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Students — Past and Present,
Most of us have enjoyed building castles in the air, dreaming of the time
when the bounds of our wildest imagination will be confined in reality, and it
has been good fun while it lasted. Of course, these dreams are just too good
to be true, we say. I somehow fancied that Coleridge's Kubla Khan was like
that, and I was of the definite opinion, after reading the works of H. G. Wells
and Jules Verne, that there was not the remotest possibility of much of their
science writing becoming a reality, but no longer have I any justification for
such a belief.
Truly the first Sputnik sent men’s minds into confusion — mathematicians
of renown recognised that from the time of its launching a new mathematics
would be needed, and, in our schools, a binary notation has begun to replace
the conventional mathematics of pre-war years so that your brothers and sisters
in Grade Two and Three can handle with competence some of the Sets and Logic
you still have not completely mastered. The Mathematics of Commerce is
steadily being replaced by a mathematics to suit the age of Space and the
Computers that determine not only the statistical data required in business
management but also the suitability of organs for human transplants that will
prolong life. To comprehend the magnitude of these advances is almost
impossible; it is as though we dream.
But on July 20th you and I witnessed a man step onto the Moon.
By means of N.A.S.A. we were able to sit in our class room, turn on a knob
and see a most courageous Neil Armstrong step onto a hitherto unknown
surface — the face of the Moon which throughout the ages men have
worshipped as a goddess, which lovers have addressed in odes and pastoral
songs, and which poets have personified.
1969 has been the Annus Mirabilis of the twentieth century, for in it man
has successfully executed a moon landing, one of the greatest of scientific
projects — a feat none of us dreamed of nor thought to be possible less
than twenty years ago.
I hope for all of you that 1969 has been a year of educational advance.
You have seen the newest class room block in all Queensland progress to the
stage of occupation on 27th August by its first students. You must surely, feel
as proud of it as I do, and you will agree it was well worth waiting for. It is
my sincere hope that within it and the other buildings of Wynnum High each
of you will build foundations for living that the future, with its hidden surprises,
will not easily shatter.
With sincere good wishes.

Principal.