7 April. She and her daughter Lucy Sumner (Cooper, 1997) have both been living in New York for the past two decades. Lucy is a film producer focusing on documentaries. After two girls, Ruby (4) and Nico (2), Lucy will be welcoming a son around the time of the Centenary Weekend. Suzun would like to imagine that both Lucy’s daughters will get some years at Frensham from around 2028; the way life in New York is heading, she believes that Frensham could well be a necessary lifeline before the next decade. 

Frensham’s motto In Love Serve One Another is now her ‘brand’ in her work in New York’s luxury real estate sales. Suzun has been awarded the Chairman’s Circle platinum award for sales success, as well as the Traditions Award at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Home Services New York Properties,  for moral values such as integrity and compassion - being nice is sometimes rare in New York! She is grateful for all at Frensham for instilling the simple common sense motto which is deeply ingrained. As for the future, she truly hopes her granddaughters are able to experience Frensham. 

DR KATE (KATHERINE) BISHOP (1968) 
After leaving Frensham, Kate completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Sydney majoring in History and Anthropology.  This was followed by a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Jewellery and Object Design at the Sydney College of the Arts and then a year’s post-graduate training in Industrial Design at Queensland University of Technology. She then returned to the University of Sydney to undertake a PhD in Environmental Psychology in the area of children, youth and their environments, her thesis title being From their perspectives: Children and young people’s experience of a paediatric hospital environment and its relationship to their feeling of wellbeing.

In 1991, in her final year as a Visual Arts student, she began designing toys with the then Royal Blind Society (RBS) in Sydney which led, in 1995, to the first custom-designed playroom to be built in Australia for children who were blind or vision impaired. In 1996, Kate was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the UK and USA to study play equipment for children in hospitals and children with disabilities. From 1993-2002, she had a business called Play For All, custom designing and building specialist play and educational equipment and environments for children with disabilities.  By 2002, Kate had started to work regularly with landscape architects designing inclusive public playgrounds for all children, drawing on the knowledge gained over the previous ten years.

From 2005-08, she also worked for the NSW Commission for Children and Young People as a Senior Research Officer. On completion of her PhD, she joined UNSW in 2011 as a Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture. In September 2019, Kate was appointed Associate Professor in the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of NSW and is now Discipline Director of Landscape Architecture, Director of Built Environment Interdisciplinary Learning and Convenor of the UNSW Children and Youth Research Network.

In addition, she is a classically trained singer and pianist, a trained silversmith and jeweller, and she has a certificate in agricultural welding from Scone TAFE. She is actively involved in nature conservation and a member of local land care and bush regeneration groups in Bilpin where she lives. During her time at Frensham, she spent many hours in all the Sturt workshops as she had permission to use them at all times. The Sturt community provided insight into totally different world views and ways of being in the world and inspired her early career choices to complete a Visual Arts degree and make a living from her own creative work.

As a very small child, because of orthopaedic problems, Kate spent a lot of time in plasters and splints both at home and in hospitals and didn’t walk until she was almost four. She can accurately describe the physical characteristics of her ward rooms, including the first one in which she was only 18 months old and a resident for less than a month, demonstrating the impact of form on formative years and a key motivation for her choice of career focus on children, youth and their environments.

NICOLA FORREST AO (Maurice, 1978) 
Nicola Forrest was recognised this year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, being awarded the second highest honour, Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her distinguished service to the community through philanthropic support for education and the arts, to business, and to the community. Nicola’s husband and Minderoo’s co-founder Andrew (‘Twiggy’) Forrest also received an AO in 2017 for his distinguished service to the mining sector and philanthropy.  

Nicola grew up in regional New South Wales and believes country people are naturally very community minded, that it is part of Australia’s DNA to help one’s friends and neighbours and that, at their core, most Australians are empathetic and very willing to lend a hand if someone is having a rough time. 

Minderoo, the Foundation established by Nicola and Andrew almost twenty years ago, has had some of their greatest successes from collaboration, in particular Early Years Initiative (EYI), a ten-year partnership between the state government, Telethon Kids Institute and Minderoo.  Because of EYI’s structure, it is able to have an incredible impact on communities and support and empower families and children. Their motto is If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go a long way, you have to go together.

One of the highlights of Nicola’s work over the years is the success of Minderoo’s partner, The Freedom Fund, which works to eradicate modern slavery. She recalls visiting a family in India whose beautiful daughter was the first in her family to be born into freedom rather than bonded labour. Adapted from Mindaroo Foundation News (mindaroo.org)

SAMANTHA GAVEL (Holden, 1981) 
Following her studies at Frensham, Samantha graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed accredited mediation training with LEADR. Samantha is also Chair of the Council of The Women’s College at the University of Sydney and the independent member of the Private Health Insurance Code of Conduct Compliance Committee. On 4 September 2017, Samantha was appointed as NSW Privacy Commissioner. Her role is to promote public awareness and understanding of privacy rights in NSW, as well as providing information, support, advice and assistance to agencies and the general public.  Her responsibilities include the preparation of reports recommending legislative, administrative or other action in the interests of privacy as well as conducting inquiries and investigations into privacy related matters. Samantha has the power to deal with complaints about privacy matters, and to monitor agency functions while reporting to the Attorney General about proposals for legislative or administrative change.

Most recently she was the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner, and previously held the role of Private Health Insurance Ombudsman for six years.  Samantha has also worked in senior administrative roles for both NSW and Commonwealth Government organisations. She is an experienced mediator and has significant expertise in complaints handling, dispute resolution, privacy rights and ombudsman work, as well as a deep knowledge and understanding of Australia’s health system.

CATHERINE HAMLIN AC, MBBS, FRCS, FRANZCOG, FRCOG (Nicholson, 1940) 
In an emotional ceremony on Wednesday 29 May, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia celebrated Dr Catherine Hamlin’s sixty years of life-changing work in Ethiopia. The ceremony was attended by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and First Lady Zinash Tayachew, current and former patients, management and staff, students from the Hamlin College of Midwives and some of Catherine’s oldest friends in Ethiopia.

As the guest of honour, Prime Minister Ahmed paid tribute to Catherine in a moving speech recognising the incredible impact of her maternal healthcare work in Ethiopia. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the role she has played in taking care of Ethiopia’s most marginalised women in their greatest time of need. He then unveiled a statue of Catherine and her late husband, Dr Reg Hamlin. Catherine was presented with a prestigious Good Citizen award on behalf of the Government of Ethiopia. Dr Hamlin is one of only three people to ever receive this accolade.

The most moving words of the day came from Catherine herself: I feel so much love here in this compound today. Thank you all for being with me all these years. I love you all, I love Ethiopia and I have loved every day here. 

Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia also paid tribute to long-term staff who have been with the Hamlins since the hospital first opened over forty years ago. Fistula survivors Mamitu and Lete and Catherine’s gardener Birru were among those to receive a Medal of Service for their life-long commitment to Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia and to the patients at the hospital. Catherine’s dream is to eradicate fistula in Ethiopia by 2030.

Sadly, Dr Hamlin passed away on 18 March 2020. Her obituary and a tribute will appear in the 2020 Chronicle.

HELEN LANGFORD (Wilkinson, 1947) celebrated her 90^th birthday on 17 August 2019. Helen went to Frensham in 1945 as a boarder from Tumut, NSW. She slept in West Wing, out in the open which was wonderful in the hot summer months. They had blinds which were lowered for the winter, but even then Helen recalls the frost on the blankets in the mornings.

Although Phyllis Bryant was Headmistress during this time, Helen recalls Miss West and Miss Clubbe being at the School regularly. The gifted pianist and composer Iris De Rego was the Music Teacher.

Some of the other students there at the same time were  Anabel Badham (Sweetapple, 1947, dec), Audrey Addison (Addison, 1947), Joan Svensen (Daniel, 1946, dec) and sisters Pam Tallents (Pamela Harbison, 1948) and Judy Tugwell (Harbison, 1949) who were bridesmaids at Helen’s wedding.

Helen completed her Leaving Certificate in 1946 and then stayed on for another year in what was called the Upper Sixth.  She has very happy memories of this year.  English was compulsory but they could then choose subjects which interested them, and Helen helped out in the dressmaking rooms. She then attended Waverley Kindergarten College. Helen has three children and nine grandchildren and lives in Turramurrra.

CHLOE BENNETT (2006)
Chloe gained a BA in Clinical Science majoring in Complementary Medicine and Psychology at Southern Cross University, Lismore, before completing a Diploma in Remedial Massage at Randwick TAFE. She has always been interested in massage and other tactile therapies, and human health. Chloe worked in Healthcare PR in Paddington, NSW, then travelled to the UK and Europe, working in a vineyard and 1,200 year old castle in Tuscany, a beautiful old estate in Wales, the Scottish Highlands, Switzerland, France, and the south west USA using her very transportable massage skills. She currently works as the full time Chief Stewardess and Massage Therapist on a private yacht as part of a full-time crew of seven, working all year round, living and travelling up and down the east coast of Australia. chloe.eve.bennett@gmail.com

ANNE BISHOP (Coyle, 1958)
Anne has a BA majoring in English Literature, a Master of Letters degree (English Literature 1830-1870) and a Diploma in Education (Infants/Primary). She taught for over ten years in several schools but has always enjoyed writing in rhyme. Anne currently lives on a grazing property in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW with her husband Tony where they write and illustrate children’s books. Their house is surrounded by a large romantic garden which has provided inspiration and themes for the ten children’s books in their series Tales from a Country Garden. While Anne and Tony cannot be absolutely certain about the fairies in the garden, the animals mentioned in the stories are either permanent residents or visitors: dogs, ducks, guinea fowl, peacocks, turtles, lizards and many native birds permanently live there, while kangaroos, possums, snakes, goannas, rabbits, rats and mice make frequent appearances and a platypus and a wombat very infrequent ones. There is a measure of realism in the stories as the behaviour of small dogs and their wilful disobedience, the habits of goannas, turtles, birds and small rodents and the dangers from predators and from flash floods feature in their stories, while fantasy, humorous illustrations and rhyming narrative add joy and fun. Each story has a theme e.g. The Goannas’ Lunch is about courage, Eric Echidna and the Turtle Family is about kindness and helpfulness, Winston: A Tale of Disobedience is about obedience and The Great Rat Invasion is about team cooperation and loyalty. Tony’s illustrations are for children of all ages from three to ninety-three while the text, being written for the most part in narrative rhyme, challenges the very young reader’s word power, making the stories most suitable for children from about seven to twelve years. The eleventh book is currently in development. Frensham’s Library is the fortunate recipient of the ten books published so far. 

JANE CAY (Boyce, 1995)
Jane is the CEO and Founder of Birdsnest, one of the most successful online retail businesses in the country, and in March she was crowned No 1 in the 2018 Internet Retail Top 50 people in eCommerce.  Following her studies at Frensham, Jane graduated with a Commerce degree from the University of NSW.  She then worked as an e-business consultant with IBM in Sydney and Canberra before she and her husband moved back to her home town of Cooma where they bought a farm and a local clothing store. From a traditional bricks and mortar store servicing a country town, Jane launched birdsnest.com.au in 2008 and started sending parcels to women all over the country and beyond. The online fashion store has consistently introduced new ideas and methods and held a place in the top 100 e-commerce sites in Australia, with over 95% of sales now coming from online. Jane attributes Birdsnest’s success to the team culture and their personalised service, with over 80% of revenue coming from repeat customers – every online order comes with a handwritten note. Birdsnest has won the Best Online Customer Service Award in 2015 and 2016 at the ORIA’s (Online Retail Industry Awards), plus the ORIA 2017 Innovation award. In 2017 Birdsnest was also named the 4^th best place to work in Australia for companies with over 100 employees, following its 8^th place in 2015 for the under 100 employees category (BRW Great Places to Work Study). During the Address Jane gave at Frensham’s 104^th Birthday Service, she said: People often ask why I think our business has thrived in such an internationally competitive field as fashion and I simply say that – apart from luck – it is because we have a team that truly care – they care about each other, their roles and the women we are serving. You could definitely say that it is ‘in love that they serve’.  At Frensham, we talk about the School motto and spirit and, in a business environment, people talk about an organisation’s culture. They say, and I agree, that when it comes to business success – culture eats strategy for breakfast. I learnt this the hard way when the business was growing so quickly, we were hiring like crazy and making many, many mistakes. I worked out that my job was to cultivate the right soil for the team to grow, a bit like here at Frensham where I believe every girl is challenged to develop and share her different and unique talents.

After leaving Frensham, Chelsea completed a BConstruction Management and Property (Hons) degree at UNSW which opened up many opportunities to work on interesting projects such as the Notre Dame Medical and Nursing Campus in Sydney and the Southern Sydney Freight Line upgrade. She was also the Project Manager on a Cogeneration (energy) project which was the first fully operating system in Australia at the time. This project received a United Nations Australia award for excellence in environmental management. After a few years working in Sydney, Chelsea decided to look for opportunities overseas and received a Green Card for the United States. However, before moving to New York, she was awarded a grant to complete a Master Certificate with the European Energy Centre at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. After finishing this, she visited Paris where she met her now husband, engineer Marc Chéret. After a few months in New York, she  returned to Paris to study French at the Sorbonne University. Upon completion, she was appointed as Regional Contract Manager at the British Embassy in Paris. In this role, she oversees a remote team covering nineteen offices in Europe from Dublin to Warsaw ensuring that operations and projects within these offices and residences are effectively managed. Chelsea is also in the final year of an MBA degree at the University of Bradford.

MYEE CLOHESSY (1986 [1988 cohort])
Born in Sydney, Myee began to learn the violin aged ten with Ernest Llewllyn. She attended Frensham from 1983 to 1986 and was awarded an Iris for Music in 1986. After school, Myee studied with Alice Waten at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music in London. While based in Europe, Myee was Concertmaster of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra for two years, won 1^st Prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition in London and held Principal positions with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Arctimus Piano Quintet. Since returning to Australia in 2002, Myee has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, recorded regularly for ABC Classics, toured extensively with Acacia Quartet and since 2015 has become the Artistic Director of the Bowral Autumn Music Festival. 

CHARLOTTE CLUTTERBUCK (1968)
Although well known for her poetry (Poems for Birds, The Best Australian Poems 2014), Charlotte works has an Editor of Poetry and Non-fiction and other editing services. She recently helped to edit Lying for the Admiralty, by Margaret Cameron-Ash (1969), an intriguing book which discusses how and why Captain Cook censored and altered charts and journals of the Endeavour Voyage. My professional career has always been a mix of writing, teaching and editing. says Charlotte. I’ve written poems and essays and taught people how to edit their poems and essays.  I’ve enjoyed helping people to find the shape of the work that they are trying to create – whether they are beginner writers in an Adult Education class or PhD students trying to finish a credible thesis in economics. Charlotte is currently a communication consultant for ReCircle, a new company designing a prototype domestic recycling machine.

ROBIN DALTON AM (Eakin, 1936)
Robin at ninety-seven years young is still working hard. She has been a television performer, an intelligence agent for the Thai government, a literary agent and a film producer as well as an author. Her list of clients as a literary agent included four Booker Prize winners – David Storey, Bernice Rubens, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Iris Murdoch – as well as Edna O’Brien, John Osborne, Margaret Drabble, playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams and movie directors Peter Weir and Louis Malle. Robin went on to become a successful film producer with credits to her name for Madame Sousatzka, Oscar and Lucinda, Country Life and Emma’s War. She has written five books: One Leg Over, An Incidental Memoir, My Relations, the Australian classic Aunts up the Cross and most recently, her digital book Dead is a Four Letter Word. In 2013, she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to writers and the film industry. She lives in London, spends part of each year at her house in Biarritz, France, and says that her proudest achievements are her two children, her daughter who is a painter and her son who is an orthopaedic consultant physician in Sydney where he now lives with his family.

After studying for her Premier Prix under Catherine Cantin at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, Ana is a successor of the great French school of flute playing. She has held the position of Principal Flute with Orquestra Sinfónica do Norte in Portugal, the EPK Europa Philharmonie in Baden-Württemberg in Germany and the Philharmonie der Nationen in Hamburg and few flautists of her generation have performed so extensively worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician. Ana is Founder and Artistic Director of the London International Players, a dynamic London ensemble which brings together the finest musicians of her generation and they have performed in Europe’s greatest halls with reviews talking about their ‘explosive’ and ‘dazzling’ performances. In June, Ana released her debut album for the Dutch label Pentatone featuring the Mozart flute concertos as well as a lost flute concerto by a relatively unknown Czech composer, Josef Mysliveček, a contemporary of Mozart who has not enjoyed the same level of success. The album has been widely acclaimed reaching the top of numerous Bestseller charts and winning CD of the Week on Classic FM UK, BBC Scotland, NDR Germany, SR Germany, Classic FM Netherlands et al. It continues to receive 5 star reviews worldwide and it was featured numerous times on Apple Music Classical A-List; out of the countless releases each week, these albums are considered by the editors as the best new recordings from across the genre. Above all it has been chosen as ‘Best Classical Album for 2018 for Classic FM UK’ No 3. Among the reviews were comments such as Such an interesting soloist in the field of flute has not existed for a very long time (Naxos), She certainly would have inspired Mozart himself (NDR Germany) and The classical music world is overwhelmed by the release of Ana de la Vega’s CD (Concertgebouw Amsterdam).

TRISH BLYTH (PATRICIA CONOLLY, 1950) has had a professional acting career, spanning more than six decades, on stage in Australia, the USA, Canada and the UK, appearing many times in major theatres including on Broadway and the West End. She worked for Sir Laurence Olivier at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the UK, with Dame Maggie Smith in the West End and at nearly every major theatrical centre in the USA and Canada, playing over time, sixteen leading Shakespearean roles. Other classical work includes Hedda Gabbler, The Wild Duck, Ghosts by Ibsen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She has returned many times to Australia, performing in plays such as Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. With plays by the hundred to her credit, the range of her work is huge and the variety of role and location describes a career that could not easily be achieved today. Trish has also taught and guest-directed students at The Julliard School (New York) and The North Carolina School of the Arts. She is known and respected throughout the profession and has been, and continues to be, a respected theatrical ambassadress for Australia.

ROSE MARY CRAWFORD (WILTON, 1949) has written, directed, and produced numerous plays for children including The Wicked Witch and the Tickle Monster, Never Say Never, The Mad King of Chalupa, and You Gotta Have a Dream. She has also worked as an actor, journalist and poetry workshop instructor. Rose Mary lives in New Mexico, USA with her husband.

Influenced by her experience as Artist-in-Residence in Hill End, NSW, VIRGINIA CUPPAIDGE (1960), when back in her home in New York, created a painting titled Eucalyptus which is now in the permanent collection of the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC. Ambassador Joe Hockey in his thank you letter, said: Given your many years of residence in New York and contributions to the art community, it is particularly fitting to present your works at a time when it is so important to highlight Australian contributions to and relationships in the United States. Her painting Sunset in the City, which hangs in the Esther Tuckey Library, was presented to the School by Virginia in honour of her friend Dianne McKinnon (Klippel) (dec).

'Eucalyptus' – Acrylic on canvas 153cm x 91cm
©Virginia Cuppaidge 2012

AMANDA FORREST (Head Girl, 2004) completed a Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Marketing and a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology at the University of Technology, Sydney, which included 2 weeks at the European School of Economics in Rome. After a variety of roles including time as a Tourism Department Liaison Officer with the Department of Premier and Cabinet (NSW), Amanda moved into the pharmaceutical industry with the international research-based group Bayer. After gaining experience in different areas of the company in Sydney, Amanda was appointed in as Deputy Director Brands, Hematology & Ophthalmology, in Basel, Switzerland in October 2017. This position is a global role and involves travel to many different countries and Amanda is busy learning both French and German, both of which are spoken in Basel. She is living 20 minutes from France and Germany and only hours from Italy and is looking forward to doing some travelling of her own to these nearby countries. Amanda is appreciating the benefits of learning French and Latin at School – both subjects are proving helpful in gaining fluency in French and in studying other foreign languages she now requires in her new position.

ELLIE GAFF (2015) is studying Interior Design at Billie Blue College and has also started her own design business Ginger & Willow Interiors. Her first commission – bespoke lighting – was for The Mill, Bowral. The idea started when she had to make a light for a college assessment and thought it would be sensible to make something useful which led to her first light shade.It was the Head of the Interior Design Department who suggested she go into production. The business name and brand, Ginger & Willow Interiors, came from Ellie’s DAT major work at Frensham. She is now working on developing her social media, Instagram and Facebook so that when she graduates, she already has a ‘brand’ for freelance interior design.

Lights in situ at The Mill, Bowral

ISABEAU GAVEL (2013) has completed her combined Arts/Science degree at the University of Sydney. She is planning to travel to Costa Rica in early 2018 to undertake a voluntary internship at a research station in the cloud forest. When she returns, she will complete an Honours year based on a scientific research project.

SAMANTHA GAVEL (HOLDEN, 1981) has worked for both State and Commonwealth governments since finishing School and university. She has held several statutory officer positions and was most recently appointed as NSW Privacy Commissioner in September 2017. She is also currently Deputy Chair of the Women’s College Council at the University of Sydney. Samantha’s mother, Patricia Holden (Townsend), travelled from England at the age of 25 in the 1950s to teach Physical Education at Frensham and met her husband, Tom Holden, while she was at Frensham when he travelled from Jervis Bay in charge of a group of naval cadets who came to the School to participate in sporting events and a dance.