Indooroopilly State High’s most outstanding graduates
It’s possibly the only state school in Queensland to have produced a Nobel prize winner. But this elite westside school has many famous names among its alumni.
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From Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty to TV presenters George Negus and Jillian Whiting, Olympian Dane Bird-Smith and former Opposition leader Bill Shorten’s wife Chloe, the list of outstanding graduates from Indooroopilly State High is long indeed.
We take a look at just a few of the better known achievers to have passed through its doors.
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PROFESSOR PETER DOHERTY (immunologist)
On October 7, 1996, Doherty became the fifth Australian scientist to win a Nobel, and is still one of only 16 Aussies across all disciplines ever to have won the accolade.
He shared the Nobel prize for Medicine with his Swiss friend and colleague Rolf Zinkernagel, in recognition for work on virus infection in immune cells which the pair had made in a laboratory in Canberra in the mid 1970s.
But he had been planning on becoming a journalist, like a handful of other high-flying journos to graduate from Indooroopilly State High, until a chance meeting at a University of Queensland open day steered him towards biology.
Since then Prof Doherty has authored many books, kept up research, has had a research institute at the University of Melbourne named after him, and has become a sought-after commentator, including most recently during the coronavirus pandemic.
PETER GRESTE (journalist)
Another ISHS graduate who went on to become a journo, Greste became a worldwide name when he was imprisoned in Egypt in 2013 while on assignment covering the political troubles there for Al Jazeera.
Distressing images of him in a cage in an Egyptian courtroom were beamed into loungerooms around Australia, but international pressure eventually saw Greste and two colleagues released.
The former BBC TV journalist went on to win the 2014 Walkley, Australia’s highest journalism awards, and joined the University of Queensland where he has campaigned for press freedom.
GEORGE NEGUS (broadcaster)
The knockabout, gravelly-voiced presenter so familiar on TV screens is another ISHS journalism star, which is possibly no surprise as the school began film and TV studies in the 1970s when nobody else was doing it.
Best known for his globetrotting reports on hot spots around the world, he has also authored books and been a regular media commentator.
His long career included stints on SBS’s Dateline (2005-2010), as founding presenter of 60 Minutes (1979-86) and on Foreign Correspondent (1992-99).
CHLOE SHORTEN (journalist, author, corporate affairs specialist)
She needs no introduction, but nevertheless few people know Chloe Shorten was one of ISHS’s many well-known graduates.
The daughter of former Governor Dame Quentin Bryce, after university she briefly worked at The Sunday Mail before forging a career as a writer and corporate affairs specialist.
But Ms Shorten is of course best known as the highly visible, immaculately attired and fiercely loyal partner of former Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Still active in politics, she was spotted as recently as December helping get out the vote in the interstate seat of Corangamite.
CAITLIN SARGENT JONES (Olympic and Commonwealth Games sprinter)
The 400m sprinter, who has represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Rio Olympics, is one of many athletes whose preparations for Tokyo have been devastated by coronavirus.
A Kenmore Bears junior AFL player in her youth, she was spotted by renowned coach Eric Brown who told her straight up she would one day run in a Games as a 400m runner.
At the time, she thought he was crazy, but now they have forged one of the longest coach-athlete partnerships in Australian history.
CLEA (singer)
Indie-pop singer-songwriter Clea Pratt released her debut full-length album Vermillion in November last year.
The 24-year-old has been slowly and steadily attracting an ardent and loyal following since she first uploaded her song Polyester to Triple J’s Unearthed site a little over five years ago.
With an idiosyncratic blend of ethereal vocals, acoustic guitar, Mellotron keyboards and understated beats, Vermillion has built on the framework Clea laid on singles Dire Consequences and Bright Blue, both of which featured on 2017 EP Fairweather.
EVES KARYDAS (singer)
Another of many talented musos produced by ISHS, four years ago Hannah Evyenia Karydas – the woman formerly known to Australian audiences as Eves The Behaviour, now simply Eves Karydas – decided to drop everything to move to London to develop her craft.
When she’s not in the studio with collaborators Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), Sam Dixon (Adele, Kylie Minogue) and Chris Zane (Passion Pit), Karydas can often be found in her London apartment with her head in a book or cooking Greek dishes from her Yaya’s secret recipes.
JILLIAN WHITING (journalist, newsreader)
Born in Mackay, after her family moved to Brisbane she became interested in journalism and attended the University of Queensland before becoming a research assistant in 1991 with Seven Brisbane.
She later became a reporter and weekend news presenter for Seven News before switching to rival Nine in 1996.
Whiting soon became presenter of the weekend editions of Nine News Queensland and then co-presenter of the weekday news with Bruce Paige in 2001.
Together, they took the bulletin to the top of the ratings in Queensland.
In 2006 she became presenter of the Gold Coast edition of Nine Gold Coast News after production moved to Brisbane, and soon after assumed role as presenter of Extra, Nine’s local tabloid current affairs program.
After resigning in 2008, Whiting returned to Seven as a presenter for Queensland Weekender and a fill-in presenter for Seven News Brisbane.
More recently, she has been a presenter with Brisbane radio station 4BC and a columnist for The Courier-Mail as well as working in media consulting.
DANE BIRD-SMITH (Olympic athlete)
The 20km walk bronze medallist at the 2016 Olympics went to Rainworth State School and then ISHS, and occasionally turns up at the schools for talks or to have a fun race with the students.
A two-time winner of the University of Queensland sportsman of the year, he won bronze while representing Australia in the Rio Olympic and also won gold in the 2017 Oceania and Australian 20km Race Walking Championships.
He was the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, capping a stellar career.
His passion for athletics started at an early age, and stemmed from watching his father and coach, Olympian David Smith, train and compete.
FRANCES WHITING (journalist and author)
Yet another of ISHS’ illustrious alumni-turned-journalists, Whiting has been a favourite with readers for years with her folksy weekly columns about suburban life, most recently her Sunday Mail column.
PROFESSOR BARRY MCGAW
An esteemed educator, Prof McGaw is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and an Emeritus Professor of Murdoch University in Perth.
He had earlier been Director for Education at the OECD in Paris, Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and Professor of Education at Murdoch University.
He began his professional career as a secondary school science teacher in Queensland.
He was also the foundation Chair of the Board of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
FRANCESCA OWEN (synchronised swimmer, photographer)
After being introduced to synchronised swimming when she was only eight, the former Pullenvale resident went on to represent Australia at the London Olympics in 2012.
She later hung up her goggles, turning to photography and now specialises in submarine subjects, forging a totally new career with her breathtaking images.
SARA FONSECA (children’s book illustrator)
She first started drawing plants at age eight, later enrolling in drawing and painting classes.
That passion merged with a love of gardening and the combination of these passions became a business, Barrow & Brush, in 2017.
Fonseca, who now lives in California, also illustrated picture and activity books for Portuguese publisher Zero a Oito, and in 2019 was awarded Best In Conference in the SCBWI San Francisco North & East Oktoberfest Portfolio Showcase.
FLORENCE CHEN (barrister)
Before joining the Bar, Ms Chen was the associate to the Honourable Justice Fryberg for two years and to the Honourable Justice Jackson for one year.
She now has a commercial practice with particular expertise in the areas of banking and finance, building and construction, contracts, insolvency, property, succession and tax litigation.
She acts in a wide spectrum of complex commercial disputes in both State and Federal jurisdictions.
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