A sense of place, fifty years in the making
Around two long tables at Melbourne's Lyceum Club, alumni, friends and families gathered recently for a dinner that bridged more than fifty years of Burgmann College history, with attendees ranging from the Class of 1971 through to recent graduates and the families of current residents.
The evening's guest of honour was alum Kate Roffey AM (1986 –1988). In conversation with alum Clara Conheady (2019–2021), Roffey reflected on how her Burgmann years shaped the person and leader she would become.
"To go to a college where you live with people with a very different mindset to what you've been exposed to... that was the start of what changed me as a person," she shared. "Had I lived in a share house or apartment, I never would have had that breadth of interaction that you get from six floors of college living."
For Roffey, arriving in Canberra at seventeen, knowing no one, college wasn't a lifestyle choice but a lifeline. "I was 17, and to have a residential program available to me... in a system that I just didn't know anything at all about, was the number one priority," she said. That sense of belonging has stayed with her: "It was that thing of having a sense of place at Burgmann, for a lonely kid who knew nobody and didn't know the city."
It's a conviction she carries into her professional life today. "I continue to say to my university," she noted, "Build a US-style residential college offering — there's nothing else like it in the world."
As the first female President of the Melbourne Football Club, Kate led the men's team to their first AFL Premiership in 57 years in 2021, closely followed by the women's team claiming their own first Premiership the following year. She's since held board and advisory roles across transport and planning, including Chair of the Metro Trains Advisory Board and the Victorian Regional Shipping Channels Authority, alongside seats on key ministerial committees for planning, building and freight.
Today, Kate is Deputy Chancellor of Victoria University and CEO of the Victorian State Sports Centres, running four of the country's biggest multi-sport venues. Before that, she helped secure Western Melbourne's A-League license, pioneered plans for Australia's first privately built sports stadium while at Wyndham City, and led the $1 billion redevelopment of Melbourne Park — home of the Australian Open — at Tennis Australia. In 2022, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia and inducted into the University of Canberra Sport Hall of Fame.
The evening, warmly emceed by 2026 BRA President Euan Maclean, was a reminder that the values Roffey described, including diversity of mindset, inclusion, and connection, remain central to Burgmann's identity, particularly through the scholarships that help students from regional Australia find their footing alongside their studies at the ANU.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for such a warm evening of stories, friendship, and reconnection.
We look forward to gathering again in Autumn 2027 for our next Melbourne event.
