Bli
Bli School History
During the year 1900 an approach was made to the State Government
to build a school at Bli Bli. Government officials and locals
chose the site, and the local men helped pit-saw the timber
and split shingles from logs nearby. Contractors erected the
building for the Government. The site, opposite where the Public
Hall now stands, was steep and stony.
The
school, known as the Bli Bli Provisional School No. 952, was
to be opened on April 1st 1901. Imagine the parents surprise
when, after dressing their children for the occasion, and getting
them to school for their first day by horse and sulky, or walking
for many miles, to find that the teacher did not arrive. But
the next day all went well; scholars arrived and Mr Alec Purdon
(the first head teacher) came on horse-back, with a collection
of canes (for the horse, the records tell us), and the school
was officially opened on April 2nd 1901. The teachers salary
would have been about 80 pounds a year, with an additional living-away
allowance of 10 pounds.
|
School
Centenary Poem
|
|
Now
100 years came and went
Since the Bli Bli kids first were sent,
For them to try that brand new school
Along with the teacher they tried to fool.
Slates
those days, were on the desk
But are no replaced by a paper mess,
The old ink wells, were filled in haste
And pens and nibs have been replaced.
"To
school on horseback" days are gone
and now it's rush to beat the throng,
Of mums and dads to bring the kids
By motor cars instead of gigs.
The
aged school bell that made kids scoot
Is now replaced by a noisy hoot,
The old 3r's gone by the way,
Instead, computers and hi-tech ways.
The
good old cane now is no more
When many kids were made so sore,
|
The
young ones now are missing out
On something that made the oldies shout.
The
old school house has stood so well
Through reading, maths and show and tell,
Its roofs and walls can tell some tales
Of rain and hail and blowing gales.
The
school has stood here quite a while
But now there's changes by the mile,
Once was bush and scrub astride,
But now there's houses on all sides.
Now
though 100 years have past
And it seemed to go so very fast,
Even with modern changes to the golden rule,
It still remains "The Old Bli Bli School".
Written
by Lillian McMartin for the centenary of the Bli Bli School
2001
|
The
students who enrolled in the first year are:
Sarah,
Emme, May, Arthur and Thomas Wickerson
Margaret, Edith, Maude, James and Charles Wright
Richardson, Henry, Fred, Ethel, James, Victor, Florence, Alex,
Morris and Johanna Nichols
Clara, Emily, Effie and Violet Histed
Elizabeth Keil
Percival and Bert Nuttall
Bella Collingson
George Irwin
