The Podmore Foundation is open to everyone who shares our vision to return some of the opportunities that they have received to help people, families and communities needing  support to realise their full potential.  Nevertheless, for those who may be interested,  the founders share an interesting heritage where the nation gave them an opportunity to excel when they were young: namely through entry into the Royal Military College.

Although the initial entry to Duntroon in January 1970 was in the order of 121 Cadets; 66 graduated in December 1973.

They were influenced by those on the staff, members of the several other Classes of their era, and those with whom they subsequently served.  

They have gone onto long (and shorter!) military careers and/or moved into careers in the public and private sectors. At one of the formative parts of their lives, they were part of their own small "band of brothers" (at the time, the Royal Military College was not a co-educational institution!) sharing a common bond in an environment which provided them all with opportunity.  

It is from this group that The Podmore Foundation evolved  Their stated aim is to work towards "Returning Opportunity" to others who may benefit from a positive start in their careers and/or boost to their personal, family and community lives.

Our Logo

The Foundation's Logo represents a stylized pair of boomerangs which, when superimposed vertically, define the P (the upper red boomerang alone ) and the F (the combined boomerangs) of the Podmore Foundation.   The use of the boomerangs ties in with:

Firstly; their functionality to return - which links to the Foundation's motto

Secondly; they are an adaptation of the crossed boomerangs which form part of the Duntroon badge 

The blue and red colours are akin to those from the Duntroon colour patch and again reflect the origins of the Foundation's initiating group.

Podmore's simple origins in the early ‘70s have been attributed to a Duntroon Cadet who introduced a fictional character named Larry Podmore.  The legendary Larry underwent imaginary and mostly humorous adventures as cadets swapped yarns during the inevitable quiet hours that occur on military training exercises.  The ubiquitous Podmore evolved into a stereotypical earnest, athletic, patriotic, but somewhat naive Australian - a true blue Aussie and good mate but conservative and possibly even a bit rural and sometimes prone to error (or in the military vernacular – stuffing up!).  Over time, the story morphed into Larry being spoken about as a mythical classmate living at Duntroon and at times being blamed for some of the unexplained things that happened.

The legend captures something of the spirit of youth; the aspirations and hopes of all young people, especially young servicemen and women; the sense of the ridiculous, humour and a unique ability to not take authority too seriously. The legend can also represent success as well as failure.  But out of the adversity of failure, Podmore always grew in stature and went onto greater successes! In short, Podmore was an 'everyman' who could be characterised by whatever story you wanted to make up about him.

So, why Podmore as a name for a charitable foundation with serious and altruistic humanitarian and social goals?

In summary, it is a name we can all identify with - it is representative of all endeavours; it is representative of success and indeed failure; it is representative of perhaps an indefatigable spirit which saw many of us through some formative times.  It is with this spirit that we hope to be able to provide benefit to others as we strive towards "Returning Opportunity" to young people, families, communities and others on the brink of their development and to help them reach their full potential.