State High in the 1970s

The seventies was a revolutionary decade and at State High, things were certainly getting a bit of a shake up too. We had something which past students of the school had only dreamt about; we had a little bit of freedom.

Girls skirts crept a little higher as boys hair got longer and longer. By the mid-seventies, girls no longer had to wear blue gloves as part of the uniform. And by the end of the decade, we were finally allowed to wear white socks instead of thick black stockings, a development which led Mr Sole to declare "the end of civilization as we know it!"

1973 Full School Assembly on the oval to watch the presentation of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Photo from School Magazine The sexual revolution of the 60s had its repercussions at the school too - boys and girls were finally allowed to talk to each other!

We had mixed classes in year 11 and 12 and designated areas where we could sit and chat at lunchtime. One area was outside the library - which used to be in F Block. The other was in the upper quad, under the watchful eyes of almost every teacher as well as the Principal, the Deputies and the girls' senior mistress.

In those days there was no shade and no seats so flirting was not for the faint-hearted. Only the really cool kids hung out there - and thus, the legend of the Upper Quaddie was born! (Incidentally, I wasn't one of them).

In the seventies we were also at the beginning of the technological revolution and at State High, we were really leading the way. In 1978 we had a computer. We had a computer so compact, it could fit into a single room at the top of E block!! This amazing piece of technology had a core memory - of 16k. Today, of course, the average floppy disk has a memory of over 1400k! The computer was the first of its kind in any Queensland State School and it came at a cost of $20 000 which was a lot of money even in those days. You could buy a small house for that much in the seventies! I graduated in 1979, the last year of that decade.

We finished our senior year with a formal held at Marymac Church hall at Annerley and on the last day, our principal, Ray Fitzgerald, cut slices of watermelon, for all the departing seniors, send us on our way.

author: Mrs. Bev Tavio (Thompson)

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