Sophie Conlon
People will be able to step back in time and explore the 150-old-old Old School Building in Bordertown this week.
In celebration of History Month and the school’s milestone anniversary the informal Bordertown History Group will open the site for people to meander through and see how school might have been 150 years ago.
Group researcher Jenny Hunt said the school would be open on the anniversary of the 50 year celebration and Empire Day.
“Empire Day was a semi-public holiday, where schools would learn about the empire, why we have it and how it came about,” she said.
“They spent the morning learning all these things and then it was declared a half holiday and they would have sports out on the oval.
“1924, which is 50 of the old building, they had a big social evening at the institute, a school concert night and old scholars came back too.”
Ms Hunt said during the open day people would be able to see what school would have been like through the ages and discover how the building was used now by different groups.
“My grandmother in law would have been a student here and her parents owned what was Virgos Cash Store which would have been about 200 metres away,” she said.
“They would have all walked to school I think, in a black dress usually with a white pinafore type of thing over it.
“They would have what they called forms, the long benches and with a writing thing in the front, and I think well way back it would have been possibly still slates.”
She said the school went to up to about Year 9, and served as a high school for several years before World War One.
By the time the school closed in the 70s, Ms Hunt said there were around 600 students.
On the open day there will be displays of old pictures and registers, Ms Hunt said they would also scrub up old desks and other old equipment.
Ms Hunt said the group would really like to name all the people in the pictures and any help would be appreciated.
The Old School will be open on Friday, May 24, from 10am to 3pm.
