Long service: Phil Hutton is retiring after teaching at Camberwell Grammar for 37 years.
SHANNON MORRIS
Not long after his family moved to East Bentleigh, Phil Hutton’s father inadvertently helped inspire his son’s lifelong love of athletics. It was 1956 and Melbourne was about to host the Olympic Games, so Leslie Hutton and his neighbours set up their own meet in the paddocks surrounding their homes.
“We were about the third or fourth house to be built there,” recalls Phil Hutton, who this year celebrated 50 years in athletics. “They got a truck load of sand and put it in the paddock, and they mowed strips so that all the kids had a 100-metre race, high jump, long jump, marathon run. So we did all that as the Olympics were going on.”
Ten-year-old Phil, who had arrived with his parents as 10 pound migrants from Bristol in 1953, was captivated. He saw the opening ceremony and several of the Olympic events. “We stood outside the ground and watched all the athletes march in,” he says.
“They marched across from Richmond into the MCG. It was magic. We watched the marathon and the walks that came out along Dandenong Road. The 50-kilometre walk went out to, I think, Dandenong and back.”
For a kid growing up in Melbourne’s developing suburbs, still surrounded by market gardens, it was truly inspirational. Five years later, at 14, Hutton joined Glenhuntly Athletics Club, where he has competed every year since in the summer track and field and winter cross-country competitions. The club has won more than 35 of the past 59 winter premierships and boasts among its members Trevor Vincent, Chris Wardlaw, Pat Clohessy and Brenda Carr.
But athletics is not the only love of his life. Hutton has been married for 40 years to Lorraine, whom he met on a blind date organised by childhood friend Geoff Cox of Coxy’s Big Break fame, and has taught at Camberwell Grammar School for 37. Not bad for a young teacher who said he’d “give it three years” when he started.
Meeting this spritely 65-year-old in the school’s grounds, you soon realise why he stayed. The esteemed 125-year-old institution has educated some of Australia’s best and brightest in its historic grounds, which are again being updated. Alumni include Sir Keith Murdoch, former governor David de Kretser and Barry Humphries.
What began as a community school with 60 students on borrowed premises now dominates the Burke Road end of Mont Albert Road. Another state-of-the-art redevelopment is under way, but many of the school’s traditions survive.
The property’s original 19th century home still stands, and Hutton arrives for our interview in the black academic gown teachers wear to assembly.
This is soon discarded in his small but cosy office, which was the principal’s when he joined Camberwell in 1974. Hutton’s job interview took place in this very room, a far cry from his working class English origins. He was born in Bristol in 1946, just after the city was hit hard in World War II.
“My memory of Bristol when we went to town was just masses of building rubble; it was very badly bombed in the war,” he says. “If we ever went down to see dad at work or down into the main city centre … you were travelling through a lot of rubble with buildings fallen down.”
When he was six, his parents Leslie and Marion came to Melbourne with Phil and his younger brother Roger. Their sister Jeanne was born soon afterwards.
Hutton returned to England for the first time eight years ago, and saw his old home in the “very much working class” suburb where he lived.
Many of the old homes were gone, but not theirs. He also caught up with an uncle, Charles Marchant, who helped develop the Concorde as an engineer.
That visit was special as Hutton’s parents had both passed away. Marion died at just 47 and Leslie at 64. Leslie Hutton was a printer’s engineer and worked in that field most of his life, apart from a stint as an insurance agent. Marion was a comptometrist, operating a machine that performed mathematical processes for British Tobacco.
“They had these big machines with numbers all along … the top and they did all these computations,” Hutton says. “It was an intriguing machine and I liked to use it. Maybe that is where I got my interest in accounting.”
When they first arrived in Melbourne the family lived in East Brunswick, close to Leslie’s work. He bought a block in East Bentleigh and each Sunday would dink one of the kids the 30 or so kilometres to work on it, sowing vegies and digging foundations.
“I can remember going through the city, up Dandenong Road to Carnegie and through all the back blocks to get there,” Hutton says. “It was all market gardens.”
One day Marion bumped into a school friend from England who lived in McKinnon, near East Bentleigh. The next thing he knew Hutton was living with that family of six. “We were all in the one room with bunks everywhere,” he recalls. “The kids were all in one room.”
Finally Leslie built a house and they moved in just in time for the Olympics. Off North Road, you could see the new Monash University in Clayton being built; in between were market gardens. Marion and Leslie lived the rest of their lives there.
Hutton attended Ormond East Primary School, which he liked apart from getting the strap for not writing neatly. “The problem was that I’d broken my wrist,” he says. “I didn’t realise it was broken and I couldn’t hold the pen so I wrote with the other hand and the teacher was not impressed.”
In year four Hutton moved to the new Valkstone Primary in East Bentleigh, then attended Murrumbeena High School in its first year (it has since closed).
“We operated out of a little church hall,” he says. “It was great. They had classes sitting out in the sun or on the stage. We knew everyone … and it was a very sport-loving school.”
As at most Australian schools in the 1960s, sport was huge. Hutton played footy but decided athletics was for him, and he joined Glenhuntly Athletics Club where he was mentored by its secretary Peter Colthup and president Gus Theobald, “both legends of the club”.
The club helped introduce Little Athletics into the area in 1967 when Hutton was junior teams manager.
“The club had a great team spirit and a winning culture,” he says.
“It was a tremendous place to be around and I quickly became involved on the committee as a junior representative.”
While he was no superstar, Hutton was a good cross-country runner and captained his high school athletics team. He was made a life member of Glenhuntly Athletics Club in 1983 and this year received an Athletics Victoria 50-year service award.
He didn’t realise it, but around this time he was also developing the attributes of a great teacher; patience, people skills and a love of learning. Athletics instilled discipline and passion, and his time as a scout and scout leader taught him how to handle big groups of children.
As senior scouts he and a friend were the first in the 11th Moorabbin pack to achieve the Queen’s Scout award. By 16, he was taking a junior group.
“I really enjoyed that,” he says. “It gave me confidence … that I could teach. I really enjoyed instructing kids in tying knots, simple little things. We’d take them on camps and … hikes. They were fantastic times.”
Later graduating into Rover Scouts, Hutton helped organise a World Rover Moot, which saw Rovers from around the world visit Victoria. He won scouting’s highest honour, the Baden-Powell award, presented by the then-governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe, at Government House.
After finishing high school, Hutton got a summer job in the accounting department of city-based insurance company Colonial Mutual Life. His 11-pound weekly wage was “handy”, so he decided to study commerce at Melbourne University part-time. But he was still running, and it all became too much.
Unable to fund full-time study, Hutton took on a teaching studentship, which paid his fees and offered a small wage in return to committing to the classroom for at least three years.
Still at uni, Hutton met his wife Lorraine in 1968 courtesy of Geoff Cox, who grew up in the same street. By then Cox was in a band and just happened to know Lorraine through a friend. “It was a blind date,” Hutton says. “I took her to the university ball.” Cox ended up marrying the sister of Hutton’s best friend.
After completing his Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University and his Graduate Diploma of Education at Monash University, Hutton was sent to Fawkner High School to teach maths, something the economics and accounting specialist had not studied at uni. He was disillusioned but pressed on and was eternally grateful when, three months later, two PE teachers left, allowing the keen sportsman to take that on instead. He stayed for four years and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some students being a bit rough around the edges.
When Hutton arrived at Fawkner in 1970, many senior staff had left. With the other young teachers he was keen to rebuild the school and its reputation.
After buying a house in Vermont, in 1971 he married Lorraine, who processed applications in the repatriation service. They bought a block in the Dandenongs, building in 1978, and still live there after raising Scott, 35, and Deanne, 31.
Scott is an accountant and has three children: Luke, 6, Alicia, 4 and Xavier, 2. He recently retired after 15 years as an AFL boundary umpire, officiating in more than 260 games. Deanne, a former state walking champion, is an osteopath who recently had her first child, Amity.
In 1974 Hutton took a year’s leave so he and Lorraine could visit England, but the trip was postponed. At a loss, he wandered into the Association of Registered Teachers building in the city. With nothing on offer, he left his details. “I got home and my wife said, ‘Why would Camberwell Grammar be ringing you?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know’,” Hutton relates. “She said, ‘They want you to go in for an interview in the morning’. So I came into this room here.”
“Nervous as heck”, Hutton was interviewed by then-principal David Dyer the following day in the room that is now his office. The available PE position wasn’t his favoured economics or accounting, but it was a good school, he was keen on its sporting culture and it was closer to home. He got the job.
Camberwell Grammar was a culture shock for a young teacher used to a relatively tough government school. The students wanted to work and were relatively disciplined, and the teachers were very conservative, “a lot of smokers, tweed coats” with few women.
“But there were many dedicated and enthusiastic teachers in the school and I met and worked with some fantastic mentors, Bruce Doery, John Stafford, Les Maklary and Peter Renwick in particular,” Hutton says.
“The first three years were career defining for me. It made me realise that I was in a profession that I loved and I was teaching subjects – by then accounting, legal studies and PE – that I had a real passion for.”
While he had thought he would “give it three years”, Hutton was drawn in by the general challenge and being involved in school sport, coaching cross-country and athletics and helping to introduce volleyball.
After initially tutoring in accounting, he also got to teach this favoured subject in 1975. Hutton and colleagues Bruce Doery, Roy Wigg and Peter Hayes decided the accounting texts were too dry, so spent many hours writing their own more interesting and challenging version. Their year 12 book captured 75 per cent of the market, leading to year 11 and then year 10 books. Hutton updated them until 2006, and in 2008 was awarded life membership of the Victorian Commercial Teachers Association.
As well as writing, Hutton travelled around Victoria to help teachers plan and prepare accounting teaching materials, helped develop the current year 11 and 12 courses and worked as a sessional lecturer/tutor at Deakin University for 11 years.
At Camberwell he also taught commerce and legal studies, and in 1983 became a house master in charge of 80 students. “I really enjoyed this role because it involved the pastoral care of students and interaction with their parents,” he says.
From 1988-95 Hutton was head of commerce, teaching accounting and legal studies. He was then a senior master for VCE students, managing all year 11 and 12 students with “an exceptionally efficient secretary” from 1996 until being diagnosed with cancer in 2008. After extensive treatment and long-service leave, Hutton returned to the classroom. He still runs and is “feeling terrific”.
Now in remission, he has decided to retire at the end of this year so he can leave on his own terms and with his health.
“I have run my marathon, I have been teaching for 42 years, and feel satisfied that I have given it my best shot,” Hutton says, adding the illness “slowed me up a lot”.
“I’m struggling to keep up with the kids in training now, which was never a problem,” he says.
“I sort of had to cut that back a bit. Instead of running 10 kilometres or eight kilometres I’ve probably run six kilometres. Instead of running five times a week I’m running three.”
There is still so much Hutton wants to do and he doesn’t want to take any chances. He hopes to compile a comprehensive history of his athletics club, spend time with his wife and do more travelling.
The book will have plenty of material. Glenhuntly Athletics Club is one of Victoria’s biggest and counts among its members a Who’s Who of elite competition. Hutton’s contemporaries include Ron Clarke, Rob De Castella, Debbie Flintoff-King, Brenda Carr and Tim Forsyth.
Hutton is the club historian, statistician and keeper of records. He compiled its 50-year history, is working on a 90-year document and hopes to compile a centenary book in 2021. “I’ve got masses of stuff that I want to put together,” he says.
While he could compete in masters’ events, Hutton has always run in the open competition against athletes up to 40 years younger, partly due to clashes with Camberwell Grammar’s training nights. “There are probably about 25 of us in the club who are over 50 and still run,” he says.
Whatever path he takes, this much-loved teacher will miss his 37 years at Camberwell Grammar, which has been a huge part of his life.
“I’ve never felt that I’ve … got up in the morning and not wanted to go,” he says. “You always had something to do; you were always busy.
“There have been times when I thought, ‘No I’ll go back into accounting’, but I often think back to the office and think, ‘No’. I really enjoy the interaction with the kids and their sport’. I think the thing that kept me here is … the passion for my subject and the passion for sport and just the way the school is run and how they support people; their pursuit of excellence. It’s a nice place to work.
“I am deeply indebted to my past principals who have provided me the opportunities that I have experienced and in particular, the current principal Dr Paul Hicks, who has given me tremendous support and encouragement.”
Success stories \ Camberwell Grammar School old boys
Nick Gleeson
Attended \ Class of 1979
CV \ Adventurer, sportsman, academic and public speaker
Gleeson lost his sight at seven and used Braille text books at school before studying arts at Melbourne University and representing Australia in athletics and cricket. He has completed ultra marathons, raced up the Empire State Building, was the first blind Australian to reach the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro and climbed 5800 metres up Mount Everest. Gleeson and wife, Heather, also vision impaired, have two children. He is a Vision Australia community development officer and an Australia Day ambassador. He runs the voluntary speakers network, which educates people about vision impairment.
Ashley Gilbertson
Attended \ Class of 1995
CV \ Award-winning, New York-based photojournalist
One of the world’s best photojournalists, Gilbertson has worked in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Iraq. His first book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer’s Chronicle of the Iraq War, was released in 2007. Gilbertson’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Guardian Magazine, Le Monde, the National Library of Australia, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. In 2004, he received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for courage and enterprise for his work in Falluja, Iraq, and in 2011 won a National Magazine Award.
Rob Gell
Attended \ Class of 1970
CV \ TV presenter and environmental geographer
A coastal geomorphologist by training, Gell taught environmental science and physical geography at Melbourne State College and Melbourne University before presenting TV weather for 31 years (on three networks!). He is also an environmental and communications consultant and a director of World Wind, bhive Group and the International College of Environmental Sustainability. A patron of, and fellow with, several organisations, Gell is also national president of Greening Australia, chairman of the Western Port Biosphere and a member of the Victorian Coastal Council.
Andy Lee
Attended \ Class of 1999
CV \ Comedian, radio and TV host
Lee was a school prefect, captain of games and captain of music. He studied commerce at Melbourne University before hosting a range of radio and TV shows. He is also a founding member of the band Zoophyte with his brother Cameron, who also attended Camberwell Grammar. Lee has worked on several shows with Hamish Blake, whom he met at university, including Fox FM’s Hamish & Andy Show and Channel 9’s Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year.
“We seemed to laugh a lot, which is my favourite thing to do in life,” he says of his school days.