Ormond College

I- it's a bit like the First Stone, if you recall.

Um, that, you know, is it a, with the, with, um, Ormond College years and years ago, criminal case or civil case, where should it sit? So we're in that kind of space at the moment.

But definitely, definitely watch that space 'cause that's an evolving story.

So you're sort of saying how far have we come? Not very far.

It wasn't the motivation of university.

Um, my brother and sister happened to live on campus at Ormond College, and so my motivation actually fell to, I wanna live on campus 'cause it looks like a lot of fun, not do I wanna pursue a university degree [laughs].

The other motivation in terms of, like, what switched the dial for me was Mom said, "You get a job or you go to uni." So I didn't want a job.

My brother and sister were living on campus and which looked like a lot of fun, because at each point I had to help move them in and met all these different people that had seemed to have a lot of freedom, and they were partying all the time.

Oh, that's a hard decision [laughs].

So I went to uni, um, and decided actually to pursue passion over what I thought I should do.

So I picked, um, an art history degree and pursued that, and, um, ended up being accepted to Ormond College to live on campus, and I don't regret that at all.

That is the funnest time I've ever had in my life.

It grew to cover more than 20,000 neighbourhoods across 12 countries, raised about $5 million over five rounds, and was acquired by REA Group in late 2025.

And because she's not done with startups yet, she's now the Managing Director of Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship at Ormond College.

Her dad was in the army, so she moved around every 6-12 months growing up.

Australia, then Israel, Syria, Philippines and England.

That's crazy.

So let's just quickly, with the first stone, non-fiction book, her first non-fiction book, and it's essentially detailing the 1992 sexual harassment scandal at Ormond College in Melbourne.

It's a residential college at the university and, It's probably worth noting Helen Garner herself had attended the university in the 60s, so I think she felt, you know, a connection there.

It was first published in Australia in 1995 and then later published in the States in 97.