My Days at Mortdale Public School. January 1936 – December 1943. Less than two weeks after my fifth birthday, my Mother walked me to Mortdale Public School and handed me over to Miss Ruby. This was the first and last time my Mother walked me to school. I progressed through the co-educational classes of, K, 1B and 2B being taught by Miss Ruby, Miss Fieldhouse and Miss Hogarth. In K and 1B the 31 pupils 19 girls and 12 boys were taught to read and write (on a Slate) we also had frequent visits from men, who I suspect were still finding it hard to earn a living due to the depression. Some I can remember well, one had a fleet of small hand crafted models of ships that had been commanded by Captain Nelson. I believe we paid one penny each, to stop and hear this man speak and see his models after school finished. Another, a local man, Roy MacGreggor his son Roy Jnr was in my class. As Roy Royston, this man put on a one man show. He was one of the best ventriloquists I have ever seen, and I have seen a few, twenty years later he was a star act on Television variety shows and at the Tivoli Theatre. Tex Morton, A country and western singer was another who performed in these after School attractions. Then into 2B where Miss Hogarth the headmistress of the infants school taught us our tables to the stage we could repeat them parrot like for hours on end, Miss Hogarth also introduced us to writing in exercise books, and the cane. I think it was during 1938 that Diphtheria affected many children and all pupils were lined up in the playground and inoculated with a huge needle as we passed a Doctor, this needle, and syringe continued to be used on those in the line, until it was empty or the needle either broke or became blunt. In 1939 I moved to the Boys only 3rd class in the Big School,which had only been built a few years earlier. There are 46 of us in the school photograph, we were taught by a teacher whose surname was Mr Finnegan who in his youth had rowed the whale-boats that hunted and caught Whales in Twofold Bay. We found it easy to have a break from school work by asking Mr Finnegan a question about the catching of whales. At the outbreak of hostilities in WW2, pupils and their fathers, worked on the weekends digging two trenches; one zigzagged its way from the edge of the assembly area of the boy’s school to the railway line, the other from the Toilet block to the railway line. In 1940 progressing to 4th class, Jack Lawson and I were somehow elected the schools signallers, Japan had not yet entered the War but Jack and I were taught to semaphore and identify enemy aircraft, in the event of an air raid we as nine year olds were to be the schools communication System. We and other students were also taught to extinguish fires caused by different types of bombs, for incendiary Bombs, Buckets full of sand were placed in all classrooms, the storeroom at the boy’s school under the stairs was filled with bottles of Lemonade to be issued to the pupils as they evacuated the building to shelter in the trenches. To stop the lemonade from going stale we consumed it at our breakup party at the end of the year. A year that had seen much disruption to school work. In 1941 we were split into two classes, somehow I got into 5A which had 38 pupils, and during the year we were all given a Dictionary by Clive Evatt our local MP, who was the New South Wales Minister for Education. He caused much laughter when he requested us to call him Daddy, never learnt why, but he was a regular visitor to the school. Now minus its hard cover I still use this dictionary. Miss Webb and Mr Gardiner were the teachers of 5th Class. I spent much of the year working on the rose garden that filled the yard between the two story brick building and the street and the native tree garden that was planted between the boys and girls school. Often at the request of Mr Eagles, the Headmaster walking to Hurstville and back either alone or with Alan Lynch and John Holt to buy plants from Lovegrove’s nursery. The class photograph of 1941 is the last I have; I think the shortage of film due to the war saw the end of school photographs. In 1942, I advanced to sixth class, to be taught by the headmaster, Harry Eagles, it was a big year for many of us, as our Mothers became single parents as our fathers either enlisted or were conscripted into the Armed Forces. Mr Eagles was very eager to assist and immediately a serviceman on leave walked into the school his children were rounded up and sent home with him. Mr Eagles was a Historian and despite me still voluntarily spending long periods in the school gardens he instilled a love of History in me that has lasted a lifetime. We did not have a photograph of King George V1 in our class room we had a photograph of the Captain of the HMAS Sydney hanging above the blackboard; we were allowed time off to watch the first Spitfire fighter to fly from England to Australia as it flew over the school. As Army camps appeared to the west of Gungah Bay Road (an anti aircraft Battalion) and in Oatley Park a Tasmanian Battalion the sight of marching soldiers became a daily feature. Due to the introduction of food rationing, milk was supplied to the school on a daily basis, in a Milk Can, out of the weather in the Lunch shed, I as the ultimate Volunteer filled up the pupils mugs, we wore identification cards around our necks and carried a piece of rubber tube in our pocket that we had been instructed to hold between our teeth in the event of a air raid. After school we swam in Judd’s Brick pit, now the home of a university campus it was then gradually being flooded after work has ceased due to the shortage of man power. Out of School hours, I delivered papers, collected bottles and aluminium for the war effort and generally had fun, Daylight saving had been introduced in the hope of saving power and stopping the constant blackouts that occurred when Bunnerong Power Station at Matraville could not meet the demand. This allowed us to play cricket after our evening meal or if you were lucky enough to have a bike go for a ride. It was impossible to buy a bike unless you were a runner for the Air Raid Wardens or you lived more than 5 miles (8kl) from your school. The shortage of rubber was the problem so when tires wore out bikes were ridden on the metal rims. At the conclusion of the school year, Mr Eagles told me I had qualified to go to Hurstville School, but he believed if I repeated and put a bit of effort in he was sure I could qualify for Canterbury High the following year. So I reluctantly repeated Sixth Class. 1943 saw the arrival of the Yanks (American Servicemen) 60,000 of them were in Sydney and it appeared to us as if all of them had come to Mortdale. Herne Bay (Riverwood) Golf Coarse was taken over by the yanks who built a hospital on it. Punchbowl Bus Company provided a bus service to the hospital from Mortdale railway station where the yanks would alight from the already overcrowded trains from Sydney. A Hamburger store opened in Morts Road and did a great business. The Punchbowl busses must have had priority and did not appear to be effected by the petrol rationing. Steve Roberts and his wife the first woman in NSW to be licensed as a bus driver, had the bus run from Mortdale Station to Oatley Park, their bus carried a large canvas bag on the roof of their bus filled with household gas that they fuelled their bus with. While Tim Brown’s Taxi’s had to have charcoal burners attached to their rear Bumpers. Very few households owned a car but those that did were limited to 1 Gallon (4.6lt) of petrol a month. A feature of the day for many was the 3801 as it roared through Mortdale station at 3.37 pm each day, along with other enthusiasts I would be standing on the Railway Steps to see it. Unfortunately Mr Eagles suffered a stroke in the early part of 1943, such was his popularity that his pupils visited him regularly in his home despite him being bedridden and without speech. His replacement Mr Collier, I have nothing good to say about, so I will say nothing. At the end of the year I once again qualified for Hurstville Tech. Reading of the achievements of pupils on the school web site. I feel I must put forward the achievements of my class mates. Jockey’s ---Robinson and Jim Tuite. First Grade Cricket with St George Club. Harry Brierley. First Grade Rugby League Manny Hinton & Alan Lynch. Manny Hinton along with his brothers was a champion Boxer in his own right, he was later assistant trainer to Johnny Lewis and after “Hit Man” Jeff Harding split with Lewis, Manny was his trainer when he won a world boxing title fight. Swimming Frank Stevens was a finalist at 1950 British Empire Games. He later became a Professor at Sydney University. Rifle Shooting John Holt was a Olympian and was a Vet. Bird Callers; Victor D’closy was the champion while Ted Moore and Ray Madeford were voted into 2nd place on Dick Fair’s Australian Amateur Hour on the Radio, an early version of TVs “Australia has Talent”. Cycling; Tommy McIntosh, --Jefferies and I could all hold our own as Cyclists while Jack Lawson was a champion on a 500cc Motor Bike. Not bad for one class.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 02:38:13 +0000
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