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1883 - 2008

GARDENERS ROAD PUBLIC SCHOOL

Celebrating 125 Years of Public Education

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GARDENERS ROAD PUBLIC SCHOOL

125th ANNIVERSARY 1883 – 2008

PRINCIPAL’S THOUGHTS ON THE 125th ANNIVERSARY The 125th (or quasquicentennial) anniversary of Gardeners Road Public School has provided a stimulating focus for our students to learn about the history of the school, the local area and the way people lived in Sydney in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Original correspondence about the school, plans, photos and memories of former students have all been a fascinating source of information for students and staff in their historical studies. The anniversary has also provided an opportunity to reflect on the significant changes in education since the school first opened the doors of its original wooden building in 1883. From large classes with no resources, and a “one size fits all” curriculum, students now learn in small classes in spacious and well-resourced classrooms. Complex teaching and learning programs that address the varying needs of students are provided by highly-qualified class teachers who are assisted by specialist teachers. The growth of technology has had a major impact on how and what students learn. In 2008 we are delighted that every classroom and office in the school is networked and connected to the internet. Our students now quickly develop very sophisticated skills and use technology to enhance their learning in a way that could not have been imagined in earlier times. Throughout its history, Gardeners Road Public School has played an important role in the development of many thousands of children. With the support of dedicated staff and parents, and the local community, the school is continuing to provide a caring and stimulating learning environment for students in the 21st century. Gemma Ackroyd Principal

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HISTORIC TIME LINE

YEAR WHAT HAPPENED AT GARDENERS ROAD PUBLIC SCHOOL

1880 Local population: mainly market gardeners and factory workers

1881 Local people applied to the Department of Public Instruction for a school to be established: 79 parents guaranteed 218 children for the school

1882 Botany tram line opened in May

1883 School opened in January, in a one-room timber building; 100 pupils in the first week, 143 in the second week, 271 at year-end

1884 Principal’s residence (built in brick) was completed in June

1890 The first headmaster, John Maloney, left the school

1890 - 1893 Cadet Corps established; School Savings Bank established

1890 - 1895 Enrolments rose from 260 to over 500

1891 The standard school day was established: 9 to 12 and 1.30 to 3.30; many children need to be home to help with family market gardens and dairies

1891 The first Arbour Day – trees and shrubs were planted; the P&C raised nearly 26 Pounds – most spent on fencing

1892 Water pipes were laid in Botany Road, and water was connected to the school

1892 One new classroom was built

1894 The racecourse opened opposite the school

1899 A two-storey brick building was erected – it now houses the Years 3-6 classrooms and the school administration

1911 Evening Continuation classes began for boys and girls in the workforce

1912 Gardeners Road Evening Continuation School opened for the Junior Technical Course, in March

1912 A separate girls department was formed

1913 Gardeners Road became a Superior Public School

1914 Enrolment rose during the year from 1,083 to 1,174 pupils by September

1911 - 1915 Enrolment grew rapidly, to 1,200 pupils

1915 - 1921 3 more portable classrooms were built

1921 1,700 pupils; extension to the brick building was completed

1922 Mascot Public School opened and about 600 pupils moved to the new school; Gardeners Road enrolment fell to 1,150, and then 5-year-olds were enrolled

1922 Domestic Science section opened (now the Library Building); Most pupils were leaving school at 14 years of age

1925 New Infants building was completed (now the Support Unit);

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More classrooms were added to the main building

1925 - 1927 The school site was extended from 5 acres to 6 acres; horses were used to keep grass growth under control

1927 427 secondary pupils, divided equally between Junior Technical and Domestic Science classes

1929 A two-storey building was completed for the Junior Technical classrooms (now the K-2 building)

1931 Samuel Long retired after 18 years as Headmaster

1930s During the Depression years, the favourite target of school burglaries was the lead flashing from the rooves; the P&C was very active in seeking improvements, and arranging extra-curricular activities for pupils

1930s A highlight of the school year was the Junior Red Cross Exhibition of Work and Pageant at Sydney Town Hall – Gardeners Road very often won most prizes

1930 - 1950 Enrolment ranged between 1,400 and 1,800 pupils

1940 There were 200 pupils in the Junior Technical classes, and 250 pupils in the Domestic Science classes

1960 450 pupils in each of the secondary sections, out of a total enrolment of nearly 1,600

1961 Secondary pupils transferred to the new JJ Cahill Memorial School; Gardeners Road became an ordinary primary school, with 650 pupils

1970 Enrolment reached 900

1970 Endeavour Grove was established – a planting of Australian native trees and shrubs – to commemorate the Bi-Centenary of the landing of Captain James Cook at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770

1970 - 1980 Enrolment declined to 500

1980s In the 80s, a common staffroom for K-6 staff was implemented

1991 Director General of Education Award to recognise the exceptional quality and outstanding achievements of the school’s Integrated Support Unit

2001 Planting of The Federation Garden to commemorate 100 years since Australian Federation

2005 New playground equipment installed, provided from Kingsford Smith Airport Grant

2008 All buildings connected to the internet and networked

2008 Enrolment stands at around 200 pupils

Gradually, over the years, the old residence and the portable buildings had been removed.

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A HISTORY OF OUR SCHOOL One hundred and twenty-five years after its establishment, Gardeners Road Public School is now a small primary school of some 200 pupils, occupying a number of buildings dating back to 1899. It was very different on that day in January 1883 when John Maloney opened the school in a temporary wooden schoolroom, designed to accommodate 200 pupils in one room. It was also very different in the early 1920s when the enrolment climbed to 1,700 and the children were crammed into the main building and its corridors and a collection of temporary wooden classrooms and weathersheds.

The following history of the School was produced for the Centenary of the establishment of Gardeners Road Public School, celebrated in 1983.

Beginnings : In 1880 the area around the junction of Gardeners and Botany Roads was settled by a scattered population of market gardeners, with huge tracts of vacant land and a few pockets of workers who were employed in the factories which had begun to be established in the district. Although it was so close to the city of Sydney, the area was low-lying and sandy, and this had delayed its development. It was also cut off by the huge Waterloo or Cooper Estate, a land grant of 1,400 acres made in 1823, which took in the area from Redfern down to Gardeners Road and from St Peters across to Dowling Street. The Cooper Estate was to dominate the early history of Gardeners Road Public School and its sub-division 30 years later was to result in an enormous rise in the school’s enrolment. Gardeners Road Public School had its beginnings on the 24th of February 1881 when a School Committee of local people made application to the Department of Public Instruction for a public school “at Botany”. Botany seems to have been the name for the general area. The application was signed by 79 parents who guaranteed the attendance of 218 children. The local committee nominated to organise matters comprised the Rev. George Lane and the Rev. John Perman, a Primitive Methodist; George Stiff and Thomas Harris, both gardeners and Primitive Methodists; John Edwards, Wesleyan, retired; and Alfred Norris, a clerk. They suggested that the site should be on the corner of Gardeners and Botany Roads, opposite the Halfway House Hotel (now known as the Newmarket Hotel). In July 1881 the Department of Public Instruction decided to resume the site from whoever owned it, but did not carry out the resumption because ownership of the land was in doubt. The Department jumped the gun as a result of continued pressure from the foundation committee arguing that the Wesleyan School (the nearest school maintained by the state) was overcrowded. They also said that the population was increasing rapidly and would grow even more once better transport was available. (The Botany tram line was opened in May 1882.) Early in November 1882 the Department decided to erect a temporary wooden building on the site. The temporary building consisted of a schoolroom 75 by 21 feet, with a verandah on one side. It was designed to accommodate about 200 pupils, in four

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blocks of desks and forms 12 feet long on a stepped floor, plus a gallery containing forms 16 feet long but no desks. Together with toilets, tanks and fencing it cost 619 pounds. To remind it that its problems were not over the Department received two letters during the school’s first week. One was from Cooper’s solicitors, claiming ownership of the land and asking for the building to be removed and threatening to sue for trespass. The other was from a parent, who complained that the building was nothing “but a wooden shanty (an apology for a school)”. The School Opens : Gardeners Road Public School opened on Monday 15th of January 1883 with John Maloney as headmaster. On the 26th of January he reported that the enrolment had been 100 in the first week and 143 in the second week. The enrolment grew steadily during 1883 to 271 at the end of the year, although the average attendance was only 173. In addition to Maloney there were two assistant teachers, Sarah Elston and Harry Buckland, and a 15 year old pupil teacher, Arthur McCoy. A workmistress also visited the school once a week to teach the girls sewing. During 1883 the Minister for Education made a personal appeal to Cooper’s solicitors asking for permission to occupy the site without prejudice to the final settlement. (The site was finally vested in the Department in 1887.) Planning went ahead for the building of a brick teacher’s residence which was begun late in 1883. Given that the cost of the residence was 1,800 pounds and that the Department was unwilling to risk the uncertainty about the site, it seems clear that plans for a brick school building had been quietly shelved. The residence was completed in June 1884 and Maloney then moved out of his home at Redfern from which he had travelled to the school by tram. Between 1886 and 1890 senior Departmental officers made many criticisms of Maloney’s handling of the school. A serious cause for concern was the frequency with which corporal punishment was administered, which was unusual even in a period when the cane was used too freely in most schools. In 1887 the pupil teacher Charles Barrett was in trouble for caning pupils without authority: one irate parent hit Barrett in retaliation, with the result that he sued her for assault and won. In 1888 an assistant teacher was censured for excessive caning, one of the offences being “faulty arithmetic”. In 1890, following an investigation, Maloney was removed from Gardeners Road. “The Old Match Box” : Between 1890 and 1895 the enrolment at Gardeners Road rose from 260 to over 500 with the result that additions were made to the temporary building in 1892 and 1896 and finally in 1899 a two-storey brick building was to be erected. District School Boards had been set up by the Public Instruction Act, but first reference to the Botany District Board appeared early in 1891. The Board supervised four schools, Gardeners Road, Botany, Banksmeadow and La Perouse. It visited each school several times a year, inspecting the pupils and giving prizes, and checking the schools’ needs. The Board and the Council organised the successful celebration of the first Arbour Day at Gardeners Road in 1891. The Department had inaugurated Arbour Day in 1890,

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supplying trees and shrubs to beautify barren school grounds and provide shade, and also meeting part of the expenses of the day. The parents and other local citizens subscribed nearly 19 pounds and also raised 6 pounds, 12 shillings and 6 pence from a lantern entertainment, while gifts of manure, biscuits and 40 pounds of lollies helped make the day a success. Some of the money was spent on the pupils – 35 dozen cans of ginger beer, for instance, but most of it on fencing. The care of the gardens was made easier in 1892 when water pipes were laid in Botany Road and the school’s dependence on tank water ceased. Thomas Cunneen, headmaster from 1890 to 1893, also established a Cadet Corps and a school savings bank, both of which had been founded in many schools in the late 1880s. He also established good relations with parents, and in 1891 he was able to persuade them and the Department that the standard school day of lessons from 9 to 12 and from 2 to 4 should be varied at Gardeners Road to shorten the lunch period by half an hour and finish school at 3.30. Cunneen had found that with so many families involved in market gardening and dairying, the children were leaving school early to help work in the gardens or deliver milk. The number of pupils began to rise in 1890 and the staff was increased from four to five late that year. It then comprised Cunneen, the assistant teacher Eliza Fitzgerald, who was there from 1889 to 1902 and taught infants, and three pupil teachers. In March 1892 a deputation from the Public School Board and North Botany Council saw the Minister for Education to ask for Gardeners Road to be replaced by a new school in King Street (where Mascot Public School was to open in 1922) with proper brick buildings. They offered a number of arguments. The buildings at Gardeners Road were inferior – “not the sort of school you would expect to find in a suburb of Sydney” – and had been put up as temporary buildings only and were now in poor condition. There were also three boiling-down works close to the school and the stench was unbearable. The Department denied that the ‘temporary’ buildings were either uncomfortable or in bad repair. It was therefore decided to add a classroom 21 feet square to the existing building and this was completed at the end of 1892. As was made clear by the deputation, by the early 1890s the area around Gardeners Road was inhabited chiefly by working class families, although market gardens and dairy farms were to survive for many years. The depression of the 1890s hit these families very hard. By the middle of 1894 the enrolment was 440 and the average attendance just over 300 and Aaron Laycock the new secretary of the Public School Board wrote to complain that the classrooms and toilets were too small. The Inspector at the time rather impatiently reported that the site was one of the most healthy in Sydney, that the buildings were in very good condition and that they provided quite enough space – which indeed they did, by the educational standards of the time. The Board were not prepared to give up and late in 1894, organised another deputation. They were far more critical this time of the make shift and allegedly unhealthy buildings at the school, and indeed William Stephen, chairman of the board, gave their real aim away when he became heated and demented “Why not wipe away the old match box at once”. They also had a new argument in the opening of a racecourse in Botany Road opposite the school. To quote Stephen again, “if you hear the clamour that goes on there you would certainly think that the school was not in its right place”. But funds

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were limited in the 1890s. The Department decided that the existing building would last another 8 or 10 years in good condition, and that an extension of the infants’ section of the building by 25 feet would overcome the accommodation shortage. Growth and Development : Starting in 1911 the enrolment at Gardeners Road began a rapid growth which would take the school to 1,200 pupils in 1915 and 1,700 in 1921. This growth was to lead to a rash of portable buildings and to another extension of the brick building before temporary relief was provided by the opening of Mascot Public School. During these years the provision of education at Gardeners Road was also considerably broadened, with the establishment of both day and evening classes. Evening Continuation Schools, for young boys and girls who had entered the workforce after completing their primary education, were set up in 1911 along the same lines as the reorganised Super Public Schools. Gardeners Road Evening Continuation School was opened in March 1912. The school which operated on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7.30 to 9.30, offered the Junior Technical Course – English, Elementary Science, Drawing, Woodwork and Practical Mathematics. Gardeners Road became a Superior Public School in January 1913, when a Junior Technical Department was established. A separate girls department had been formed in 1912 with Alice Mulholland as mistress. The rise in numbers at Gardeners Road reflected the changes which were taking place throughout the district. In 1914 the Cooper Estate was finally being subdivided, and houses were quickly going up in the new suburb of Rosebery. During 1914 the situation at the school became extremely difficult. The enrolment rose from 1,083 for the beginning of the year to 1,174 for September. The War And Its Effects : From 1915 until 1921 the school was to acquire three double portable classrooms, and the old residence was converted into a manual training building but, as the enrolment climbed to 1,700, corridors and weathersheds were continually in use. Schools throughout Sydney experienced similar difficulties in this period. A result of World War I was a severe shortage of staff, as hundreds of teachers enlisted. The completion of the manual training building, with the science room remaining in the old wooden building, meant that Gardeners Road had 20 classrooms, 16 in the brick building, 2 in the wooden building and 2 portable rooms. Late in 1919 the Department began considering the need for a new infants building at the school and also the need to enlarge the school site. At that time the area to the north of the school was owned by Michael O’Riordan. Following his death the beneficiaries of his estate offered the blocks to the Department. The minister was Thomas Mutch and, having ascertained that the asking price was very reasonable, he gave instructions to his Department; “Take immediate steps to purchase this block at 1,150 pounds. If it is not purchased it will probably be covered with noise factories to the great disadvantage of this important school.”

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Many Buildings : The opening of Mascot Public School in 1922 had an immediate impact on Gardeners Road, with the old school losing some 600 of its pupils to the new one. During 1922 the enrolment was about 1,150 and there was enough space for Miss Ferguson, the infants’ mistress, to begin enrolling 5-year-olds again for the first time since 1913. From the beginning of 1922 there was a Domestic Science section as well as the Junior Technical section. The Domestic Science Course, in addition to English, History, Geography and Botany, included Household Arithmetic, Art and Home Decoration, Cookery, Laundry, Home Management, Dressmaking and Millinery, Hygiene and Care of the Sick and the Baby. Business Principles, Shorthand and Typing were largely restricted to ninth class, it being assumed that girls who remained that long might have a future beyond that of a wife and mother. Most of the pupils in the district left school at 14, and there was little demand for the university-orientated high school course, but a few pupils from Gardeners Road went on to Cleveland Street Intermediate High School. The accommodation question was revived in 1923 when it was pointed out that the school needed extra accommodation, especially for the growing secondary sections. Plans were therefore drawn up for a major overhaul of the accommodation. The new infants building was to be a single storey building, containing eight classrooms and a large assembly hall, plus staff and hat rooms. Two more classrooms were to be added to the main building and new toilets to be built. The work was completed in July 1925 by S. Patrick and Sons. The growth at the school was by now almost entirely in the secondary sections. Early in 1923, for example, there had been 1,049 primary and infants pupils and 163 secondary pupils; by early 1927 there were 427 secondary pupils, almost equally divided between the Junior Technical and Domestic Science classes. In 1926 the Department also began considering the erection of a manual training building at Gardeners Road, so that the second-year boys would no longer need to travel to Redfern, which was badly overcrowded. A two-storey building containing two drawing rooms, two woodwork rooms and a metalwork room was completed in May 1929. The Junior Technical section of the school was increased in 1929 following a re-organisation of secondary education in the city area which resulted in the closure of the Junior Technical section at Redfern, and the distribution of its pupils between Bourke Street and Gardeners Road. From 1929 the sixth-class boys from Mascot also received their manual training at Gardeners Road. Between 1925 and 1927 the site of the school was extended from five acres to six acres. The new land was covered with long grass and weeds but, during 1927, the headmaster, Samuel Long, allowed local residents to run their horses in the area to keep the grass under control. The area was needed for sport, because the old football ground off Botany Road which the pupils had previously used was being converted in 1927 into Rosebery Tin Hare Coursing Ground. The 1930s : An era in the school’s history came to an end when Thomas O’Hare retired in 1930 after 26 years as first assistant, and Samuel Long retired in 1931 after 18years as headmaster.

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By 1930 the enrolment was once again close to 1,700; it was to range between 1,400 and 1,800 for the next 20 years. The increased enrolment once again strained the accommodation, making the increasingly dilapidated portable buildings all the more necessary. One problem which was partly related to the Depression was the increase in burglaries and vandalism, although the school had always been plagued by these: a favourite target for decades had been the lead flashing from the rooves. The Parents and Citizens Association was particularly active during the 1930s, both in seeking improvements for the school and in arranging extra-curricular activities for the pupils. It also arranged a free matinee performance for the pupils at the local picture theatre in 1936; school matinees at the Rosebery Picture Theatre were held about twice a year after that.

* * * * * * * * * * In 1940 there were about 200 pupils in the Junior Technical section and 250 in the Domestic Science section (renamed Home Science in 1942). By 1960 there were about 450 pupils in each section, out of a total enrolment of nearly 1,600. The secondary pupils were transferred to the new J.J. Cahill Memorial High School, a comprehensive co-educational high school, in 1961. Gardeners Road then reverted to an ordinary primary school with some 650 pupils. The enrolment began to rise in the late 1960s, and reached 900 in 1970, and has dropped since then to less than 500. Over the years the portable buildings, the old residence and the wooden building dating back to 1885 have been removed, so that the school today occupies the four brick buildings built between 1899 and 1929. All those generations of pupils who spent their schooldays in those ‘temporary’ wooden buildings would hardly recognise it.

* * * * * * * * * * ENDEAVOUR GROVE : In 1970, a range of native trees and shrubs was planted along the Gardeners Road side of the school grounds, to attract native birds to the school environment. A plaque, embedded in a large sandstone rock to mark this event, remains standing today:

ENDEAVOUR GROVE

1970 Established by the pupils, staff and Gould

League members of Gardener’s Road Public School to commemorate the

Bi-Centenary of the landing of Captain James Cook at Botany Bay

29 April 1770. NJ Johnston Principal

R Hazell Gould League Patron A HERITAGE FOR THOSE OF THE FUTURE

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SOME RECOLLECTIONS BY PAST PUPILS

The following stories by past pupils of the School have been collected over time.

Mrs Cowie recalls : I commenced school at six years of age which was the norm in those days (1922), and left school just before my 14th birthday. This is what most children did. I was just an average scholar and each year did well enough to progress to the next class. I attended Gardener’s Road Public School in Mascot. My father and also my eldest daughter, Marele, attended the same school. Marele was there for just two years of her early schooling. I walked to and from school each day, which took me 20 minutes if I did not dawdle as children often do. If it rained, Mum would give me a penny for the tram fare but she could not pay fares for me every day. She said the walk was good exercise. I would walk along Botany Road (the main road) as a small six year old. I had to cross over this road, as well as a couple of side streets. In the early 1920s there were very few cars and mostly horse-drawn vehicles, so I had no problems in crossing the road. Today the main road is teeming with traffic. No factories were built along this section of Botany Road. There were vacant paddocks, about half a dozen houses, and three Chinese market gardens. I would never walk right past the gardens, but always crossed over the road before I came to them. The older kids told us the Chinamen had long knives in their belts and would cut our heads off if we went near. That is pretty scary when you are only six. After a year or two I became braver and would quickly walk right past the gardens. The men were busy working and did not even bother to look up. These market gardens were quite large, set about 4 feet below the footpath with barbed wire all around the boundaries. They grew every kind of vegetable imaginable. The men were dressed in dark blue drill jackets and trousers to match, which finished well above the ankles. They wore large coolie type straw hats and no shoes. The women were dressed exactly the same as the men, but under the men’s hats were their pigtails wound up on top of their heads. They worked from daylight till dusk, tending their vegetables. They had a wooden yoke across their shoulders with a watering can hanging from each end, and they walked up and down the rows gently watering the young plants, guiding the cans, one in each hand. This must have been very heavy on their shoulders. As the plants got bigger they would allow the water to run in the channels on either side of the rows of vegetables. There were several wells in the gardens. There were many of these gardens in the Mascot and Botany areas. The only time I saw a Chinaman’s large knife was when he was cutting lucerne for his horses. When the vegetables were ready the men would load them up as high as possible on the horse-drawn lorries and take the produce into the Sydney vegetable markets. They would arrive just as it was getting light. On our way to school we would see them coming back after they had sold their vegies. They sometimes nodded off to sleep but the horses always got them safely home. Some of the naughty older boys threw things at the sleeping men, hoping to knock their hats off just to see their pigtails. The Chinese would never cut off their pigtails. They dreamt of the time when they could go

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back to China and it would be unthinkable to go home without the pigtail. The Chinese were very kind and gentle people. They kept mostly to themselves and never caused any trouble. After a while I found a new way home from school by the back road. There were a couple of small factories along this road. One was a biscuit factory, and we found out as children do, that the man in the factory would give us a bag of broken and mis-shapen biscuits for free. If our mothers gave us sixpence we could get a huge brown paper bag of good plain mixed biscuits. Further along the way two men in an old tin shed cooked potato crisps. We had never ever seen anything like them in our lives. Again, we would be given the very small bits of broken potato crisps, but they were so very greasy. These crisps were put into packets with a blue paper twist containing salt. Then one day when we went for crisps, the men had gone and the tin shed was closed. I learned that the men had moved to larger premises. I believe this was the beginning of Smith’s potato crisps. It would have been in the mid-1920s. I have many happy memories of my school days and all the concerts we had. I was so proud to be a part of them (usually in the chorus line). The concerts were always held in the Mascot Town Hall, as was the yearly school fancy dress ball. Our mothers made all the clothes. Mum made my sister and I some wonderful creations for the ball, all from crepe paper.

Alice Cowie aged 11 years Mavis Cowie aged 9 years in fancy dress costume in “Watermelon” fancy dress costume

As I progressed to the higher classes in school, I took up tennis as a sport and also learned swimming. Every Thursday was swimming day for me. A special tram was booked to take the girls to the Domain baths for lessons. The journey took a good 30 minutes. We would alight, and march in pairs through the Domain, then on to the baths. There were little cubicles round the three or four baths there, two girls to each cubicle. We would change into our swimming costumes, made from wool. They were high at the

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back neck, with no sleeves and a tiny short-leg. We also wore a swimming cap made from rubber. We spent about an hour at the pool then it was time to dress and march back to board our tram. It was hardly worth the effort, as we would leave the school to go swimming after an early lunch, round about 12:30 pm.

A backyard stall for Red Cross Society about 1925

held at 220 Victoria Street, Beaconsfield Alice Cowie (on left) in Red Cross uniform, aged 9 years

Mary Peters (centre), aged 12 years Mavis Cowie (far right) behind post, aged 7 years

Alice Sarah Cowie At Gardeners Road 1922 – 1930 Mrs Gillespie recalls : I had 3 generations of my family attend Gardeners Road. Beginning with my grandfather, David Alexander Cowie, who was born on 28 January 1887. He probably started school about 1893. I don't know when he left. Next was my mother, Alice Sarah Cowie, who was born on 18 January 1916 and began school aged 6 in 1922 and left before her 14th birthday about 1930. My mother celebrated her 92nd birthday this year. Her sister (my aunt) Mavis Vera Cowie, who was 2 years younger than my mother, also attended Gardeners Road. My sister Marele Lorraine Day attended in Kindergarten and Year 1 (1952 and 1953). Marele has become a well known author, winning an overseas literary award for crime writing. One of her books "The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender" was on the Higher School Certificate reading list for a number of years. She has also written other books in different genres, including a book on the life of Mrs Cook (Captain James Cook's wife). Irene Gillespie

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Mrs Elliott recalls : “ GARDENERS ROAD IN THE THIRTIES “ It was early 1931, unbelievably over 50 years ago, and I was standing in a line with my mother outside Miss Genge’s office, one hand tightly holding her hand, and the other grasping a penny, my “milk money” for the day. Later on this would buy milk in a small, wide-necked bottle sealed with a cardboard top with a small brown tag attached with which to pull it open. My lunch was wrapped in a clean white damask serviette which I had been instructed not to lose, and pinned to my new home-made flannel tunic was a clean handkerchief made from old sheeting carefully hemmed. One by one we new pupils were called into the office, where we were greeted by the kindly white-haired headmistress, enrolled, and then after a quick good-bye kiss to mother, told to go and sit, cross-legged on the floor in the assembly hall. I do not remember the name of my first teacher, but I can recall most of those who followed her. In first class it was the deputy, Miss Allingham (was she really as old as she seemed ?) and in second class, Miss Pulbrook. Advancing to the “bigs”, where girls and boys were segregated, our teacher was Mrs Glasheen, who seemed to us as old as the school. Come to thing of it, perhaps she was, as I think she was a WWI widow, and the year I was in her class she was justifiably proud as her son had won a Rhodes Scholarship. It was Mrs Glasheen who taught us to write with pen and ink, and instilled in us our tables. At this stage, on our way to school, we used to meet her at the corner of Gordon Street where she lived, and carry her bag and “parasol” to school but, as she spent the time asking us tables, we didn’t keep that up for long. No wonder arithmetic was never a source of trouble later on, but I wish I could say the same about writing. Her own hand was beautifully round and copperplate. Miss Goddard was my beloved teacher in both fifth and sixth classes. She was small and neat and always smartly dressed and wore pince-nez glasses. She spent playtimes and lunch hours in the “fernery” where we, her devoted slaves, spent long hours scrubbing aphis off the aspidistra leaves and refilling tins of water with their rag wicks which watered the hanging baskets. There were 56 in that year’s 6A class ! I wonder what today’s teachers think of that. I think only six of us sat for High School entrance and three of us passed for Sydney Girls’ High and the other three went to William Street High. Miss Hickey, the Headmistress of the girls’ school told my mother I was the first person from Gardeners Road to win a bursary. I’ve often wondered if that was right. The bursary entitled me to 9 pounds and 12 shillings per year. The secondary school only went to second year, and any of those girls wanting an Intermediate Certificate had to travel to Burwood Girls High for their third year. One of the highlights of the school year was the Junior Red Cross Exhibition of Work and Pageant at the Sydney Town Hall. The school which won most prizes the previous year had the honour of leading the pageant, and Gardeners Road very often were the winners. In 1934 when I was in 3A, we had a “set” of fairies leading the parade, and later that year we danced in a maypole display at the Showground for the visit of the Duke of Gloucester. Another year I was part of a Welsh set.

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Looking back at school photos I don’t know if many of us distinguished ourselves in later life. We were children of the depression years and then, as we were entering our teens, war was declared. I expect many of my classmates served in various ways. I spent seven happy years at “Gardo” from January 1931 to December 1937 and, although much has happened since those days, I still cannot pass the old school without glancing across to the buildings and playgrounds where I learnt my three R’s and to “Play the Game”. Beryl Elliott (Richardson) Mrs Cartwright recalls : Mrs Cartwright was born in 1892. She was born in Middlemiss Street, not far from where she still lives. She enrolled at Gardeners Road Public School in 1898 at the age of six years. Her schooling ended, as did that of most of her generation, at the age of fourteen. Her first work was at Robinson’s Tent Making Factory in King Street. School memories include those of teachers Miss Hale, Miss “Bunny” Harrison, who was very impatient, even to the extent of throwing a slate at a pupil (fortunately it missed), Miss Perry and Mr Radford. The headmaster, a big regal man was very regal with the cane. Boys were often given “sixers” leaving them with stripes on their hands. Girls were also caned if needed. Steam and cable trams were very much part of everyday life where family transport consisted largely of horse and sulky. Motorised transport was confined to trucks that carried bales of wool for the wool scouring works that provided much of the jobs in the 1890’s. Memories of the picture theatre are vague but it is thought to have opened in 1908. A tram accident and the opening of the Harbour Bridge (the time her husband died) were well-remembered events. Gardeners Road Public School once boasted a croquet lawn and a Principal’s residence, replaced by the Infants department. Mrs Cartwright’s daughters and grand-daughter attended the school. Her grand-daughter, Christine, was dux of the school. In 1942 Mrs Cartwright returned to the school as a cleaner where she remained for eleven years. Her interest was always in the school and the local district. Memories shared with Peter Croker, July 1982:

Mrs Reynolds recalls : Memories of my attendance as a child at ‘Gardo’ concerns an embarrassing occasion which I endured in front of my class. This consisted of being ridiculed by the teacher and then having my uniform lifted and being spanked on my bottom with a ruler. This was my punishment for walking through the boys’ playground the day before to pick up my little sister from the Infants’ School. I never crossed the boys’ playground again !’ Mrs Gloria Reynolds (nee Barnard) Pupil at Gardeners Road School, 1934-35

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Mrs Britten recalls : My grandfather, John Maloney – born in Dublin – was brought out from Ireland as a linguist by the then government. He taught at various schools previous to Gardeners Road before being appointed as headmaster. There was a house provided with this appointment where he lived for several months with his wife, Ellen, and their seven children – William, Joseph, John, Mary, Ellen, Bridget and Margaret. My mother told my sisters and myself about the weird noises and happenings which took place after they had resided in the cottage. My mother told us there was a step from the kitchen to the laundry and one night, as she was about to step down, a chain dragged right beneath her feet, and quite frequently the blinds in the house would be pulled up and down quite fiercely for no reason, then the lights would go out. On one occasion my father told me he and a friend of the family, Dr Muster, were crossing the yard, now the playground, when they heard a chain being dragged around the fence and a dog barking – there was no dog in sight ! Dr Muster said to my father “My God, Will”. What is that noise ? This is unnatural.” My grandfather had to move out of the residence as it became too much for him. Another fellow moved in. He stayed only one night ! Nobody would reside in the cottage so the Education Department pulled it down and built an Infants school room out of it. (Mrs) Mary Britten Ex-pupil Mr Bennett recalls : I was a student at Gardeners Road Infants and Primary School from 1971 to 1977, when my family lived in Tramway Street, Mascot, and Victoria Street, Beaconsfield. I went on to Cleveland Street Boys High from 1978 to 1981 and, although I now live in Cairns, I have bumped into a number of Gardeners Road ex-students over the last 30 years when visiting Sydney. My mother, Jennifer Jones, her brother, John Jones, and their father, John William Jones, all went to Gardeners Road in the 1930s and 1950s. Some of my teachers during the 1970s were Mr Storm, Mrs Webb, Mrs Suzucivich and Mr Sahtoot, and the Principal was Mr Wilson. I remember the school in the1970s as supporting a very diverse multi-cultural area: we had many Turkish, Greek, Lebanese and Vietnamese students, and I had many good friends from these backgrounds. Brett Bennett

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