In our “A Drink with Jeff” series, Campbelltown Catholic Club community liaison Jeff McGill has been catching up with a diverse selection of club identities. This time, he caught up with Francesca (Fran) Musico Rullo.
You’ve likely spotted a colourful group of teenage girls dressed as army nurses at local Anzac Day services.
These are St Patrick’s College students who, since 2019, have become so appreciated by our RSL diggers that they’re already described as a local “tradition.” And the inspiring teacher behind them is one of our own — Fran Musico Rullo, a proud member of The Catho.
Her students don’t just ’dress up’. They pour their hearts into the project, researching the nurses they portray and uncovering stories of service and sacrifice. They also film interviews with other local veterans — often their own parents, grandparents, or family friends. Firsthand accounts of the Anzac legend.
There’s an irony to all this, however, because Fran’s own family has a very different wartime story. She is of Italian descent, her great grandparents and grandparents arriving in Australia during the 1920s and 30s fleeing Mussolini’s fascism — only to be interned as “enemy aliens” on the outbreak of World War II, or treated with suspicion. Yet here she is today as a living bridge between these two very different histories.
Fran’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. St Pat’s has recently won the prestigious National Anzac Day Schools Award, and a small army of politicians, veterans, and community leaders attended a special ceremony at the College. But, true to her humble nature, Fran shies away from the limelight and always lets her students take centre stage. That’s why it took a little coaxing, but Fran is one of my dearest mates, so she agreed to join me for my latest “Drink with Jeff “interview.
Fran arrived in the Catholic Club foyer mid-morning with her bright-eyed daughter, Ally, also a student at St Pats student and a regular ‘nurse’ at Anzac Day services.
After the usual happy banter with Shazia at the front desk, doorman Kevin, and Gemel at the cafe, we headed into a quiet corner of the club. Time was a tad limited as Fran was about to meet for a Christmas lunch in Harvest with some retired St Pat’s staff members, some of whom are part of the St. Pat’s Knitting Group — who now teach students old practical skills, while donating the blankest they make to St Vincent de Paul. If there’s a good cause, Fran is often attached to it.
She’s been teaching at St Pat’s for decades, since 2003, but tells me she’s a mere amateur compared to Marianne Fetterplace, who is not only the College’s longest serving educator, but is also a former student.
“After finishing my primary education at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School at Camden I was accepted into St Pat’s for high school,” recalled Fran, “but because my family lived on Camden Valley Way, my parents thought it made more sense to send me just down the road to Macarthur Anglican School at Narellan, so that’s where I ended up.”
Fran fondly remembers the five-acre block she grew up on at Catherine Field— large enough to accommodate both her father’s huge truck (he hauled coal from the Burragorang Valley mines to Port Kembla) and the obligatory Italian veggie garden and chooks. But the photo she showed me, of her as a girl in 1983, is a genuine time capsule because the green rural vista you see in the background of the shot are now the packed-in rooftops of Gledswood Hills.
She and her husband have now raised their two children in Campbelltown.
She told me one of her grandfathers was interned during the war, while her maternal great grandparents ran fishing boats at Wooloomooloo and Ulladulla but had their trawler requisitioned by the USA Army Small Ships Division. (This was because Italians were prohibited to fish during the war. I think they thought they were going to lay mines in the harbour or something. They couldn’t own a camera or access petrol either.” But the stories of family history told by her Nonna sparked her own interest in all things history.
That ultimately led to her creation of the famed St Pats History Club, which meets at lunchtimes and has made ripples far beyond its size. For Fran, teaching history is about more than just textbooks—it’s about making the past come alive.
“It all began back with the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015 and we formed a committee to organise our college commemorations and establishing a Lone Pine garden in the grounds. More 100th anniversaries of famous WW1 events would be coming up, so [fellow teacher] Nathan East suggested I get a group of kids together, and that’s how it all began — although our History Club was not officially founded until 2017. Purely volunteer, the girls meet at lunch times, and participate in weekend or after-school events.”
(As the interviewer, I have to cut in here and say I love what Fran does, and sometimes I’ve visited myself as a guest speaker or helper. Fran and I also share a local hero in Sister Elizabeth McRae, who served as a surgical nurse at a casualty clearing station in WW1. Indeed, she saw more danger than some of our male veterans and, as a surgical nurse, was up to her elbows in blood as bombs and gas shells fell around her. Her father’s farm at Minto was called Ben Lomond, and a new street that now exists on that site is today named Elizabeth McRae Drive.
One of Fran’s other heroes is Edna Wheatley, the widow of Kevin Wheatley of Campbelltown who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross Medal for bravery after he was killed in action during the Vietnam War in 1965. “Edna and her family not only had to struggle with the trauma of that,” Fran told me, “but because of the bitter social and political divisions sparked by the war, their children were tormented at school and they even had blood thrown at the door of their home, forcing them to leave. Edna even lost her job at Campbelltown RSL Club in 1965 due to all the publicity. Kevin Wheatley was a war hero, yet his family suffered.”
(I took this photo of them both, Fran and Edna, chatting at a function at Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch a few years ago.)
So, how the did ‘nurses’ thing on Anzac Day come about?
“Well, 2019 was Year of the Nurse and just before Anzac Day an amazing dressmaker, Lucette Zapirain — the parent of two Yr 7 girls — asked me if I would mind if she dressed her twins in replica World War I nurses outfits she had made. I had no problem with that idea, but though I should check, re protocols, with the diggers. As it turned out, Elwyn Spencer from Campbelltown RSL was not only supportive, but offered us authentic uniforms from WW2 and the Vietnam War period! Lucette came up with a few extra WW1 outfits, too, and we suddenly had enough to represent all the known wartime nurses from our local area. We led the march that year, then we started getting calls from everywhere.”
The Anzac narrative is inherently a ‘masculine’, so the often-overlooked contribution of women has been a focus of the girls’ college.
Ally, 14, chimed in at this point with her own experiences. “I love being part of the History Club. When I was wearing one of the Vietnam War nurses uniforms I had a
woman come up to me and say she used to wear a uniform like that. It made me feel so good, as it made them remember the times when they helped their fellow soldiers. And all the old soldiers are so kind to us.”
Fran suspects something in the nurses’ outfits brings out deep emotions amongst many veterans.
Her History Club girls will always be attached to the Campbelltown RSL’s Anzac Day parade, but they also have a very close relationship with Ingleburn RSL. At Remembrance Day 2019, for example, the ‘nurses’ were out in force as the Sub- Branch unveiled its memorial to Ingleburn nurse Cynthia Haultain, who lost her life when her hospital ship was suck by an enemy submarine in WW2. Fran’s students also get involved in in Victory in the Pacific events at Cabra-Vale Diggers Club.
And, of course, their efforts have now resulted in the recent national award for their powerful storytelling project — “Our local veterans: Discovering, recording and reflecting on stories of service.” The students were also awarded the Brigadier Bill Rolfe AO Award for Veteran Involvement, for dedicating their after-school hours to recording the voices of 14 veterans and their families. Each veteran shared objects and personal stories from their service, and their portraits were captured by Year 10 student Hannah Buckpitt. Year 12 students Isabelle Slade and Caitlin Reynolds led the website development, showcasing their research in a powerful digital archive. But about 40 pupils were involved in the total ptoject.
Among the many poignant interviews was one conducted by Year 8 student Hope Schwarze with her grandfather, John Matthew Purkis, a Vietnam War veteran who passed away shortly after their conversation.
Year 12 student Caitlin Reynolds also documented the story of her great-grandfather, Harley James Daley, a prisoner of war of the Japanese soldiers in WW2, who went on to become Campbelltown’s long-serving Town Clerk and the namesake of our main central library — the ‘H.J. Daley Library’.
The project also highlighted the ongoing legacy of military service with stories from peers like Pippa Rindermann, Coralyn Garcia, Willow and Chaiyya Robertson, whose parents served in recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.
Fran was also quick to praise Campbelltown Library, particularly Andrew Allen and Michael Sullivan who helped film and preserve their work as part of the local Oral History Collection.
At the heart of Fran’s club is a commitment to hands-on learning that goes beyond the pages of history books. By stepping into the shoes of those who served, her students gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be part of something much larger than themselves.
It should be noted that Fran and her students also tend headstones dedicated to several diggers that are located in the tiny old cemetery next to St Pat’s. Not only keeping them neat and tidy, but also holding small ceremonies there.
“That little cemetery seems to encapsulate the tragedy of the wartime sacrifice,” she said, “two of the diggers being cousins and with wider family links spreading throughout Campbelltown. I find it staggering that a rural community of just over 2000 people send about 250 soldiers overseas, with about a fifth of those dying.
Parents and loved ones came to mourn at little graveyards like this, so I think its important we also remember their sacrifice.”
Of, course, the Catholic Club has been an almost-constant partner in the St Pat’s story via funding and support. Not just in the early days of its growth as classrooms were built, but even today, with a recent dose of club funding helping with Aboriginal education and scholarships.
Fran finds that such an important new trend in history. “We have kids who now identify as being Indigenous, whereas they perhaps wouldn’t have back when I started started teaching. They are so proud and interested in their cultural background, and connecting with Elders, and it’s all part of keeping heritage alive.”
Fran is also very thankful to The Catho for hosting countless college events. “The graduations at The Cube are always a very special ceremony. Because it’s a time when you see these kids you’ve had since Year 7, all grown up and ready to take on the world. This past year’s farewell was particularly special to me because the girls leaving as Year 12 graduates were the original Year 7 ‘nurses’. One of those girls, Bronwyn, has become heavily involved with the army cadets.” And, of course, there’s also Quondong . . .
The Catholic Club in 1997 spent $500,000 restoring the old semi-ruin that had been Campbelltown’s original “St Patrick’s” school of 1840 and officially handed Quondong, as the building is now known, to the community. The restoration project was led by local architect Ron Kydd and builder Eric Hughes who painstakingly restored everything from the wood shingle roof to the polished floorboards. From a building infested by termites and affected by rising damp, a liability has become a proud asset and it today serves as Campbelltown’s visitor information centre. It also incorporates a small museum and a replica 19th century schoolroom, receiving many visits from curious St Pat’s girls. “If it wasn’t for the Catholic Club’s preservation project, we wouldn’t have any of that.”
Fran finds one of the most inspiring parts of the St Pat’s story is the assistance the college has received over the years from non-Catholic community. “I love that the bitter sectarianism that divided some communities doesn’t seem to have been as obvious in Campbelltown.”
Indeed, that little cemetery next to St Pat’s is a Methodist/Congregationalist one. So I also love the fact that we have Catholic schoolgirls so lovingly taking care of the memory of these Protestant diggers. In a world that often seems to be full of snarls, divisions and hate, it gives hope. As does the sight of Fran’s ‘nurses’ each Anzac Day. Not to mention the fact that our Campbelltown Catholic Club has been at the background of that story — and so many other local stories.
