The Fortians Union

Nichola's removing the barriers

The 2024 annual dinner was held at Club York, in Sydney, on the third Friday in October as usual. Our advertised speaker, Philippa Scott, was not able to attend, but Dr Nichola Calvani (Fortian 2009) stepped in at the last moment, to speak about her time at Fort Street and how that led to her highly successful career.

Nichola is a lecturer in parasitology at the University of Sydney, with a bachelor's degree in animal and veterinary bioscience with Honours. She followed that with a PhD on the molecular diagnosis of Fasciola species (liver flukes that infect mammals including sheep, cattle and humans), including time spent with farmers in Cambodia and Laos.

Clearly enjoying a busy life, Nichola moved to Ireland in 2021 to do postdoctoral research at the University of Galway, returning to Sydney last year to lecture in parasitology and establish a research laboratory. This would be enough work for most of us, but Nichola's speech showed she has even broader horizons and ambitions to support others.

Nichola's passion for gender equity led her to establish "Herminthology", a social media initiative promoting and supporting women in the field of parasitology. She is a partner in a new Equity In Parasitology Scholarship Scheme, which helps four women from disadvantaged countries to attend parasitology conferences.

Nichola has also undertaken research on barriers faced by women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) - barriers that need to be removed if we are to meet the technological challenges of the 21st century.

Nichola's speech was enthusiastic and engaging, and she is clearly an inspiring future leader and advocate, and yet another great example of the Fortian spirit.

It was also very rewarding to hear from the outgoing Student Representative Council president Elanor Alonso-Love and vice-president Dante Diaz as they begin their Year 12.

- Rod Broune

Nichola Calvani

The new committee

At the Union's annual general meeting on October 22 the following executive officers were elected unopposed: President Glenn Maddock, '77; Vice-President Male, Rod Broune, '75; Vice-President Female, Margot Cooper, '75; Secretary Ian McLaughlin, '73; Treasurer Don Newby, '67. Of 12 nominations for the eight committee members, the following were elected: Alan Allison, '67; Maryse Alvis, '75; Maria Castellanos, '75; Gordon Hill '62; Bruce Moxon, '79; Cornelia Salat, '78; Helen Sarantopoulos, '88; Adam Tan, '91. Patrons remain: Professor Maria Skyllas Kazacos AM, The Hon. Michael Kirby AC, and Ian Cohen. The approved Change to the Constitution has moved the date of the AGM from "during the month of October" to "within the 6 months from 1 July to 31 December, each year".

Life membership remains at $50, or two payments of $25 for students and pensioners. The first five years after leaving school continues to be free. Minutes of committee meetings will be posted on the Union's page of the School's website.

Join us at Speech Day

All Fortians are invited to attend the Fort Street Speech Day, on Friday, 28 February, 2025, in the Sydney Town Hall, from 10am.

Seats are reserved at the front of the Hall, if you arrive by 9:40. After 10:00, seats are available at the rear of the Hall, or in the galleries. Proceedings are conducted briskly, to end by 12. Afterwards there is an opportunity to chat with teachers, students and other Fortians in the foyer.

Fort Street has one of the state's best school programs of music and singing, and performances are a high point of Speech Day. The program includes classical favourites, string and jazz ensembles and choir presentations.

Pictured are musicians of the school's junior orchestral ensemble which played at the Stanmore Music Festival last year

Latin has a word for it … or five, or six

If you didn't study Latin at school, it may be best to turn away now.

Tony Knight ('58) has written to Faber Est concerning the item in the previous edition about the school's 175-year celebrations, "which refers to celebrating the dodransbicentennial, which doesn't seem quite right to me."

"Vague memories of Mr Burtenshaw (Latin teacher from the 1940s to the '60s) and others tell me dodrans is a contraction of dequadrans, which means three-quarters, or specifically, a unit minus a quarter. So applying dodrans to a bicentennial would refer to three-quarters of a 200-year period, which surely means 150 years, does it not? Wouldn't 175 be seven-eighths of 200 and so need a prefix something like de-octrans or similar?"

Don Newby responded to Tony: "I was also taught by Fred Burtenshaw, so won't disagree with him. Here is an extract from Wikipedia's names for a 175-year event. There seems to be a number of possibilities, depending on how you calculate it."

Dodransbicentennial: Dodrans is a Latin contraction of de-quadrans which means “a whole unit less a quarter" (de means "from"; quadrans means "quarter"). 175 years is a quarter century less than the next whole (bi)century (175 = 200 - 25).

Dosquicentennial has been used in modern times; perhaps a modern contraction of "de-quadrans". Demisemiseptcentennial: Probably a modern term; literally one-half (demi-) × one - half (semi-) × seven(sept-) × 100 years (centennial) — also demisemiseptcentenary.

Quartoseptcentennial: Probably a modern coined term; literally one-quarter (quarto-) × seven (sept-) × 100 years (centennial) - also quartoseptcentenary.

Terquasquicentennial: A coined word for an anniversary of 175 years, but the elements of the word literally refer to an anniversary of 375 years, as follows: ter- (3) × quasqui- (11⁄4) × centennial (100 years). Septaquintaquinquecentennial: First appeared in 1995. A coined word for an anniversary of 175 years, but the elements of the word literally refer to an anniversary of 35,000 years: septaquinta- (70) × quinque- (5) × centennial (100 years).

So there you go ¼ take your pick.

Spitfire pilot's plane to fly again

In 1936, a year or so after leaving Fort Street, Pat Hughes joined the RAAF. Twelve months later he sailed to England and joined the RAF. During World War II, as command er of a fighter squadron, over two months in 1940 he shot down more enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain than any other Australian pilot, with 14 "combat claims". His luck ran out on September 7 when his Spitfire and a Luftwaffe bomber collided; Hughes bailed out but his parachute didn't open. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Spitfire wreckage, recovered from its crash site in 1968, languished in a museum.

Now the wreckage of Spitfire X4009 will be rebuilt at Scone, in the NSW Hunter Valley, as part of a five-year project estimated to cost $7 million. It will be one of only four Mk 1 Spitfires flying worldwide.

The airframe is being reconstructed in the UK with a $150,000 grant from the Australian Government. The V-12 Merlin engine is being built in the US; other parts will be produced by Sydney University's engineering faculty using 3D metal printing. The plane will be assembled in Scone by Hunter Fighter Collection Inc, a not-for-profit charity. The work will be done by Vintage Fighter Restorations, which has rebuilt other aircraft including Spitfires. Ross Pay, of Hunter Fighter Collection, says Hughes' plane will be the most historically valuable Spitfire to fly again. "That the aircraft was flown only by Pat Hughes makes it one of the most famous and significant Spitfire restorations ever undertaken."

Now that will be one aircraft the school would like hear zooming above the roof!

Adapted from articles in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and SMH Nov 10, 2024

Fortian and fighter pilot Pat Hughes

Before the memories are lost

The item on Olympic swimmer Jon Henricks ('53) in the previous Faber Est rekindled memories for Michael Kirby, who writes: "Jon was at Fort Street when I was there, a couple of years behind him. I would like to invite him to par- ticipate in the Oral History Project of the school. Recently, I interviewed Prof John Yu AC, who was a contemporary of Jon, and world champion golfer Jan Stephenson ('67). We must record school memories from those far-off days before they are lost."

The Union has put Michael in touch with Jon Henricks, who now lives in the USA. The video interviews are kept in the school's Ron Horan Museum. Let us know if you want to suggest other famous men and women who have unfurled the Fortian flag