Mary Barton and Jean Reid were the only female, and only lay, teachers at the then boys-only Daramalan College when it opened on February 1, 1962, the rest of teaching staff priests and brothers.
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Both returned to the school on Friday for its Feast Day, Mrs Reid, now 102 and living on the South Coast, and Mrs Barton, 77, coming from Adelaide.
Mrs Barton (nee Donnelly) remembers on that first day 56 years ago, she and Mrs Reid were put into their own staffroom, not least because "poor old Brother Lysaught didn't like women's perfume", but the male-female segregation didn't last long.
"'Til morning tea," Mrs Barton said, with a laugh. "Jean said that was enough and picked up her coffee cup and walked across the hallway [to the male staffroom]."
The school was then only for grade five, six and seven students. Mrs Barton, "a month off 21", had a class of 50 boys.
"It was challenging," she said.
"But [assistant principal] Father Jack Dempsey said to me, 'If you're fair with boys, you will have them in the palm of your hand'."
Mrs Reid was a pioneer for the school in other ways, forging ahead with what is now known as "inclusive education'', helping those students with learning difficulties.
Father Jim Littleton, 88, principal from 1971 to 1979, remembered Mrs Reid making a big impact.
"She would have been ahead of her time at that stage," he said. "Other people from other schools would come to see what we were doing. She was quite remarkable."
Mrs Barton, who taught at the school for 17 years, became Mrs Reid's assistant, promoting techniques that would unlock the potential of all their students.
"We knew nothing then about what autism was or dyslexia, so we were in the dark," she said.
A teaching wing of the school was named after Mrs Reid in 1987. That honour was a long way from the trepidation she felt on her first day.
"I got lost coming here so I was late and when I parked and came to the front door, there was the headmaster and two other teachers and I thought they were thinking, 'Yes, we shouldn't have done it. We shouldn't have employed a woman'." Mrs Reid said.
Mrs Reid went on to teach at Daramalan until 1981.
"It was a very open, friendly school," she said. "They tended to listen to your ideas and that was a bit unusual after coming from a state school."
Both teachers had an impact on their students, right back to when they were teaching mainstream primary school. Legendary Canberra hairdresser Emilio Cataldo, a former student of Mrs Reid's, still travels to the South Coast to cut her hair or she will travel to Canberra to see him. Garry Coggan, 57, of Hackett returned to the school on Friday to see Mrs Barton.
"They were two very special teachers. The way they helped us through school was unbelievable," Mr Coggan said.
Mrs Reid turns 103 next month. And her secret to long life? "Just live one day and don't worry about the next," she said.
