September 2011 Tattler.pdf - Platypus Country

Last month the Tattler published a fictional account of a teacher arriving in Bonang. This month we publish a factual
account of a first-time teacher‟s year in Tubbut.
Glen Marshall wrote to the then teacher at Tubbut Primary School after reading an article in The Age (Saturday
February 5th 1994). Sandy Cameron allowed me to make a photocopy from her fascinating bundle of historical
resources. Glen included a phone number with his address so I rang him in August, wondering if he could possibly
still be there. He was! I interviewed him for the Tattler, and highlights from the interview will be published in October‟s
Tattler.
As you read the edited version of his letter (original can be sighted in the Neighbourhood House), consider how
different our little school is now from the 1950 version.
Deb
Tubbut—the best year in my teaching career
Dear Ms Naylor
I was fascinated to read the article in The Age about your school.
In 1950 I taught at Tubbut for one year… You may be interested in a few comparisons…
In 1950, there were three families supplying children to the school and thirteen pupils (not many more than you have
presently except you have more families).
The three families were Ingrams, Bryants and Commons….
Your school has (and rightly so too) more facilities than in 1950 in that you have a school bus and (apparently) the
people in the district have four wheel drive vehicles. In 1950, people still had to get permission from the government
to purchase a motor car so any cars about were fairly old and NOT well maintained.
Eric Ingram (no children at the school) purchased a Fiat and I purchased a small Ford Anglia which introduced the
first NEW cars into the district.
I boarded with Clem and Dulcie Ingram, whose children Malcolm and Sandy (Sandra) attended the school.
The school was in a leased building half way between the Ingram families (Clem and Dulcie and Erica and Sheila)
and the Bryants and Commons to the west.
Everyone walked to the school which was about a mile for everyone—in time I purchased a push bike and much later
a small car.
One of the Ingram families (no children at the school) was the mail contractor with a weekly mail run to Orbost. There
was a telephone (party line, wire slung for 70 miles from Tubbut to Orbost) but the school did not have a phone
connection to the line—the nearest connection was at the Bryant property and postal agency.
McKillops Road was closed at the bridge but I did travel over it twice in the Anglia.
The article in The age mentioned some teachers who were either reluctant to stay or did other ‗strange‘ things. Before
I took over the school there was a teacher who always wore two pairs of trousers—both with holes but in different
places!
I was interested in the mention that some teachers only stayed twelve months and then quietly left—that was at one
time, not really the fault of the teacher.
Because of a slow mail service and no telephone the then Education Department did not quite know what was going
on in a wide range of remote schools and the public servants at Headquarters would send a letter about six weeks
before end of the school year saying words to the effect that the teacher was to report immediately to Spring Street
Melbourne and the letter contained a travel warrant etc—so being obedient vegemites off would go the many teachers
in remote schools (of which there were a great many more then than there are now) and turn up at Spring Street.
Whether we were posted back to our school or not varied greatly!!! In Spring Street we would ‗report for work.
As your school has computers, you clearly have electricity—there was no electricity anywhere in the valley in 1950—
one or two private 12 volt outfits but that was all …. Mostly the units did not work.
I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences in Tubbut and have always claimed it to be the best in my teaching career from
which I retired a few years ago after 42 years in the service.
Of course there have been great and very creditable changes since 1950. Excursions, camps and variations of the
syllabus were not only unheard of but viewed with great suspicion when a few brave souls such as Professor G.S.
Browne or Professor Wood (both of the Melbourne Uni) proposed such things.