Echuca College graduate Freddy McLaughlan split his time in the crucial lead-up to VCE exams between study and sandbagging his family house and the local tennis courts.

McLaughlan lives in the rural locality of Torumbarry, north-west of Echuca, which was under threat from major flooding on the Murray River last month.

Echuca College graduate Freddy McLaughlan overcame this year’s major floods and will study his dream course at RMIT next year.

“We didn’t know how high it was going to go, so we got ready by moving things up. We got some sandbags and some plastic wrap for the house,” he said.

He also got an unwanted reminder of remote learning in the last days of the school year, though it had nothing to do with COVID-19.

Echuca College was closed in the lead-up to exams due to the presence of contaminated water, so McLaughlan and many of his classmates missed the last days of face-to-face classes, instead travelling to Bendigo Senior Secondary College to sit their English exam.

Some did not make it to Bendigo, so opted to receive a derived exam score rather than sit their exams, an option that was given to students in flood-affected regions.

McLaughlan is now on his way further down the Calder Highway to Melbourne to study his dream course: a double degree in computer engineering and science at RMIT University, after blitzing his VCE this year with an ATAR of 94.15.

“I was very, very relieved. I was hoping for a 90, which I got, and I was happy with that.”

A self-described techie, McLaughlan has already built his own computer, just for fun.

“I’m really into tech. I do programming and development in my spare time,” he said.

Rowan Farren, from Greater Shepparton Secondary College, was trapped inside his home for 15 days, but scored well enough to get a place at the University of Melbourne. Credit:Eddie Jim

He will move to Melbourne next year to begin life as an undergraduate, living either on campus at Queens College or in a share house.

Greater Shepparton Secondary College captain Rowan Farren is also Melbourne-bound, hopefully to study economics at the University of Melbourne.

Farren, who lives in Mooroopna, was stranded inside his house for 15 days during the height of the flooding, as his entire neighbourhood went underwater.

“The consistent message was that it wasn’t safe to leave. We couldn’t see what was underfoot and it was already chest height, so it was not a smart decision to go out,” he said.

Floodwaters surround a Mooroopna school in October.Credit:Adam Carey

Farren said it felt isolating being cut off from the rest of the world for so long and “not great for physical and mental health”.

Though he had time for study, he wasn’t always in the best headspace for it.

The water receded to a point where Farren could leave the family house and make it to his exams.

Despite the extreme personal difficulty he endured, he was actually confident about his exam performance.

Farren’s ATAR of 84.80 is above the cut-off required to study economics at the University of Melbourne. Though the standard minimum ATAR for his desired course is 91, the cutoff is slightly lower for students from socio-educationally disadvantaged schools.

His study score of 41 in economics will also earn him a place on the VCE honour roll.

Farren said he felt “pretty good” when he checked his results at 7am.

“It felt both satisfying and a bit anti-climactic,” he said. “It was how I was expecting to go.”

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