ON Saturday (April 27), the Mutdapilly community celebrated the 150th anniversary of the opening of a school for nearby settler families on April 27, 1874.

More than 200 people attended including former students and their families, a former teacher, a representative of the Minister for Education, Federal Member for Wright Scott Buchholz and State Member for Scenic Rim Jon Krause.

Principal, Debra Honeywell, who has held her current role for almost two years and during her career has worked in schools with 1,000 students, was impressed with the community spirit which was very much to the fore on Saturday.

“So many memories, so much history and a wonderful gathering of families,” was her uppermost impression.

“It was particularly evident in the room where a display of memorabilia, including old school photos and uniforms, had been put together by former teacher, Heather Taylor, and current teacher aide and past student, Caroline Feldhahn.”

Ms Honeywell added that “Caroline was one of the driving forces behind the celebration as well as the school staff and P&C”.

Adding further significance to the occasion was a special unveiling.

“The students have been working with teacher Dina Balassa on an artwork since the beginning of the school year,” Ms Honeywell said.

“It was unveiled by Ms Balassa and school captain Keira Baills and Vice Captain Zoey Shears and will be hung in the heritage-listed playshed for everyone to enjoy.”

She also described the roll call of past students as a “very special event”.

“It took almost half-an-hour and we called the names of past students starting from some who had attended in the 1940s through to those who had attended in 2020.”

The honour of planting two trees as a legacy of the anniversary was given to the two eldest former male students present, Tom Hines and Laurie Wendt, who shared the spotlight with the youngest male student, William Blonde.

Similarly, the anniversary cake decked out in the school colours, was cut by the eldest former female student present, Lynda Flewell-Smith who shared the honour with the youngest student attending the celebration, Scarlett Poll.

“It was a wonderful community day,” said Ms Honeywell, “the cake was made by a former student, Mia Mills, who has started her own cake decorating business, Sugar Sisters. She only charged us for the cost of the ingredients.

“And Summer Land Camels loaned us Evie, a camel who delighted our guests and appeared in many selfies taken during the event.”

Ms Honeywell also praised the organising committee.

“Everyone did an amazing job in setting everything up.

“We had market stalls, the Ipswich Classic Car Club held a Show and Shine and lots of families entered the baking competition … and one category was won by one of our students.”

The bake-off entries and some of the memorabilia, such as mugs embossed with the school emblem, was auctioned to raise money for the P&C.

“Young auctioneer, Billy Goetsch, donated his time to run the very entertaining and professionally called auction. He did a fantastic job. It was a really cool segment.

“All in all, it was a fabulous day. I was so happy at how it turned out.”