WHEN reminiscing about years spent as a high school student it’s the friendships that were made and never faltered that are treasured the most.

This was the case in 2009 when a group of former Boonah State High School chums got together.

The class of 1969 was the first cohort at Boonah State High School and their reunion was so good they made it a regular event.

“We started in Year 8 and our first classroom was at Boonah Primary School,” said former student Narelle Merrick.

“Halfway through 1965 we moved to the new premises up on the hill where the high school is now.

“Some of our cohort is featured in the 1989 reunion book because we were the first year to move into the new premises.”

Narelle is featured twice in that book, once as a student, then again as a teacher.

“I taught there for ‘72, ‘73 and part of ‘74 before moving to Canberra because I wanted to experience life outside of Boonah,” she said.

“I lived [in Canberra] for 30 years and moved back in 2004. I retired from teaching in 2014.

“In 1989 they had a big reunion of all the students who came through and I came up from Canberra for that one.”

Quite a few of the first high school students still live in the Scenic Rim and the Ipswich area.

“Quite a lot of us became teachers. Peter Prenzler became vet and for a while, a politician, a lot of people are vegetable farmers, there are nurses, receptionists, one is an accountant,” she said.

“We talk about travel, cruises people have done, music concerts and family.

“People try to move around the table and talk to everyone.”

Narelle and a fellow past student were the organisers of the first school reunion in 2009.

“The next day we had a tour of our old school and lunch at The Vue, there were less people [for lunch] and only just those who really wanted to stay on,” she said.

“A friend of mine wrote down all the addresses and phone numbers and we have been meeting ever since a couple of times a year.”

In December, the group will hold a 55th anniversary event at Boonah Golf Club.

“I’m trying to make contact with others who perhaps haven’t been meeting and live in areas outside of Boonah and Ipswich,” she said

“Anyone who is part of the year group that started in 1965 and graduated in Year 10 1967 or year 12 1969 is invited to attend.”

Narelle volunteers at the visitor centre in Boonah most Saturday afternoons.