I began my teaching career in 1946 at Lake Boga Primary School as a student teacher, and so began a long life which involved a lot of pleasure, as well as meeting a great many great and talented people.

“Where on earth is Tutye?” I gasped.

“I don’t know,” said my principal, who had delivered this news at Sunday midday. “Apparently the children there are out of control. You take over tomorrow.”

Young teachers, who hadn’t gained a permanent appointment could be sent anywhere at any time. I had been informed of my move to Mildura just three days before I began teaching there, but this was ‘a bit of a roughie’.

Part 1 - Becoming a Country Teacher

I was born in 1901 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and I emigrated to Australia in 1911 with my mother, brother and sister. My father had preceded us some time before, and we settled in Melbourne.

As a teacher for twenty nine years I can look back at incidences that occurred during my career. In my second year of training I was at a very tough Brunswick technical school in inner Melbourne. It was in an era, thankfully long gone, where troublesome students were punished by getting the strap as a deterrent for bad behavior. Never worked. I had an advantage over other male teachers as I was a member of the State Basketball Team for four consecutive years and had the same standing of say an AFL player being a teacher with the relevance to follow.