The former Timor Street school may have changed names over the years but friendships between the group that started in the 1964 school year were as strong as ever as they celebrated 50 years since the first school bell.

More than 40 people attended the function on Saturday night, spearheaded by a committee of former students including Robyn Greer (nee Amoore), Helen Ryan (Taylor), Alison Grummett (Grauer) and Helen Lucas (Johnson).

Mrs Grummett said her generation witnessed considerable social change during their formative years and gave a speech on the evening about key historical moments.

“We didn’t realise it at the time but there was so much change going on in the world — from music to fashion and about the role of women,” she said.

“The college was still pretty traditional back then. Every morning at nine o’clock the bell would ring, we’d line up and have our uniforms inspected by the headmistress or the head prefect. Even our sports skirts were measured to ensure they were long enough. They were very different times.”

Mrs Ryan took the challenge of slipping into one of the old tech school uniforms especially for the occasion — a grey checked dress and a grey blazer.

“It wasn’t my own uniform, it was someone else’s thankfully,” she said. 

“The memories came flooding back. Catching up with people you haven’t seen in 40 years. Small things you’d forgotten about, like the lunch passes and old teachers.”

The organising committee spent many months tracing their former classmates. 

Mrs Grummett said the Education Department wouldn’t release old enrolment information due to privacy restrictions, so further investigation was needed.

“Especially since a lot of the ladies had married names and moved elsewhere,” she said. “But we managed to track down most of the old group.”

The school only taught girls to year 11. Students who wanted to study further had to move to the adjacent diploma school. 

The college later moved to Caramut Road where it became Brauer College at the end of 1989.