Albany Creek State School
From the mid-twenties to the mid-thirties,
As seen by a student of 1927
(As presented by Matt Campbell II to the year 7 class of 1976)

Pupils attending the school at this time came from a wide area – from Graham Road, (past Pinaroo Cemetery), Neville Road from the north side of the Pine River near Wantima Country Club, from Bunya Park and from the Forestry Reserve beyond Keong Road.

There was no public transport, very few cars and children has to make their own way to school by foot, horse and/or bicycle, over rough, gravel roads.

Children arriving by horse could put their mounts in the horse paddock, which was near the back fence of the school grounds, just east of the pine forest, (Editor’s note – now the Dorothy Trotter playground, adjacent to Ivan Stegman Park)

On wet days, some of the parents would call for their children in various forms of transport – horse drawn sulkies, and farm trucks covered by tarpaulins.

Because of the lack of transport, and as there were only gravel roads to Strathpine and Aspley, the district was isolated and residents had to make their own entertainment.

The school grounds in those days were much smaller than they are today, the western fence would have been where the tennis court is. (Editor’s note – Now Grayson Hall) The section East to Sandy Creek and including the Pre-School was acquired in the 1960’s.

The school was the same size as erected in 1874, being 10 metres long by 5 metres deep, with a veranda either side, about 2 ½ metres wide. That is not very big by today’s standards. The ends of the veranda on the southern side were enclosed to provide some protection from the weather.

School Facilities

The front of the desk behind us was a backrest but we were told to sit up straight and not lean back. In the desk there were slots for slates, holes for inkwells and racks for books underneath.

In the younger classes, slates were used, and in the higher classes, pen and ink, or pencil, and paper were used. Copy Books were very much a part of school life. Teaching aids as you have them today just did not exist. No radios, television, slide or movie projectors and no computers – there was no electricity to operate them even if they had been available. No pocket calculators, just our fingers and toes – and a belt over the ear if we were caught using those. There was a ball frame to teach the little ones to count.

We learned to read from the “The Little Primer”, a small book that’s seemed to be full of sentences about a cat sitting on a mat, the dog in a box, and rhyming words like sun, gun, fun, run, etc.

There was a large wall chart with similar sentences and words and the teacher used to point to each word in turn, and the pupils would chant out the words like a flock of parrots. If a child made a mistake, there was a possibility that he or she would receive a poke from the pointer.

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