On one occasion, he and a Mordialloc boy called “Gabby” Gray had a fist fight up and down the aisle between the desks while the class cowered in their seats not knowing whom to barrack for. When Gray finally retreated, Julian informed him that he was expelled, so the boy packed his bag and left […]

Boys returned to their desk with fingers on fire with pain and faced whit with the effort of holding back the tears. Some tears did flow and even the tough boys sometimes writhed noticeably as the cane did its work. A favourite remedy was to put the offended fingers on the cold bolts which held […]

St Bede’s: Brother Julian, Headmaster: “In each class there was always a bright student who somehow translated Julian’s incomprehensible instructions and was able to keep him at bay by answering the hard questions. But the day would come (frequently) when the bright boy would be away, or would make a mistake, and the Julian would […]

  One ex-boarder remembers a friend trying to pass a note to a day student requesting the latter to buy him a packet of cigarettes after school. McCristal intercepted the note and the lad received a strapping and certainly no cigarettes. None of the Old Collegians remembered McCristal’s discipline as being unfair in any way. […]

It was a serious offence for a boarder to be out of bounds, even on a hike! One of the offenders, as well as another member of the hike, recalled the incident sixty years later. There was a happier end to the story, however. Later that night Mrs McCristal came into the dormitory and put […]

“Another ex-student recalled an incident where he and a friend dropped behind the main body of walkers near Mordialloc one Sunday. He and his friend went into a shop on Beach Road and bought a small packet of Capstan cigarettes which they smoked in the scrub along the beachfront. Then they raced along the beach […]

Mentone College: “The story of one new pupil illustrates this. One February, a boy of twelve from a grazing property in the Riverina stepped out of the cab for his first day at Mentone College. Turning around, he saw the blue of Port Phillip Bay a couple of hundred yards away through the trees. His […]