Intro

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60 Years in Conversation

Sixty years ago, Union College began as a small cluster of buildings at Spring Hill. Since then, thousands of students have passed through its rooms, lecture halls, dining tables, and oval.

To mark its 60th anniversary, Union College chose to listen.

In partnership with Talking Stories, the College recorded a series of conversations with alumni and current residents across generations. The aim was to preserving the voices, values, and lived memories that shaped six decades of student life.

Impact

The Impact of Union College

Across these conversations, a clear picture emerges. Each conversation below captures a different chapter of Union’s story - from Spring Hill’s wooden verandahs to present day Red Week traditions.

Union was a transition space from adolescence to adulthood, from regional Queensland to metropolitan life, from uncertainty to professional identity.

Culture

From the disciplined corridors of Spring Hill under Warden Max Hickey, to structured academic support in St Lucia, Union built a reputation for being a place where study mattered. Residents speak of quiet spaces, firm expectations, and the sense that learning came first.

Access

Many alumni arrived from North Queensland, state schools, farming towns, and first-in-family backgrounds. Union became a bridge offering structure, community, and proximity to opportunity.

Egalitarian

Union was the first co-educational college in Queensland. It resisted fresher hazing culture. It welcomed Colombo Plan students when that was still rare. Its residents speak repeatedly of maturity, mutual respect, and cultural openness. The stories describe adulthood with humour, mischief, debate, and growth.

Community

Spouses met. Rugby finals were contested. Friendships lasted decades. Alumni returned as donors, board members, and parents of new residents.

One conversation brings a mother and daughter together. Two generations shaped by the same place, thirty years apart.

Stories

Charlie Schild & Tenae Ghelfi

Residents, friends

Charlie and Tenae remember the first week of college life. The chaos of move-in day, meeting strangers who’d soon feel like family, and finding their place in a building that would become home for a few years.

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Ross Johnston & Brian Briggs

Past residents

Ross and Brian look back on the early years of Union College. Their conversation moves easily between humour and history, capturing the spirit of a place built as much by its people as by its bricks.

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John Angus Innes

Former Chair

Angus reflects on his years at Union College and the story behind the Innes Room that bears his family name.

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Cecilie Lander & Mervyn Lander

Past residents, partners

Cecilie and Mervyn revisit the 1960s, when Union College was still half-built and full of promise. Their conversation rediscovers their beginnings of a lifelong partnership that started at Union College.

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Brett White & Adam Scott

Past residents, friends

Brett and Adam share stories of the early days of campus traditions to the ways college friendships still shape their lives today.

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Viola Nicholson & Norman William Johnson

Past residents

Viola and Bill met on the day and reflected on the changing face of Union College, from its first co-ed years to the decades that followed.

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Tania Broadbent & Emily Broadbent

Multi-generational residents

Tania and Emily, a mother and daughter who’ve both called Union home, compare college life across generations.

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Dr Barry Appleton

Past resident

Dr Barry Appleton reflects on student life under Warden Max Hickey at Union College.

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Studio

How the Talking Stories Studio Worked

To capture these conversations, Talking Stories established a temporary recording studio at the college's Max Hickey library on the day of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

Each conversation was guided, unscripted, by an experienced interviewer. Participants spoke in their own words, and the recordings were lightly edited, removing only pauses and repetition while preserving the integrity and cadence of the exchange.

From each interview emerged a layered archive of media assets: long-form audio for a podcast, short-form video vignettes, portrait photography, a co-branded digital webpage, and podcast-ready distribution.

The Talking Stories expertise lowered the barrier to participation while retaining depth. Union College leadership did not narrate the story from above; instead they sat within it.

Union College now holds a recorded cultural foundation, a repeatable alumni engagement tool, recruitment storytelling grounded in lived experience, and a body of material future leaders can inherit and build upon.