City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

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DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2they call their land they would the more easily be induced to locate there’ (Clark & Heydon,1998:85). The Baptists took over Dr McArthur’s former residence near Thomas’s hut and theMerri Creek Aboriginal School was formally established in 1845.Absenteeism was considered to be a problem throughout the history of the school, but manyabsences were directly related to traditional clan observances. Edward Peacock recognised thatWurundjeri elders were allowing students to attend the school so long as it wouldn’t affectthese traditional activities, and as part of the daily routine children were allowed free time forswimming, boomerang throwing, fishing and hunting possums (Walker n.d. in Clarke &Heydon, 2004:67).After 1846, student numbers dropped off dramatically. This was partly due to the death ofBillibillary in August causing distress in the encampment and resulting in Woiwurrung peoplemoving away for the rest of the year. An influenza epidemic that hit the Merri Creekencampment in 1847 further contributed to this decline in student numbers, and thoseremaining in the encampment to move further up the Yarra.In 1848, Francis Edgar was employed as the schoolmaster. Improvements were made to theschool building and agriculture and husbandry activities were expanded greatly with astockyard, a pigsty, goat shed, fowl yard and goose yard. Despite these improvements to theschool, student numbers never recovered, with an average of only ten students. This was adirect result of the Wurundjeri families reluctance to return to the area. By 1851, numbersdropped to an unsustainable five students resulting in its closure.Northland Secondary CollegeNorthland Secondary College has a long-standing connection with the Aboriginal communityof Darebin, extending back at least thirty years, and closely connected with the rise inAboriginal population in the Preston and Reservoir areas. By the early 1990s more than 60Aboriginal students were enrolled at the College.Despite nationally recognised success in providing for the needs of Aboriginal students, andrecognition within the broader Aboriginal community as an example of practical reconciliation,the College was the target of a program of school closures implemented by the Stategovernment in 1992, largely on the basis of education budget cutbacks.Resistance to the closure by the community was swift, and included the formation of the‘Northland Koori Community’ and the running by Staff and parents of the ‘NorthlandSecondary College Mobile Rebel School’. Action proceeded through the Equal OpportunityBoard, multiple hearings in the Supreme Court and through several appeals which ran from1992 to 1995. Early that year, the Full Bench of the Supreme Court ordered the schoolreopened on the grounds that the closure was racially discriminatory (Mayer, 1999).Figure 78Northcote Secondary College campaignposter, 1996.Artist: Eban Roach[Koori History Website,http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/great/grt3.html]112
VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYThe battle for the school is widely recognised as a significant episode in Victorian history andas a major victory for the rights of the Aboriginal community and education.Northland Secondary College currently has an enrolment of over 80 Aboriginal students,representing around 25% of the school population, one of the highest Aboriginal populationsat any school in Melbourne. The school has two Aboriginal educators and provides acurriculum which includes Aboriginal history and culture (Northland Secondary College).Developing higher educationWhen Melbourne’s second university was being planned in the 1950s Preston Councilsuggested the recently vacated Bundoora Police Paddock as a suitable site, but the morepopulated south eastern suburbs were chosen for Monash University. It soon became clear thata third university was needed - in the northern suburbs. Again Preston Council, together with anumber of neighbouring councils, promoted Bundoora. It was close to a number of largemedical institutions, for teaching medicine, there was plenty of space, and there were nearbytransport links, they argued (although it was not well served by public transport). La TrobeUniversity was legally constituted by Parliament in December 1964, and the site, part of theMont Park Psychiatric Hospital farm, was acquired. Yunken Freeman Architects drew up amaster plan for the campus, placing the library in a central position with ten to twelve collegesarching around the east side. A ring road encircled the campus with car parks outside theperimeter. There was also space designated for a future hospital (Carroll, 1985:201-5).Construction proceeded rapidly, with all buildings in a uniform beige brick. The campus wasset in landscaped native parklands, and a wildlife reserve was established. La Trobe Universityopened in March 1967 with 552 students, including 48 graduate students, and 95 academicstaff. There were four schools - Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences andHumanities. Only three colleges were ever built because the college system went out of favoursoon after opening (Carroll, 1985:201-5). Much of the space designated for colleges wassubsequently used for car parking.Within a few years there were nine schools, including Education and Agriculture (CourseHandbook 1981). The site for the hospital was used as the Agriculture Reserve and an area tothe north designated for parking became the Wildlife Reserve. The University has expanded itsareas of teaching and research to include Medical Sciences, rather than Medicine, and Nursingafter nurse training moved from hospitals to the tertiary institutions in the 1980s. A privatehospital was eventually built on the Agricultural Reserve in the 1990s. In 2007, La TrobeUniversity has 15,000 students at Bundoora, and over 7,000 students spread over six regionalcampuses (www.latrobe.edu.au).Providing library servicesDarebin is unusual in that its libraries did not evolve from Mechanics’ Institutes as they did inmany other areas of Victoria. When Northcote Town Hall was built provision was made for aLibrary, but it was a couple of years before a library was set up, on the instigation of R.J.Whalley, owner of the Northcote Leader. The library opened in the Town Hall with 300 booksin 1892. It had an active committee, which ran fund-raising functions to buy books. In 1908Whalley wrote to Scottish millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was a patron oflibraries, and was successful in receiving a grant of £3000, providing the library was free toreaders and borrowers. In those days libraries were usually funded by readers’ subscriptions.The sum was almost enough to build a boom style building to fit in with the Town Hall twodoors away, to the design of Edward Twentyman (Jnr). It was opened in 1911 (Lemon,1983:129-30, 158-60; ‘Jubilee Celebrations’, 1933:21).Preston had a number of small libraries by 1900. The oldest was the Preston Public Library inthe hall in High Street near Percival Street, opened in 1876. It was the site of the earlyParticular Baptist Church services. It was supported by Regent’s older families, but they didnot wish to support a central shire library. The second library was the Reading and RecreationRooms, (later called the Mechanics’ Recreation Institute) in Clifton Grove, South Preston,113
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