Profiles and Stories
Cameron Lee
(Class of 1993 and past staff)
Cam tells us a bit about what he’s been doing. You can catch up with him around the city in his guise as innovator and entrepreneur extraordinaire. To hear about his story and find out more about his work, keep reading…
After leaving Preshil I spent some months working as an emergency teacher in local schools around my area. I enjoyed this tremendously but always resisted invitations to join the staff. Instead I wanted to try something different, something a little more entrepreneurial.
I began to look at what I liked to do and came up with a loosely connected range of interests, particularly technology, art and science education – Green Hat Workshop was born. Deriving its name from DeBono’s creative Thinking Hat, I began to use Green Hat Workshop as a vehicle to run creative holiday programs and workshops of all types, including the design and creation of Prospero’s ghouls for Xavier and Loreto’s recent production of The Tempest. I began to focus more and more on building planks. These are a little known but very clever type of building block that are identical. They stack, stand on end and are long enough to counter balance, so that the builder can make almost anything they can imagine.
I came across this amazing idea through a Preshil parent while working in the 10s and 11s. The group had pulled out some parquetry planks from the woodwork area and had been stacking them into massive towers. With the introduction of a few technology challenges from me the activity had evolved into a major theme in the room. During this time I recognised how the group were not only learning a range of concepts to do with balance, forces, movement and design but were also engaged in some of the most intense interpersonal and group development I have seen. We had a great time. It’s a process I have been able to replicate now with many groups and take into many different schools.
Since this first plank building experience I have created a fully operational factory churning out ‘PLANKS by Green Hat Workshop’ for toy shops, pop-up markets, gallery shops, online stores, educational catalogues and friends all around Australia. I have a collection of 20,000 PLANKS that is used to run regular workshops for charity and community development camps, in our gradually developing kinder and schools program and also for our own events in halls around Melbourne. Green Hat Workshop PLANKS building also appeared at Warrnambool’s Fun4Kids festival and Mornington’s Kids Go Expo and our next events are:
Sunday September 11: 10.30 am – 4.00 pm
The Gasworks Arts Park, Port Melbourne
Friday September 30
‘All Day Arts Day’ Holiday Program
The Box Hill Community Arts Centre
The Footscray and Braybrook YMCA Holiday Programs
Magnolia Square Pop-Up Markets (Malvern and St Kilda)
Saturday November 26: 1.00 – 6.00 pm
Preshil 80th Birthday Fair
Blackhall/Kalimna (Senior Campus)
12 – 26 Sackville St, Kew
…and more being organised all the time.
It’s proving to be a fun journey and one I am learning a lot from.
If you want to know more about PLANKS by all means drop by my website or come along to our build in Port Melbourne on September 11. It’d be great to see some familiar faces.
Best wishes
Cam
Click here for some great ideas on using PLANKS.
Anton Gerner
(Class of 1987)
Is a Melbourne based fine furniture designer and maker who cites his influences as Biedermeier, Shaker and Art Deco. After leaving school and studying at the Melbourne School of Woodcraft, Anton gained experience working for other furniture makers before starting up his own business, now located in Victoria Road, Hawthorn.
His work is a mixture of private one-off commissions, architectural fit outs and batch production work that he wholesales to architects, interior designers and retailers. Many of his designs feature highly figured veneers, however he prefers to work in solid timber, both Australian and imported. Contrasting timbers and inlay details also feature often in his work. Anton is all about high quality construction and finish and loves to harness the full power of jigs and top end technology to achieve his aims.
Anton has had work accepted for Design Book Six published by Fine Woodworking Magazine and is a regular contributor to the Australian Wood Review magazine. Over the 17 years he has been exhibiting, his work has won him numerous awards including the Natural Feature in Furniture Award, one of the most prestigious awards for furniture design in Australia. One-off exhibition pieces have been purchased and are held in many private collections throughout Australia.
For more information about Anton and his work please go to http://www.antongerner.com.au/ or you can chat with him at his studio or via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/antongerner
Louise Davidson 
(Class of 1984)
It is our pleasure to highlight the remarkable achievements of one of our alumni, Louise Davidson. Many of you will already know Louise as the mum of Kaye, Lily and Rosie at Arlington but may not be aware of her role in establishing and managing the Mothers Day Classic Walk/Run for Breast Cancer Research.
Having lost her mum to breast cancer, Louise led the establishment and growth of the Mothers Day Classic event, a phenomenon that has raised over $5.7 million for the National Breast Cancer Foundation since 1998 and attracted 80,000 participants nationally in 2009. In 2008 Louise was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll for Women in recognition for her work on the Mothers Day Classic.
Louise currently works for Cbus, the industry superannuation fund for the building and construction industry, as ESG Investment Manager. In this role she is responsible for the integration of Environmental, Social and Governance issues in Cbus’ investment processes. Louise has worked in the superannuation industry for 20 years. Louise is also Secretary of the Investor Group on Climate Change, Deputy Chair of ESG Research Australia, a member of the Steering Committee for the Carbon Disclosure Project in Australia, National Chair of the Mothers Day Classic and National Secretary of Women in Super.