In the 50th anniversary of the formal opening of the Bundoora campus in 1968, the Old Paradians’ Association has acknowledged those surviving Old Paradians who committed to the ambitious project as planners and engineers.

At the Association’s recent Christmas Luncheon for 2018 at the RACV City Club, President Lewis Derrico presented Certificates of Achievement to Michael Renehan (1948) and Ron Barnett (1950).

Michael and Ron were part of Rene Stella’s extensive planning team for Parade College Bundoora through the mid-1960s. Both were Consultant Engineers, together with Kevin Dynon, who died at the age of 91 on the very day Michael and Ron were presented with their certificates from Old Paradians' Association President Lewis Derrico.

Both Michael and Ron were modest in terms of detailing their contributions to the Bundoora project, but grateful that their efforts had been recognised.

Parade's Bundoora campus was formally opened by the then Governor of Victoria Sir Rohan Delacombe and duly blessed by the fifth Archbishop of Melbourne James Knox.

That happened on February 4, 1968 and Bundoora’s inaugural College Principal, the late Br. Greening, noted in The Paradian of that year: “The demands of pioneering a new college have been heavy, but is pleasing to report that staff members and students have adjusted admirably to the new site and setting. Smaller problems of transport, playing facilities, travelling time and so on, which at times must appear to be mountainous to the boys, are temporary only”.

In the 50 years since Parade relocated from the “Old Bluestone Pile” in East Melbourne, Bundoora has undergone constant and dramatic change. It could be said that the Campus of 2018 bears little resemblance to the Parade of 50 years past when students were quite literally “studying with the cows” as one old boy put it.