St Catherine’s Old Girls’ Association was established in 1921 by a group of past students and staff wanting to keep in touch. It has flourished ever since and celebrates its own 100 year anniversary this year.

SCOGA has worked tirelessly to provide Fellowships and Prizes, career guidance and networks for Old Girls in many industries and professions, as well as mentoring opportunities. SCOGA also organises regional, interstate and international chapters, and recognises and honours the achievements of past students of the School through its Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum program.

SCOGA has also contributed enormously to School facilities over the years, including The Hands’ bronze sculpture by Old Girl Lisa Roet, maintaining the Drawing Room at Sherren House, donating Barbreck playgrounds and Red Steps, restoring the famous Elaine Haxton mural in the Senior School, contributing to the Sport & Aquatic Centre and the new Barbreck building.

One of the earliest contributions of SCOGA was the donation of the Clocktower and Middle School Quadrangle, as Australia emerged from the Great Depression in 1934. It was officially opened on St Catherine’s Day in 1934.

Those who have read the plaques on the Clocktower will know that they acknowledge two things. Firstly, that it was built as a memorial to our Principal Ruth Langley and secondly that a further plaque was erected just over 10 years later in memory of an Old Girl who died in active service during World War II.

Ruth Langley became Principal of the School at the age of 25 and served from 1903 to 1933. It was Ruth Langley who introduced the motto – Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum – nothing is great unless good. It was she who moved St Catherine’s from Castlemaine to Toorak in 1919, to join with Miss Flora Templeton’s boarding school. Ruth Langley took not just the students, motto, crest and uniform of her School to Toorak but also her vision to create an education of enormous breadth, covering a wide array of academic and co-curricular opportunities.

27 April 1934 Laying the Foundation Stone

With the Great Depression in Australia in the early 1930s came many challenges for schools and Ruth Langley faced these head on. By early 1933, this had taken its toll and she became unwell. Despite her best efforts, she never recovered, dying in December of that year. Her example, leadership and achievement was an inspiration to generations of St Catherine’s girls. The Old Girls’ Association wanted to create a memorial for her and the Clocktower was built and dedicated to her memory for that purpose.

In 1945, a further memorial was added to the Clocktower, this time in memory of Old Girl Jenny Walker, who died in active service in World War II. A hospital ship on which she was serving with 11 other nurses was torpedoed off the Queensland coast as it steamed toward Port Moresby. It was a clear night and the ship’s lights were ablaze, the three large Red Crosses on her sides clearly visible. The torpedo hit an oil fuel tank and the ship sank in three minutes with 268 lives lost. Thankfully, Jenny was the only St Catherine’s Old Girl lost in the war, with over 40 Old Girls serving.

It was never in doubt that SCOGA would wish to remember Jenny in this way and Ruth Langley would have strongly approved. Whilst we all pass through our schools as students and parents, our friendships, links and memories are never lost which SCOGA works to ensure.

To understand your history is to understand who you are and why.