Here is a section from a reflection by Age journalist and feature writer (see below for information about him), Tony Wright. He was a boarder at Monivae in the latter part of the 1960s.

"We squabbled over the newspapers each morning at our school. We were boarders, desperate for access to the information and entertainment that danced tantalisingly beyond the walls that enclosed us within dreaming paddocks outside the country town of Hamilton, Victoria. With breakfast done, burnt buttered toast and gooey eggs staining our shirts, we stampeded across the quadrangle to fight our way to the nearest pile of papers in the common room.

Plenty of the boys wanted the sports section, the wonks grabbed pages dealing with politics, a few had favourite columnists, most lingered over underwear ads and pictures of girls and I couldn’t resist the foreign pages.

The papers were torn apart and shared around. We sank into the world beyond, muttering disbelief here, bawling outrage there and nodding in agreement with those writers who shared our varied prejudices.

A few of the smarter masters recognise that the daily papers could be employed in the fraught business of trying to engage us in class. The day’s news would be discussed, opinions explored and we were challenged to defend our use of current affairs. Occasionally, someone would feel so impassioned they’d write a letter to the editor. With a pen on paper. It was another time…"

Tony Wright grew up in country Victoria on cattle and sheep farms. He attended boarding school at Monivae College, Hamilton, in western Victoria. Wright became a cadet journalist with the Portland Observer in 1970 and went on to work in various roles for a range of publications including national affairs editor with the Bulletin. Wright's journalism has earned him a range of Australian and international awards, among them several United Nations Media Peace Prizes.