Gordon Blake

“To me the Yarra motto means going beyond the realm where you feel comfortable.”

Gordon Blake still has the charcoal grey school jumper and the distinctive cherry red blazer that he wore at Yarra – and they still fit. His Junior School peaked cap remains in his wardrobe, too.

While the uniform has changed and many of the school buildings have also evolved and developed since he left Yarra more than 40 years ago, Gordon still feels a strong affinity with the school and has many fond memories of his time as a student.

“I went through school trying to progress and develop as best I could and Yarra gave me that opportunity,” he says.

Gordon made the most of the Fine Arts and Performing Arts opportunities at Yarra Valley Grammar. He remembers being involved in school productions that saw him take on roles from a singing chimneysweep to a knight in a 1980 production of Camelot.

He was also a passionate musician – his performing and musical talents perhaps inspired by his mother who played piano and trained to be an opera singer.

“Music was part of my home life and my Mum was involved in putting on plays before I was born. I had piano lessons at Yarra and wrote songs myself as a way to express ideas and tell stories,” says Gordon.

During his time at school and later while studying Art at Melbourne State College, Gordon was also a lead singer in bands formed with friends.

“I remember at the end of a Year 12 school camp everyone was in a hall and putting on a performance for each other. There was a piano and another student had an acoustic guitar and I sang Knocking on Heaven’s Door. I had my back to the audience but halfway through I realised everyone was clapping in time to the song and when I turned round at the end, all my peers gave me a standing ovation. I’ll never forget that.”

At the end of the school year in 1980, after completing Form 5, Gordon had no plans to return to Yarra. He felt ‘burnt out’ and in need of a break – but two weeks into the new school year he changed his mind.

“I was kicking a football on a recreation reserve nearby and saw the school bus dropping off students and suddenly thought to myself, ‘I should be on that bus’. So, my father rang Les Christie, the Deputy Principal, and I re-joined the Fine Arts course at Yarra.”

Gordon is still inspired by the Yarra motto.

“It means to go beyond your horizon-line,” he says. “You always start off at a certain level but there’s a perspective to go beyond what the line interprets.”