School reunion: It was the summer of 1979

Were you in the 1979 class at Mackay State High School? Your old class members are looking for you.

A clipping of a photo published when the Mackay State High School leaders were announced. From left are Lorraine McDonald (vice captain), Peter Cox (captain), Margaret Heggie (captain) and Greg Sutherland (vice captain). Picture: Contributed

IT WAS 1979, 60 Minutes aired on the Nine Network for the first time, Mad Max and Apocalypse Now were screening at the cinema, and the world was listening to tracks like Heart of Glass by Blondie and I Don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats.

In Mackay, a bunch of teenagers was finishing their secondary education at Mackay State High School and stepping into adulthood. Now, 40 years later, they have plans to meet up again.

The class of 1979 is planning a reunion on Saturday, August 17 and organisers are searching for past class members. The group is also inviting people who moved away or finished school in Grade 10 to attend the event.

Karen Emmott said the idea came from seeing old classmates on social media.

"A group of us from that year are friends on Facebook and we got to discussing what we were going to do for it. One of them lives in Oslo, Norway and he is coming in August, so we thought we should do it then," she said.

The class of 1979 has been communicating through the MSHS Reunion Save the Date Facebook group and invites anyone who is keen to attend to find the page and join up.

The group is looking forward to getting in touch with other classmates from that period.

"One person we are looking for that we haven't been able to get in touch with yet is Lorraine McDonald, who was the school vice captain at the time," Ms Emmott said.

Another person instrumental in sorting out the reunion is class captain Margaret Heggie.

She still lives in Mackay and is also looking forward to seeing people again, even though she admits she hasn't kept in touch with many people or seen them since they finished school.

Ms Emmott, who now lives on a property near Longreach, said that she hadn't seen many of her school friends for years and missed out on the 10-year reunion because of her wedding.

"As soon as I finished high school I went overseas to exchange and when I came back my parents moved to Dysart and I lost contact with people," she said.

"There was a tenth reunion but it fell on my wedding and my bridesmaid and I couldn't go," she said.

On the night of the reunion, old classmates have been offered a tour around the school, followed by a meal and drinks.

Originally published as School reunion: It was the summer of 1979