A Tower of Names

Above the main room in Ormond’s Tower is a historical treasure trove.

Many Ormond students have spent time in the Tower, whether it be the Lower Tower rooms, the cosy bar that now occupies the next level up, or above that the main Tower room itself with its glorious views over Parkville and far beyond. Fewer Ormondians have gone up further. Yet up the steep staircase from the main Tower room is another zone entirely.

Inside the spire of the Tower between the clock faces is a tall room that houses the clock mechanism. The original mechanism is the size of a huddle of fridges and remains in the room, though it has been superseded by a digital device that fits in the palm of a hand. Suspended from the ceiling are the weights that originally helped the clock hands move; tall ladders take the especially daring up to the very tip of the Tower.

But the real treasure here is on the walls. For nearly 140 years some Ormondians have written their names on the unplastered interior of this space. From the floor up to a height requiring a ladder there are names; on the slopes where the spire begins and around the two windows, name after name. In cursive, Victorian handwriting, in neat early twentieth-century letters, in greylead pencil and sometimes carved into the stone itself.

Many have dates but often just a “90” or an “08”, so often it’s the cursive handwriting and old-fashioned names that help us distinguish an 1890 from a 1990, or a 1908 from a 2008.

Then there’s the names themselves. There are some who have carved their names into Ormond’s history as well as its walls. Valentine Finch etched his name deep into the wall before leaving for World War I, where he was shot through the mouth and evacuated with another Ormondian who became a lifelong friend. Some will recall their story of friendship celebrated in New & Old in 1917, when the family donated  rare early photographs of student life at College.

It’s not only students who have left their mark. Staff and contractors, including a plumber from 1863, a painter from 1912 and a clock winder and and are memorialised in the room. In 1917 Louie Bunting, Edna Johnson, Mavis Rae and Johnny Dunlop visited. None were students of the College. Were these staff, perhaps tutors or maids in a quiet moment?

Whatever the circumstances, this room is a physical archive of the Ormond community and a treasured secret corner of our campus.