Bunbury Catholic College kicks off 50th year celebrations with Mass and community picnic

Bunbury Catholic College’s 50th-year celebrations have officially kicked off after past and present students and staff converged on the school for a Mass and community picnic.

The school invited alumni, staff, students and friends to its campus to join in the school’s half-century Thanksgiving Mass inside the school’s La Valla Sports Centre, followed by a community picnic on Albert Oval on Saturday March 11.

The Mass was led by Bishop Gerard Holohan for a congregation of more than 300 people, including several dignitaries, while the community picnic featured live music from Year 9 student Cacharel Cavan, a sausage sizzle from the Australind Lions Club, as well as several food trucks.

Visitors were able to reflect on the past 50 years through a display of memoriabilia, newspaper articles, yearbooks, costumes from College productions and artworks from 40 years of the school’s Art Extraordinaire.

Bunbury Catholic College principal Michael Pepper said the day was “a wonderful celebration of our College’s journey over the past 50 years and of the years preceding the formation of BCC”.

Celebrations are set to continue throughout 2023, with a dinner dance and an ex-student reunion just some of the other festivities planned for later in the year.

Established in 1973, BCC became a co-educational school after merging the former Francis Xavier school for boys, founded by the Marist brothers, and St Joseph’s High School, ran by the Mercy Sisters educating mostly female students.