Gerry Wilke (pupil 1955-1957), Darrell Goodridge (pupil 1957-1963) and Carolyn Lavis (nee Goodridge; pupil 1955-1961) examine a photo of the class of 1955. Part of the Goodridge’s former property was sold for River Cottage Australia. Photo: Marion Williams.
People who had not seen each other in almost 70 years came together recently to celebrate the rich 125-year history of Central Tilba Public School.
Two speakers, Robyn Lucas (nee Hoyer) and Kaye Whiffen, had four generations of their families attend the little school.
Attendees who were pupils in the 1950s and 1960s remarked there were more buildings now, and the grounds were much improved. They were keen to see inside the schoolrooms.
Back in their days there was only a partition separating the younger class from the older one. Teachers used blackboards and chalk, while pupils had pens and inkwells.
When they were asked to stand for the national anthem at the school assembly last Friday (4 April), one former pupil said, “It was like stepping back in time”.
Batemans Bay resident Gerry Wilke, who attended the school from 1955 to 1957, had fond memories of Friday afternoons which alternated each week between folk dancing and playing rounders.
He and his German family had moved from the immigrant camp at Greta, in the Hunter Valley, to work on a dairy farm in Tilba for three years. They then moved to Newcastle.
When Mr Wilke started at the Tilba school he could not speak English. “As a kid, you learnt very quickly.”
He was warmly welcomed at the school and said the school had had “a very happy atmosphere”.
Kaye Whiffen (pupil 1957-1964) spoke at the celebration of Central Tilba Public School’s 125th anniversary. Standing to the far right is Cara Elton, a member of the Whiffen family, former pupil, and now a learning and support teacher at the school. Photo: Marion Williams.
Looming large in many people’s memories were the toilets.
Even as late as the late 1960s, the school only had pit toilets.
“As a little kid, it was pretty scary,” Ms Lucas said.
She recalled one time they were playing ball games on the oval.
“One of the big boys kicked the ball out of the oval and into the toilet,” she said. “We don’t know if it ever came out.”
In the book Tilba Times, which Ms Lucas’ father Norm Hoyer wrote with local historian Laurelle Pacey, Norm said a school was a barometer of the health of a district.
When the school officially opened as Tilba Tilba Public School in August 1900 the area was dominated by dairy farms.
Ms Whiffen said her family’s farm, Inglebrook, down Whiffens Lane, was the last to deliver milk to the ABC cheese factory by horse and cart.
The school’s punishment book (1913-1979) was on display. The names of many prominent Tilba families are in there for offences such as inattention, lying, impertinence, sulking, talking, passing notes, chasing the girls after school, and disorder. Photo: Marion Williams.
There was also a big community of gold miners living on Gulaga Mount Dromedary.
“Before the school opened on Mount Dromedary, those kids walked to school every day – Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Ms Lucas said. “They would rest the following day.”
She said at one point there were several little schools, including Corunna, Kent Farm, Couria Creek, and Mount Dromedary.
“According to the Cobargo Chronicle, in 1903 there were 100 students and two teachers” at the Tilba Tilba Public School, Ms Lucas said. “That was the year the Couria Creek school started.”
As the dairy industry went into decline, so did Tilba. Its fortunes were revived when the area was listed by the National Trust in 1975.
New people moved to the area. They included Rici Tandy and Trevor King who volunteered at the school to teach singing.
Sean Burke moved to Tilba in 1982, and his son and daughter attended the school.
After Sean Burke made stilts for his children, all the other children wanted them. The Tilba children were invited to walk on their stilts at festivals in Nowra, Bega and Sydney. Photo: Marion Williams.
Mr Burke was behind Tilba’s renown for stilt walking. The lady who ran the honey shop organised a circus workshop which all the schoolchildren attended. They were spellbound by the stilt walkers.
“My kids loved it, so I started making them,” Mr Burke said. “When my kids had them, everyone else wanted them.”
He said the stilt walking was originally done for Tilba’s Festival at Easter, but as word spread, they were invited to festivals in Nowra, Bega and even Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
“It was quite a sensation,” Mr Burke said. “Everywhere they walked they got huge applause. It was really good for them to travel around.”
That lasted 10 years.
With all the new people moving in, Ms Lucas said the number of pupils reached 84 at one point.
The school has been blessed with long-serving principals. John Carter, for example, led the school for 17 years.
It has also had some remarkable teachers, such as Jim Manton who made a dark room and taught the children photography and how to develop film.
“He taught all our kids to read music,” Ms Lucas said. “When they went on to Narooma High School, the Tilba kids always outshone the others with music.”
Cara Elton was one of the younger generations of the Whiffen family who attended the school. She is now the school’s learning and support teacher.
“I feel very privileged to come back to something that gave me so much.”
