ARCHIVES
MR PAUL MISHURA SCHOOL ARCHIVIST
SCOTCH IN THE SNOW – PIONEERS , TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH
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SCOTCHIES
AND THE SNOW ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED IN VICTORIA
The 1920s saw rapidly developing interest in skiing in Victoria . The Ski Club of Victoria was founded at a meeting on 2 June 1924 : a founding member was said by his obituary to be William Charles Knight ( born 21.8.1883 , SC 1900-03 , died 23.10.1952 ), a dentist , who had also joined the RACV in 1904 – its second year .
Scotch was one of the first schools to introduce holiday tours and camps . A 1925 trip by 30 boys with Alan Douglas ‘ Stonk ’ Ross ( born 8.3.1901 , staff 1922-60 , died 29.3.1960 ) stayed in the Hotel Kosciuszko for a week-long introduction to the snow . Stonk led a January 1926 trip to Kosciusko , which saw summer snow , and Scotchies returned there that winter . That group included Arthur Bruce Wenzel ( born 11.8.1911 , SC 1926-29 , died 22.11.1982 ), the future Chairman of Ski Lifts Mount Buller , and the ‘ father ’ of the Victorian Interschool Snowsports .
While 46 boys travelled to Mount Kosciuszko in August 1927 , 20 went with Stonk Ross to Mount Feathertop , with their provisions brought in by packhorse . When the horses became bogged in the snow , the boys tramped their provisions the remainder of the way to the hut . This group included Thomas Hunter Griffith ( born 14.2.1911 . SC 1925-27 , died 5.2.1986 ), who got lost in heavy snow covering rugged country . A search party set out to find him , but , after sleeping overnight in a hollow log , he followed the creek and found his way back . Another member , Ivor Kingsley Whittaker ( born 14.8.1910 , SC 1924-28 , died 12.9.1941 ) was a top early Australian skier . Killed in Egypt in World War II , he left money in his will that was used to build the Ivor Whittaker Memorial Lodge on Mount Buller , which opened in 1950 .
Scotch ’ s first of numerous Mount Buffalo trips was in 1929 . It catered for more social boys , who wore their Scotch blazers at dinner , no doubt because girls from a notable Melbourne school were there . Hardcore Scotch skiers would walk six miles ( 10km ) to Mount St Bernard , and the same distance again to Mount Hotham .
In 1934 and 1935 Charles Garnett Blamey ‘ Noso ’ Boyes ( born 20.8.1901 , staff 1929-65 , died 14.4.1967 ) led trips to Mount Kosciuszko , the first of many ski trips he would lead . In Term 2 , 1936 , he called the meeting that founded the Scotch College Ski Club , and became its inaugural President . On 25 September 1957 the club was reformed to include the Scotch Family , and subsequently became the Koomerang Ski Club .
78 Great Scot