The Tour of the Royal Military College Duntroon... by Jacqui D

Well, what a wonderful tour of Royal Military College Duntroon we had on Friday the 2^nd of November.

We were split into two groups as there were over 20 of us.

I'm afraid I've misplaced the rank of our guides. John was Duntroon trained and Brian  at Portsea both retired and both lovely chaps and certainly very knowledgeable.

It was a hot day and very windy so not the best day for a tour but most of us managed.

We started the tour at Duntroon House which is the oldest house in Canberra built in the 1870's and  has been  the Officers Mess since the collage was founded in 1911.The roof in the west of the courtyard still has shingles under the corrugated iron.

 A well was originally constructed to provide water in case of siege by bushrangers...imagine that?  This area though was later converted into a conservatory.

 The house was added onto as the years  went by and is now  a much larger and imposing property.  It was originally a sheep station and named after the Campbell ancestral home in Scotland and was very isolated.

I really liked that the buildings in the Duntroon grounds are the same colour and of similar style, some are very new but are in keeping with the original house.

The gardens are truly beautiful - what a lovely place to live and train. John showed us a grove of Crepe myrtle’s which sadly were not in flower but he said the sight is something to behold. I can well imagine that. The old climbing roses in the veranda garden at the front of the house along with the perfectly trimmed hedge of azaleas were truly something special, what an entrance to this lovely  historic house. I can well imagine taking tea on that veranda.

We saw the Changi Chapel which was built by Australian and British prisoners in 1942 at Changi in Singapore    It was dismantled and brought to Australia but left in storage for years, but eventually  assembled at Duntroon.

The Anzac Memorial Chapel of St Paul was quite fascinating as Catholics and protestants have a chapel each in the same building which is quite unique I believe.

We also saw the lovely memorials of Duntroon boys lost in the various wars. I didn’t take a photo as I didn’t think it was appropriate.

The bell which  is situated with the memorials at the parade ground was from a ship of the same name as the college. The MV Duntroon built for the Melbourne steamship company that saw military service as a troop ship from 1942 to 1949.

She was requisitioned for conversion into an armed merchant cruiser but was returned as unsuitable. The ships bell was removed and later installed here at the parade ground.

  

Headquarters is in Patterson Hall but the cadets call it the Panic Palace. I guess it's the equivalent to being sent to the Headmasters office?

In the gardens just near Headquarters is a beautiful large bronze statue of a soldier, a gift from the cadets. It's called ‘On the square’ and was presented by the class of 1961 to commemorate the centenary of the college.

The commandant's house was very stately and is called  Cavanaugh  House after  Matron Claire Cavanaugh, Sister Cav, as she was known to the cadets and by all accounts she was a very special lady and mum to the young cadets who  most likely missed their own mums?

There was an oak tree that was planted  in 1861 to commemorate the birth of Fredrick Arthur Campbell  and was grown from a  acorn from Napoleon’s original grave site on the island of Elba. The tree died from root rot  in 1994 but it was  replaced with another  tree grown from an acorn of the old tree. This new oak tree is affectionally called Son of Fred.

We ended our tour back at Duntroon House, it's a remarkable house filled with treasures. Two framed embroidery's caught our attention. They were adapted and stitched   by the Canberra Embroidery Guild from original art works by Marianne Campbell. They are both of  native flowers and quite exquisite!

So many treasure's from another era, stunning grounds and so much history,

Duntroon is well worth a visit and our laundry bags  were much appreciated.

.....

Thanks Jacqui...

Till next time.. keep spreading the word and happy stitching!

Jan-Maree xx