An excerpt from a story in The Sunshine Coast Daily, Saturday, 30 January, 2010, “College hits 20-year mark in fine style”

“I started in Grade 8. The school only had grades five to eight in 1990,” Bede Evans, a foundation student, said.

“We were the first grade 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and we graduated in 1994.”

“It was pretty good. You never had to worry about bullying.”

Mr Evans, now the regional manager of a Brisbane engineering firm, said he remembered a “pretty intimate” school but even in the first years, he said it felt like it had already existed.

Bede finished his time at Burnside Primary School and arrived at Flinders, knowing only one former classmate. “We all came from different places – from Noosa, Caloundra, Mooloolaba and Maleny.

“But it’s amazing when I see it now, even just driving past–it’s a huge school.”

He said he remembered some of his favourite teachers, including Mr (Greg) Cook, who was his sports teacher and who was still teaching at the school.”

“Everything was new but you didn’t feel like it was a new school,” he said. “It felt like it grew organically. There was no oval, just a bit of a patch of grass with rocks on it.”