Extracted with permission from “Centenary of education in Greensborough 1854-1954” (Greensborough State School no. 2062) p. 25 – 27
These are some of the many stories of the school in Mr. Amiet’s day.
(Mr Louis Amiet, head teacher 1896-1919)
“… Mr. Amiet had a dog called Brunzo that he had taught to obey commands given in French. It was always a puzzle to us to know how a dog could understand a foreign language …”
“… Mr. Amiet had a strap. It was so old it had gone soft and fuzzy and didn’t hurt a bit. Someone stole it and he got a new one – a piece of hard tracing – and did it sting! We’ve never found out to this day who stole it …” Another “old boy” who also recalled this story added: “… and if we did find out, even now, we’d duck him in the river.”
“… when Mr. Amiet was building his house on the hill he used to take the senior boys and girls there on Friday afternoon for Nature Study – and to weed the garden. We used to take bread and butter to make sandwiches with his spring onions …”
Mr. Amiet often told this story of Jack Evans, whose father, Captain Evans, a Boer War veteran, was one of his close friends. Jack had occasion to “get the strap” and as he held out his hand the small boy said, “Strike away, old man! My father would half kill you for this.” In the Great War Jack fought on Gallipoli and won the Military Medal.
“… the Oakley boys were the street lamp fighters, for which they were paid 1/- a week. They used to bring pieces of carbide from the lamps to school and drop them in the ink well. The ink would fizz up – and the smell was awful! …”
“… Miss Barlow used to teach in the ‘bag room’. It was at the bottom of the yard beyond the present day pre-fabs. It had a skillion roof and was boarded half way. The rest was whitewashed hessian. On windy days the hessian flapped and billowed and maps and papers blew about …”
“… Water was always scarce in summer before the water supply came through. A man used to drive round the town selling water from a furphy. On Mondays the women would take the clothes and coppers in drays down to the river bank near Partingtons and do their washing their. The school had a couple of open tanks which in summer were either empty or had a little water and a lot of dead birds and possums. We took bottles of water to school …”
“ …I liked poetry best of all. I knew by heart most of the poems in the Royal Reader. Although it is nearly sixty years since i learned them, i still remember “The Sale of the Pet Lamb”, “We are Seven”, and others. I remember the picture of the St. Bernard dog carrying the lost child ..”
Yarra Plenty Regional Library has a photo of the school taken in 1979 before its re-development in 1980.
John Henry Starling attended Greensborough State School.
