Diana Kupke Writes
Caulfield South Primary School
or should it be Caulfield South State Training School?
Photographs from Ray
The first photograph is a 1954 class, and the second is the 1959 football premier team.
Jan remembers
Jan, who went to South Caulfield State Training School (No.4315) from 1958 to 1964, has done some clever detective work and has tracked down her teacher from her Bub's year.
“Miss Taylour (pronounced Talewer) is still alive and well, living interstate. She was in her first full year of teaching when she taught my class. She married one of the other teachers. Amazingly, the former Miss Taylour has memories of most of her students, and the funny incidents that occurred during classes. The teachers I remember are Mrs Allen, Miss Short, Miss Shannon, I'm not sure who I had in Grade 4, but it was not Mr Main, Mr Ross, or Mr Hall. The principal was Mr Taylor."
Jan is wondering if anyone else can remember their teacher names between those years.
Jan has also sent me some links - Memorial Gates Traffic School
Ray remembers
Siblings Tom, Ian, and Ray Campbell lived on the corner of Flowers Street where I grew up and, like myself, they all went to Caulfield South Primary School.
Ray wrote to say reading the website page had led to many memories. “Newsagency at the corner of Hawthorn and Glenhuntly roads with Tom and Ian delivering and selling news papers. Tom received a counterfeit 10 shilling note and Ian was hit by a car on the corner.”
- Forty plus kids in a classroom
- The gravel and the grazed knees after falling over
- Singing God Save the Queen
- Playing marbles on the asphalt
- The craze of YO YO’s and demonstrations of tricks with them in the court yard
- Getting the strap plenty of times. Mr Peddar rings a bell for all the wrong reasons.
- The milk in the outside shed and the toilet block with the drinking stations
- The milk bottles - Ian remembers carrying the crates up to the classrooms.
Most Saturday afternoons I went to the pictures either at the Camden at 350 Hawthorn Rd or going to the one in the Glenhuntly shopping strip. The usual serials with some cartoons thrown in or a double header. Interval, then the main picture. Now it’s indoor carpet bowls.
The service station in Glenhuntly Road had a TV setup in their garage for the 1956 Olympics with seating for anybody that wanted to watch. Yabbying, I can only remember once going up to Caulfield Racecourse to the muddy lake, and bringing back a bucketful. I can’t think what happened to them beyond that point. Riding my bike to Caulfield Tech I would take a short cut through the centre of the Racecourse.
"The brain has been awakened. Brought back so many memories and so much more of the past."Camden Theatre
The theatre opened in 1935 and closed in 1962. Initially it was converted to a ten pin bowling alley and later became an indoor bowls club.
From Diana - My mother occasionally took me to films at night and other times I went here for matinees and remember a documentary which had a lasting effect on me. I have no idea what it was called but it was about a girl who had epilepsy and it explained how the seizures happened. Years later, when in a northern suburb to do an interview for The Age I saw a woman lying on the ground having a seizure. A lot of people had walked on by but I remembered the documentary and turned her on her side. I also went to the Glenhuntly theatre for matinees.
Do you know Val?
Val Elxom (nee Pilcher) writes: "I went to school here for a short period of time I think it would have been 1945-6, only for a short number of weeks. My home was in Central Victoria, and my mother needed to be in the area for health reasons. I was in grade 2, and my teachers name was Miss Grub. Does this ring any bells for past students?"
Diana's story
I became a pupil, briefly, at Caulfield South Primary School when I was five but then spent some six months at home with a variety of illnesses including mumps, measles, chicken pox, and rheumatic fever. I returned to the school and remained there until grade six when, at just 12 years of age, I was turfed out and went to Brighton High School which had only been open for two years. I remember the final three teachers very well, Mr Mitchell, Mr Taylor and Mr Feehan. In the early grades there was Miss Anderson and Miss Staples. The two classrooms could be opened up and I remember once, as a pupil of Miss Anderson's, joining the big kids in grade one and seeing a word on the blackboard. It took me ages to work out it said 'health'.
I am delighted that various former students are happy to share their memories with me, and, through me, with the remainder of the world. At the time of writing this section, on April 25 2020, I was in isolation, day 38. My isolation was self imposed because of my age. And now, on January 8 2022, with the covid numbers soaring across Australia, it appears those of us in our older years (decrepit) should self isolate again.
Another former pupil has written and shares his memories here.
Memories of the school from Craig Cook
I attended from 1950 until 1957. Because my birthday was late in year I attended kindergarten at St Agnes Glenhuntly on Booran Road then started mid year at Caulfield South school which I thought was then designated as a Training School because they had trainee teachers learning there post war.. Have no more proof on that matter though. I thought the school number was 4315. Very surprised to see aerial view of present yard. Not much play room there now.
I was there to see the tan barked playground opened but now gone and built over. It was named after Jim and Vera Osborne as I remember for long service to parents council. Osbornes were our neighbours in Ormond. Are the memorial gates finished? I was there when they were dedicated but I think they still had to be finished?
My teachers as I recall were 1950 bubs. Miss Milligan. She was from NZ and retired the next year 1951? Miss Andrews took over the class, she married mid year. In grade 2, in 1952, there was Mr Peddler and in 1953 Miss Erskine in room 3 on the ground floor. In 1953, grade 3, was Miss Rouse I think. Grade 4, Mrs Robinson, Grade 5 Mr Flavel and Mr Marshall in 1957.
There was a Miss Pinney who may have been the librarian. A principal there was Mr Train who retired while I was there and the caretaker was Mr Cameron. He lived in a house adjacent to the lower gravel playground and, I think, he had two boys who attended the school.
I also remember the open cut "tip" opposite the school all the way back to Booran Road and council had just started to fill it in with burnt rubbish and building material . The Caulfield incinerator existed then and material from there was used to fill it in. It was done as three separate sections with the section opposite the school being filled in with soil circa 1952. I walked home thru the rear gate and wooden fence now long gone. I bussed home later on foot followed by a bike. The old brown bus passed near the school and went to Ormond station via my street until some time in the 1960s.
I feel that the tuck shop across the road was discontinued about the time I left or just after. I remember the lady running it was Mrs Paul and her son was in my grade at the end, her husband was a police officer. As I said the small play ground was dedicated to the Osbornes who were on school council for many years as they had two kids attending, Joan and Barry Osborne. Joan became a primary teacher and Barry a plumber, but I have lost track of them now. Joan was probably five or six years older and Barry about two. They were our neighbours in Foch Street and the other side was Claire and Suzanne Furneaux.
Note from Diana, I was friends with Suzanne and remember going to a birthday party at her house. She married a journalist, John Hall, with whom I had worked with on The Age.
Another friend of mine was Bruce Marsh and he lived around the corner in Dalmore Avenue and went to the school too. We still catch up and he was my best man and I was his also. We both worked in the electronics industry and both still hold radio licences.
I lived in Foch Street, Ormond opposite the football ground and the tennis club and originally we had a bus run from the station through to rail station on Glenhuntly Road at the Nepean Highway intersection which was the Elsternwick Station. Initially I could catch it and drop off near the school but generally we walked there or used a bike if had one then. There used to be two bike sheds at school near the shelter sheds on the fence side adjacent to the old railway cutting . The cutting had been filled in then up to Narrawong Roadd but still had large piles of soil heaped for couple years and later levelled when the tip had settled. Grass and further down towards the park and the old council incinerator they now have built retirement units.
Like you, Diana, I also was born in Elsternwick at Hopetoun Hospital opposite Hopetoun gardens on Glenhuntly Road. There were two old pre century cannons sitting there for many years and, through my military interests, I went back once to research them and the history but they had been finally removed by council. They dated back to the early defence of Victoria before Federation and came from one of the forts on the bay. History now lost and gone.
Another former pupil has written and shares her memories here.
Memories of the school from Fiona Chanter
I would have been at the school from 1959 to 1965. I also walked to school and often went home for lunch except on Fridays when we were allowed to take our bikes for safety cyclists training in the big boys playground (the gravel one). The kids without bikes used to turn the traffic lights & the playground had roads swept into it. We learnt the road rules & I still have my safety cyclists badge.
We had assembly in the asphalt playground, and one day we had a fire drill and all had to line up in the playground. It had just been milk issue time - it used to make me feel so sick until the event of the flavored straws. Anyway, I still had my milk when the fire drill was called and thought it a brilliant idea to ditch the bottle, and put it down on the stairs. One of the teachers kicked it and cut her foot badly and the whole school was asked to own up as to who had left their milk on the stairs. Needless to say I never did, and the whole school had to stand there for what seemed like forever.
Fiona thinks the teacher in this photograph was Mrs Allen. Fiona is the last girl in the second row on the right, next to the boy with the very dark hair.
Mrs Allen was the kindy teacher when I started and she was so lovely with us little kids. Then I moved up to Miss Trelewers class. I could never understand how a woman could be a mister? I'm sure I left primary school none the wiser. I had Mr Mitchell in 6th class also.
I used to go to the non-scripture class and we got to garden in the headmasters garden out the front of the school. I thought it was the best class ever. There was a tuck shop across the road where we could order our lunches and buy lollies if we were rich.
There must have been a school uniform by the time I went there as mum knitted me a jumper with the blue and gold school colours on the band. I so wanted a bought one.
We played rounders (boring) and elastics and were big into swap cards. I remember the Coca Cola yo yo team coming to school to give a demonstration - wow. The temperance society and the Gould league of Bird Lovers also came and they both gave us these amazingly embellished certificates.
We used to walk across a big park (Princes Park) - past the library to a big sports oval for carnivals. I remember going to a town hall for the end of year performance-come-dance. I only remember one of these and we had to dance with boys.
Allan Taylor bought me a ring (the 2 bob one - expensive) from the newsagents. It broke immediately, but I kept it in a box for years. We used to play at the tip on the weekends - it was on the way to the main road. I could never figure out how mum knew where I'd been. I had glandular fever for the last week of school and missed out on the party, but some of the kids came around with lollies - it was so nice of them.
There were several kids from refugee families from Europe in my year - Giselle Greenbaum was my best friend. She was very bright - her mother took in piecework sewing and if you went to her house you had to turn belts for dresses before you could go out to play - and they had unsalted butter. We also had a Greek family move in next door and I had to look after their daughter Machie and take her to school. They moved to Cooma where her father Basil worked on the snowy scheme. We went to visit them once. Tthey were lovely people and invited me in for their Easter celebrations and gave me a real egg - not something I had expected, and sugared almonds (that was more like it).
We went to school camp in year six at Somers - it was fantastic although I was homesick and cried in my bunk at night even though I was having such a good time - that was where I learnt Kumbaya and I still remember snippets of the camp song. You have unleashed many memories - mostly good except for the milk bottle.
Memories of the school from Russell Witts
Former Caulfield South State School pupil, Russell Witts, who attended the school from 1951 to 1957 has many memories of his schooldays. His brother, Terry, also attended from 1950 to 1952.
I remember the large bitumen 'playground', which was where our Monday morning assembly was held, the raising of the flag and the 'pledge'. In sixth grade I played the kettle drum for the march into class and although I had been having lessons in the shelter sheds for some weeks I totally 'stuffed up' and caused the whole band to go out of whack. I got the cuts because I was told I had deliberately misplayed.
Marching was almost a sport. I was in a marching group that practiced and practiced until we were considered good enough for some intra-school competition that was held at the Gardenvale Central School. We surprised everybody including ourselves when we won a blue ribbon.
Remember the iron roof shelter shed, hot as hell in the heat of summer and icy cold in winter, and all of us being forced to sit along its hard wooden bench seats and drink little bottles of warm milk that had been left out in the sun for much of the morning. One year a very enterprising boy brought to school some of those flavored straws ( I believe, Frank Sedgman, the tennis player, started producing them in Australia after he had seen them in America) and started selling them for a halfpenny each to all the kids who were sick of drinking that revolting tasting milk. He made a small fortune until a teacher confiscated them.
Phantom rings were extremely popular amongst us boys. I saved my pocket money and sent away for one via a cut-out coupon on the back of the Phantom comic and made the fatal mistake of wearing it to school the day after it had arrived by mail. I was so proud showing it off to my class-mates but a teacher spied it upon my finger and confiscated it. The other playground beyond the shelter sheds I remember being merely some form of gravel and not very kind to a young boy's knees particularly when British Bulldog was being played with unreserved vigour. (Mercurochrome was a badge of honor for us boys, after, of course, the tears had been wiped away)
Ah...those stairs! I got the cuts and a lecture about how dangerous it was to run up and down them.
I remember well the water fountains that were outside the toilet block and how I and some fellow wags thought it was extremely funny to jam an icy-pole stick into them and watch some kid lean over to take a drink only to find themselves squirted in the face. I too, walked to school. Across Princes Park, where at times, one got distracted by the playing with a mate and forgetting the time and being late and then having to rush across Bambra Road. Fortunately, traffic was not a big problem in those days. Although, I have fond memories of most of the teachers, there were a couple that were very unpleasant, however, their names are just faded memories, and unfortunately, the same can be said about the majority of my class-mates names.
Russell's parents bought a newsagency at the corner of Hawthorn and Glenhuntly roads and it was one of my (Diana's) favourite places to the extent I dream of it continually over the years, even now, in my 70's it features in a big way. I am always looking for the Australian and never find it, but of course it didn't exist back then.
Back to Diana's memories
I used to walk along back streets to get to primary school and still, fifty years later, have dreams about those streets. At that time, in the 50's the school was backed by a huge open area.
In the 1880's a private railway line, called the Rosstown Railway, had run down that huge vacant allotment from Rosstown, now called Carnegie, where there was a sugar beet processing mill, to Elsternwick. The mill never produced sugar and the railway, apart from a run by a ballast rain in 1891, was never used. The railway was eventually removed around 1916 and what was left behind was an open area that acted as a playground for countless children. At school we were all told the story of the Rosstown Railway and I was convinced sugar beet was simply beetroot by another name.
Although we did not have a uniform at Caulfield South Primary School in those days, (they do now), we did have school colours which were blue and gold and our motto was Play the Game. During my early years at school I understood this to refer to school breaks when we played all sorts of games. It was only in my later years that I truly understood the meaning. Today the motto has changed to Children come first at Caulfield South, but it doesn't have the same ring as our motto did.
The school was a double storey brick building, as above, which to a small child was most impressive. Even now, as an adult, the building leaves most schools for dead. I remember the huge stone steps between the first and the second storeys and continue to have dreams about them although often the stairs flatten out and it is impossible to get to the higher floor.
Today the school has moved into the technological age and has a website on the Victorian government education portal. There is onsite child care and all classrooms have networked computers. A new hall and staff rooms have been built, in my day we didn't have a hall but met on the bitumen area. There are also relocatable classrooms and plans for a new building with six classroms.
We had an annual school fair which consisted of a few stalls set up on the large bitumen area. I remember the awful toffees in pattycake papers, and the fact we could take decorated bikes and go in costume. We also had an end of the year function held in the Caulfield Town Hall. As far as I remember I only went to the one in sixth grade, which would have been in 1956. I danced a solo, Sugar Plum Fairy, and then took part in the grade six performance/dance of "Oh how we danced on the night we were wed!" Not the most appropriate music for twelve year olds.