Pat Still was born at Horsham. She lived on a wheat/sheep farm, attended a small country school until the end of Grade 5, attended boarding school in Horsham and then a final 2 years at Kilbreda, Mentone. Pat taught one year at Eureka Street, Ballarat; two years at Nirranda on the Great Ocean Road, midway to Peterborough; 2 years at Dennington, which now joins Warrnambool; and two years at Clunes, which is near Ballarat. She married in Ballarat and moved to Traralgon 41 years ago. Pat went back to St Michael’s when her own children were in Grades 1 and 2; she left 25 years later. Pat was the first lay principal of St Michael’s Primary School.

Pat originally went to St Michael’s School to take over for three months until another teacher was found, however this never happened and Pat stayed on. In 1979 she applied for the position of Principal and in due process was appointed to the position. This was a new era in education because the governing body, until this time, had been made up of clergy: at principals’ meetings there were three lay principals and 30 nuns. However the biggest challenge for Pat over the next few years was with the parents who felt as though their religion was leaving the education system as a result of the introduction of laity.

Money was always a problem. In later years they started to receive government funding to cover staff costs and that made things much easier. Because parents had been accustomed to fundraising, they were then able to put that money into projects for the school. St Michael’s always had a great many students of various nationalities. They had ‘English as a Second Language’ teachers and in 1995, 29 out of 71 preps came from families whose first language wasn’t English, 17 of whom spoke that other language at home and three of whom had two other languages spoken in their home. When Loy Yang started during the 70s, Traralgon grew. At its peak one year, on the first day of school, there were 27 children who hadn’t enrolled standing outside the office door.

Pat read letters that she’d received from past student, John McGauran, and a Josephite nun, recalling their days at St Michael’s. Eileen Downey and Joan Oates added to the spirit of the evening by dressing in school uniform and sharing witty, poignant recollections of their 1930s school days at St Michael’s.

Eileen Downey, Pat Still, Joan Oates and Jim Hood