Originated at 2020 reunion
Bonnie Reflections The Kyneton Marist Brothers School ceased as a teaching establishment in mid-1967 after four decades of quality education for day, and boarding students.
In 1947 over one hundred past students came to Kyneton to celebrate the school’s 21st birthday. They formed an Old Boys Association which still exists, and has an annual reunion which was held on 26 January 2020.
After the school closed the records were removed and all efforts to locate them have been unsuccessful. In a sport mad country it is always sporting achievers that gain publicity. So it was at the school!
The late Brother Boniface [Joseph] Kivlighon who taught at the school in three tours of duty totalling eleven years, kept detailed records of the annual sports day by clipping and pasting extracts from the Kyneton Guardian.
So unless someone has memories of an event, or person the Boniface annuals are the only records. [Just a related aside…. Brother Marius Wolfe [Dec.] once remarked “there will never be a day that football is not reported in the newspaper”. 25% of one recent Herald-Sun had stories about football.]
The Kivlighon family of Sale was a major contributor to Victoria’s history. Apart from two sons having a vocation and becoming Marist Brothers, [Younger Thomas took name Marcelin] the father Tom is notable. Bonnie related stories of helping his dad operate the Swing Bridge that allowed access into the Port of Sale.
“Tom Kivlighon was to be the last of the Bridge Keepers, managing the bridge from 1912 until 1938. Kivlighon had the foresight to introduce a lighting system for the bridge: Green for Open – Red for Closed.
Even in the early 20th century, speed was a major contributing factor to accidents. The Swing Bridge was witness to larrikins speeding their motor cars to the bridge – and plummeting right on down, into the river – unable to pull up in time “. Source Sale Historical Society
At the 2020 annual reunion the Madden sisters [Christine, Frances, Moira, and Helen] handed up reminiscences of Brother Boniface, which was used as the Alma Mater.
As you know Brother Boniface was driven to get the maximum sporting performance of out every kid that ever crossed his path, and his reputation in this respect was legendary. It also stretched far and wide.
Here in Kyneton, when it looked like he’d trained all the boys to peak fitness, he then focused his training talents to the students of the Convent. And this scandalised the nuns a bit by training their precious “Sacred Heart ladies College” girls in all things track and field (including long jumps and high jumps) on the oval over there where the bus depot now stands.
He also focussed, big-time, on swimming. Helen Madden (Nock) was one of those that he encouraged through all the different levels and awards. She still swims with a group of people at Narooma on the NSW far south coast. Over the years many people have commented about her effortless technique.
After being complimented again on her swimming style, she made mention of the fact that she had Br. Boniface to thank for her technique and enthusiasm for the sport – never expecting of course that anyone would really know who she was talking about.
Instead, this unknown guy pipes and says, “Brother Boniface, I know him – he taught me in Sydney – (Knowing that that wasn’t quite true he adjusted his comment to – “he taught me sport anyway”. He recognised the Bonnie style in Helen immediately, hundreds of kilometres apart and several decades on, the mantra rings true, once taught by Bonnie always able.
She also tells another Bonnie swimming story concerning the Bronze Medallion attempt. She was supposed to “save” her brother Laurie, who was deemed by Bonnie to meet the appropriate weight and height criteria. However, however, when the time came, Laurie panicked and wouldn’t co-operate, – a panicking your adult in the water in need of rescue, the ideal scenario from her Bronze Medal attempt you might argue.
Instead, Bonnie ordered Laurie out of the water and substituted Moe Keegan. Moe had just gotten out of hospital after a serious peritonitis operation and wasn’t supposed to even be in the water. He was also a lot bigger kid than Laurie, and exceeded the height/weight conditions by a fair bit.
As a result, Helen couldn’t reach properly across Moe’s chest to get proper purchase on him in order to “save” him – so Bonnie turned his back. Moe kicked and floated and Helen got her Bronze Medallion.
Academia may not have been the pinnacle here in Kyneton, but a student failing at sport was not on Bonnie’s agenda.
As memories fade history becomes history but stories like this keep the past present. The Old Boys have a web site www.kynetonmaristbrothersoldboys.com.au that carries much information about past and present students. Salient is the honour roll of deceased Old Boys that have been collated.
