In November the Sugden Society joined with the Wyvern Society and the equivalent entities from Wesley College, to host some fifty guests for lunch at Werribee Park Mansion Hotel & Spa. The property is operated by the family company of Peter Clark (Wyvern1963) and is part of the Lancemore Group collection of award winning boutique hotels. Apart from his Queen’s affiliation Peter is also a past student of Wesley College, (an OW). This event represented the continuation of the now tradition of an annual joint celebration of the alumni associations of Wesley and Queen’s.
Prior to the lunch guests enjoyed a visit to the adjacent Victoria State Rose Garden where the roses were in full bloom, this being November. Serendipitously it was 30 years and one day since the Rose Garden was opened in November 1986 by the then Minister for Water Resources in the John Cain Government, Andrew McCutcheon (Wyvern 1954) and OW. Andrew was able to join us on the day as was Dr Ray Marginson AM, then Chairman of the MMBW, and John and Nancye Cain.
Parks Victoria, which now oversees the Rose Garden, emerged from the Parks Division of the MMBW once it became Melbourne Water and hence its then Chairman Ray Marginson was vitally interested in the development of the garden and was delighted to be invited to join this celebration. Coincidently he was for many years Vice Principal at the University of Melbourne and in that role had much contact with Queen’s College.
Guests were conducted through the Rose Garden by members of the volunteer group who provide this service and then strolled through the 10 acres of formal gardens surrounding the Werribee Mansion for lunch at The Pavilion which overlooks the in-house polo field.
Apart from Peter Clarke and Andrew McCutcheon, other guests who are products of both Wesley and Queen’s included Jack Ayerbe (1965), Geoff Davies (1967), John Hicks (1954), Frank Opray (1965) and Simon Torok (1986).

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