Gundaroo Public School
On 31 July 1865, an Application for the Establishment of a Non-Vested National School was completed
by residents of Gundaroo. The application read:
"The undersigned being desirous to place under the supervision of the Board of National Education
the school under our direction at Gundaroo ... hereby request that the Commissioners will be pleased to
award a salary to the Master, and aid in Books ...".
The application was signed by Messrs Frederick Hoare, Thomas Booth and Arthur Affleck, all of Gundaroo.
Twenty-eight pupils were expected to attend the school, paying sixpence per week each. It was planned to
erect a school building 30 feet by 16 feet, of slabs, with hardwood floors and a bark roof, on land granted by
the government for the building of a Presbyterian Church. The school building was to contain a schoolroom,
a bedroom and a sitting room, thus functioning as both school and teacher's residence.
Mr Hugh McPhee, a 50 year old Scot, unmarried, was appointed first teacher by the local patrons, with a
remuneration of 10 shillings per week. Mr McPhee had taught in the Queanbeyan district for the previous nine years.
Mr Inspector Harris commented on the application in a report dated 18 September 1865 to the Chief Inspector,
Sydney. He stated that the school was already in operation in premises which are not described. There was already
a Church of England school at Gundaroo, but this was not within three miles of the site of the proposed new school,
so that there was no objection to the establishment of a public school at Gundaroo.
However,
"Considering that the schoolhouse is not erected, that only 15 children belong to the school, and that
the teacher's qualifications are doubtful, I beg to submit that aid to be withheld until the completion of the building,
an increase in the attendance, and the examination of the teacher."
These conclusions were passed onto the local patrons, who replied in a letter dated 25 October 1865, that they
were anxious to retain Mr McPhee's services and had started a subscription list pending the new year when they
hoped the Council would see fit to provide a salary.
Apparently this situation did not suit the teacher for he resigned at the end of 1865. There are no further records
of the school until 1868.
Gundaroo Public School in 1916
On 1 July 1868 Messrs Arthur Affleck, Hugh Vallance, Charles Amatty and William Affleck as secretary of the
local patrons' committee completed an Application for the Establishment of a Public School. They added, as a rider:
·- we guarantee the use of a stone house free of rent for three years, or the use of the Presbyterian Church till
we obtain subscriptions for the erection of a public school.'
Twenty-eight (28) children of school age lived within two miles of the proposed school, and 41 within four miles.
However, in regard to numbers much depended on the aftermath of the closing the previous day (30 June 1868)
of the Church Of England school, due to the withdrawal of its certificate. (In fact a provisional school was set up
in place of the church school in July 1868).
The Council of Education agreed to aid the Public School to be established at Gundaroo The local committee
requested that the Council send books and equipment for the school to Sutton Forest where they would be
picked up by Mr Vallance with horse and dray.
On 10 September 1868 the Council advised the local committee that they would appoint a teacher.
In reply Mr Affleck wrote:
" ... if the teacher and family are forwarded to Marulan by train, ... (the local committee) will send down a
horse and dray to convey them from Marulan to Gundaroo, but if they have any quantity of luggage it must
remain at the station till a Gundaroo-team goes there.''
In addition a cheque for 80 pounds was enclosed being the local subscription in aid of the proposed Public School.
The teacher, Mr Crew, and his wife arrived on 15 November 1868, Mrs Crew taught sewing.
In 1869 a site of one acre, three rods and 20 perches was dedicated for school purposes. In March of that
year work began on the construction of new school buildings and a teacher's residence. The contractor
Mr Thomas Jobson, had submitted a tender for the work for 239 pounds 10 shillings.
There was some delay in the building due to difficulty in obtaining bricks in the district and to heavy rains interfering
with the quarrying of stone. The buildings were ready for occupation in September, 1869.
Parents' apathy towards their children's schooling was stressed in a letter written by the Secretary of the Local
School Board to Council of Education in February 1870:
"If education was compulsory there might be an average daily attendance of about 40 instead of the present average."
The average attendance for the March quarter of 1870 was eleven, and for the June quarter nine. Consequently,
Mr Inspector McIntyre recommended that one teacher should run both Gundaroo Public and Gundaroo Provisional
as half-time schools, the former to be known as Gundaroo, the latter as Gundaroo Upper. Mr Crew was subsequently transferred, and Mr Boate, teacher of the original Provisional School at Gundaroo became, for a short period,
teacher of "Half Time Schools Gundaroo".
However, records suggest that the former Public School was reopened in 1871 as Lower Gundaroo Provisional
School under Mr Slatterie. Mr Boate reverted to being teacher of Upper Gundaroo Provisional School. (A year
later, in January 1872, permission was granted for Upper Gundaroo Provisional and Sutton to be run as half-time
schools by Mr Boate.)
The problem of small attendance apparently remained, for in February 1872 Mr Slatterie advised that attendance
had been low at the beginning of the school year due to sickness, harvesting, bushfires and a flooded river.
Mr Slatterie left the school on 31 October 1872 and the school remained without a teacher until 19 May 1873,
when Mr W. Fursman was appointed provisionally.
Gundaroo Public School in 1998
Probably the greatest obstacle to the advancement of the school was the low
attendances. Children were often needed to help on the farm
or were prevented from coming to school by floods. Even so.
there were many who complained over the lack of interest in
education by parents. One early teacher noted,
"Riding a
horse and driving a team of bullocks is, in the opinion of a
good many, all the education the young ones require."
To
encourage the teacher to assist in the recruitment of
pupils, it was decided at one stage to employ him without
pay until attendances reached 15.
Occasionally, though, teachers were found to be lax. One
teacher was in the habit of leaving the school in the charge
of a senior pupil while he went off gold prospecting.
Eventually the original building fell into a very poor state
of repair as well as becoming too small for the class. An
inspector reported in 1897 that daily, due to the hot summer weather and
the size of the class,
"the teacher is compelled
to go out in the open air to recover sufficient strength and
energy to proceed with his duties, while every child has to
carry a bottle of drinking water to school owing to the bad
state of the school tank water which really stinks and is a
floating mass of insects."
A new building was opened in August 1898. In later years it was
set off by extensive gardens of flowers and vegetables.
However the old blue stone residence remained for many more
years until eventually dismantled. The structure had been
badly weakened by crumbling mortar, heavy rains and an earth
tremor. In 1929 a teacher reported that a
''tornado swept
into the township of Gundaroo unroofing several houses and
doing considerable damage to school property...the girls' WC
was blown literally to pieces and most of the front fence
blown down...and the residence severely shaken."
Earlier in 1901, a teacher had complained to the Inspector
of schools that
"the Sanitary Paper with which the walls of
the Eastern front room of the teacher's residence here, are
covered, is continually becoming detached at various places.
causing the room to assume an untidy appearance, and
affording harbour for vermin."
In 1969 the school was threatened with closure as only seven
children were attending, Eventually three additional, rather
young, children were found who brought the numbers over the
required minimum of nine.
A significant increase in enrolments since then has seen
the conversion of the school residence into an
Office/Administration block in 1992 and the building of a new double
classroom in 1993.
In 1997 the school's enrolment had grown to 79 students and three teachers.
Click Here for a list of teachers at
the school from 1865 to 1965
Click Here to go to the School's Web site
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