~WEE JASPER~

A Brief History of the Wee Jasper District

On the 19th October 1824, Explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell passed through the Yass Plains on their expedition to Port Phillip.

That afternoon, the Hume & Hovell party reached the Murrumbidgee River only to find a deep, fast flowing, 40 metre wide river in flood.

On the 22nd October 1824, after three days of trying to find a place to cross and the flood waters had not diminished, a tarpaulin was wrapped around the body of a cart to convert it into a makeshift punt.

Accompanied by one of his convicts - Thomas Boyd, Hamilton Hume swam across the river with a rope and used the make shift punt to transport equipment, provisions and non-swimmers to the other side.

Hume and Hovell later crossed the Goodradigbee River (formerly known as "Little River") not far upstream from the modern day location of Wee Jasper village.

Afterwards, due to the extremely steep terrain, they were forced to leave their carts and much of their provisions concealed in one of the gullies near the Goodradigbee River.

This whole leg of their expedition was of crucial importance to the opening up of the Wee Jasper district.

On 4 July 1899 Sheehy nominated 23 year-old Elizabeth Loughlin as teacher for Wee Jasper School when it opened. She had begun her career as a teacher at South Gundagai School in 1895 and had been at Yass School since 1896. In nominating her, Sheehy noted that her vacation address was Maud Street, Goulburn, and that she could obtain accommodation at Wee Jasper ‘at Mr Donald McInnes’ place, about 10 chains from the school’.

Chief Inspector Frederick Bridges agreed with this nomination, writing: ‘in view of the great difficulty which is being experienced in inducing female ex Pupil teachers to accept Small Schools, I recommend that Miss Loughlin be declared eligible for the charge of a small school, and that she be appointed to the Provisional School at Wee Jasper’.

Loughlin was appointed to Wee Jasper Provisional School (average attendance required being 10 at this time) on 31 August 1899 at a salary of 72 pounds a year. In 1902 Inspector Sheehy wrote that Loughlin had been in charge of the school since 1 September 1899. In November, she successfully applied for permission to purchase the following articles for the school: 2 Holland blinds, 1 bucket, 3 enamel hand basins and 3 enamel mugs. The next year she was granted permission to close the school on 14 September because the majority of the children would be travelling 30 miles to attend the Yass Show on that date.

In 1901 local resident John Carey successfully requested the Department’s permission to fence the 5 acre school reserve at the parents’ expense for the pupils’ horses. He had written that ‘several children living at a distance will be thereby able to attend school’.

The Wee Jasper teacher Florence Benjamin’s replacement was Emily Clark (nee Lynch) who had begun as pupil-teacher at Mount McDonald School near Cowra in 1884. At the time of her appointment to Wee Jasper, on 29 April 1907, Clark had been teaching at Old Jeremiah Creek School for about seven weeks. She had to support her children and herself, and as she had trouble finding accommodation she boarded at Wee Jasper, first with Mrs Styles who was a personal friend of hers.

Early in 1908 there was an outbreak of measles at the school that affected most families, including Clark’s children. With two and later three of her children, she was boarding with Mrs John Carey who found it difficult to continue to board her, as Clark wrote in March 1908: ‘(Mrs Carey) has too much work to do. There are 15 of us living together here and she does all the cooking. So you can see that boarding me and my two children considerably adds to her burden. We have had measles in the house ever since Christmas holidays, one or sometimes two patients at a time, till everyone except myself have been sick, the last one is down now, I find living like this very trying’.

Apparently Clark continued to board at the Carey’s, probably until 1909 when Clark - with the assistance of the residents who had applied unsuccessfully for the Department to build a teacher’s residence – built a slab house with hessian ceiling in the school grounds so that she could live in it and move her furniture into it. Until then, she had had to leave her furniture at Euralie School where she had taught before being appointed to Old Jeremiah Creek and then to Wee Jasper in 1907.

In a petition for a residence at the school, twelve local residents had written that ‘Settlement is steadily spreading in the district, the presence of the Weir operations will have the effect of bringing more families about as time goes on’. Clark went on leave for the last three months of 1911, and on 29 September local residents W Mcalister and FC Faulder wrote to the Minister requesting a temporary teacher in her absence. Mcalister added: ‘some of the families will have to leave because they will have their home Submerged by the Barren Jack dam and is very probably they will have no school near their new home’.

On 16 July 1915 Clark made an unsuccessful application to the Department ‘to hold a dance in my school in aid of Mother’s (sic) £30,000 Fund. There is no other suitable room about. We have not decided on the date yet but probably it will be held a week before or a week after Australia Day, to prevent a clash with celebrations in the neighbourhood’.

Again on 6 September of that year, Clark applied ‘to hold a social in the Schoolroom on the 22nd of this month to enable us to supply warm clothing for our local boys who have gone to the front, and also in aid of Red Cross. I will have every care taken of the furniture and have everything ready for school next morning. The social would take the form of a Euchre party and a couple of hours dancing afterwards. Will you kindly let me know as soon as possible for if we do not have it on the 22nd inst. we could not arrange anything until the first week in October, and it is getting so late and we are anxious to get our parcels away’. Approval was given for ‘such part of the programme as will not require removal of the desks’.

Inspector Lewis Henry inspected the school in 1915 and afterwards wrote that he found Clark’s work ‘exceedingly satisfactory. The plain needlework done by her pupils is excellent – it is the best I have seen in this district’. When Henry inspected the school in 1916, Clark asked to have some repairs done and he asked her to get tenders for the work. On 22 September she reported that she had tried to do this ‘but men are very busy preparing for shearing’. The work was done later that year by local resident, W Mcalister.

In June 1917, Clark reported that the Carey family and then the Faulder family were suffering from scarlet fever, and that in September of that year ‘Mrs Davis and Mrs Edwards sent me word that their children have Whooping Cough’.

Emily Clark leaves and Winifred Harmer is temporarily in charge of the school

In September 1917 Clark applied for an assistant teacher’s position which involved a drop in salary. She wrote to the chief inspector: ‘I hope you will not appoint me further out than Temora or Parkes for I will be able to get a place with a reasonable amount of comfort. Perhaps by Christmas there will be a vacancy at Temora. I am very anxious to go there, as my sister and brother-in-law can help me in getting a house and in many other things’.

She was appointed to Temora School the following month. She sold the house in which she had been living in the school ground at Wee Jasper to the Department for £60.

Local resident Winifred Harmer, a temporary teacher, then taught at the school only until the end of the year despite wishing to stay there longer and despite a petition signed by 13 residents requesting this, for as they wrote: ‘A majority of those attending (the) school are girls, and we would prefer a lady rather than a gentleman as teacher… Winifred Harmer has given us every satisfaction since she has been in charge’.

The school becomes a public school and Charles McClellan is appointed

The school became a Public School (average attendance 20 or more) at the beginning of 1918, and 24 year-old teacher Charles McClellan took charge at that time.

When Inspector Henry inspected the school in 1919, he found that McClellan had not been keeping his school records up to date and, when called upon to explain this, McClellan wrote on 3 April: ‘During the past Quarter at the request of parents in the afternoons from 4.30 pm I have been taking the children to the river for swimming lessons … I have given assistance during weekends in fighting forest fires. In consequence my records have been neglected’.

In considering this explanation Henry noted ‘the very satisfactory progress of pupils, and the fine tone of the school, which give evidence of intelligent, systematic teaching’. McClellan was informed that any further cause for complaint in his keeping of the school records would result in serious action being taken.

In the context of providing advice to Inspector George Dart about the prospects of the school, McClellan listed the following families as being residents within three miles of the school in February 1921:

J Carey,

J Davis,

W Boardman,

J W Mitchell,

W Mcalister,

R Carrol,

A Mcalister,

E Baker,

J Faulder,

R Flynn,

W Grace,

J Mitchell,

L Gardiner,

S Lindeman,

C Grovenor,

S Tait,

H Carey and

Mr Sloan.

www.weejasper-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/home

Max Nicholls was the teacher for the year 1931 and for a few months

Kathleen Davis of Sunny Corner, who was related to nearly all the children at the school, taught sewing to the girls.

School site taken over by the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission

In 1929 the land granted for the school in 1893, Portions 27 and 28, was appropriated by the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission.

Not long after this in 1931 a new site of 9 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches, Portion 91, was dedicated for the school.

This land was acquired from the Police Department and the school building was moved onto it and re-erected some time before 1932.

Briars and rabbits were noted as problems on this land in 1932 and for the sum of £9/ 5 / - local resident Phillip Davis of Sunny Corner and two other members of his family cleared the briars which harboured rabbits in April 1933.

The Department had considered providing a new school prior to moving it to the new site, and there had been strong local agitation for this as the old building rocked in a strong wind. George Sykes, secretary of Wee Jasper–Cavan Progress Association, had written to local MP William Hedges on 6 February 1928 pointing out the deficiencies and adding: -

‘I understand there are 15 children on the role (sic) most of them have to ride long distances to school. They are typical of most of our children bred in the mountains of a fine healthy type and I think in fairness to them and their teacher they are entitled to at least a decent school to help them acquire under better conditions the knowledge they are striving to obtain under difficult conditions’.

Inspector Charles Hicks could see no imminent danger in regard to the building, but he wrote on 12 April 1931: ‘ I feel that the responsibility would be too great for me to decide as to the safety of otherwise of the structure. The teacher has been instructed to remove children from the building during heavy winds’.

Foreman builder R Baxter, who was required to examine the school building as to its safety, found however that while the building had a very high chimney stack it was not unsafe and although some foundation blocks had given way and the classroom floor worn thin, the replacement of these items and other repairs would make the building quite suitable for continuing use as a school.

Twenty-one-year-old Cecil Ison was in charge of the school from January 1934 until September 1935. During his time there, the school was given a holiday on 6 March 1935 for the Yass Show. The Progress Association applied for dual desks for the school (to replace the old long desks and forms) in 1935 but these were not supplied, although back rests and shelves for the existing furniture were supplied.

On 8 August 1935, Ison applied for a coil of barbed wire to protect trees that had been planted on Arbor Day. He wrote that the barbed wire was ‘to prevent horses destroying the trees and the fence will be erected by the teacher and pupils’. The request was unsuccessful however, as the Department did not permit barbed wire to be used because children could injure themselves on it.

Police premises become available for teacher’s residence

In August 1935 the Resumed Properties Department informed the Department of Education that the Police premises at Wee Jasper were available for letting. It was noted that ‘The building is of weatherboard construction, on brick foundations, with iron roof and contains four rooms, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, enclosed rear verandah and Office. There is also a detached weatherboard stable building containing two stalls and forage room. Detached cell. The area is approximately one acre’.

A married teacher, John Bennett, who had previously been at Lintondale School near Temora, was then appointed to Wee Jasper in September 1935 and remained there until the end of 1948. He was occupying the Police premises by October 1935.

Low attendance

During the 1940s the school was in danger of closing because of low attendance, as it had been in the 1920s. It did close from December 1954 until March 1956 and has been in danger of doing so many times in more recent years

Ron Mitchell’s pupil memories, 1920s –1930s

I started school at the age of 6 years and went until I was 13 or 14 years old. Some of the later time was as a correspondent student. I went to the old and new school. My first teacher was Mr Edward Schumack. Next was Mr Charles Berglund, he didn’t wear ties, and hit too hard with the cane and tried to teach the children to sing. Mr Nicholls didn’t hit too hard and he wasn’t married. Most teachers had families. We didn’t put any tricks on the teachers.

Mr Boardman was the Policeman and lived in the barracks near the school.

My sisters and I walked about four miles to school or rode a horse. If we walked it took an hour to get to school or home. School was from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, we had about an hour for lunch and 20 mins for morning break about 11 am. I wonder what children would do now if they had to walk four miles to school these days?

School was down by the river across the creek. Sport wasn’t a big thing in that they didn’t do much with other schools. They did play games called Prisoner’s Base, rounders, hopscotch and skipping. We used a tennis ball for rounders. Not sure what was the bat but stones for the bases, and drew on the ground for the other games. Occasionally we went to Yass for interschool sports carnival day.

They did have a cane for punishment, a proper one not a stick. It was good – 6 cuts, 3 on each hand, for spitting water on the girls while at the drinking fountain.

Should have it now – it worked.

The children didn’t sit together in classes, it was the bigger ones up the back and the smaller ones in the front. I had trouble helping myself so I didn’t help the little ones much. I was good at figures but not good at spelling or dictation.

There was church every Friday with Rev. William Meredith Holliday (C of E), who would come out from Yass, and the children looked forward to it. Everyone had to attend regardless of faith. He owned ‘Cookmundoon’ and my dad had a property next to him. He was a nice bloke, married and had an Overlander car, then changed to a T Model Ford 1926.

The school was made of weatherboard with a little verandah. There was a tank for water and each child brought their own mug. There was an open fire at school, which the boys kept going and had to chop the wood for, no cooling system for the heat.

All materials were supplied, ink, inkwells, pens, books to write in. There were no textbooks as such, only what the teacher told them or wrote on the blackboard. We didn’t do presentations for the community and the parents didn’t come to school to help.

We wore rag hats in summer. Mum used to make the clothes, spin wool and make jumpers, there was no sewing taught in those days. We didn’t have a school uniform, we wore whatever was washed. Most of my classmates are now deceased – Des Carey, Hope Flynn, Ken, Mary, and Zeda Grace.

We had medical examinations. A doctor would come out from Yass and the children would go to the store to be weighed. One girl put rocks in her pocket so she could be heavier.

We had to catch horses to be able to ride home, often 6 -7 horses in the paddock. … One day Jack, Joyce and myself were going home and passed the camp of an Indian who used to sell brooches etc from a wagon pulled by two horses. He was cooking damper and Jack decided to turn his damper over. He gave it to us because he couldn’t eat it after it had been touched by someone. (We) broke a small bit off and fed it to a goanna up a tree.

Ben Faulder’s pupil memories, 1939-1945

We had to be at school about 8.30am and we’d have to say one set of tables, spell six words and answer five questions of history and five of geography – before school started. If we didn’t get them right by 9.30am, we stayed in at 11am and then at dinner time if we still didn’t get them right – but that’s unheard of today. We’d get a dozen words over the weekend to learn. Mondays we didn’t have much trouble but Tuesdays would be quite different.

A lot of kids used to ride horses and put them in the horse paddock. There was Joyce Mitchell, and Val Cole lived above the Swinging Bridge (now Micalong Stud), they had a long way to come to school and they’d come every day, and if the horses were unable to come the girls would walk.

There was homework plus the weekend homework – tons of homework, and we had to do it by candle light or rabbit lamp. But what scared me was Fridays –‘Poetry Day’- I loathed poetry. We’d come in at 11 o’clock and this voice would say ‘Right, poetry’, and you would have to get up and say your poetry off by heart. The teacher would pick the poem and when he would say it was my turn and I’d have to answer ‘Don’t know it sir’ – then I’d be in trouble – every Friday I looked forward to being in trouble.

There were a series of nails driven into the tank stand and you had your own mug, hat and bag on the nail.

The Mitchell’s lived directly west of ‘Athelington’ turn off, and on a Monday morning in summer time Mrs Mitchell used to bring boxes of apples down in two big deal board boxes, one of red and the other of green apples.

Sometimes the Inspector would come to the school unannounced. There’d be a rattle on the door, the door would open and he’d be in, he only ever came on a Monday once.

The boys would chop wood for the school and keep the fire going. My father put the fence around the school, particularly on the northern side, he cut a big box tree down and stripped posts off it, down near the little cubby house, and as time progressed suckers came up around the stump and that was where the canes were broken from.

In my day marble playing was the go and we played the game ‘big ring’. The kids would go to school with a pocket full of marbles and if they had to blow their nose and they’d pull the handkerchief out, you’d hear ‘Plonk, plonk’ on the floor – ‘Righto, bring them out to me’, the teacher would say. So everybody’s marbles that were dropped were put in a heap on the teacher’s desk – and the trouble was, that if any little kids did a good job they were rewarded with your marbles.

We had sport for about an hour on Friday afternoons. We’d play cricket or rounders. We’d nominate a game then to pick the teams, we would do ‘Hares and Hounds’ or ‘Oranges and Lemons’. There would be two girls (mostly), and one would be the orange the other the lemon, and a whole lot of kids would come marching by and they would have to go between them, and each girl in turn would ask if you liked Lemons or Oranges then we’d line up on either side, and that was the way we picked the teams. We didn’t play tennis in school time, only outside school hours. There wasn’t any athletics, mostly cricket or rounders.

About 1939 to 1945 there were about 28 kids in the little school with one teacher, and about 40 at one stage during the depression years, but that might not have been for long as there was a floating population then with people fossicking for gold or mining.

We set rabbit traps and we’d sell the skins to an old skin buyer who came from Yass, John Steer, he’d come in a really funny old truck. That would be a great day. But we didn’t get much out of those as it had to go into war saving stamps which we would buy at sixpence each. The teacher would sort of take charge of the certificates, or have control over them, and he’d keep them. As years progressed we were able to cash them.

When the old school was removed, every screw and nail was taken, even the dimensions of the toilets and the holes were taken, so that when it was rebuilt it was exactly as it had been.

Reference : Centenary Committee, 1999. Wee Jasper Public School 1899 – 1999, Centenary Book.

The departmental website has this to say about the school today:

"Wee Jasper Public School was established in 1899 and has always been a one-teacher school. The buildings are attractive and well maintained. Nestled on nine acres in the picturesque Goodradigbee Valley, the old school house and school grounds are often the regular subject of tourist photos. We are proud of our school and make it a priority to present it in the best possible way."

[This entry for Wee Jasper school was contributed by Keith Amos, former teacher at The Mullion school nearby, and is an abridgement of the school's Centenary Book].

Teachers at Wee Jasper since 1949-1999

Robert J. Payne, 01/1949 - 12/1951

Donald Mc Hugh, 1/1952 - 12/1954

(School closed 12/1954 - 03/1956)

William Poole, 03/1956 - 08/1956

Frederick French, 09/1956 - 12/1956

Ken Shorten, 01/1957 - 12/1957

Philip B Sawell, 01/1958- 08/1958

Greg Doherty, 09/1958 - 04/1963

John Broughton, 05/1963 - 12/1965

Arthur McLaughlin, 02/1966 - 12/1968

Dennis R Cross, 01/1969 - 12/1970

Wayne Bourne, 02/1971 - 12/1974

Peter Otton 01/1975 - 12/1975

Gregory A Roberts, 02/1976 - 12/1977

Danny Ogilvy, 01/1978 - 2/1981

Ross Kenneth Couchman, 03/1981 - 12/1983

Wayne Francis Foran, 01/1984 - 12/1989

Juliet Whiteside, 1990

William (‘Bill’) Taylor (Acting from 04/1992), 07/1992 - 12/1992

Julie Newbury (Acting) 1993

Veronica Longley (Acting) 2 terms 1999

Location Map

Related Photos

Wee Jasper School 1899

Wee Jasper School 1899Teacher Emily Clark

Teacher Emily Clark, Wee Jasper School 1999

Wee Jasper School 1999 Wee Jasper school 1971

Wee Jasper school 1971S chool plans, 6 February 1899

School plans, 6 February 1899

Loughlin, Elizabeth 08/1899 - 02/1905

Benjamin, Florence 03/1905 - 04/1907

Clark (Lynch), Mrs Emily 04/1907 - 10/1917

Harmer, Mrs Winifred 11/1917 - 12/1917

McClellan, Mr Charles G. 01/1918 - 09/1921

Kellet, Mr Sydney 01/1922 - 04/1922

Goodwin, Mr Arthur 05/1922 - 08/1923

Shumack, Edward H. 10/1923 - 06/1928

Berglund, Mr Charles 06/1928 - 12/1930

Nicholls, Mr Max 01/1931 - 07/1931

Walsh, Mr Leonard 07/1931 - 12/1933

Ison, Mr Cecil 01/1934 - 12/1935

Bennett, Mr. John 09/1935 - 12/1948

Related Documents

Maps - Parish Maps:

Wee Jasper school - West Goodradigbee Parish (TIFF 2.9 Mb)

School Website

www.weejasper-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/home

NSW Government schools from 1848

Wee Jasper (external link)