In a period of renewed efforts to encourage language study in Australia, with a particular view to increasing the number of students completing secondary school and studying a language, consideration of the reasons behind retention and attrition of students becomes paramount. In this preliminary study, which surveyed nearly 200 students entering first-year university in a large metropolitan university, I explore the factors which facilitated or hindered continued language study during their high school years. The results of this survey are compared with the relatively small number of previous studies of motivation in languages education in Australian contexts. (Contains 5 tables.)