Mascot and flag
Peninsula Residential is known as the Peninsula Panthers. Our colours are blue, green, and white. We stand strongly behind our flag, and we hold our head up proudly, wearing our colours on special occasions and to support our fellow residents at sporting events.
Gillies Hall History
Doctor Maxwell Irvine Gillies AM
Born 16 November 1941
Gillies Hall is named in honour and recognition of Doctor Max Gillies AM
Dr Max Gillies AM is an iconic Australian satirist, actor and director with over five decades of theatre, television and film experience. A Monash alumnus, Dr Gillies is known as a mentor to young actors and performers at Monash University.
Dr Gillies is best known for satirical impressions of well-known political figures, writers and television personalities since 1970. A prime time figure on the ABC television network, he featured in popular television series ‘The Gillies Report’ (1984–85), ‘Gillies Republic’ (1986) and ‘Gillies and Company’ (1992). He is renowned for his characterisations of former Australian prime ministers Bob Hawke and Robert Menzies, Australian politicians Alexander Downer and Amanda Vanstone, former premiers Neville Wran and Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and Australian writers Phillip Adams and Geoffrey Blainey.
He became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1990 for service to the performing arts.
Dr Gillies studied as an undergraduate at Monash University, and has been recognised for his career achievements with a Distinguished Alumni Award (1997) and the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa (2015), the University’s highest honour.
Before graduating at Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts (Education) in 1968, Dr Gillies attended Frankston Teachers’ College in 1960–61, graduating with a Primary Teacher Training Certificate. Frankston Teachers’ College became Monash University Peninsula campus in 1990. Prior to that it was the State College of Victoria (1974–82) and the Chisholm Institute of Technology (1982–90).
Growing up with a passion for drama and the arts, he taught drama and history at the Secondary Teachers College at Melbourne University following his graduation from Monash. By the late 1960s drama was the largest department at the College, with more than 300 students. The academic field of teaching drama to student teachers was, in his belief, the forerunner of the now long-established acting and drama courses at the Victorian College of the Arts.
While he enjoyed teaching, Dr Gillies made a decision to earn his living as an actor. He became a member of a group of ex-Monash and ex-Melbourne University students who formed the Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory, Carlton, which was active throughout the 1970s, and was elected its inaugural Chair.
With his love for teaching and a passion for the performing arts, Dr Gillies is forever embedded in the
foundations of Australian drama and cultural life, influencing many productions performed today.
References: Fay Woodhouse, ‘Still Learning – A 50 year history of Monash University Peninsula campus’, Monash University Custom Publishing Services, 2008
Photographer: Ponch Hawkes
