A Historical Recount by Ken McCubbin

Teacher in Charge 1966 – 1968

Introduction

This historical account was written by the late Ken McCubbin, who served as Teacher-in-Charge at Meadow Flat Public School from 1966 to 1968. In 2022, Ken revisited his original notes and memories, expanding them into a reflective recollection of his years in the small, close-knit community.

This version combines all known drafts and recollections, carefully edited to remove duplicated material while preserving Ken’s authentic voice and phrasing. Minor punctuation and formatting changes have been made for readability.

This historical recount stands as both a tribute to Ken McCubbin’s life and a record of mid-twentieth-century rural education in New South Wales.

1 – Arrival and first impressions

I started at Meadow Flat at the beginning of 1966. At my previous school, Cascade, almost all my efforts at the school were appreciated by most of the community. Here however, I quickly found that my predecessor, Mr. John Connell, had put a lot of effort and organization into the school and he would not be an easy act to follow.

The school was the largest one-teacher school in the area. It had been a two-teacher school, but as the numbers had slightly declined it reverted to the single teacher category, despite having an enrolment of up to 38 children while I was there.  The usual number was about 36, but as the daily average attendance did not exceed the magic number of 34, (or was it 36 ?) no second teacher would be considered.

2 – The playground

Some of my first acts were to make some improvements to the playground and the yard of the residence. This meant a lot of pruning of existing shrubs. In particular, I severely pruned the shrubs on the north side of the two classrooms to give me a better view of the playground area. In later visits to the school, I noticed they were still there, but had not recovered any height !

At this time, I also relocated the original school bell. It was in a position about where the high water tank was located next to the toilets.  I presume it was there because the original school building on this block was just to the north of the school residence and yard, in fact just to the north of the residence fowl yard. When digging in the area later to plant potatoes, we came across some of its foundations. (or was it the foundation of an earlier residence ? Locals suggested a school.)

The first school building at Meadow Flat was on the opposite side of the road to the public hall, between the hall and the creek.

The school bell was mounted on a tall wooden post, and was well away from the assembly area making rather less than a practical arrangement.  So I dug it up and found that much of the base of the post was rotten. As a result, I shortened the post, treated it with sump oil, and erected it near the main classroom assembly area.

I found that I had inherited a school playground which had a few problems. Number one was the large number of pine tree stumps. The pine trees which bounded the southern and eastern boundaries had become old and snow-damaged and had been felled. Their stumps remained and were a harbour for snakes and other vermin. I disposed of about 30 snakes in the yard during my three years there.

The removal of the trees meant that the flat area at the front of the school no longer had the water being taken up from it, and had become very boggy.

Around this period, the Department of Main Roads was looking at various options for the placement of the highway.  Three main routes were suggested, one through "Karoo", one through the front yard of the school, and one which had little deviation from what was already there.

While the P & C and the Progress Association argued with the Department of Main Roads, I felt it important to really give the community something more to fight for or protect by establishing more trees in the front yard.  Perc Wilkinson at the shop was quite happy for me to dig up the poplar suckers in his back yard and transplant them to the school yard. I placed them right along the front of the school and the residence. This meant that the line of poplars along the road near the shop and Clancy's was continued up the hill. It helped create a barrier between the school and the highway, and also helped lift the moisture from the front yard. Passing by the school from time to time, I have admired their progress, and hoped others felt the same.

There was also a lone box willow near the residence driveway entrance.  I cut branches from it and poked them into holes along the driveway in the hope that they would also grow. Later, I discovered that double daffodils grew wild in the area behind the weathershed. Many of these I dug up and transplanted  along the front driveway, hoping to see in the winter months a drive lined with these flowers.

The school owned a four-stroke Victa mower. I certainly walked a few miles behind it.  I did my best to keep the whole of the school and house yards mowed as it made the school a really beautiful area.  After all, I had an image to maintain, especially with the beautifully kept grounds at the Kirkconnell School only just down the road. I think I wore the mower out.  I had to tell the P & C that oil was now running out of  all the wrong places and it had become completely gutless. A new and larger mower was needed.

Because I kept the area outside the front of the school fence clean and mown, the pupils and myself were often disgusted to see cars stop there, their occupants hurriedly bailing out, and proceeding to hang over our school fence, vomiting.  The road up through Yetholme to Meadow Flat was probably too much for those prone to travel sickness.

3 – Games and school sport

Sport was not certainly not my big thing. However I was amazed to find that the children basically played only one game in the playground at recess periods.  It was a very mongrel version of softball or rounders. They had played the game consistently for years, so much so that they had worn large dishes into the ground where the bases were positioned.  The rules were pathetic, obviously having been adjusted by pupils over the years to suit themselves.

I made a point of introducing some new games like tip-and-run cricket, newcombe ball and shuttlecock. I also endeavoured to sort out the softball and bring the rules a bit closer to the usual.

The children impressed me with the way they took on the new games and quite happily improved the softball rules. They willingly worked with me in building some of the play areas. They helped me to put the poles into the ground for the shuttlecock, newcombe ball site and helped level the playing area.

Typical of such a small school, the older children did a marvellous job of fostering and involving the younger children.  Of course, many of the younger children also advanced in many ways by copying or learning from the older ones, both in the classroom and in the playground.

Each year around August was the annual district school sports day. I guess in the parents' eyes a teacher's success at a school was measured by the results at this event. In my time our local competition was Kirkconnell, Sunny Corner and Tarana.  I was told early on that Tarana were hard to beat, that they almost always won, which was not very encouraging for me.

With the sports day coming up I found that we were lacking in many ways. We didn't even have a school flag ! Hurriedly my wife, Cheryl, and I designed a banner. We used the motif of the black jay, as that bird seemed to be rather common to the area. Cheryl did the cutting and sewing, and while we thought it looked pretty good, we did wonder if others would think the bird was meant to be a crow.

My first two annual sports days were failures, in that while the children did their best and aquitted themselves well, we did not bring home the major trophy.

In my third year there, and no doubt many will remember it, I introduced a regular jog around the back playground for the whole school. The children went in single file for a jog, starting at the assembly area, up round the tennis courts and back. We sometimes did it first up in the morning or at recess or after lunch. Sometimes we got in several jogs in the day. One reason behind the thinking was just to get the children warm on the cold days. The other reasons were to improve the children's fitness and stamina.

And did it pay off ! I was really impressed when at the annual sports in 1968 held at Yetholme. Our school won! We just didn't win, we won just about everything there was to win!  When it came to the final results, calculated on the total score divided by the number of pupils to give the overall average score, we more than doubled the score of the school coming second.  Our children were just so much fitter than the children of the other schools, and it was so apparent. As the sports day wore on, they wore out, but our children were still ready and able to keep going. I felt that the regular jog around the yard had done wonders, and certainly proved to me the value of that bit of regular exercise.

While I have not mentioned any children specifically in this, I feel I should mention the two Sharpe boys who lived up the Portland Road. They got very enthusiastic about the sports and fitness, and used to run all the way to school each morning, and all the way home in the afternoon. The thing to notice here, was that they ran up the Portland Road hill, and that is still some hill.  They were fit!

From time to time the Education Department sent out advisors in various fields. The only one that really bothered me were those sent to advise in Physical Education. They tended to pressure the teachers to carry on various programmes. The only one that really bothered me was the advice that I should be doing various acrobatic activities with the students, using the springboard, vaulting horse and mats. I felt we achieved much more with the jogging, the games and the climbing frames which we erected.

4 – Tennis

The school possessed a quite adequate tennis court, and with the nearby weathershed, was a good facility. Members of the P & C fixed up the fence and worked on the court to make it quite playable. Coaching classes were conducted which involved both adults and children on weekends. A tennis coach from Bathurst was engaged and we all certainly improved our tennis skills.

5 – Lessons

The large number of children certainly kept me busy. I don't know how I would have got on without the spirit duplicator. That was a godsend to anyone in the small school situation.

One of the resources I developed were racks of Milo or jam tins in the back corner containing various learning materials. These were all numbered and each contained material for a specific cause. They helped me keep the infants groups occupied.

Another programme I arranged was a weekly revision test sheet, which took in spelling, tables, maths and items from English, history, or geography. No doubt some of my pupils still have memories, good or bad, of those sheets that they took home to get signed.

I was in the unfortunate position of being the one to introduce Cuisenaire Rods into the school.  For the parents of the time they will recall the poor teachers having to explain to them why they were teaching the children to process colours, with numbers not even being mentioned, and it was called mathematics! I had to attend courses in Bathurst to get this new teaching method established in the school.  In the end, it went the way of most "crazes".

Set theory was another mathematical concept I had to introduce. It had a lot of merit, but the concepts were taken too far for primary students, and it too was sadly dropped from the curriculum later on.

Two popular visitors to the school at the time were Mr. Keith Curry, the Music Advisor and Mrs Godolphin, School Counsellor. Mr. Curry was an excellent musician and his rare visits were a delight for the children. He was a man who loved music and loved his job. He demonstrated various facets of the music syllabus for the teachers, giving the children a marvellous musical experience for the day. It was a pity that he and others like him, could not have visited schools on a more regular basis to teach the children, instead of the children getting the knowledge second-hand from me.  As it was I battled on with my limited musical knowledge and taught the children to play the recorder.  It was a requirement of the syllabus that the children learn to read music, and I felt it was no sense learning to read it unless you used it to play something.

Mrs Godolphin, the School Counsellor, was a widow. She had taken over the position of Counsellor in the Bathurst area following the death of her husband who had previously been the Counsellor. She was a delightful lady, always had a smile, and usually arrived in her small car loaded with files and wearing a fur coat. She often commented on coming out of the cold fogs of Bathurst to the beautiful sunshine of Meadow Flat through the middle of the year. No doubt some of the parents and pupils of the time will remember her. What they probably don't know is that her main claim to fame among the teaching fraternity, and she often joked about it, was her visit to one more small school, where she made a visit to the toilet. Typically it was a pit-toilet, of no doubt some age, and she fell through the floor, furs and all! She laughingly told people she was ostracised for months after it by people who knew.

6 – The school bus

The school bus, if it could be called a bus, was in fact a Holden station-wagon or panel van.   It was owned and run by the McCuskers. Mrs June McCusker was the driver, picking up children from the near her place down the Tarana Road, and along the highway to the school where she made one drop-off.  She then went to Mount Lambie and picked up children from that area back to the school before returning home. She then repeated the same route in the afternoon dropping the children off.

While I am not sure, I think it was a panel van, with seats built into the rear along the sides. I seem to remember Mrs McCusker loading children into the rear of it.

The bus came in the front gate (on the highway) of the school, dropping the children off or picking them up at a point just east of the main school building, the driveway continuing past the building, and out to the side road that took it back to the Portland Road and the highway near the shop.

Prior to this arrangememnt, I think the bus came in off the highway at the front gate and went around the circular driveway, picking up or dropping off in front of the school buildings. In my first year there, I worked one weekend with Mac Scott putting in a culvert out the east side gate, at the connection with the side road, so that access was from this side, which was safer.

The bus pick-up and drop-offs meant that "Playground Duty" was a little extended, especially as a number of children were not able to leave the school in the afternoon until she returned from the Mt. Lambie run.

Talking with Colin Hunter at the 150th, he recalled that often on the floor of the bus between them were Mrs McCusker's groceries. She had done her shopping prior to commencing the afternoon run.  After a day at school, sitting in back with her groceries made the saliva run!

For those going to high school in Bathurst, Don Berry drove one of the Bathurst Bus Company buses in from Sunny Corner each day.  To fill in his day in Bathurst, if he had no other bus driving commitments, he worked at his brother's saw mill.

7 – Milk

These were the days of free milk for school children. It arrived early in the morning on a delivery truck from Bathurst. The driver simply dumped it off just inside the school gate beside the highway where he left it uncovered in the grass. The early summer sunrise certainly didn't help the condition of the milk. This meant that a first duty for me, before I had breakfast, was to collect the milk and bring it up to the school and place it in the ice-box.

On the verandah there was an "ice-box", actually the body of an early type of refrigerator which was a large wooden box with a lid on top. In the warmer weather Mrs Deutscher looked after it. She kept it clean and brought containers of ice to put in it each morning. She made the ice in her own fridge at "Karoo".

The milk was in small bottles, each 1/3 of a pint. Most of the time the milk came flavoured, sometimes being strawberry, chocolate or vanilla. Occasionally it came plain. Flavoured milk was usually preferred, and no doubt contained a lot of sugar.

8 – The buildings

There were only the two classroom buildings. I used the more modern building as the regular classroom. I had the film projector permanently set up in the older building, using it for a storeroom, craft and sewing room as well as for films. All the sports equipment was stored in its verandah area.

The older building was a Sir Henry Parkes design or concept for pre-fab classrooms. Because of its shape, the curved roof line, such a building was popularly referred to as a "Beehive". It is certainly a heritage building and deserving of such recognition.

As originally conceived, with its simple outside framework and vertical timbers, curved roof line and reversed curved verandah, it would have had a tiered floor of three or four levels. The teacher stood or sat at the lowest level, with the children sitting at long desks on backless forms on the higher levels. This enabled the teacher, certainly when standing, to see all the pupils and their work.  It enabled all the pupils to see the teacher and the board without obstruction.

I have no proof that this particular building had the tiered floor, but that was a part of the original design of these buildings and it is fair to suggest that this particular building was no exception

No doubt this building saw some very disciplined forms of education which was not always appreciated by the pupils. I recall Mr. Norm Galvin asking me quite innocently if the building showed any signs of white ant damage, especially in the south-east corner. I had to admit that I had found only a small amount of such damage there. The news greatly interested him, and he went on to explain. His seat was near that corner, and he hated school so much that he used to collect and bring a few white ants to school and discreetly let them go in that corner, hoping they would eat the place down !

As I was cleaning up around the school and buildings I came across a number of very heavy cast iron stands. I think that they would have been the supports for the long desks that originally stood in the old building, as they appeared to suit that style. I recall showing them to Mr. McCusker who commented on the thickness of them, stating they they would have been able to support several tons.  They built things to last in those days. I do recall what we did with them, we  got rid of them. They were buried just inside the northern boundary fence, about midway between the eastern end and a line with the north-east corner of the tennis courts.  If there, a metal detector would find them.

One item on the old building that I had to deal with, was the lead flashing on the verandah. It must have been a foot wide and a quarter inch thick. Because of its weight it was tearing itself through its screws - just one of the small maintenance jobs I had to do as the roof was starting to leak.  I also had to get on top of the building to fix a leak around the vent in the middle of the roof.  Small jobs like these needed to be done, and often weren't worth the trouble of applying through the District Inspector for tradesmen.

I recall having to make a list of necessary building repairs, to prioritise them and send it in. Months later a gentleman arrived from Public Works bearing my actual list of about 30 items. He was there to inspect and assess the problems for repair. I took him around the buildings pointing out the problems, while he commented or ticked them off.  Halfway through the list, he said he had seen enough, and was on his way.  When I asked about the second half of the list, all the items I deemed equally requiring attention, he showed me my list with a line drawn across the middle, past which he did not venture. His comment: The Government promised free bus travel to school for all children. All school maintenance is halved. How else did I think they were going to pay for the bus travel!

9 – Heating

Both of the classrooms had a heater. Both were Broadway heaters, quite a common heater in schools at that time.  They both were loaded through the top. The one in the older room was a shorter model.

The heaters were round with cast bases and tops. The sides were of flat sheet metal, curved around an interior circle of fire bricks. They were certainly a very effective heater, and stoked up, they would burn almost all day and the top could glow red hot.

Lighting up and also cleaning out the heaters were other regular chores for all teachers then. I usually started them up with a small fire made with pine cones or other kindling that I had collected.  Once the fire the well established, I then loaded it with a bucket or so of coke.   It didn't take long for you to notice it beginning to warm the room and  beginning to develop a very warm glow.  The chimney placed inside of the classroom would also have helped to disseminate the heat. I would not have to do much more with it for the rest of the day, except add a bit more coke or a piece of wood.

Coke was an excellent product, made from coal, and burned well with almost no smoke.  It was easily obtained from either the Lithgow or Bathurst City Councils, as both had their own gasworks.  Bi-products from these included tar and coke.

As with all fuel heaters, the rule was that the fire should be out at the end of the school day. However, with P & C meetings at night, this meant keeping the room warm a bit longer.

Some of the previous teachers had allowed children to toast their sandwiches on the top of the heaters. However, due to the possible danger of the exposed surfaces and the possible mess, I was not prepared to allow that pleasure, much to the disappointment of some pupils.

The most insidious problem with the heaters was the smoke. The moment you opened the top to add fuel, smoke belched out into the room. When the painters came to repaint the buildings (in about 1968), they commented that the main classroom was the worst smoked interior they had ever had to deal with. The top half of the walls and the whole ceiling were all a rather grimy colour, with the wall frames patterned on the lining material.

10 – The toilets

There were two pit toilets on the eastern side of the back playground, the one closer to the buildings was the girls' toilet.  The boys' toilet was relatively close to the oak tree. Both were of timber with corrugated iron roofs, and mounted over a large hole in the ground. There was a similar pit toilet in the backyard of the residence, beside the path to the back gate.

Of interest, we found the sites of pit toilets along the western boundary of the school property.  We presumed that they belonged to the time when the school building was on the site somewhere between the rear of the residence yard and the school weathershed.

While I was at Meadow Flat, Gus Kelly, the local Member of Parliament for many years, died quite suddenly about a year before the next general election. A bi-election was called for the seat of Bathurst, and all kinds of promises were made by different parties.

Eventually, the seat was won by Mr Osborne for the Country Party, and with only about nine months to a general election there was plenty of action. Osborne was able to announce that he had got the Advanced College of Education for Bathurst (that Cutler was going to get for Orange), and all the schools in the electorate got painted, or new fences, and at Meadow Flat we also got a new toilet.

However, on the ground, not everything went well. The contractor got busy on the site and was making good progress when the Blaxland Shire Health and Building Inspector driving past saw work going on that had not been brought to his attention. He promptly had words with the contractor who was not prepared to wear the blame for Public Works not getting the appropriate approval.  No one had noticed with all the work going on across the electorate, that Meadow Flat was about 300 metres into Blaxland Shire. All plans had been presented to Bathurst and Turon Shires.

Changes had to be made to suit the requirements of Blaxland Shire. This included a larger in-ground tank at the residence, but as the contractor was not prepared to pull out the one he had put in and attached, a second was placed just inside the school yard fence. The well at the creek was put in on the top of the bank instead of in the creek bed. Absorption areas were created in both the front and back playgrounds. The whole cost of the exercise must have increased by at least 50%.

It was unfortunate that the absorption areas were placed into the playground areas, as being fenced off, they became overgrown, unmanageable and a haven for snakes.

At a teachers' conference shortly afterwards, one teacher asked me how we all got new fences, repaints and new toilets, when he could not get a decent classroom. Answer: You're in the wrong electorate!

So much happened in that short period that Osborne had no problems winning the seat at the following general election.

One memory of the old toilets......I recall seeing from the classroom, one child, a new enrolment in Kindergarten, run down to the boys' toilet, go inside, then next appear minus his pants and duck off behind the large tree nearby. Moments later he was back in sight, racing to the toilet, to then reappear fully dressed making his way back to the classroom.  He was obviously a country boy!

11 – The P & C

The Meadow Flat P & C were a very strong and capable body. The year before they had run a Woolshed Ball that had not only been a most successful night, but also a great fund-raiser.

One ball we had followed a television theme. This was a bit of a novelty for me, firstly as I was no dancer, and secondly as I didn't even have a television. The ball was a great night, with people coming dressed as TV or movie characters and the dances were interrupted with "advertisements". One advert was for the latest in drenching material for sheep, and included a live demonstration, complete with sheep and drenching equipment. I think the main actors in this ad were Alex Deutscher and Graham Blowes.

Another fundraiser was a potato crop. This grew in the area behind the weather shed, part of the exercise being to open up this part of the playground which was fenced off and growing blackberries.

The ground was cleared and ploughed, and potatoes sown. The harvesting was done by hand, and we sold potatoes at weekends to the passing traffic. Then with the crop bagged, the fence was removed, the ground levelled out, and the area became a part of the playing area.

When snow brought down part of the very large tree past the boys' toilet, P & C members quoted to remove the whole tree. The tree was cut down and the massive branches dragged up to an area towards the hall. Later, Mac Scott arranged a chain saw demonstration day with Bathurst businesses and the district farmers had a great day playing with chain saws. All the timber went as firewood, the stump became a picnic seat, and the P & C gained extra funds.

With the help of the P & C we had a marvellous day at Oberon. We took the whole primary section and in the morning went through the Pine Board Mill, had lunch at the Fish River dam and in the afternoon went through the timber industries mill. We did it on the first day of one of the holidays as we could not close the school for the day.

The P & C, along with the Progress Association, was a voice for the local community. Several issues came up and were taken to higher authorities. One of these was the problem of the theft and damage to local properties caused by escapees from the local prison farms. Several members had lost vehicles or had them damaged, and other items stolen. While we got sympathetic replies from the Justice Department, I don't think we got very much satisfaction.

Another suggestion that the P & C took up was the proposal to combine the three schools; Meadow Flat, Sunny Corner and Kirkconnell.  This was a triangle of small schools, that by sharing and combining resources, could have offered the children more pupils of their own age group coupled with more effective teaching. The concept included making one school infants, another junior primary, and the third, senior primary.  There were already some buses feeding along the routes. The Education Department would not consider it.

12 – Snow.

Snow falls meant that quite a number of children were unable to attend. If the fall was big enough, closing roads, then Mr. Stockman, who taught at Portland, used to appear at the Meadow Flat Public School to sign on there. In my time at Meadow Flat, while we had reasonable snow falls, we never had any that were as bad as the one in 1965 when the highway was closed for days and many people were stranded. I was told that on this occasion, John Connell had around thirty people staying with him at the house or in the school buildings.  They were there for several days, food was in short supply, and not all the guests were very thankful.  I believe that other families along the highway had similar experiences, with travellers passing road blocks and travelling on until they could go no further.  The local people were usually unimpressed, and while housing some of these problem people, did not appreciate being put upon in this way by such ignorance, stupidity or blatant disregard of road signs.

With the small number attending on such days, it was difficult to continue the normal programme so we had games and stories etc. throughout the day. I had the children make snowmen, small ones, so the children were not out in the cold very long. Even so, some parents were not happy about this little activity, expecting their child to be inside, warm and dry all the time.

On several occasions when it snowed, I went for a walk around the playground and nearby, taking photos. I never took the car out in the snow, as having lived at Tumbarumba as a child and seen a truck accident, I was well aware of the problems snow could create.

One sunny morning, having got the milk up from down the front, as I was about to walk back to the house, became aware of a strange phenomenon in the sky. Above me it was cloudless, and to the south over Oberon way it was cloudy. Coming from those clouds, a broad stream of white “cloud” was headed straight our way, then when overhead, it snowed in Meadow Flat for about 5 minutes.

13 – Incidents

In about my third week at Meadow Flat, I was met at the classroom door by Perc Wilkinson's daughter, quite out of breath, who gasped out, "Come quick, your wife's been hit by a car!"

Leaving her to keep an eye on the class, I ran down to the shop. My wife, a passenger in the car with Mrs Don Berry, had been thrown out when the car was hit by another on the Portland Road intersection. The car had gone close to rolling over, and if it had done so, it would have been over her. As it was, she had a severe gash to her forehead, requiring stitches, and the ambulance took her to Bathurst.

We were very fortunate in having Perc Wilkinson at the shop. Being an ex-Railway man he had qualifications and experience in First Aid. He had everything under control, as well as having done all the preliminary bandaging.

The following day, the School Inspector, Mr Middleton, from Lithgow called in at the school to introduce himself.  After meeting my wife, complete with black eyes and stitches, and myself still shocked, he discreetly left, going to Sunny Corner School, where he told Brian Benson there; "If ever any one didn't want to see me today, it was the new fellow at Meadow Flat".

A couple of years later I was to call on Perc's expertise again when one of the plumber's assistants cut an artery in his arm with a piece of down-pipe and we couldn't stop the bleeding, no matter how hard we tightened the tourniquet.

One Christmas holidays the school and house were broken into. We were away at the time, the event happening on New Year's Eve. We discovered it when we returned at the end of January.

The thieves had smashed in the kitchen window at the rear of the residence and then gone through every cupboard and drawer. These had been emptied out on the floor so the contents could be combed through. Almost all our electrical items and wedding presents were gone. Also gone was the new school tape recorder.

The residence was only one of several homes in the area raided by this small gang at this time. The only known connecting link was a gentleman offering insurance around the area at the time. The police had a breakthrough when a mother at Wallerawang told them her son and other children were playing policemen and had recorded the number plates of vehicles going past their place. From the list, the police tracked a car to Fairfield where they found a house and garage full of stolen items.

The only items we were able to recover, were my rifle, and some coins. The school tape recorder was not recovered, the thieves deciding to throw it away somewhere. The three gentlemen got 3, 4 and 5 years gaol, with hard labour. We could not afford for several years to replace many of the items stolen, despite the insurance.

14 – The Nutsy Tree and other trees

The oak tree, known to the current children, teachers and parents as "The Nutsy Tree" was a magnificent specimen, tall and spreading. It was the largest tree in the back playground, growing just inside the eastern boundary fence, it provided shade and shelter over a vast area.

It had a massive trunk, which at about 3 or 4 metres above the ground divided into about four or five large spreading branches. No doubt its shape was typical of the old English oaks which used to grow in large numbers in England. Sadly many of these magnificent trees were felled and sawn for ship building. Many of the early sailing ships of England, including those of Sir Francis Drake, were made of oak. The demand for ship building timbers meant that many of the oak forests of England were decimated.

No doubt the early settlers to the Meadow Flat area felt the climate was similar to back in England, and that growing oak trees was most appropriate. For many of these early settlers, far from their home roots of Europe, planting oak and pine trees helped them to recreate the European landscape way out here in the antipodes, and help them retain the feelings of "home".

This tree was most probably planted shortly after the land here was set aside for a school, or perhaps it was planted by an earlier occupier who grew it for his own joy and shelter. A search of the early maps and landholdings may reveal some history along these lines. It would be interesting to know if it was planted by someone on a special occasion or by someone of significance. Maybe the newspapers of the time would tell us.

I imagine that the oak was possibly planted about the same time as all the pine trees that lined the eastern and southern boundaries. The English oak, being a long-living tree, outlived the pines. They all suffered the effects of old age and snow damage, and because of this they had become a real danger, and were felled in about 1964 or 1965. I inherited the stumps!

The oak, with its spreading branches saw a lot of history and change, much of it so beautifully recorded and presented by the pupils at the 150th anniversary of the school.

Sadly there is a lot of history this tree has witnessed that we do not know, yet one day may discover. I hope I can fill in some of the spaces.

Gum trees and pines would have provided most of the shade or shelter to the Cooee Marchers in 1915 as at that time they would all have been large mature trees. No doubt the oak, a little further north along the fence line, would have been a magnificent spreading tree at that time, and possibly sheltered some of "our boys".

The massive branch reaching to the east had fallen with the weight of snow, crashing through the boundary fence and tearing the side out of the tree. I knew immediately that the beautiful tree now posed a real danger. Not only was its balance gone, but rot would begin to invade the torn trunk, and before too long the other spreading branches which reached out over the playground would also crash to the ground without any real warning. Children could no longer safely play under its protection.

Quickly I contacted some of the parents. I spoke with Mac Scott and Alec Deutscher and the District School Inspector. A letter went into the Education Department indicating one of the local men was prepared to tender to remove the tree. The local men got together, and cut the tree down. They hitched their tractors to the fallen trunk and limbs and dragged them up towards the Hall at the rear of the school grounds. They repaired the fence.

I did not see the tree come down, as I think I may have been away at the time, possibly school holidays, but when next I saw it, it was only a massive stump, sawn level on top.

Mac Scott, with his farming and dealing interests, went around the appropriate dealerships in Bathurst and a chainsaw demonstration day was organised. Dealers came with all the very latest in the various brands of chainsaws, and farmers came from miles around to enjoy a chainsaw demonstration and to try out all the latest models. The local ladies organised the catering for the day, so that the P & C or the Progress Association earned some further funds from the day.

Once again I could not get to this event, but saw it taking place and could hear the sound of numerous chainsaws from my position in the school room, as school was back and I had my job to do.

And so in a day of great fellowship, fun and noise, the tree was cut up into manageable pieces, and people took the wood home, possibly for fire wood, or, if they kept it to dry out properly, it could have been made into furniture etc.

A little later on, a cheque came to the P & C as the local tenderer paid over the money he had received from the Education Department for the removal of the tree and the repairs to the fence.

I looked at the stump. What could be done about this massive stump? If we waited a while for it to dry out a bit, we could possibly smooth the top and have it as a dance stage as we'd seen in some American movies! Maybe a more practical solution was to fit seats to the sides of the stump and turn it into a picnic table. These were some of the ideas we considered, but at the end of the year I was leaving, and the stump, a problem, remained a stump.

Over the past forty or so years I have driven past the school only about three times, and noted the poplars slowly progressing in the front yard. I felt proud of them, to see them surviving, growing and making a statement in the valley. But I never once considered the oak tree.

15 – Rural industries

As farming developed and evolved, many of the local farmers, along with producing cattle, fat lambs and wool, went in for growing potatoes and peas. These latter crops required more labour for harvesting, and so pickers came and worked in the area. Many of these people regularly set up camp in tents or caravans outside the school fence under the shelter of the oak tree, and lived there for several months at a time. While there, they got their clean fresh water from the school water tanks or from the creek down below. At the same time they made use of the school toilets, just across the fence, and also sent their children to the school.

These visiting pickers, camped under the oak tree, made the village a lively place. The teacher and family living not far away, just across the playground, did not always enjoy this invasion, but no doubt many of the school children enjoyed the friendship of new found mates who sometimes came back year after year.

But once again as farming continued to evolve and meet market changes and trends, most of the local farmers went out of peas and potatoes, concentrating on the sheep and cattle industries. This meant that the pickers and their families no longer came.

I arrived at the school at the beginning of 1966, and was told by one local that I should consider myself fortunate that I no longer had to cope with this annual invasion! Sheep and cattle did not need this additional labour force.

16 – Assistance with the students

While there my wife and I did the cleaning of the school buildings and toilets. There was an additional allowance, not very much, paid to teacher in charge to do the cleaning. There was also a small allowance paid for teaching sewing to the primary age girls by the teacher in charge’s wife. This was paid into the teacher’s salary, not directly to the wife.

I was aware that some other teacher in charge had their wife take the infants’ children for some activities, including lessons in reading, some maths or writing activities, as well as supervising them listening to radio programmes, thus enabling their husband to spend more profitable time with the primary children.

I knew that this was quite unofficial, and that in most cases the wife had no qualifications at all as a teacher. So, I thought I may as well try the same caper, but I wanted to do it all above board, partly for insurance cover etc., so I put in an application to my District Inspector to allow my wife to assist me with supervising some of the infants’ activities. This was promptly refused, the letter reminding me that the children’s education was totally my responsibility. In later years parents were encouraged to assist in classroom activities and hearing children read.

17 – My friendship with Mac Scott

Much of the historical information I got from Mac Scott, as we worked together on polling days for Federal, State, and Shire elections. I was the presiding officer and Mac was my poll clerk. He was the best poll clerk I ever had. He knew everyone who came in, except for those traveling through, and also knew who had not shown up on the day. Maybe they went somewhere else on that weekend. When we weren’t busy, we chatted and he was able to tell me a great deal about his experiences in farming and dealing, and the history of the local area.

The Meadow Flat Co-operative

Early on when farmers were beginning to open up the country there, and planting peas and potatoes, most of them were struggling. Mac suggested to the locals they should open up a co-operative, so everyone did not have to buy their own plows and harvesting machinery. Quite a number of the locals put in money to own shares in the co-op. This enabled the co-op to buy a number of various ploughs and machinery to start with. This was hired out, the share holders probably getting a cheaper rate than the others, and certainly a return on profits after any needed machinery was bought. It worked very successfully for a number of years, with people from a wider area accessing the machinery. Then, as Mac told me, it got so big, and we didn’t have the time to chase up machinery and run it, we decided to hire a manager to run it, but that was when the rot set in. It turned out he was lazy and did not follow-up on machinery hired out, so we sacked him, shut the co-op down and sold off all the machinery. But it had served its purpose. It got so many of us started into farming.

Local shows

Some will remember the fat lamb / sheep competition in some of the local shows. The Scott family had one they kept in the fenced off family yard. The children loved it, and no doubt fed it a bit extra beside the grass it kept down. They also played with it, riding it. With the Portland show coming up, one visitor to the house commented he was entering the fat lamb competition. Mac or the children were keen to show him their entry. When the poor bloke saw their entry, he could only gape and comment that he was not going to bother entering the competition.

Fire lookouts

Mac reported to me that the fire lookout towers, quite a distance from us, did a surprisingly great job. He went on to say, it was a bushfire season, and he probably was not supposed to do it, but he was up in one of his paddocks cleaning up, and decided burn some of the rubbish. Within about ten minutes he was called back to the house to respond to an urgent call from the bush fire authorities to tell him, the local chief fire officer, that a fire had broken out near a particular fence line on his property. They were at least within ten yards (metres) of where he lit the fire… a bit embarrassing for the local fire chief.

Sheep

Mac had about 10 sheep he was either considering buying or selling, in the corner of a paddock near the house. I was there at the time and was impressed with what he did. He asked Leigh to look them over and pick the best one. I watched and listened as Mac responded to Leigh, who was still in about 4th class, make comments about different ones with his father guiding him only a little bit, and being very kind and supportive of his son’s attempts. I felt privileged to be able to witness this.

Community support for the school

When I first arrived at Meadow Flat, the community felt somewhat divided into a couple of informal social circles. My focus was bringing everyone together in support of the school and that locals remained courteous and cooperative. Many parents were consistently supportive—attending meetings, taking on roles, and even handling practical tasks like making and delivering ice for the milk chest each morning—commitment that kept the place running. Mac supplied all the concrete to put in the steel climbing bars, and of course he worked on helping to cement them in.

Drought

In the late sixties there was a severe drought over much of western NSW. Mac decided this was an opportunity for some of the locals. He told me, he spoke to some who decided to take up the idea. They went up north west, I don’t really know where, and bought hundreds of sheep at about 10 cents each, and trucked them back to Meadow Flat. When I saw Mac, possibly at the shop, he told me he needed rain within the next 3 days or the sheep would be dying. It rained on the 3rd day.

Supporting beginners in farming

Mac told me about coming across a young couple just starting into farming with what was a bush block. Observing the thick scrub, he proposed an idea to them. They would need get a mob of cattle to help clear all the undergrowth and shrubbery. He would supply them with 100 head and guarantee to buy them back in 12 months at a set price. So he helped people to get started. Never to miss an opportunity, while visiting another couple he knew, he arrived there to find they had a new baby. One of his first comments was, “You are going to need a house cow, and I know where I can get you one.”

A helping hand

I did a couple of small jobs for Mac. He knew how to ask, and it was no problem. I painted the name he wanted on the door of his red truck, painting the letters in blue paint. He also needed plans to hand in to Blaxland Shire Council for a new mens’ toilet at the showground in Meadow Flat, so I drew them, and later worked on its construction. I also put in the original counter and shelving for the kiosk there. Mac supplied all the timber, reclaimed from elsewhere. Previously, the mens’ loo had been some hessian wrapped around 3 trees. It was no great loo.

18 - A new fire truck

The “new” fire engine arrived while I was there. Some of the local men went to Sydney to select it from ex-army vehicles on offer and drove it back to Meadow Flat. While driving to “Lawson Hill” to begin painting it and converting this WW2 ex army truck to a fire engine, going up that steep pinch not far above the school teacher’s residence, changing gears, the driver stalled it. Then seconds later a small car ran up the back of it. There was absolutely no damage to the truck, and none of the men on board felt a thing. It was not so good for the small car. These old army vehicles were built to take it, and to last.

19 - Helping others

One year, between Xmas and New Year, we became aware of activity in the school driveway. A young couple had brought their car in there off the road to safely work on it. I wandered down to have a look and got the story. The young lady had only a thin cotton dress on and was freezing in the cold, so I sent her up to the house where we had a fire on. Her partner told me that they had driven up from Sydney to Bathurst for a family gathering and at the same time his male rellies would do some work on his car. However, just as he lowered the final rear wheel in order to tighten the nuts, they were all called in for afternoon tea. Later when he came out, his partner brought out their cases etc to load into the car for their return to Sydney and soon set off. In the tea call and setting off to home, he completely forgot to tighten the wheel nuts… easily done!! The wheel came off the car not far from Meadow Flat, and after recovering it and doing some temporary work, he moved the car off the highway into the safety of the school driveway. After we fed them some hot food and drink, they were on their way. Not only will they be more aware of the need to properly finish a job, but also of the weather changes in Meadow Flat. They were both freezing and it was summer, hot in Sydney and hot in Bathurst.

20 - Making ginger beer

In our first year there, over at the house, I had a go at making about 10 bottles of ginger beer. I mixed up my brew, and finally added it to the bottles which I placed on a shelf in the pantry. I forgot about them till the following Xmas, then I got them out and carefully opened them. The colour, smell and taste was OK, but there was very little fizz. So I added a raisin to each bottle and put them back on the shelf. Later, when I planned to open one, the first thing I did was stand it in the kitchen sink while I removed the top. Top off, and a foaming jet headed for the ceiling, missing it by a few inches. They were all great to drink, but after any of these foaming jets, there was not much left to drink in the bottle.

21 - Teaching students to read

At Cascade in the Grafton inspectorate, Ian Crago was the District Inspector. On his first visit to me he asked about the phonics I was teaching and went on to say that every school in his inspectorate taught Hay-Wingo phonics. Hay and Wingo were the surnames of two Americans who came up with this new and complete phonics system. Basically the emphasis was on sounding cat as ca-t instead of c-at. It actually worked very well and better than what we had been doing. On my arrival at Meadow Flat, Mr. Middleton, the District Inspector, looked at my programme on phonics and felt there was an over-emphasis on phonics and wanted it reduced! Each Inspector appeared to have their own pet hobby-horses, and you had to obey.

Legacy and later years

Since leaving Meadow Flat, I taught for three years at Cooerwull, then transferred to Temora West where I continued to teach until retiring in 1997. I had five children: Robert, Grahame, Allan Matthew (dec'd), Lyndell and Cameron. In 1976, my marriage to Cheryl ended, the children remained with me. In 1983, I married Wilma, and together we share a real interest in history and heritage work.

From my home in Goulburn, I often reflect on the people and stories that shaped my time at Meadow Flat. The friendships, the humour, and the shared purpose of that small rural community have stayed with me throughout my life.

I remain grateful for the pupils, parents, and neighbours who made those years so memorable. The school and its people taught me as much as I ever taught them.

Ken McCubbin
Teacher-in-Charge, Meadow Flat Public School 1966 – 1968
Final reflections written 2022

Died 26 May 2024, aged 84

Published with Ken McCubbin's permission

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