more student memories

ALAN JEFFREY (A pupil 1925 - 1933)

The Jeffrey family had lived in the district all of their school days. There were 16 children in our family, Mum and Dad made 18.

We all went to Glen Park all our lives, we lived about 1.5 miles away and walked to school at all times rain, hail or shine. There were as many as 8 going to school at one time and no one went to another school. We had a lot of good times while there.

Every year we used to have a school and Sunday school picnic combined at Lake Wendouree gardens we used to have concerts each year and a Dance afterwards. We also had a day trip to the Zoo.

Glen Park had a Cricket team in the Ballarat Competition. The team was very competitive and won one premiership and were runners up three times. We had to call on boys from Wattle Flat and Pootilla to keep the team viable. We also had and still do have a very efficient Fire Brigade. Myself, Mrs Ritchie and an officer from the Country Fire Authority formed the Brigade in 1951 or 1952 and it has functioned ever since.

EILEEN FITZGERALD (nee MADDERN) (A pupil 1915 - 1920)

I will try and recall some of my memories of my school days at Glen Park. I attended in 1915 so you can see I am not so young.

We lived at the foot of James Hill and the road we walked to school was just a track with ruts and lots of trees - no one owned a car except Mr Charlie Blacke who lived on the corner of the road to Ballarat North and our lane - the house was destroyed by fire a couple of years ago.

Mr C. W. Frost was one Head Teacher I remember also a Miss Lindberg and a Mr Whittle. Every Monday morning the flag would be raised and we would promise to honour the Country, King, Parents, Teachers and the law, also our finger nails were checked to see if they were clean and if we had a clean hanky. One humorous memory I have is when a Mrs. Cropley who lived about a quarter of a mile from the school arriving at the school with a blue bottle of castor oil and a spoon for the children who had raided her pear tree.

Opposite the school stood a little wooden Methodist Church, also a house where a Mr Dan Rattray lived - he died quite young with the bubonic flu that was sweeping the country after the war. During the war many concerts and dances were held to help the war funds - many locals put on the concert, Annie Frazer (Mrs Quick) Mary Frazer (Mrs Rumler) and the Ryan twins, Annie and Eileen were amongst the artists. After the concert the men would clear the school and spread the floor with borasic acid which the children would slide on and make the floor slippery for the dance to follow - no bands then just the piano.

The school also had a pine plantation in the forest opposite the White Swan Hotel. I don't know if they were harvested before the dam was flooded. The White Swan Hotel was an old rambling wooden structure owned by a maiden lady Miss Lot Ritchie - who every New Years Day would put on a picnic for the local children. She had home made swings, see saws and a may pole. Up the hill on the north bank of the reservoir was the Glen Park Post office owned by a family by the name of Buchan.

 

My father wrote to every Bungaree Council meeting for years to get the road past our home made and it wasn't until after he died they made the road and called it Maddern's Lane.