Bayview College sits on Gunditjmara land, overlooking Nyamat Mirring (Sea Country). Our story starts with the Indigenous band at the base of the skirt, which features three images overlayed. Included is a welcome to country and a segment of the Lake Condah Possum Skin Cloak. A real possum skin tail is included to promote an understanding of the artform and to add textural interest. The original cloak was collected by Victoria’s Museum in 1872 but repatriated to the Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place at Tae Rak. The break in cultural practices is also shown by Eugene Von Gerard’s oil painting of ‘Mt Eccles and Lake Surprise’ , which is now known by the ancient name of Budj Bim.

The ancient landscape of the coast is depicted in a digitally enhanced image in the bottom left of the skirt (bottom right if displayed as a banner) celebrating the Great Southern Australian Coastal Bonney Upwelling which attracts bluefin tuna, orca and blue whales.

The ribbons of Bayview blue give a feeling of ocean waves and are reminiscent of the crescent shaped bands on the historic sculptures of Our Lady of Loreto. We acknowledge our beginnings as a Loreto Convent and as the place Saint Mary MacKillop opened Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies.

The second band from the bottom starts with an iconic image of our founder Mother Gonzaga Barry writing at her desk. Further images show the nuns and students in nature collecting the wattle, acacia, ferns and wildflowers from the site known as Govie reserve, where damper and billy tea was regularly enjoyed. The Eucalyptus Blossom also inspired the name of the school newsletter Mother Gonzaga Barry began.

An image of the boys from St Aloysius with a sailboat shows just how much the ocean was and is included in our daily activities at the school. As we move across, we see images of students celebrating the visits to the aptly named ‘Nun’s beach sitting on the large bluestone rocks with feet paddling in the cooling ocean. Following the Mother Superiors, principals Mr Jim Connelly, Mr Norm McNess, Mr Les Littleford, Mr Jim Goodall and Dr. Michelle Kearney.

The third band shows images of the college from the original ‘Seaview Cottage’ to the ‘Bayview Cottage’ and the three-storey building which holds an impressive place on the Portland skyline.

The top band features two historical pictures, an image from circa 1970, showing a part of the school building known as Saint Mary’s and the bathing boxes along Portland foreshore, both of which are now gone. Portland is the oldest European settlement in the state and the school has evolved from its beginnings in 1884 with Australian society’s views and Portland’s needs to host an ecumenical Christian Community College to the current Bayview College.