Full list: Where Aussie pop and rock stars went to school
These schools get to lay claim to having nurtured some of Australia’s finest musicians. See our interactive table for where they found their groove.
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In the Barrenjoey High School yearbook, there should be a photo of its music room captioned “Most Likely To Create Pop Superstars.”
In fact, a clutch of secondary schools in Sydney’s northern beaches could lay claim to having nurtured the musical aspirations of some of Australia’s most successful creative exports including Angus and Julia Stone, Flume, Gang of Youths, Courtney Barnett, Ruel, Lime Cordiale and current Next Big Things, The Rions.
Aspiring pop stars in Victoria might look to follow in the footsteps of two lots of successful siblings by moving to a school in Camberwell.
Kylie and Dannii Minogue attended the local secondary college while Vika and Linda Bull studied at the Camberwell Girls Grammar School.
Or the nearby St Kevin’s College in Toorak whose former students Vance Joy and Chet Faker have both topped Triple J’s Hottest 100 during their careers.
Queensland singers hoping to emulate the state’s greats might check out one of the St Joseph’s Colleges where Bernard Fanning and Pete Murray were educated or Southport State High School on the Gold Coast where Ricki-Lee Coulter and Amy Shark attended classes when they weren’t wagging together.
Adelaide’s school of rock appears to be Blackwood High whose famous alumni include country star Beccy Cole, hip hop heroes Hilltop Hoods and rapper, singer and songwriter Allday.
While some of Australia’s musical stars may be reluctant to head back through the school gates, others retain a deep gratitude for the support and nurturing of their talents.
Angus and Julia Stone – whose father John is a Barrenjoey High music teacher and remains an artist whisperer for dozens of young musicians in the area – have regularly returned to their alma mater.
Angus chose to launch his second solo album Broken Brights back in 2012 at the school, giving local fans an exclusive preview of the record which would reach No. 2 on the ARIA charts.
“My Dad’s always been our biggest supporter as well and he’s the music teacher there,” Stone said back then.
“It was a really humbling experience to see all the people I grew up with there, and as it was my first ever show on my own and it couldn’t [have] been more fitting because there was a lot of love and it was one of those things that just felt right.”
His sister Julia threw her support behind the school’s funding drive for a performance centre in 2015.
“My time spent exploring art, music and drama at Barrenjoey was a big part of not only becoming a performer and songwriter but also in developing the creative thought required for running an international touring business,” she said.
Creative arts classes in Australian schools are back in focus as a Joint Select Committee on Arts and Music Education and Training in New South Wales continues hearings this month, and ARIA again turns its spotlight to the Music Teacher of the Year awards.
Barrenjoey’s current head music teacher Fiona Gudmunson said giving all students every opportunity to perform at school and local cafes or markets was behind their strike rate in producing superstars.
In addition to Angus and Julia – and INXS performing there back in 1979 – Pittwater High students Oli and Louis Leimbach of Lime Cordiale were frequent visitors to the Barrenjoey music room to check out the local talent and seek John Stone’s counsel.
Gudmunson also helped mentor indie rock band The Rions who won Triple J’s Unearthed High in 2021 and are about to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe with Kiama High graduates Pacific Avenue.
“The Rions started as a band in Year 7 and basically practised every lunchtime; they were doing heaps of school performances and going on tours with other bands from really early on, with lots of local gigs,” Gudmunson said.
“These musicians have really been able to realise their potential through all of these performance opportunities.”
The Song Room runs music education programs through Australian primary schools to plug the gap where there aren’t specialist creative arts teachers.
The Song Room CEO Alice Gerlach helped launch the ARIA Music Teacher of the Year award in 2017 to amplify the importance of arts education, which can reduce absenteeism by up to 65 per cent, foster better grades in literacy and numeracy and improve wellbeing.
“Music matters at schools because we have a wellbeing crisis on our hands, especially for our young people, and music supports their wellbeing,” she said.
“There’s also a huge amount of data around its impact on brain function; music helps in all areas of learning.
“It also gives young people an opportunity to connect with other students and engage in school life; it helps them to find their place.”
Australia’s most successful example of how the marriage of music and education can lead to global stardom is of course The Wiggles.
The OG Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said music education can “develop the whole child.”
“It is a creative outlet that provides children with a way of expressing their emotional self,” he said.
“Music practise requires discipline and can create a sense of self worth when a student masters a particular stage of musicianship. It can help form friendships, it can develop a child’s memory, mathematical ability and give children a talent that will delight and entertain others for their whole life.”
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Originally published as Full list: Where Aussie pop and rock stars went to school
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