Image

Heritage Guide to The Geelong College






Search the Guide
»


To find information in this Guide please select one of the green coloured options.

To Select a Page Group when displayed, right click and select 'Open'.


Copyright Conditions Apply.



PEEL, Clifford Scott (1936-2022)

PEEL, Clifford Scott (1936-2022)

Son of Charles and Lynn Peel, Cliff was enrolled as a boarder at The Geelong College in 1946. In his senior years, he was a member of the 6th and 4th VIII rowing crews as well as serving on the Library Committee. Cliff completed his leaving certificate in 1953.

Edited extract from eulogy at Cliff’s funeral
Cliff was born in 1936 in the very short reign of King Edward VIII who abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson. He came from a farming family in Gnarwarre where the family home was built by his Great Grandfather who came to Australia to settle in 1852. The home is still occupied by a Peel family member.

He also had a sister, Lynette who gained a PhD in Agricultural Science and eventually travelled to the UK where she died some years ago.

Cliff attended the local primary school which catered for 12 pupils who were taught by a sole Scottish teacher each day. At the age of 9, he was sent away to boarding school, Geelong College where he studied to gain his Leaving Certificate before heading back to the farm at the age of 17 years. He, like so many, became involved with Young Farmers and on weekends, became a professional Boundary Umpire with the Geelong Football Umpires League.

At the age of 21, Cliff decided to leave his father's farm and head for Melbourne to study 3 nights a week to become a radio announcer at the Vincent's School of Broadcasting. To earn a living, he got a job selling electrical testing gear and travelled Melbourne by public transport. Not doing too well, he became a Clerk in the Crown Law Department and after some time, became a spruiker at Woolworths in Bourke St. Melbourne.

Eventually, Cliff was informed that the training was complete and a job in radio was waiting for him at 2QN Deniliquin, where he gained great experience in all aspects of radio, not only on air, but writing ads for clients and it stirred his interest in a news service. From there, he got a job at 4VL Charleville, 1500 miles from the coast in central Queensland, where he stayed and organised the news service for the station. He stayed for 9 months and in 1963, transferred to Rockhampton and continued with news. There he also became involved with Amateur Theatre. He spent his spare time often at Emu Park Surf Lifesaving Club and gained his Instructor's Certificate.

Cliff applied for a job as Assistant Journalist at the ABC in Sale and working with head journalist, Neil Munro. Neil and his wife Joan remained dear friends of Cliff’s for many years. Eventually, he applied for a position at the ABC TV Channel 2 in Melbourne and transferred there to the News area and gained great experience as Reporter, Chief of Staff and News Producer each night. He left the organisation and travelled around the world for 9 months. After coming back to Australia, he had some time with Channel O (Ten) and then re-joined the ABC and joined ABC Radio. There he initiated the sound inserts into each news service, working with reel-to-reel tape recorders and also produced a daily program of News Makers.

Eventually, a computer program (Basis) came along and Cliff spent 4 years training all ABC Australian News staff in its use. In his career, Cliff came from the use of Morse Code and Telegrams to the instantaneous world of computers.

Outside of work, Cliff spent many years being involved with Amateur Football and filled many roles with the Prahran Amateur Football Club after starting with them when they were Southbank Football Club, as well as the Commonwealth and State Bank clubs.

He had a number of trips overseas to train the Basis News System to stations in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

Cliff met Rob Young in 1971 and they have been together ever since. They married in 2018.

Cliff was also an author of two books, "My Life in Broadcasting" and "Yarns of a Traveller.”

Cliff passed away 12 July 2022, aged 86 years.

Sources: Herald Sun 13 July 2022, Eulogy July 2022, Pegasus, OGC 1949.
© The Geelong College. Unless otherwise attributed, The Geelong College asserts its creative and commercial rights over all images and text used in this publication. No images or text material may be copied, reproduced or published without the written authorisation of The College.