Sassafras - Heart of The Hills - Rowan Smith

"The Heart of the Hills"..
The Centennial History of

Sassafras Primary School Number
3222
and Its Place in the Sassafras Community 1894-1994
Rowan Smith
1994
1
Sassafras State School at the Sassafras Library and Mechanics Institute c.1898. Head teacher George Jackson; fifty
two pupils are in the photo. This is the earliest known picture of the school.
The Centennial History of

Sassafras Primary School Number 3222
Rowan Smith
1994
"Can you, my dear reader..step with me on to the magic carpet of your childhood's imaginations,
and fly with me to the nearby village of Sassafras, perched high on its eyrie on the summit of the
little blue smear across the eastern sky.."
("The Dandenongs: A Guide to Melbourne's Great Playground" Fern Tree Gully Progress
Association, 1925)
Dedicated to
all the Children of the Little "Sassy" School ...
Past,
Present
and
Future...
2
The Sassafras School
The Sassafras school
was a curious thing
It stood in the scrub
where the lyrebirds sing.
Where parrots and thrushes
went by on the wing,
Or dallied to bathe
in the shadowy spring.
Its wall were of tree ferns

the spongy floor too,
All cut from the trees
that there all around grew.
The roof was of shingles
good blackwood in hue,
And dark were the rafters
where squeaky bats flew.
The place leaked in buckets

whenever it rained,
Light glanced through in spasms
where the window was paned.
The doorway was reached
by a track deeply veined,
By dozens of rivulets
that kept the place drained.
T’was the first in the ranges

to assemble the classes,
Where deep shaggy moss
had replaced city grasses.
The beginnings remembered
each year as it passes,
Bring honor to it
that to all others, surpasses.
(from Jack Lundy “Ballads From the Dandenongs” No.11, reprinted

in “Sassafras Primary School Bulletin”, Summer 1985.)
3
Introduction.
It has been both an honour and a privilege to be asked by the Sassafras Primary School Centenary
Committee, to write this account of the history of the Sassafras School. I have found it a
fascinating exercise for me as a comparative newcomer to the area, to learn about earlier
generations, who committed themselves to our friendly little school and our magnificent area. In
a small way, I hope that I have been able to preserve some of their memories in order that coming
generations at Sassafras may share them. I hope that I have done justice to this memory, as these
earlier generations were certainly an admirable group of people, good humoured, hard working
and resilient.
I wish to thank all the generous contributors of such valuable and fascinating information,
enabling this record to happen. They are too numerous to mention individually, however their
accounts of the past life of the school have been consistently wonderful and a privilege to read.
The numerous ex-students and local people of long-standing, who proof-read the drafts, checking
for errors, was an essential assistance and is most appreciated.
My particular thanks are due to:
Hilary Dewar
Jan Diamond
Gwen Horner
Jane Jones
and my wife Dagmar, for tolerating all the long hours that I have spent on this task and
for being a very constructive critic.
Hilary Dewar is the best research assistant one could hope for. She is interested in the
history of post-war Sassafras, and knows EVERYBODY! Her local connections have been
invaluable, and it was Hilary who did most of the “running around” to collect material for this
history. She has spent hours collecting resources, including some great photographs and patiently
checking my drafts. I hope this effort has been rewarded by the result.
Jan Diamond’s diligent research at the Public Records Office; her proof reading and
additions to the drafts, have been essential in making this account possible. She also provided
many fascinating resources from her own collection.
Gwen Horner has also been a great help. Her collection of newspaper cuttings from the
local papers, going back many years, I found extremely useful. The other resources, and her
editing efforts were also much appreciated.
Jane Jones was an essential help in the final editing of the work, and correcting my
tortured syntax!
Special thanks is due also to the Shire of Sherbrooke for their generous loan, making
possible the publication of the book in advance of sales.
To everyone else , too numerous to mention all, who assisted with contributions, (but
especially Barbara Ure, Shirley Bye, the English family, the Downes family, Alister Cannon,
Kath Shaw and Norma Herbert), thank you all once again.
The many wonderful photographs reproduced in the book have been kindly lent by the
following people:
Malcolm Johnson, Gwen Horner, Jan Diamond, Brian Storrie and the Storrie family, Kath
Hallebone, Maree Alexander, Elaine Barrile, Simon Neill, Shirley Bye, Hilary Dewar, Mick
4
Dahllof (courtesy of Pat Hogan), Avis Smith and Peter Lehane.
Rowan Smith, Ferny Creek, 1994.

The Centennial History of Sassafras Primary School Number 3222
The Sassafras township is geographically at the heart of the Dandenong Ranges (the "Hills") 1, and the century old
Sassafras Primary School is the very heart of Sassafras.
Sassafras Primary School is the oldest school in the Hills. 2 It began with the beginning of the settlement to
serve its pioneers, and the development of the school reflects the progress of Sassafras.
Throughout it has served this community, and the community has remained committed to the school. The
importance of such a continuity in the relatively young tradition of modern Australia is impossible to overrate. It is
rare and special by any standard.
Sassafras Primary School has been much more than merely in the geographical sense, "the heart of the
Hills". It has given the happiest of memories to its hundreds of ex-students, with golden strands of tradition
throughout the century becoming part of the common memory of those many generations who attended this little
school. Memories of the nurturing, family-like atmosphere; of friendship, humour and learning; of picnics at the
beach; of the school concerts, and of the scores of individuals who dedicated their energies to the Sassafras students.
These are the common themes recurring throughout this history of Sassafras State School over the past century.
Background: Before 1893-4..

The Dandenong Ranges are a unique environment both in Victoria, and in Australia. The area was known to the
Wurunjerri and Bunurong Aborigines ("Yarra Yarra" and "Western Port" tribes) as "Barngeong" (there is no
agreement to its meaning, various suggestions: "Place of Past Fires" or "High and Lofty") The Hills were integral to
their seasonal hunter-gatherer round. Not being permanently occupied, they were an important part of their summer
hunting grounds, through which they passed to winter in the Yarra valleys.3
The area remained little known to the inhabitants of Melbourne until after the 1870’s. The Illustrated London
News of 1856 wrote an early account following reports by Baron von Mueller, the explorer Daniel Bunce and others:
"About 20 or 25 miles distant from Melbourne...there is wild grandeur of which can scarcely be conceived by
Europeans, and which is but partially known even among the colonists here."
Timber getting under Crown licence began as the major growth industry in the Hills to serve Melbourne's
building boom from the 1850’s.
George Holden established the first timber camp in the area in 1852 or 1853, near present day Monbulk. He
felled and split timber around today's Olinda, the Sassafras Creek and Perrins Creek. Roads and infrastructure were
extremely poor. Hughes' bullock track followed the ridge to One Tree Hill and down to Ferntree Gully. "Holden's
Hut" was established at Olinda, and Holdens' track went from there to The Basin. Holden used another track
following approximately the present Hilton Road to The Basin. A second timber camp was established, probably by
Holden, in the Kallista area ("South Sassafras") by 1867. The area the later Sassafras settlers were to move into was
certainly a frontier society. In 1867 the Government made the first survey of the area and declared it a Crown timber
reserve under the control of the Forest Commission/Lands Department.4 .
1 Sassafras was known as "Sassafras via Bayswater" until the First World War, illustrating both its isolation and central hills
location.(Evan Wootton,"Sassafras State School. 3222- A History" Unpublished Essay Melbourne University 1992.) Sassafras
was midway between Ferntree Gully and One Tree Hill (Ferny Creek)along Hughes'bullock track in the early days and to South
Sassafras (Kallista) to the south along the creek. Monbulk was at the other end of the range. Helen Coulson, “The Story of the
Dandenongs” Melbourne 1968 Ed. pp 339 ff.
2 Some may claim Ferny Creek Primary School as the oldest, however this claim is not sustainable. The One Tree Hill school
(no. 3228) (in 1924 called Ferny Creek) was established in 1895 (a year after Sassafras) on a different site to today's new school-
the original having burnt down in 1983(Sassafras/Ferny Creek Rural Fire Brigade Records per Bob Horner).Ibid pp 345-356.
3 Numerous references: see for example, John Larkins “The Book of the Dandenongs” Rigby 1978 pp23ff, or A.P.Winzenried
“The Hills of Home” Adelaide 1988 pp7ff
4 numerous references, see for example A.P.Winzenried op cit pp77ff
5
Sassafras Creek was named by Ambrose Eyles, when he discovered the tall(7m) Sassafras tree
(atherosperma moshatum) growing in the gullies. It has a fragrant white flower. Sassafras wood was highly prized
for making the frame of horses’ saddles because of its flexibility. It also has a nutmeg scent and was also used to
make clothes pegs. The timber industry continued into this century. By the turn of the century, the de-forestation of
the ridges is apparent in many early photographs and accounts and the best timber had been removed.1
From the 1860’s, as a result of the demand for land after the height of the goldrush, the government passed
the various Selection Acts. In 1878 land was opened up for sale in The Basin and Ferny Creek (One Tree Hill) area,
and in Upper Ferntree Gully, Upwey and Belgrave areas. The Fern Tree Gully Shire, of which this area was a part,
was founded in 1889.
During the financial depression of the 1890’s, the Victorian Premier, Sir J.B.Patterson, and the Minister for
Lands, J.W.McIntyre, conceived of relieving urban poverty in Melbourne by opening up a further 10,000 acres of
forest reserve on the higher Hills around the head of the Sassafras Creek. This was proclaimed on 23 May 1893.2
There were two types of settlement, Village Settlements and free selection. Village settlers (such as in
Upwey and Belgrave), most of whom were destitute, got some help from the government and were expected to live
on their holdings for at least eight months of the year. They were encouraged to take other jobs such as working on
the roads. Free selectors were given no financial assistance but were also allowed to do other jobs, though not in
competition with the Village settlers. They had to be much more resilient. Sassafras was to be settled by free
selectors.3
Establishing the School: 1893.

R.P Ellis surveyed the shire boundaries, creeks and prospective allotments in 1893. He and his team of surveyors
occupied for the Lands Department, the "shelter shed".
This was probably the first permanent building in the Hills, and had been erected to shelter hunters or
cattlemen looking for lost stock (probably from the Glenfern Station) if they were caught in bad weather. It contained
a supply of blankets and provisions for that contingency. When it was built and by whom is not certain.
The shelter shed was located on a small flat area, north-east of the Sassafras creek, and 100 metres west of
the "Monreale" Guesthouse (est.1923), opposite Noble's selection south of the creek, on what was to be the Harris
selection in 1893.(James Storrie acquired this land in 1895 after Harris was killed by a falling tree)
Ellis set aside a Crown Reserve on the west side of Sassafras Creek Road Reserve (east of the main Tourist
Road). On this land the Mechanics Institute and the Infant Welfare Centre were later built.
Thus began the closer settlement of "Sassafras Gully" (as it was then known). Allotments were sold on
generous terms , for one pound per acre, at a deposit of one shilling per acre, the balance to be paid off at an annual
rate of one shilling per acre over twenty years. Cultivation was to be made within the first two years, and
improvements were to be made on one acre in ten at a rate of one pound per acre. The ten acre allotments were
sufficient only for subsistence farming, and the settlers could barely feed themselves, let alone sell their produce.
Many settlers agitated for more viable allotments of 40 to 50 acres, but that was not to be.4
The new settlers were city-dwellers with no experience of farming. They soon had to become proficient
with axe, adze, wedge and paling knife or went under. Cutting their way through dense undergrowth to find a suitable
giant ash or blackbutt, they felled the trees with a cross-cut saw from a platform. They then pains-takingly cut the
tree into six foot lengths, split these into "billets" and...into palings. Their first huts were made of these, roofed with
shingles or bark, and with initially at least, an earthen floor. Calico served as windows and in some cases, doors.5
" The conditions are hard to endure, with long, wet and cold winters isolating settlers along boggy bullock tracks
and impassable gullies, and the ever-present threat of bushfires in summer". (Oakleigh and FTG Times, 11/11,
1893)
Amongst the very first settlers in Sassafras Gully, the Warman family was fairly typical. They were poor
Cockneys who were driven out by bushfires and returned to England.6 Of the original thirty selectors around the head
of the Sassafras Creek in 1893, more than half had sold out by 1895 due to physical and financial circumstances.
Some were more successful however. Arthur.J.Goode established the first slab and shingle store ("Sassafras
Gully Cash Store and Refreshment Rooms") and the first post office, either on his selection south of the Government
1 per Audrey Edmondson, Gwen Horner, Shirley Bye & Jan Diamond L.Costermans “Native Trees & Shrubs of SE Australia”
H.Coulson op cit p25-26
2 Ibid p28
3 Ibid pp36ff and A.Reid (et al) “A Village in the Forest/The Story of Kallista” Kallista 1993 pp12-13
4 Ibid p45
5 H.Coulson op cit p28 Syd Storrie (1970s)
6 J.Larkins op cit p97
6
Reserve, or as the 1903 Allans’ road map indicates, near Gwenneth Crescent on The Crescent1. He operated from
there until 1908 when Mrs Curry, the Headmaster's wife, took over the post office. In 1912, Mrs Curry moved the
post office to the Hinckley Guest House which is the present site of the main nursery in Sassafras2.
Goode had the first mail contract from Bayswater, and, according to Stan Storrie, introduced blackberries to
the Dandenongs. Jan Diamond remembers being told however, that it was Baron von Mueller who introduced
blackberries
"in order that the wayfarer of the future may find a feast to enjoy on journeys through the hills."3
Sassafras Gully c.1894. Sassafras was then a frontier community where Arthur J. Goode’s “Sassafras Gully Cash
Store and Refreshment Rooms” provided hospitality for travellers. Goode had the first mail contract.
William Jones was also one of the successful first selectors, taking up the allotment where the present shops now
stand south of The Basin track, and later building "Sassafras House" on this site.
P.Cadby constructed three cottages in succession on the present site of the Sassafras Primary School.
Amongst Sassafras State School’s oldest living ex-students, Mr Harry (Mick) Dahllof (now 86 years of age),
remembers the post office being moved to the Cadby cottages when he was at school in 1916 .4
E.Dorey had the first greengrocer's shop in 1909, and Sherrard built a store at the corner of Woodlands
Avenue. F.Buzaglo constructed a store where the newsagency now stands. A.Newburg built a cafe and guest house
on the site at the corner of Prince Street. For many years these were the only substantial buildings in Sassafras Gully
township.5 The settlers made their living by tree felling, saw milling, market gardening and raspberry, gooseberry or
strawberry growing.
1 Although the evidence of the Allan’s map is compelling, Brian Storrie disagrees with this location as being tto far away from
the main township.
2 This is remembered by local residents as Downe’s Nursery site.
3 Jan Diamond 1994
4 as per Brian Storrie and Hilary Dewar 1994
5 "Sassafras Gully Old Time Fair" brochure 8/4/1978 H.Coulson op cit p352
7
In the period immediately following the great Education Act of 1872, the importance of "free, compulsory and
secular" education for upward mobility, especially among the poor was readily appreciated. The new settlers were
young and many had small children, who now had to be educated by law.
From a request made by Alex Rankin (whose selection was in the present day Crescent), to the Minister of
Education (dated October 1, 1893) asking for payment of five shillings owed for six weeks teaching, it appears that
arrangements had been made on a less formal basis for some education of the children prior to the beginning of the
8
school.1
On November 8, 1893 Captain Garside JP, whose selection was on the Sassafras creek 600 metres north of
the surveyor's shelter shed, forwarded a petition for a school at Sassafras Creek to Mr Peacock, the then Minister of
Education.2
On December 12, 1893, William Jones made a further request for the opening of a school. He suggested
using the surveyor's shelter shed and that Mrs Garside should be employed to teach the children. The Education
Department requested Jones to let them know the number of children in the area, but as Jones reported:
"The forest of the area was so thickly timbered and that the undergrowth separating the allotments was so dense
that an accurate survey was impracticable."3
The Education Department instructed District Inspector Gamble to investigate the applications, which he
did by February 14, 1894, reporting that Sassafras Creek was a village settlement with approximately 23 children.
This was probably inaccurate and estimates vary considerably. Grigg has the figure in early 1895 as up to 32
children, 46 children are spoken of on the petition to move the school in June 1895, and the 1898 photograph of the
school shows 52 students.4
Gamble recommended that a full-time school, or that one half-time, shared with school 2329 The Basin, be
established. He wrote that,
"There is a capital shelter shed 20 feet by 15 feet measuring 12 feet to the eaves belonging to the lands department.
The front should be boarded up, three windows, a door and an iron fireplace inserted. The parents will put in a slab
floor and do all the work. No tank is necessary."5
From subsequent reports, it is likely that Gamble's judgement about the suitability of this dilapidated
structure and site was, at best, optimistic. Access to the site following the creek was difficult. Obtaining water thirty
metres down a steep and over grown slope, from the creek (down stream from the settlement), was both difficult and
potentially unhealthy.
On April 24, 1894, the Lands Department handed over "with pleasure" the shelter shed to the Education
Department, but warned that it was full of vermin. The settlers were promised a grant of ten pounds if they could get
the building in order by installing a slab floor, a pot-belly stove, white-washing it and "removing the vermin". This
work was completed, if evidently inadequately, mainly by Capt. Garside and his oldest son.
Garside complained of the difficulty in getting help from the settlers, as only five helped, even though
"their children are running wild all over the place", in what was the school's first working bee(!). Whether the
settlers were paid by the Department is not known.6
The First School Site: 1894-1895.

The first Sassafras Creek School number 3222, began on October 23, 1894 in the dilapidated and draughty shelter
shed built of leaking slab and shingles. 7
Education Department records indicate that the first appointed teacher as of that date to Sassafras Creek
school was Theresa M. Boyd, however she did not arrive until November 16, 1894, 8 and that one William T. Angwin
taught the children before she arrived. He does not appear in the official records.
The conditions experienced by the pupils, and Miss Theresa Boyd reflect the hardship and pioneering spirit
of the community. She arrived by pack horse and foot from Bayswater station so fatigued that she was "hardly able
to move".
Miss Boyd was to board with the Garsides (recommended by District Inspector Gamble). She found this
arrangement difficult. The following extracts from her letters to the Education Department, give a great insight into
these early conditions.
On November 17, 1894, the day after her arrival, she wrote:
"...I beg the honour to state that Sassafras State School 3222 is not a fit place for a female teacher.
The building in which the school is held is in an extremely dilapidated condition. The boards of the walls
are from half to one inch apart mostly, from the door to the floor there is a space of six inches through which the
wind whistles, while the shingle roof is so open that the rain pours in from at least twenty different places. The floor
1 Public Records Office(PRO) Laverton Vic.Letters Ref.VPRS 195/1806 1/10/1893

2 PRO VPRS 795/1806 8/11/1893
3 E.Wootton loc cit, and Stan Storrie in the 1970s.
4 PRO VPRS 795/1806 June 1895. Photograph on file at SPS.
5 Ibid
6 copy of letter on file at SPS
7 H.Coulson op cit pp353-354
8 PRO VPRS 640/1910 23/10/1894 copy of letter on file at SPS.
9
is of rough slabs which are fitted so badly that in some places they are fully three inches apart. Consequently the
draught is something unbearable.
My discomforts do not end with school hours. I have to board at a settler's house which is of the most
primitive description. At present they only have a kitchen, across a part of this is hung a curtain. In a corner of this
I have to retire...
I could not innumerate all the discomforts I have to content against. Probably a male teacher could put up
with this, but it is too much for a female and I am certain I could not survive it...(I have) contracted a severe cold
through having to sit and sleep amid such draughts.
There is no way of getting my trunks up the mountain and I cannot even change my clothes.."
She then requested a transfer so that she
"might preserve (her) health and remain capable of doing (her) duty."
One month later on December 17, Miss Boyd wrote:
" I could not obtain either proper food or lodging at Mrs Garside's...(as she has been) in very delicate health and
having a baby only two days old she is quite unable to attend to a boarder.
Consequently, most of the household duties fall upon Mr. Garside, even to making the bread etc. The bread
is so bad that I could not eat it nor anything else provided.
So desperately hungry, I walked seven and a quarter miles to Bayswater and from there went to Melbourne
and obtained enough provisions to last me a few days..."
She went on to request something be done about the school building,
"..it being injurious to my health...the rain pours down wetting the children and myself leaving hardly a dry spot in
the room. This sort of thing interferes greatly with the schoolwork as I have constantly to change the position of the
children to try and keep them and their copies and books as dry as possible.
The timber surrounding the shelter shed...has been cut away for safety in case of bushfires leaving the
palings...to shrink and then split leaving apertures from one to two inches in every few feet of the walls. The
windows or door have not yet been attended to, the chimney smokes fearfully and as I have to keep the fire going
nearly every day this is very unpleasant.
If any officer of the Department could possibly spend one day at Sassafras State School 3222 he would be
able to bear out my statements.
Under these circumstances, I beg to request that the building be made more habitable so that I may be able
to fulfil my duties without injuring my health. I also request if this is considered a suitable place for a female
teacher and whether I will be compelled to remain here during winter.
I have the honour to remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
Theresa M Boyd1
Miss Boyd found a frontier community with children in great need. She must have
"wept tears of loneliness at night, and shared (her) pupils' pangs of hunger when the winter rains turned the misty
valleys into bogs and stopped the settlers going for more food".2
The Department reacted to Theresa Boyd's supplications perhaps deeming it not a suitable appointment for
a female teacher, and she did not have to spend the winter at Sassafras. On March 1, 1895, William H. Grigg arrived
from Ballarat to begin teaching at Sassafras School.3
Grigg took up residence in Ringwood, and walked daily to and from Sassafras Creek to teach(!)4
Sassafras State School at The Mechanics Institute 1895-1915.
1 PRO VPRS 640/1910 23/10/1894 copy of letter on file at SPS

3 PRO VPRS 640/1944 1/3/1895
4 Stan Storrie (1970’s) and other references.
10
Sassafras State School 1901 or 1902 at the Sassafras Library and Mechanics Institute. The Head Teacher is James
McCann with forty students, including Syd and Les Storrie.
Agitation continued by the local community and W.H.Grigg for improved accommodation for the children.
William Jones wrote to the Education Department on June 5, 1895 complaining about the state of the school, and
urging something be done about it.
On June 8, Capt. Garside suggested that the Education Department may rent the Mechanics Institute, which
was then nearing completion, for 2/6d per week in order to relocate the school. A plan of the Mechanics Institute, to
be built on the Reserve, was included in the application. It was to be a 30 feet, by 18 feet, by 10 feet high, lined
wooden building with a brick chimney. The petition was signed by 21 families on behalf of their 46 children.1
A formal request was made was made on June 17, 1895, to close the school until better accommodation
could be provided.2
In a letter to the Education Department of June 18, Grigg reiterated the concerns of the Sassafras
community about the terrible state of the shelter shed, saying that the children’s attendance was falling off (from 32
to 15 over five weeks) due to
"..some of the children being too ill to attend and others are kept home to avoid serious illness...
The children are mostly very poorly clothed..and not able to withstand the severe weather experienced in
the mountains. They cannot get to school without walking along the creek..(and) arrive wet and muddy.
I have arranged the desks so that the children are as close to the fire as possible; but while their fronts are
warm, their backs are cold and I have to give them turn about the fire...
The parents are sending to me to know how many days their children have got to attend to avoid
summonsing for neglect..
I think it would be kind to close the school till repairs were made or the mechanics finished."3
The Education Department convened a "Board of Advice" to consider Griggs' letter and the Chairman
agreed with Griggs' recommendations, stating in his report that the old building was,
"a splendid place for colds Rheumatics Bronchitis Inflammation of the lungs and if the department wishes the
1 PRO VPRS 795/1806 8/6/1895
2 PRO VPRS 795/1806 17/6/1895
3 PRO VPRS 795/1806 17/6/1895
11
Children educated in that direction and to get rid of them to the next world they can take the responsibility for
doing so." 1
He went on to recommend transferring the school to the Mechanics Institute, shortly to be available when completed.
.
The philanthropist James M. Griffiths, the tea merchant, and his wife Emily, of "Ferndale" in The Basin,
had provided the answer to the school's accommodation problem. Griffiths had constructed the "Sassafras Library
and Mechanics Institute" and stocked it with a library at his own expense
"on the condition that any Protestant denomination should be permitted to use the building free of charge for
religious purposes."2
Griffiths donated a similar hall to Tecoma in 1907.
Gwen Horner has provided information about Griffiths from Helen Clarkson, whose father, Mr Ridley
Griffiths, was James’s great-nephew, and wrote much about this remarkable man and his wife. Their property,
“Ferndale”, in The Basin, had its own character, and was like a small village. It had a butchery, bakery, orchard and
green houses,3and through these facilities, Griffiths was able to provide much-needed employment as a charitable act
for Hills people during the 1890’s Depression.

2 H.Coulson op cit p354
3 Gwen Horner 1994.
12
Stan Storrie remembered Griffiths,
"..He used to drive up (to Sassafras) every Wednesday in a Phaeton, and a pair of cream ponies, and he would hold
religious instruction at the school and would have a large bag of boiled lollies for us all. This was in 1906."
Griffith would "read from the Bible, give (the children) apples, and let them share his dreams of planting
the mountain side with terraces of tea".1
On Empire Day (May 24) the flag was saluted by the children, the oath repeated, as it was on Monday
mornings into the 1960s,..
"I love God and my country, I honour the flag, I will serve the King, and cheerfully obey my parents, teachers and
the law", and "God Save the King" was sung.(The children knew all the words!).
Being their local patron, Griffiths would drive up from The Basin, "give the children a talk,...a sixpence and
a little gift."2
(Griffiths was killed with his wife and two others in 1925, being hit by a train on the Bayswater level
crossing because his watch was five minutes slow).
The Mechanics Institute was opened with a great display of local pride in July, 1895. A committee of
management was elected on August 1, and included G. Fisher as president, and W.Sharp, J.Dodd, W.Jones, J.Breen,
J.Mills and A.Goode on the committee.
The Sassafras State School shifted there on July 15, 1895. Classes were conducted in the main room, which
sometime after 1915 was used as the town billiard room. The second room was the library. 3 The rent to be paid by
the Education Department was four pounds per year.
The Education Department was slow in paying the rent for hire of the Mechanics Institute. On January 2,
W.H.Foster and A.Goode requested payment of arrears. By 1898, fifty two pupils were under instruction in the
building by Mr George Jackson, head teacher from January of that year. 4 Two of these were the young Sydney and
Stan Storrie of whom we shall hear more.
After the shifting of the school to the Mechanics Institute, there were still problems with lack of facilities
and poor conditions. Grigg requested a "Sewing Mistress" on December 3, 1895 and noted an "average" attendance
of 30 students.5 Truancy must have been quite high considering the numbers by 1896. Stan Storrie recalled as well in
a discussion with Hilary Dewar before he died, that many of the students were kept home by their parents when work
got too heavy on the allotments and there were chores to be done.
On April 26, 1897 Jackson requested the Department to obtain permission from the Lands Department to
build a shelter shed on the Crown Reserve with voluntary labour provided by the settlers, as "there is no shelter of
any kind from the wind and the weather."6 This reflects the township's exposure to the weather. There is no record as
to whether these requests were met.
Such requests for shelter from the weather for the students, recur throughout the next century of the history
of Sassafras State School, due to the long winters in the Hills.
Jackson requested a water tank for the use of the school on November 1, 1898, and by this time, because of
greater town settlement, in the words of Distinct Inspector Gamble, who endorsed this request, the need was
"..urgent...as the creek water is liable to pollution by the settlers."
A tank was erected.7
Miss Ada Graham, sewing mistress at the school about 1900, had great difficulty getting to school due to
"the exceptionally severe weather" during the winter months.8
From the 1890's until World War One there were new settlers and an increasing demand for facilities to
educate their children.
Mrs Avis Smith recalled in 1994, that her mother, May Gill (later Lawrence), attended the Sassafras School
from about 1898, until she left school on 7 December, 1904: the day she turned fourteen.
May was born in 1890, one of eight children of English migrants, Fred and Eva Gill who immigrated from
Yorkshire in 1888. They moved from Richmond in the 1890’s Depression and selected land on Perrins Creek Road
in what was then South Sassafras (now Kallista) when May was about eight years old, in 1898. Mrs Smith wrote that
her mother told her that,
1 J.Larkins op cit p101-102
2 Mrs Earney of Olinda, quoted in R.Neal Recollections/A History of Olinda Primary School C.1990 p12 H.Coulson op cit p354
3 Hilary Dewar op cit.
4 The presence of the water tank vis-a-vis request for same, dates the Mechanics Institute photo to 1898. Therefore there were at
least 52 pupils in that year. *Hilary Dewar, in a conversation with Syd in the 1970’s, formed the opinion that he may have begun
school on the first site at the Shelter Shed. Syd remembered it as horrible!
6 PRO VPRS 795/1806 29/4/1897.
8 E.Wootton loc cit
13
“..they used to cross Perrins Creek Road, then the creek, up the hill and walk with the children from Warwick Farm.
They didn’t go to school on rainy days (possibly due to the flooding of Perrins Creek)..(The School) was about two
miles away. The children from Warwick Farm may have been called Barrett, but I am not sure.”9
Many of the old families who still remain today, arrived in the area at this time. A notable early family was
the Storries.
The late Syd Storrie has left a splendid record written in 1970 and 1978 (when he was in his eighties), of
this early period which gives a wonderful insight into what life was like for a young student of Sassafras Primary
School at this time. It was a "Tom Sawyer" existence, despite its hardship and danger. As it speaks so eloquently for
itself, I shall reproduce much of it in its entirety below.
Syd's father James, having lost his job and house in the nineties depression, in 1895 or 1896, applied
successfully for a selection. James had been an engineer in the north of England and immigrated in the 1870’s. He
brought his family from Melbourne to live in a log cabin:
"A two roomed hut with split slabs and a shingle roof, and a so-called lean-to at the rear...built by him out of
mountain ash..the only things bought for this being nails, glass, hinges (and) locks."
The selection was above the Sassafras creek, one mile below the township.
His wife, Adelaide and their children had stayed with relatives in Hawthorn whilst the home in the hills was
prepared. When it was ready, he and his wife walked from Bayswater pushing a pram in which a child (brother Les)
and a hen rode side by side (!). In 1899 when two weeks old., Stan was brought to Sassafras on the back of a pack
horse, up the “One-in-Twenty” Basin track.
Stan recalled in 1970,
"Mother came by train to Bayswater (terminus) then coach to The Basin, where father was waiting with a pack
horse. Provisions on one side and mother on the other side nursing me."
Syd also stated in the 1970’s that,
‘I came to live, and started (school) on the day the school was opened in the then new hall at Sassafras, now the
Mechanics Institute..on the day a new teacher George Jackson started (Syd would then have been 5 Years old)...My
whole schooling was obtained at Sassafras State School No.3222...
We used to keep a couple of cows, and pigs and grew fodder, in the form of oats and maize...and potatoes,
peas and beans, raspberries, black and red currants, Strawberries and gooseberries for the Victoria Market...(and)
later for the Cooperative Jam factory at Upper Fern Tree Gully, whose manager was a Mr McIntosh, who lived at
South Sassafras, now known as Kallista...
(McIntosh) organised a Drum and Fife Band at Sassafras of which I was a member. I can remember one
occasion when we boys marched from the Hall to The Basin, then over the Forest Road to the Shire hall at Fern
Tree Gully, where we performed...and then marched home again...Around about '97, a Sunday School was started
in the Hall by my father, Mrs J.Wannan & others, all members of the Plymouth Brethren...
9 Avis Smith 1994.
14
The Sassafras Drum and Fife Band outside the Fern Tree Gully Shire Offices in 1901, after walking from Sassafras
Gully. Syd and Les Storrie are amongst the group.
One of my memories is of the first Mafeking Day, when the then Colonel Baden-Powell was relieved (May 17, 1900:
*The Boer War, 1899-1902)... our teacher gave us the day off. We marched through the muck to Olinda and back,
with flags flying and singing and shouting, and on return an old Crimean War(*1854-56) Veteran settler named
Jimmy Werrin, went through his, as we deemed it, military drill, on top of a stump about seven feet high, in front of
our school, his weapon being a crowbar.(*this stump can be clearly seen in some of the c.1912 photos)
During the first ten years of settlement hardly a year went by without a bush fire somewhere in the Hills.
During the pre-settlement period the area was the habitat of the giant eucalypts (Regnans) and not far
from our home, was the remains of a tree called the "King of the Forest". When I first saw it, it had been burnt...but
was reputed to (have been) seventy five feet in girth... Later only a few hundred yards away, a settler names Miller
felled another tree, not quite so large, which took him a week to do so in stages...I put a tape around it...and made it
forty five feet.(*this would have been in the vicinity of Colehurst Crescent today, off Sassafras Creek Road)
...devastation (was) caused by the clearing of the land by the settlers, to grow crops and fruit trees...(now)
it is heartening to see how nature has taken over the rehabilitation of the area...Mr Arthur Goode...is reported to
have introduced the blackberry (*it may have been Baron von Mueller..see previous pages)...as the clearing of
timber proceeded, this plant took over and at one time threatened to cover everything...the resurgence of native
plant life especially in the gullies, has forced them to die out and only in cleared areas now are they a pest.
The fires of 1898 destroyed much of Gippsland. Being only eight years old, and the teacher at that time
(*G. Jackson), having sent us home early in view of...the strong north wind, told one of the older girls who lived
about half way to my home, to see me home but when we came to her place, she gave me a shove and told me to get
home.
The fire had come down the ridge from Olinda, and was burning fiercely between myself and home, and I
had to leave the track and dodge round burning trees and scrub in the gully before getting to the door.
The smoke and heat affected my eyes, so (Mother) put me in the darkened bedroom for a while, and told
me to lie down. I had to get up two or three times to put out small fires in the room from sparks igniting the hessian
lining.
15
My father was on the roof without a break for forty eight hours, with a wet bag putting out the sparks as
they dropped on to the split shingle roof. Some time later he covered these (shingles) with corrugated galvanised
iron.”
In the bushfires of 1914 that nearly wiped out Sassafras Creek, 14 year old Stan Storrie (the younger
brother of Syd) spent the whole day on the shingle roof of his parents' house trying to save it, with his parents and
sister relaying water from the creek.1
Syd continued his narrative:
“ Another summer, my brother Les and I went fishing for black fish in Woori Yallock, to the east of Monbulk...a
distance of at least five miles (*closer to a ten mile return trip!)...We saw a column of smoke rising over
Monbulk...When we arrived at the township, everything seemed to be burning..."
The Monbulk township was effectively wiped out, and the Storrie brothers walked home via Nathania
Springs, where they got
"a welcome drink of spring water ..We were pleased to get out of that and home to tea, without any further trouble...
Some of the boys in those early days, used to have a competition going home from school, to see who could
go the greatest distance on fallen logs without touching the ground and we found it possible to do so for at least two
thirds of the distance.
My job after school was to keep the wood box full for both the open fire and stove...
I was at school until about the summer of 1904, when I passed my merit certificate, (sat) at Mt Dandenong
School(*end of Grade 8) and left to go to work as a general rouse-about for Mr Plowman, who was a building
contractor (*selection near Grandview Road)...
My job was to feed and milk the cows, feed pigs & poultry, and keep the house supplied with fuel, as well
as attend the customers at the little shop...and generally look after the garden at his home, Lorna Doone (still
standing today)...
About 1906, there was a heavy fall of snow in excess of 12 inches and the cows broke out of the paddock,
and I had to look for them in the bush on the western face of the hill...I remember finding them late in the morning,
and foundering up to my knees, and taking them home and feeding and milking them, my feet and legs were so cold
that Mrs Plowman made me take off my boots and stockings and thaw them out with hot water, which was
somewhat painful...
Along with the rest of Victoria, working conditions improved after...the Boer War...when I went to
Melbourne in 1907 to be apprenticed as an engineer. My father was working at his trade regularly."
Syd's brother Stan recalled his school years at Sassafras Primary. He was at Sassafras school from 1906 to
1914,
"..where I walked one mile each way. In winter the road was about one foot deep in mud, so I used to keep a dry
pair of shoes at school, and extra socks to change into...(I had to) milk up to six cows before school, then carry that
milk one mile and deliver (it) before school."
Families were so poor and isolated from commerce, that many of the children did not even have shoes to wear!2
Stan recalled the school's picnic holiday, occasions which were warmly remembered by generations of
Sassafras children until well after World War 2 (although it was suspended during World War 1, 1914-1918).
Similar fond memories of the school picnic, usually to the beach, recur in the accounts of ex-Sassafras
students throughout the century for over sixty years.
Stan Storrie remembered his trip to the beach, at a time when excursions and motor cars were rare, and
people travelled little. It was not uncommon for people to spend their entire lives in the area where they were born.
Many Hills children had never seen the sea, and the “big”, once-in-a-lifetime, train trip from Melbourne, might have
been a person’s “Honeymoon”-stay at an early Dandenongs guest house.
Stan wrote of how the picnic began...
" The Annual School Picnic, where children from every school in the Shire (of Fern Tree Gully) spent a day at the
beach, was a feature of the district for (over) 40 years. The picnic began as an outing for Sunday School children
attending the Fern Tree Gully Church of England and was originated by the Rev.F.W.R.Newton (about 1905)..
At that time few hills children had the opportunity of visiting the beach, and the outing proved so popular,
that Rev.Newton is believed to have approached the Council with a request that the picnic should include all school
children within the Shire and that the day be declared a Shire holiday. The picnic certainly enjoyed the patronage
of the Council and for many years the Shire President of the day was the Chairman of the Picnic Committee...
In the early days special Puffing Billy trains carried the children with their parents and friends to Fern
Tree Gully where steam trains carried on and went to Brighton Beach, Mordialloc and the Bayside Beaches.
The Children (young and old) enjoyed one glorious day of sea and sunshine during the month of February.
1 J.Schauble op cit p13

2 Hilary Dewar 1994, Shirley Bye 1994
16
(It was usually the second or third Friday) so we had the weekend to get over it."
On 17 March, 1910 the Advertiser noted of the Shire picnic
"there was abundance to eat and drink for young and old. Some of (the children)..had never seen the sea before,
and nearly went wild with delight."
By 1913, the numbers of people from the Shire attending the picnic had grown to 1,500.1
Stan left school in 1914, and initially earned his living trapping and shooting the rabbits now plaguing the
ranges. He said he averaged about six pairs each day, and sold them to the many guest houses.
The Dandenong Ranges settlements gradually became less isolated. At South Sassafras in 1894, selector
David Andrade called a public protest meeting, complaining of the isolation of the settlements that were in "no man's
land", and wanting the government to extend the railway to the Hills.2 Although the railway was never extended from
Belgrave up the mountain, by the turn of the century some of the old tracks had been upgraded to gravel roads.
Sassafras began to attract tourists.
From about World War 1, Sassafras’s postal address was no longer “Sassafras-via-Bayswater”, and access
to Sassafras from Upper Ferntree Gully for the mail and transport became more important than the earlier connection
through The Basin. About this time (c.1905), eight years old Bob Clarke used to ride his horse to Ferntree Gully to
pick up the mail for the Sassafras people.
Arthur Goode ran coaches during the summer months to Bayswater and Fern Tree Gully Railway Stations
from about 1896 until 1910, when W.E.Clarke (who was Bob Clarke’s father), took over the business. At sixteen
years of age, Bob Clarke was allowed to drive the coach. This would have been around 1913. Ralph Jones later
drove for the Clarkes. Harry Dodd’s coaches of Olinda gave them competition. The fare was 1/6d each way from
Upper Ferntree Gully to the Olinda terminus.3
Some of the best known guest houses were established such as Jones' "Sassafras House(1894-1924),
“Rostrevor” (originally known as “Mountain Rest”, built with local split palings and slabs the old way in 1897),
Plowman's "Lorna Doone"(1904), Boulter's "Bella Vista", Murdoch's "Clovelly" (Rupert Murdoch's great-aunt),
Green's "Dewrang" and “Hinckley Guest House”. The Storrie family got into tourism themselves: James and
Adelaide Storrie opened "Kelway" guest house in 1907, and after the First world War Syd Storrie and Tom Craven
opened "Monreale" in 1923.4
Allan’s produced the earliest road map of the area in 1903, showing fledgling tourist facilities and a well
graded Tourist Road accessing Sassafras from Upper Ferntree Gully, The Basin and along Sassafras Creek Road
from South Sassafras.
By 1912, the Country Roads Board was established, leading to slow improvement of the roads. In 1913 Les
Storrie established, with Harry Tutt (another pioneering family), the first motor transport in the area.
The first Tutt and Storrie "service car" was a Cadillac, later followed by six or eight Hudsons. Les Storrie
opened the garage in 1913, serving "Kalif" motor spirit (now Mobil). His son, Brian, still runs this business in
Sassafras.
The age of the motor car had arrived for the many tourists visiting the area, staying at the many guest
houses, and heralded great changes for the area..
The citizens of Sassafras continued to take an active interest in their children’s education.
In 1903, the Education Department considered closing the Sassafras State School, and a petition of October
26, 1903, signed by the 41 residents on behalf of 46 school age children succeeded in keeping the school open. 5
Ninety years later, the Department would again unsuccessfully try to close the little school.
In 1906, A.G.Plowman, representing the parents, wrote to the Department objecting to the proposed
appointment of a certain Mrs Beatty, after Sassafras' previous Head Teacher, H.J.Cole was transferred to Olinda as
their first Head. The reason for these objections give an interesting insight into proprieties of the time with regard to
family, the role of females, and women teachers, in particular.
The difficulty was that Mrs Beatty was a married woman with..
"..a family of Seven (7) Children, the youngest being under two (2) years of age & as Parents we feel that it would
be impossible for her to carry out the Duties of the Position." (Feb 06)6.
Nevertheless, the Department was mindful of this protest, and Mr Ralph R.Curry was appointed. Mr Cole
1 M.Jones op cit. p138

2 M.Jones op cit p138 35 A.Reid op cit p16
3 Numerous personal references
4 H.Coulson op cit pp352ff and other references.
17
returned to teach at Sassafras after three months.7
Typical of many of the early teachers, Curry became an active and committed member of the local
community. He purchased the block from P.Cadby upon which the current school stands, and his daughter Dorothy
later married Les Storrie.
Perhap the most famous early guest house, :”Mountain Rest”, later known as “Rostrevor” in 1911. This was built in
1897 of hand-split and adzed local timber.
7 PRO VPRS 795/1806 12/6/1912 R.Neal op cit
18
19
Sassafras State School Gains its Present Site: 1915.
The Education Department bureaucracy burgeoned after the turn of the century. There were eight grades, often
taught simultaneously in one room, in State Schools at this time. At the end of Primary School, all grade six students
sat an examination for the Qualifying Certificate and the Merit Certificate in the eighth year, after which most left
school at the age of fourteen or fifteen.
A fourteen year old with a Merit Certificate would be eligible to enter the work force. Several Eighth grade
students on leaving Sassafras sought employment as teachers there, and applied to the Education Department to
become “pupil teachers” under the supervision of the Head Teacher.1
The position of “pupil teacher” in the Department then, indicates that around the turn of the century,
teaching was considered more of a non-academic and unqualified apprenticeship. For the academically-inclined
children of poor parents, becoming a pupil teacher was the one of the few ways open for them to eventually attain
part-time, a university degree by later attending Teachers’ College...
“...for most teachers...their jobs, inadequately paid as they were, represented some improvement over the economic
position of their parents. Thus they could, in turn, do better by their children, who...could go to University as full-
time students and have other, more lucrative professions open to them.”2
If the teachers’ lot was not always a happy one, women teachers were worse off than their male
counterparts. They were paid less for the identical work and they had many more restrictions placed upon them by
the Education Department.
Until well after the First World War, women teachers were forbidden to marry during the term of their
contract, and had to resign if they wished to enter into matrimony. Amongst other restrictions, they were not allowed
to smoke; not dress in bright colours; wear at least two petticoats, and not wear a dress any shorter than two inches
above the ankle! 3
The chances of promotion for female teachers were considerably less than male teachers. Although then, as
now, Primary Teaching was predominantly an occupation for females, of the thirty-four Head Teachers over the
century at Sassafras schools, only eight have been female; the majority of these corresponding to the war years when
the men were away.
The position of Sewing Mistress was held in high regard and fiercely contested in Sassafras by the women
of the area. Sewing and needle work was of vital importance in the daily lives of women at the time, as most clothes
were hand-made. If there was more than one applicant for a position, then the District Inspector would conduct an
examination, not in needlecraft, but in "writing and arithmetic".4
The Curriculum at the turn of the century was firmly based upon the three R’s (Reading, ‘Riting and
‘Rithmatic). Courses were laid out by the Education Department, who prescribed the textbooks, and there was a high
degree of uniformity throughout Victoria. From 1903, all Primary Schools used the English School Royal Reader I-
V as the basic text, and,
“..many children learnt to read from the Primer and the First book, both of which had a phonic. The First book
represented a progression in phonic and look-and-say work...In 1902 the first Copy books were released. The books
portrayed a bold legible small hand. Writing position and style were prescribed,..letter formation had (to be)
mastered.”5
Arithmetic in the first decade of this century was taught as number study in the lower classes.
“The Infants and Lower 1 should deal with numbers to 12 exhaustively: this includes (all) operations. The coins,
weights, measures, and fractions knowing numbers up to 12 should be taught from actual objects, and the number
lessons should constantly illustrate their practical use. In every class mental arithmetic should be a special feature;
mental should always precede written arithmetic and should deal with simpler examples of all types of work given
for practice on slates. From the earliest stages to the end the work should be thoroughly practical; the children
should actually measure land, tanks, etc.” (1905)6
1 E.Wootton op cit
2 C.Semmler (ed) 1974 ed. B.James “The Advancement of Spencer Button” Angus and Roberson, Brisbane. 1950. L.J.Blake
“Vision and Realization” Education Department of Victoria, 1973.
3 C.Semmler loc cit 1974
4 E.Wootton op cit
5 L.J.Blake loc cit 1973.
6 “Education” Multi Media Kit (AVEC) c.1978
20
The Merit Certificate was attained by Sassafras students upon the completion of Grade 8.
The Education Gazette in 1902, ordered that:

“At least one hour per week should be given to history by teachers...When the full course of geography is taken,
only half the above time will be expected.”
21
The importance of history and “civics” was to foster citizenship, Empire loyalty, respect for institutions and
hard work. The students learnt about the heroes of the past. The history was nearly always British history or had
British connections. The history text book of the time stated:
“Every teacher of experience will agree with Carlyle that the twin guiding lights of history are the map and the time
chart. History, more than any other subject, offers the teacher the opportunities of forming character in his pupils.”1
A typical course at Sassafras Primary in these years would have included the three R’s, transcription,
dictation, drawing, grammar, spelling (10 or 20 words, learnt over night to be tested), history (learning the dates of
English monarchs!), geography (primarily of the British Empire), poetry (memorising many classics), and sewing for
the girls.
At Sassafras Creek, the Mechanics’ Institute Hall was evidently inadequate for these tasks.
On June 12, 1912, an application was lodged with the Department by citizens of the Hills, for the
establishment of one central school to meet the requirements of Sassafras, One Tree Hill (Ferny Creek) and
Sherbrooke.2
On January 29, 1913 the Education Department purchased the Curry block for 110 pounds:
"an area of 1 acre 34 perches(or 1.25 acres). Forming part of Allotment 19, Section D, parish of Monbulk, county
of Evelyn, as a site for school purposes, the erection of a building is to be considered."3
On April 17, 1913, the sum of 460 pounds was granted by the Department for the construction of a new
school building on this site. The size was to be 26 feet 6 inches by 24 feet, to accommodate 50 children.4
It is interesting to note that the average monthly attendance at Sassafras for 1913 was only between 27 and
30 students.5
This evidently smaller enrolment, combined with the building of a larger school by the Department,
indicates either
1. a higher official enrolment figure and much truancy (due to chores on the farms, or young "Tom
Sawyers" fishing for black fish?),
2. clever lobbying by the parents and a real fall in enrolment (a major bushfire had nearly wiped out the
township in 1913 and again in 1914), or
3. the expectation of growth in the area by the Department.
The building of a bigger school may indicate some, or all, of the above three factors.
The Education Department had still not called for tenders for the new building by 14 August 1914, and the
parents complained in writing to the Department on that date.6
The new school building was completed on 27 January 1915, at a cost below the grant of 379 pounds 16
shillings. There is no record of exactly when the students moved in nor the opening ceremony, if any. However it
must probably have been in February 1915, at the beginning of that school year.7
This building is now the grade 5 and 6 classroom and forms the kernel of the current school buildings.
Harry (Mick) Dahllof, the nephew of Harry Tutt of Tutt and Storrie “Service Cars”, who is now 86 years
old,8recalls his first teacher as being Mr.Curry in 1914. He began school at the old Mechanics Hall and then moved
to the school’s present site across the road. Mick does not recall whether there was a ceremony when the site was
tranferred. One of the nearby Cadby cottages housed the post office after 1916, and there was a shop in front of the
current site of “Girira”, where then a house stood belonging to Mrs Earney.
Mick remembers the building on the present site, as having a cloakroom that was first entered through the
front door. Above the single class room, Mick remembers a motto:, “Do unto others as they would do unto you.” He
also recalls a teacher named Miss Monica Sharp, who used to strap the boys’ legs if they misbehaved. He remembers
another teacher named Miss Davison.9
1 W.Gillies “A First Course in British History- Stories in British History for Young Australians”, Melbourne 1902.
2 PRO VPRS 795/1806 12/6/1912.
3 PRO VPRS 795/1806 29/1/1913
4 Ibid.
5 PRO VPRS 795/1806 not dated 1913
6 PRO VPRS 795/1806 14/8/1914
7 PRO VPRS 795/1806 not dated
8 Harry (Mick) Dahllof, as of 1994, is the amongst the oldest ex-pupils of Sassafras Primary School.
9 Harry (Mick) Dahllof as told to Hilary Dewar, 1994.
22
The current school site, c.1912. The Cadby Cottages are on the left. The Mechanics Institute, then the school site, is
in the middle of the picture. Hinckley guest house is diagonally opposite, on the other side of the road. Sassafras
House in the background to the right.
23
The School During World War One and the Twenties:
There is little surviving direct evidence of the school during World War One, however strong inferences may be
drawn from elsewhere. Doubtless the Sassafras children and community would have been caught up in the patriotic
fervour of the time.
Evidently a higher proportion of men enlisted from the Shire of Fern Tree Gully than in the community at
large (there was a particularly large contingent from South Sassafras who enlisted)1, and in 1916 Shire employees not
already enlisted were given fourteen days to do so or face dismissal.
1 A.P.Winzenried op cit p135.
24
Miss Murdoch's guest house Clovelly (then called Braco Park) was used during the First world War as a
Nurses' Home by the Red Cross.
By 1918 a local church paper reported that
"four more of our local boys have sacrificed their lives in the cause of justice and honour."
In 1918,
"the armistice was celebrated enthusiastically by the citizens of the Shire...The Council provided the sum of 10
pounds for the entertainment of school children, and effigies of the Kaiser were...destroyed at bonfires that were a
feature of the celebrations."1
Without a doubt, Sassafras students would have been involved in the State-wide drive by school children to
help re-build the shattered towns of Flanders such as Villers-Bretonneux and Pozieres. They were rebuilt after the
war with the farthings from the pocket money of Victorian children, just as the Shrine of Remembrance was built
with the help of similar donations in 1931.
Some Sassafras pupils helped plant the chestnut trees on the Main Road as an "Avenue of Honour" for the
fallen of the district. Until it officially became "the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road", the stretch of the Main Road
from the War Memorial on Sherbrooke corner to the Clarkmont Road corner, was known as "Anzac Avenue". Some
older residents still use that address today. Each chestnut tree that lined the road, originally had a plaque underneath
it commemorating a local who had fallen in the Great War. Most would have been past Sassafras State School
students.2
In 1920, the cenotaphs commemorating the war dead went up in the Shire, and Sassafras State School
housed the district Honour Board (now held in the RSL).
On Armistice Day each year, a service was held and a laurel wreath placed on the school Honour Board
until it was removed in the late 1980’s, when Brian Kent was Head Teacher. Hilary Dewar recalls this being
presented to the R.S.L. for "safe keeping".3
Prior to World War 1 the Right Honourable William Morris Hughes had a house in the area named in
Welsh, “Ty-Coed”.4In 1916 or 1917, as the then Prime Minister, he escaped the political controversies of the day,
such as the great Conscription Debates of the First World War, by coming to Sassafras and the Hills. The caretaker
of his property was Mr Lloyd, who was a cousin of the bushranger, Ned Kelly. Hughes fought bushfires with the
locals and rode the gullies on horseback. Hughes was a keen golfer and used to request to play golf with my father
Ray Smith, then a boy, at the Emerald Country Club, where my grandfather, Arthur Smith, was the manager.
In 1920, as Prime Minister, W.M Hughes brought the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) to his home at
Sassafras. The Prince holidayed for a week and made a well reported horseback ride with him through the bush to
Olinda, stopping for billy tea on the way.5
The Prince of Wales greeted the school children, and each child was given a letter signed by His Royal
Highness.6 On the same occasion, 25 officers and ratings were entertained at the Mechanics Institute. 7The young
Ralph Jones was asked to look after a tree planted by The Prince of Wales, which was added to Anzac Avenue in
1920.
Ralph Jones remembers this period of Sassafras history well. He is the oldest living pupil of the school still
residing in Sassafras. Ralph will be 81 years of age this October, and he and his wife Dulcie celebrate their sixtieth
wedding anniversary in the weekend of the Centenary celebrations of the school. Ralph started at Sassafras State
School about 1919.8
It was from the 1920’s through to today, that the school fulfilled a higher democratic service to the wider
Australian community, serving as a polling booth in Federal, State and Local elections.9
School life at Sassafras, and indeed elsewhere, right up to the Forties, had a certain stability about it, based
upon standard curriculum, limited resources and fairly fixed values based on such things as Empire loyalty. The
Royal connection remained strong. Earlier, at the time of Federation in 1901..
"The children (of Sassafras) heard of the excitement in Melbourne occasioned by the arrival of the Duke
and Duchess of York (for the opening of the Federal Parliament ) and were
proud of the tree ferns cut down in their own bush and taken to the city to decorate the streets."10
2.Shirley Bye 1994, Ralph Jones 1994, Gwen Horner 1994., Jan Diamond 1994.
3 Hilary Dewar, personal communication, 1994
4 Jan Diamond 1994, Hilary Dewar 1994,
6 R.Neal op cit p8
8 Ralph Jones 1994. Interviewed by Hilary Dewar.
9 E.Wootton op cit.
10 J.Larkins op cit p.101. Larkins remarks that today's conservationists would have a "fit" over this!
25
Rod Neal writes that Mrs Earney of Olinda remembers the whole of the Olinda Primary School going to
Kenloch to hear the radio broadcast of the opening of the new Parliament, when it moved to Canberra in 1927.
Doubtless this event would have been as important for Sassafras students, however I have found no direct
evidence of whether they, too, were there.
The 1920’s saw the introduction by the Department, of the Education Department of Victoria School
Readers from Book One to Book Eight, and this became standard curriculum. There were also new Federal
arithmetic, history and geography text books, used Australia-wide, but often based upon English texts. Each month
the Education Department published the School Paper, which cost each student a penny. This was used along with
the school readers, to develop reading skill. Additional library books were non-existent.Physical Education was
expanded in schools, largely based upon army drill!In the Twenties, the three R’s were still very important, however
there was a growing emphasis being placed on the development of the student for later life.1
Pupils of the time remember the slates, slate pencils and a cloth for cleaning in Grades 1 and 2, and exercise
books in grades 3 to 8, where pens with nibs and ink wells were used (indeed up until at least 1965). The stools had
no backs and the students used to spit on their slates to clean them.2
Some improvements were made however. A shelter shed (the present school shed) was erected circa 1920,
originally with lattice sides. Jan Diamond can remember the shelter shed ,
"lattice walls intact and no door standing obviously as it had since 1920, when (she) was at school up to 1961."3
On 26 November, 1928, electric light was installed in the school, which would have been a welcome
addition because of the long winters in the Hills.4 Also sometime in the 1920s, the Sassafras State School Mothers'
Club was established.
Discipline was often rigid and, hopefully, fair. According to Evan Wootton, in the 1920’s there was a
Departmental investigation
at Sassafras into a parent complaint, alleging cruelty by the Head Teacher.
Who this parent was is not stated. I cannot verify his source, however he uses the masculine "he" when
referring to the Head Teacher. In the twenties however, it can only have been either Florence M.Parker (1918-20),
Jessie Reid (1920-24), Dorothy Humberg (1924-25) or Johanna Holden (1926-28). The next male Head teacher was
Ernie Jones who took over in 1930.
This story may have substance and is at least apocryphal. The Head teacher apparently made the boys stay
outside at lunchtime during rainy weather in the small shelter shed with walls of lattice, whereas the girls were
allowed to remain inside.
The charge of cruelty was found to be apparently baseless, as it was found that, because there was only one
school room, the boys actually chose to stay outside rather than lunch with the females.5
New settlers moved into the area in the Twenties and Thirties, and new businesses were established. Shirley
Bye’s father established a boot repair shop in Sassafras about 1923 and the business supported his young family from
that year.6
1 L.J.Blake loc cit 1973.

3 Jan Diamond 1994.
4 PRO VPRS 795/2719 26/11/1928
5 E.Wootton op cit
6 Shirley Bye 1994.
26
Sassafras 1918, looking towards Olinda. The 1915 school building, on the current site may be seen in the centre of
the photograph, middle distance. Cadby cottages may be seen to the right rear of this. The Mechanics Institute is on
the right of the Tourist Road. Sherrard’s store is in the right foreground. Sassafras House is at the bottom of the
picture..
27
28
The Sassafras State School pupils of 1925. Twenty seven students in one class. Who is the little boy in the second
row from the front, on the right?
29
Sassafras in the early 1930’s. Mechanics Institute and the Cabaret are on the left, and Storrie’s
Garage is on the right
Sassafras 1936.
30
The School During The Thirties and The Great Depression:
“Memories of the Good Old Days”
Soon- when I am there,
On Dear Sassy street,
I know I’ll be happy with,
former School Mates, I’ll meet.
When I close my eyes,

Our old School I “see”,
And “hear” happy voices
In the Playtime, so free.
Just the one Room

And Cloakroom beside,
Eight Grades within,
And one Teacher to guide-
And educate us
In the way we should learn,
The 3R’s, and all that.
Oh, how my heart yearns-

For the old days, the old ways;
We’ll never forget,
And we’ll think of the Good Mates
Only, not here- they cannot be met.
For They’ve gone before,
In that time long ago,
But they’re with us in spirit,
As only, we know.
Shirley Kloester (Stanford)
...a student of the 1930’s at Sassafras.
During the Great Depression of the 1930's, again men took their families to the Ranges to try to sustain
themselves. The tourist industry and commodity production was hard hit. The magnificent environment however
attracted the artists. At this time the Hills were home to C.J.Dennis (Tecoma), Tom Roberts (South
Sassafras/Kallista) and others from the 1920’s.1
Life was still comparatively simple and unhurried. The Knox Sherbrooke News interviewed Arthur Olver on
18 August, 1977 when he was 77 years of age. Arthur arrived in Sassafras in 1934 and began a carrying business,
running a "fleet" of one model T Ford and two model G Internationals. To make a living he had to work a 15 hour
day.
"They were great times",
When Arthur Olver arrived,
" there was a butcher's shop, two general stores, a plumber, a billiards room, a hall and a cafe. I can recall when
there were fourteen guest houses in Sassafras. They were always booked out. You had to book months in advance to
get in around Christmas...
Sassafras residents had to line up to await (their)..visit to the barber, and the locals used to meet at the
billiard saloon on a Saturday night because it was about the only place to go."
Mr Olver remembered the annual picnic when the whole of Sassafras "closed" and everybody went to the
1 Shirley Bye 1994. J.Larkin op cit pp127ff
31
beach.
In the Thirties, the school was still one classroom, with a passage which was a cloak room and entrance
porch. A coke heater was installed after 19371, and prior to that, the single school room only had an open fire, which
was inadequate for the cold weather. Further wood heaters were installed much later.
Norma Herbert (nee Dowsey) attended Sassafras from 1933 to 1942, along with her brothers Kevin and
Bill. She wrote in 1994:
“There was one room which in those days held eight grades. The only heating was an open fire at the front of the
room, and if you were sitting at the back, it was still freezing...
Our only playground equipment in those days were two swings at the front end of the two shelter sheds.”2
Shirley Bye attended the school some time between 1926 and 1938 as she remembers Johanna Holden
(1926-28), Ernie Jones (1930-35) and James R.Smith (1935-38) as Head Teachers. The school then had between 30
and 35 students.
Shirley Bye remembers teacher assistants in the school for two afternoons a week, and two sewing teachers
who also assisted with Grades 1 and 2, Miss N.McLarty and Miss Wigmore. She recalls sewing classes on Friday
afternoons on a Singer Sewing machine owned by the school. Another assistant was Edna France.
Shirley Bye says that credits were given to school work such as spelling, dictation and composition.3
Mrs Betty Graham (nee Earney) and Mrs Alma Fowler (nee Earney) both attended the school in the 1930’s.
Alma Fowler recollects the needlework and arithmetic teacher, Miss Wigmore, riding her horse to school
each day from Monbulk where she lived. Her fondest memories from school life in the Thirties were of the..
“annual picnic nearly always to Frankston in the back of a truck- generally two trucks, one for Mums and Dads, the
other for the children.”4
Shirley Bye also recalls the school picnic to the beach as an exciting event.
Norma Herbert has written an interesting account of one such school picnic, “the highlight of the year” in
the Thirties,
“...in those days we went to Frankston. We used to travel in the back of open trucks, which had high sides. The
trucks belonged to Mr Bert Earney, Mr Sam Harbinson and Mr Wally Breen. Seats would be placed down the sides
and middle and parents (mostly mothers) would travel on another truck. I am sure all the children on our
truck would remember the day as we were travelling down Stud Rd, when the truck stopped. Naturally we were all
wondering what was wrong, but we had run over a snake and the driver wanted to make sure that it had not been
thrown up into the back amongst us. Fortunately this was not so, so off we went again to our lovely day at the
beach.”5
This account indicates just how rare motor transport was at the time, as road safety considerations were
minimal in transporting the children, due to there being few other vehicles on the roads. Stud Road at the time must
have been very much “in the bush” with little traffic .
Mrs Graham, too’ has wonderful memories of the end of year break-up concert, held in the Sassafras
Mechanics Hall. Mrs Betty Graham remembers her mother playing the piano for the school concert.
Children would always be children, and Mrs Fowler goes on to write of,
“The flax bushes behind the shelter sheds (which) could tell many a funny story because in the shelter of these flax
bushes the boys had their first cigarettes, the girls their first kiss.”!6
Mrs Graham remembers a boy throwing an ink well at a teacher! Which boy and which teacher is not
recorded, however even in the Thirties, it is obvious that discipline was not always perfect!7
Sometimes imperfect discipline is also illustrated by Gwen Horner in an interesting anecdote about James
Smith. Apparently during his term (1935-38), his nephew attended the school,
“..and was the reason why two young sisters were removed to the Kallista State School. (The boy)..constantly
tormented one of the girls during classes with pinching and kicking and “Uncle Jim” refused to believe this of his
nephew!”8
Ralph Jones recalls some other noteworthy members of the Sassafras School in the 1930’s. Billy Guyatt
senior (whose son owns the retail chain), was the Australian champion bicycle rider over many years. Ernie Jones
was an expert swimmer, who Ralph remembers as the first person to swim from San Remo to Phillip Island.
1 Elaine Barrile 1994.

2 Norma Herbert 1994.
3 Shirley Bye 1994.
4 Alma Fowler 1994.
5 Norma Herbert loc cit.
6 Alma Fowler loc cit.
7 Betty Graham 1994.
8 Gwen Horner 1994. Shirley Bye 1994.
32
Shirley Bye has fond memories of the Monday morning flag ceremony, and the patriotism of the times.
These still remained recurring themes throughout the period.
Jack Earney who attended the school when Ernie Jones was Head (1930-35) shares Miss Bye’s memory of
the Royal visit of 1934.
"The Duke of Gloucester drove through Sassafras, (we) children lined the road at one point of the drive,"
wrote Shirley Bye. The Duke of Gloucester was paying a visit to Melbourne for the city's Centennial, and
visited the Shire of Ferntree Gully on 8 November, 1934.1
Jack Earney has fond memories of
" the glorious View from the back of the school..from The Basin (to) Melbourne & the mystic lakes that would occur
when the fog would start at the Basin & cover all Melbourne...Then as it lifted or receded you would see all the tree
tops or hill tops rising above the fog."
With the return of the forest of course, such a view would now be impossible from this spot.
Jack recalls that during winter his mother would make hot cocoa each day for the Sassafras pupils from
their free government milk. Mrs Irene English and other parents maintained the hot cocoa. The milk was too cold for
Sassafras students to drink in winter, so parents came up with this novel solution to make it into a more palatable hot
drink. Jan Diamond also remembers this practice continued well into the 1950’s.
Mrs English came "up the hill" from South Sassafras in 1937. She was an active member of the Ferny Creek
and Sassafras communities, and served as Sassafras School Treasurer for twenty-one years until about 1960. Mrs
English was also in the Mother's Club and on various committees over the years. She was involved in fundraising,
and helped obtain coke heaters for the school room, which still had a floor of bare boards and open fires.
She also helped raise money for a piano which is still used in the school today. She is still active in the local
C.W.A. at the age of 85 years. The local C.W.A. used to help with the annual Christmas concerts, fondly
remembered by the English family, that were held in the Sassafras Mechanics Institute in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
More will be said of this later.
Mrs English maintains her connection with Sassafras Primary to this day. In April, 1994 she demonstrated
sewing and knitting to some of the older Sassafras students, and this featured in the local paper.
Although she did not herself attend the Sassafras State School, her four children did. Elaine, Raymond,
Beverley and Valerie English were born in the Belgrave Private Hospital that used to stand near where the current
post office now is. (In the earlier generation, the doctor used to have to come up to Sassafras from Ringwood). The
attendance at the school of the four English children spans the Thirties, Forties and Fifties.2
Elaine (now Mrs Elaine Barrile) has given a wonderful account of how marvellous it must have been to be a
child at Sassafras State School in the Thirties and Forties. Her happiness at school then, positively brims through her
account of her time at school, written in 1994. The childhood hazards of life then, are also pointed to.
Before World War Two, regular epidemics of influenza(1919), smallpox and diphtheria in the 1920’s and
30’s, and in 1936, polio, threatened children throughout the state and of the school. Elaine Barrile wrote:
“I started school at Sassafras in 1937, when I was six years old. There had been an outbreak of polio the previous
year, so all five year olds had to wait until the next year to start school”.3
Bushfires were also a hazard for Hills children. Shirley Bye remembers some bushfires, when the fire siren
on Storrie's garage would sound.
The “Black Friday bushfires” of 1939 erupted during the school summer holidays saving the necessity to
evacuate the school.
Norma Herbert did not specifically recall Black Friday, but she remembered other fires in the 1930’s,
“when we were sent home...In those days very few people had cars, and those who did would be out fighting the
fires, so there was no thought of evacuation.”4
By the 1960’s, with more motor transport, children were evacuated, and in the 1990’s the first Fire Refuge
in Victoria was to be built at Sassafras Primary School in response to the “Ash Wednesday” bushfires of 1983.
1 H.Coulson op cit p36 Jack Earney 1994.

2 Irene English 1994.
3 Elaine Barrile op cit.
4 Norma Herbert op cit.
33
Commerce at Sassafras in the Twenties. Bye’s Boot Shop.
World War Two at Sassafras State School:
34
Just as in World War 1, Sassafras men responded to "the call" in 1939. The Shire of Fern Tree Gully farewelled
volunteers at a function in the Shire Hall in 1940. 1 Typical of many other locals, the youngest of the three sons of the
early settler, James Storrie, Stan Storrie joined up. So too did the Head Teacher of Sassafras school at the time,
Edward G.Follett (1939-42). They both enlisted in the R.A.A.F.
Follett's enlistment directly effected the school. Les Storrie's son Brian, Graeme Jones and Elaine Barrile
remember as students in 1945, being a short time without a teacher, as most of the male teachers were away at the
war. For a short while, the Sassafras students had to attend the Olinda school due to not having a teacher.
During World War 2 the school population was typically only about 30 students, reflecting the still rural
character of Sassafras.
After the war Mr Follett’s ranking in the Education Department was upgraded, so although he lived in the
area, he had to go on to a larger school.
Gwen Horner interviewed Mr Follett in 1994.
Mr Follett remembers the school as being only one room with school grounds too small to hold organised sport. To
accommodate this shortage of space, Graeme Jones and Norma Herbert both recall that he conducted practices for
the school sports against Ferny Creek, Olinda and Mt Dandenong, on the flat area below the Tourist Road, opposite
the school. This is where the bottom car park now is now situated.2
Shirley Bye too, recollects school sports days when Sassafras competed fiercely against Ferny Creek school
for a shield in the relay race. There was particular rivalry between Sassafras and Ferny Creek schools in sports
meetings.
Norma’s brother Kevin Dowsey remembers the football and swimming. Norma wrote:
“The boys used to walk to Olinda or Ferny Creek to play football against those schools. There were also swimming
lessons in the pool behind the Cabaret. This pool was filled by a pump from the Sassafras Creek and the water was
always very cold.”3
Gwen Horner recalls that Mr Follett bought a gramophone and records for the children to sing along to. One
of the popular songs he recalled the children liked to sing was, "There's a Tavern in the Town"! One of his jobs as
Head Teacher was to dig a hole in the grounds each week to empty the pans!4
Because of the manpower shortage, the women played a larger part at the school. Mrs Isobel Ford was
employed as a part time sewing mistress on Friday afternoons, and she helped with the reading on other days. There
were three Head Teachers in 1944-45, indicating the instability of staffing at the time due to the war. Also due to the
war, some the male teachers were young, or had to be brought out of retirement.
Elaine Barrile recalled one such young teacher as
“...Mr O'Donnell being younger than the other teachers we'd had. He taught us to dance at the old Sassy hall, and
he used to sing Irish songs to us..."
Mrs English remembers the "old gentleman", Mr Smyth being brought out of retirement to teach for six
months at Sassafras. He was a "lovely" teacher who lived in the Tremont area. 5 Graeme Jones remembers Mr Smyth
coming out to the school for six months when Mr August Harvey left.
Elaine Barrile also remembers Mr Smyth...
“Mr Smyth would let us do classes outside when the weather was nice.. We used to sit under a big oak tree, just up
from the school gate. He also took us on nature walks in the forest opposite the school, and we would walk right
down to Perrins Creek Road. I really loved those walks.”
Elaine had many other interesting memories of the war years at the school:
“ Mrs Earney lived next door to the school and she would play the piano for us to learn songs for our school
concerts. We would all form a single file and march into her living room and gather around her piano. It really was
a lot of fun.
During the war the girls (where) given wool to knit up into scarfs, socks and balaclavas. The scarfs had to
be six feet long and in rib. It seemed like one would never get to the end. They were collected by the Red Cross
ladies, and I would be madly knitting to get mine finished in time. Often Mum would help me; we would put our
names on them and hope that the airman or soldier who received them would write and say “hello”...
Every year we had a school picnic, and the first one that I went on (1937?) was to the Emerald Lake (*then
“Lake Treganowan”) on Puffing Billy. We went by bus to Fern Tree Gully station to get on Billy. It was a great
outing. I still love riding on that little train...Other times our picnics were at Mordialloc beach. I loved going there,
1 M.Jones op cit p217

2 Graeme Jones 1994
3 Norma Herbert op cit.
4 Gwen Horner op cit.
5 Ibid.
35
and still love the beach...
In the winter the Mothers Club ladies took it in turns to come to the school during the morning to make
lovely hot cocoa for us. I tried a cup the other day, but it didn’t taste as good as I remember it was...
For heating we had a coke heater in the middle of the room. We only had the one room then. The coke
heap was behind the shelter shed, and it was OUT OF BOUNDS. But we used to love to run and jump over it. One
day I fell and to this day I still have a piece of coke in my wrist. I was sent down to Mr Doolan the chemist, and he
picked it out.
During the war Mr Storrie had the air raid siren (on the roof of) his garage just down from the school1.
Now and then it would (sound)(probably testing it) and for years after the war I hated to hear an aeroplane going
over.
School sports days were real fun. We didn’t have many pupils. I don’t think we ever had any more than
twenty-five the whole time I was at school. But we would still get teams together and try our hardest to beat the
bigger schools...”2
The English family remember the Main Road "blacked out", and practise evacuations of the Sassafras
school, in preparation for expected air-raids. They recall that this threat of invasion was taken so seriously that the
Roman Catholic schools in Ferntree Gully were closed for the duration of the war, and their students were evacuated
to the Dandenongs and attended the State schools there. There were some of these students at Sassafras.
The English family also remember providing cakes and drinks organised by the Red Cross and C.W.A. for
soldiers convalescing from war injuries at Sassafras. They came up in buses for the day from the Heidelberg
Repatriation Hospital and meals and afternoon teas were provided for them at "The Cabaret" which burnt down in
1993. Elaine Barrile recalls serving them scones, jam and cream. Elaine also had a photograph of herself and other
Sassafras Primary students that was published in the local newspaper, with sailors of the Royal Navy on leave in
Sassafras from HMS King George V. She identified the students in the picture as including Irene James, Barbara
Jones, Rhonda Follett etc.. “and I think the other girl is Carole Lombard?” Actually not the Forties film star!3
Bob Horner moved to Sassafras in 1939, and relates that the Royal Children's Hospital evacuated some of
its facilities to the area during World War 2. "Sherbrooke House" was used for convalescence for the children, and
they moved the orthopaedic section to "Burnham Beeches". "Marybrooke" (later "Baron of Beef") was used as the
Nurses Home.4
Graeme Jones recollects two Danish refugee children, Kristan and Jane Neuman or Newman at Sassafras
about 1946.
Other important developments occurred in the Forties for the Hills. In 1944 both "The Save the
Dandenongs League" and the Country Fire Authority were formed, for the first time properly coordinating a local
1 It is still there today!(1994)

2 Elaine Barrile op cit.
3 Evidently the girl in question is not Carole Lombard, as she arrived at Sassafras later. (Hilary Dewar)
4 Bob Horner 1994, per Gwen Horner.
36
response to bushfires.
The latter was due to the experiences of “Black Friday” in 1939, and the increase in military training of the
men in the war years, it being organised in a orderly military manner. Prior to this, fighting fires had been "every
man for himself" with the help of neighbours when their property was safe.1
A strong connection is maintained between the school and the C.F.A. to this day by Bob Horner, Ron
Riddiford and others.2
When the war ended in 1945, the English family remember the sounding of the fire siren outside Storrie's
garage, and all the excited students running out of the school and down there to join "the party".
1 J.Schauble op cit pp30ff

2 Many long standing members of the Sassafras/Ferny Creek Country Fire Authority Brigade such as Ron Riddiford and Bob
Horner, have had close connections with the school. Bushfires are still a threat to the area, and the school works closely with the
local DISPLAN (Emergency Management Plan).
37
Head Teacher Norman Hallebone and Assistant Carmen Johns, and the Sassafras students c.1950.
Snowfall at Sassafras in 1952. The Mechanics Hall is on the left, and the Cabaret is left in the middle distance. Stan
38
Storrie said that there was a major snowfall every seven years, and a minor fall every three.
The Tenth Annual Sports Meeting of the Mount Dandenong State Schools Sports Association, Kalorama Oval, 1957.
39
After The War and The School in the Fifties:
In the ten years between 1939 and 1949, the population of the area nearly doubled. 1 Thus began the period
of Sassafras' greatest growth, reflecting it becoming increasingly a settlement for commuters to the suburbs and city.
In spite of this new influx, and probably because of the rustic nature of the Hills, the special qualities of the
area and the commitment to this by the new Hills residents, Sassafras Primary school was maintained and improved.
There was also a much greater emphasis being placed on students moving on to the new High Schools like Upwey,
established after the war.
To cope with this increase in population, a more organised approach was taken to life in the Dandenongs.
In 1947, the Mount Dandenong State Schools’ Association was organised to begin formal competition
between the Hills schools on the Kalorama Oval, rather than the somewhat ad hoc arrangements made previously
between Sassafras, Olinda, Ferny Creek and Mt Dandenong.
After the war Norman K.Hallebone became Head Teacher(1946-52) The Education Department however
still did not have the welfare of their staff as an uppermost organisational consideration.
Mrs Kath Hallebone well remembers this time, and gives a great insight into the period in a conversation
recalled by Mrs Gwen Horner in 1994. As with all the earlier Head Teachers, she said,
" Mr Hallebone was required to find his own accommodation and finally found a house in very bad repair...where
they (Mr and Mrs Hallebone) lived for 2 or 3 years, with their son John (then 6) and daughter Ruth (then 3).
Mrs Kath Hallebone recalls that the house was named "Walnut Lodge", but,
"was nicknamed "Tumbledoon" because of its bad state of repair. Norman Hallebone, a tall man, had to stoop to
enter the doorways. There was no water, no bathroom and a big tub had to be carried in for the weekly baths on
Sunday night. Lyrebirds came to the back door and daffodils appeared in their thousands in springtime."
The president of the Sassafras School Council (then called “School Committee” until 1975), at this time,
was Arthur Olver.
"He lobbied the government through Sir George Knox and a (teacher) residence was finally built below the school.
(*this is the fenced area below where "Nessie" now is)...Miss Zoe Glanville's great nephew Glanville Cornish visited
(us) in the sparkling new home,(and) christened it "Persil Dazzle" (from the popular soap powder) and that
nickname remains with the family to this day...a beautiful garden was created around this house from the nursery
(*established 1946) belonging to Mr Arthur Olver. During (Mr Hallebone's) term...the shelter shed was moved to
the south side of the school and, later the garage was built".
Gwen Horner goes on to relate that the Hallebone family were very musical and encouraged the children to
participate in the concerts held in the Sassafras Mechanics Hall.
Children were sent down to the residence and Mrs Kath Hallebone tutored in song and dance,
accompanying them on the piano. She also made costumes, and Mrs Hallebone remembers that on Empire Day, 24
May, all children wore red, white and blue, and sang "Rule Britannia!" Mrs Hallebone recalls it as a great day for
both the chidren and the community.2
The end of the year school concert continued to be a highlight of the local community's calendar, as it is
today. It was feted in the Free Press on December 26, 1947. They wrote then:
"The spirit of Christmas...was nowhere celebrated more fittingly-or more charmingly than at Sassafras..It was the
Sassafras State School Break-up Concert and Christmas Party and the whole countryside for miles around joined in
to make the occasion a really memorable one. The hall looked delightful, decorated with streamers and great bowls
of flowers, whilst flanking either side of the stage were two huge Christmas trees aglow with gay witch balls, stars,
garlands and tinsel and laden with gifts.
The neighbourly theme of Christmas formed the theme of the children's concert. Their teacher, Mr Norman
Hallebone has a great gift for organisation and excels in dramatic presentations. Aided by Mrs Hallebone, his
children's concerts are always outstanding.
The first item...was the singing of carols by the School Choir... Next..were recitations by Barbara Watts,
(including) "Vespers" by A.A.Milne...delightfully rendered..(next) An enchanting number by the "Littlies"-who
dressed in gay flower colo(u)rs clutching tight little Victorian posies showed how "Gardening could be done
without Tears." Allison Storrie, Barbara Watts and Shirley Hulme then entertained with a Tamborine dance.
(Several other items followed culminating in..) the final item on the programme...Ebenezer Scrooge's
Christmas which was perhaps the highlight of the evening."
The local press also highlighted an innovation of Mr Hallebone's, the Bird Day excursion to the Sherbrooke
Forest,
1 A.P.Winzenried op cit pp197 and 209

40
"Over 300 children accompanied by their teachers took part in the outing...quite a number of birds were seen and
listed...and some good imitations of bird calls were given. Children from the Mt. Dandenong School proved
themselves particularly good mimics...
Schools that took part were Dandenong East, Ferny Creek, Hallam Valley, Sassafras, Upper Ferntree
Gully, Mt.Dandenong, Wantirna, Wantirna South and Kooweerup."1
Sunday afternoon was relegated to burying the sewage, which, as for earlier Head Teachers like Ed Follett, was
another of Mr Hallebone's tasks!
This is not the matter of levity that it might seem. According to Evan Wootton, the school had written letters
to the Education and Health Departments since the 1920’s, requesting the installation of a septic system, to no avail,
until a student contracted scarlet fever in the 1950’s. Only then was the septic system installed: three decades after
the initial request.
The old toilets remained "down the back" until the 1970s. Lance Gardiner, whose family owned the
Sassafras newsagency remembers “the old timber slatted toilets” in the early 1960’s.2
Gwen Horner relates Ruth Scott’s (nee Hallebone) memory of the installation of the septic system in the
early Fifties and..
“the children being instructed how to use the “magic button” to flush the toilet. They were told how the solids
would be flushed away and end up in the septic tank...but when they experimented and ran down to the tank, they
found that the contractors had spoilt things by covering the tank with a concrete slab!”
Ruth Scott remembers when the school reached approximately seventy-six pupils, her father, Mr Hallebone,
received more staff,
“One Mrs Nolan with red hair kept in a bun, was classed as “viscious”. The children were made to keep their
hands on the table to stop fidgeting or else!! Others were a Miss Carol Barret just out of college and Carmen Jones,
- both very popular.” 3
Margaret Gibson (nee Earney) was at the school from 1952 to 1957 and remembers only six grades totalling
from thirty to forty pupils. By that time, there were two classrooms. Mrs Gibson remembers Miss Gallus teaching her
in 1952; Mrs Deery in 1954; and Mr Cannon in 1957. Her childhood memories at Sassafras Primary include sports
days at the Kalorama oval; the school picnics; “hoppo-bumpo” in the shelter shed, and skipping on the asphalt,
however there were no school camps nor trips, common today for students. Her memories indicate a continuation of
earlier traditions such as the royal visit of 1953, when the Sassafras students..
“ were all presented with a gold medallion and all given Australian Flags to wave, as the Queen passed by at
Upper Ferntree Gully.”4
Alister Cannon, who was a very young Grade 5/6 teacher at Sassafras State School in 1957, has written a fascinating
account of school life in the late 1950’s.
Mr Cannon’s “Recollections” (written in 1994) are reproduced below with minimum editing as they speak
eloquently for themselves:
“I rode my BSA motor cycle up to Sassafras Primary School”..
(about the same time a Marlon Brando made “The Wild One”!(Ed.))..
to be met by the greying Principal Miss Mary Walters. The motor cycle was then given an allotted area as I was
told that they were such “oily smelly things.”
I then met my room mate Miss Pauline Jackel. Yes, room mate is the correct term(!) I was to teach Grades
5 and 6 (near the windows) and Pauline Grades 3 and 4 near the entrance foyer of the big room. We had half the
blackboard area each in the old original school room. Miss Walters taught Preps, Grade 1 and Grade 2 in a
detached classroom. Her transport from home in Cockatoo was a grey Austin A30.”
Alister Cannon remembered the winter Milo provided to the students from their government milk. He
continues...
“I think there were about 60 pupils attending Sassafras. We were visited by Mr R.P.McLellan, our District
Inspector, noted for his quick wit and understanding nature. Later he became Victorian Director of Education. He
noted the family-like atmosphere of the school and social links with the local community, especially in settling
newcomers to the area.
Mr Bert Brown acted as school cleaner whilst also carrying out duties in the local dairy.
Winter brought cold, rain, sleet and then three days of snow. The coke heater in the old school room
worked overtime. Travelling up from Kallista to Sassafras on the BSA was a fairly precarious ride; the road icy and
the tree ferns shrouded in snow.
1 courtesy of Jan Diamond.

2 Lance Gardiner 1994.
3 Ruth Scott 1994.
4 Margaret Gibson 1994.
41
The school children pushed snowballs down the footpath towards Storrie’s garage until the snowball could
not be moved- a large snowman then adorned the landscape lasting for several days.
Springtime brought outdoor lessons- plays, readings, art/craft work and sport. On sunny days one could
see down past the school residence to Melbourne.
The Mt Dandy bus took Grades 3-6 children to the Belgrave Baths for instruction in their Herald and
Junior Swimming Certificates during the warmer seasons.
The local State Schools’ Sports Association arranged for the Annual School Sports to be staged at the
Kalorama Oval. I well remember being asked by Miss Walters to attend a sports meeting at Mt. Dandenong
Primary School. In company of two School Committee members, we climbed the road towards Mt. Dandenong,
enveloped in ever thickening fog. We resorted to counting the seconds (between) the white lines..”
Although it was daytime, they had to drive with their heads out of the windows to try to see where they were
through the “pea soup”. When they could not see the white lines, they had to stop the car and walk to tell..
“..the driver where his large 1939-40 sedan (was) placed, and so on to the school. What a tame meeting to attend
when contracted (against) the trip there and back!
Now the end of the year was approaching. Grade 6 pupils were looking forward to their move from
Sassafras Primary to Upwey High School in 1958.
Another school year had rolled by in a fascinating pocket of the “Blue Dandenongs” as I prepare to leave
for a permanent appointment at Tecoma State School.”1
Valerie English has fond memories of that period. She remembers students running to the pan toilets "down
the back" where "Nessie" is now. She recalls swings at the bottom of the school near the residence, and a "new"
picnic area established in the front of the school. She remembers Miss Mary Walters, head teacher in the late 1950's
as a "strict teacher". Jan Diamond recalls that Miss Walters was also very caring and understanding, and drove her
little car from her home in Cockatoo every day.
Valerie English recalls the games organised for the annual Mordialloc or Frankston picnic which had been
reinstated after the war, and she enjoyed the combined school sports begun in 1947, held, as it is today, on the
Kalorama oval.
Gwen Horner relates of one particular parent, Mrs Val Ponsford, who put in much valuable time in training
the pupils in athletic skills.
The Tenth Annual Mount Dandenong Sports Meeting, held on the Kalorama Recreation Ground on
Thursday, 21 November 1957 from 10.00 am to 3.30 pm, had the Hills schools competing, plus Bayswater North,
for the Dandenong Ranges R.S.L. Shield given to the annual winner, and the B. Beor Cup for the runner-up. Being
such a small school, Sassafras had not won either in the decade. The band from the Salvation Army Boys' School in
The Basin "rendered selections" throughout the day. The Hon. G.L. Chandler presented the trophies.2
Jan Diamond, likewise, has fond memories of the picnic when she attended school c.1955-1961. It was then
held at Frankston, however she says that it was not held every year in the late 1950's.
.."it was something we all looked forward to and suffered the effects of sunburn after! I think it may have been
replaced on one or two occasions by a trip to the Healesville Sanctuary. I don't think we would have done both -
excursions were very rare in those days."
Jan Diamond also remembers the tradition of hot cocoa being served to the children continuing each day in
winter. The children had to bring their own mugs and lined up at the entrance to the foyer of the old school room
where various mothers, rostered two at a time on a daily basis..
"filled our cups with delicious hot cocoa. Mrs Allan, mother of David and Richard, had a magic recipe for the mix,
the chocolaty liquid being made up by her and kept in old tomato sauce bottles.
The milk was heated in a big urn, the mothers on duty having to open each of the little third pint bottles
individually and empty them into the urn. This delicious treat was enjoyed at the first recess and was something we
all looked forward to."3
The government later stopped free milk due to hygiene problems and cost cutting.
In the 1950s the school's one classroom, built in 1915, was not adequate for increased numbers and
expectations. There were only two buildings at this time; the other being the 1920’s shelter shed. The students used
the chimney on the old building as a back-stop for games of cricket. There was a log swing in the front of the school
and two other swings near the shelter shed. These swings were later removed due to a serious accident.
A relocatable classroom was brought in at the end of 1953. Later, Mr Lloyd Pepperall recollected a second
relocatable arriving with an office. This would have been between 1958 and 1961. About then too, the school
purchased Mrs Earney’s house. It was for a time used as a residence for the art teacher, and the building was later
1 Alister Cannon “Recollections” unpub. 1994.

2 from an original sports programme courtesy of Jan Diamond.
3 Jan Diamond op cit.
42
moved, in 1965, to Ferny Creek, being re-erected at the corner of Seaview Avenue and the Tourist Road, where it
may still be seen.1
Mr Pepperall also remembers the lack of a flat area in the school grounds to practise for the sports being
addressed. A child had broken a leg due to the uneven ground, so a bulldozer was brought in and an area was
levelled for athletics and games.
At that time, there was a large hedge in front of the school, and one of the houses towards the back of the
school was used for health checks.2
Before the expansion of the school:- the old 1915 school building, C.1964. Peter Bundy is in the foreground. The
chimney was used by the children as a backstop for cricket.
1 Brian Storrie believes that the building moved to Ferny Creek may have been the shop in front of Mrs Earney’s house, rather
than the house itself.
2 Lloyd Pepperall 1994.
43
44
45
The Sixties:
The 1960’s were a period of great change and expansion for Sassafras School. The post war boom in population led
to a swelling in enrolments at the school which existing facilities could not adequately meet.
The old 1915 school building was turned around 180 degrees to create an internal space with its verandah to
join the new prefabricated classroom. The two front classrooms, the principal's office and the hallway were added to
the "old school room". The cost of this needed addition was 3,000 pounds. This was in 1962-1963.1
By about 1965, the school now had six classrooms and wood heaters in the rooms. The school’s population
was about one hundred students.
About this time the nomenclature changes, and "Sassafras State School" became "Sassafras Primary
School", and "Principal" began being used as a synonym for "Head Master/Teacher".
From the late Fifties, the school now had Prep. and six grades, and not eight, as pupils aimed at high school.
Greater expectations produced changes in teacher training, curriculum and the demand for facilities.
The conditions for teachers granted by their employer, the Education Department, improved, as did
teachers’ qualifications. Women teachers also began to get a better deal, although equal pay only came in at the end
of the decade.
This decade for Sassafras Primary School was dominated by two well respected and fondly remembered
Head Teachers: Mr Robert H.Grandy (1961-1964) and Mr John D.Tipping (1965-1972).
When Mr Grandy was farewelled from the school after three years, in an interview to the Free Press in
1965, he said that when he arrived,
"..he could not find Sassafras listed in the combined sports programme...he was told that Sassafras only came along
to make up the numbers. After much effort on his and the school committee's part they were able to get the facilities
and equipment for the staff to train the children, and for the last three years the school has won first place at the
sports".
Audrey Edmondson remembers Mrs Elaine Brain, for many years a teacher at S.P.S., relating that Mr
Grandy used the corridor for tunnelball practice when the weather was wet, in preparation for the school sports.2
On Sports Day, Janis Lee (now Boal) recalls Mr Grandy holding a two gallon bucket of lollies and
gathering the whole school about him in a large circle. He would then throw handfuls in all directions.3
Heike Butten (nee Gaertner) lived in the sixties at her parents’ milk bar on the corner of Prince Street and
Main Road, Sassafras. Mrs Butten helped Mr and Mrs Grandy to move in to the principal’s residence in 1961. She
fondly remembers Mr Grandy as
“..a very fair and wise teacher (who)organised concerts and.. activities.”
Mrs Butten recalls singing German Christmas Carols in the Mechanics Hall at the end of the year concert.
She loved the sports days competing against the other local schools, where she won skipping competitions and tunnel
ball. She remembers riding sticks with strings as “horses” in the school yard, and having stick horse gymkhanas!4
As a small boy, Nicholas Alexander recalls getting to school at 7-00am during winter to chop wood and
light up the wood heaters in the classrooms...
“for which we would get a handful of lollies out of a large jar at the end of the year.”!5 He worked cheaply!
1965 was a champagne year for Sassafras Primary. For the third year in a row, little Sassafras won the
Mount Dandenong State Schools’ Sports, having tried to beat the bigger schools for fifteen years prior to 1962.
Also in 1965, State-wide honours were attained when the school’s choir won the Footscray Eisteddfod,
under the direction of Mrs Peg Hampton, a local and well respected music teacher.6 This was feted in the local press,
and the Free Press further wrote that..
" at their break-up concert (students) Katherine Wositzky and Judith Downe both elicited very favourable comments
from (an) eminent Australian ballet authority."
When Mr Tipping left the school in 1972, he was feted, as had Mr Grandy before him, by the local paper.
The Free Press described him as
" The happy teaching-principal of a happy school"
They quoted Mr Tipping:
"" They're marvellous kids,"(Tipping) said of the 120 pupils...and they obviously return the compliment. A steady
stream of boys and girls knocked and entered his office with their queries, approaching the big, fatherly figure
1 Ibid.
2 Audrey Edmondson 1994.
3 Janis Boal 1994.
4 Heike Butten 1994.
5 Nicholas Alexander 1994.
6 Gwen Horner op cit
46
confidently, yet respectfully.
"I'm very fortunate to have such a stable staff," he continued...All the teachers at Sassafras have been there
for some time and there is an excellent rapport between staff, children and parents..
Mr Tipping spoke highly of the Mothers' Club. "Their efforts and the grant from the Education Department
provides all our needs. Last year the parents raised and spent $1500 on equipment for the school."
Mr Tipping was an honourary probation officer, an active member of the local Lions Club, and Chairman of
the Youth of the Year contest. He was a big man with a good sense of humour. Philip Johnson recalled during Mr
Tipping’s time that the young John Tipping Junior announced at “Show and Tell”, that Dad (Mr Tipping) sat on his
bed this morning and broke it!
Other amusing memories are recalled by ex-students. Christopher Lee remembered the school fete when a
student, John Loury, renowned for being rather naughty, could not find his money, so his sister Susan tipped him
upside down and shook him! Christopher also recalled Mr Tipping running Mrs Brain’s hand bag up on the school
flag pole.1
In the time of Grandy and Tipping, the facilities at the school were further enhanced.The need for more
grounds was addressed from 1963 to 1965, when four adjoining properties were purchased over those two years,
with the help and effort of the school community.
Mr Grandy lobbied the local member, the Honourable Mr Bill Borthwick and funds were raised at a rate of
one pound to three pounds supplied by the Education Department. 2 This added an irreplaceable aspect to the grounds
of Sassafras Primary, with superlative rhododendrons, many planted on the early blocks in the 1920's or earlier.
One of these blocks had been the second site of the post office with its avenue of rhododendrons, and
Cadby's Cottages (the Posr Office had been in one cottage after 1916, Olive Sharpley lived in another and the Bye
family in the third). These houses were amongst Sassafras' oldest buildings dating from about 1900. There was a
private laneway, which was incorporated into the school grounds that led to the site of Judds's house behind the
Cadby cottages. The old steps of another cottage, built around 1900, which was burnt down around 1948, may still
be seen near the back gate of the school. At the back of the school was yet another house that was later demolished,
sometimes known by the children as the “ghost house”.3
Elaine Barrille and Valerie English remembers "old" Mrs Earney occupying a cottage where “Girira” now
stands into the 1960’s. As has been prevously indicated, this cottage was moved and relocated opposite to the Ferny
Creek General Store, at the corner of Seaview Avenue and the Tourist Road, in 1965.
The other four houses were demolished in the late 1960’s, and the acquisition of these blocks, plus two
more blocks of land adjoining Mason Grove in the 1980’s, increased the school's size from its original 1.25 acres to
its current size of approximately seven acres, relieving the shortage of space.4
Ever mindful of the special character of the area, at working "bees" in the 1960’s, active members of the
Sassafras school community such as Geoff Downe, Peter Ponsford, Ted Greenwood and Ron Riddiford made further
rhododendron plantings and built rock retaining walls and the beautiful slate steps to the oval.
Geoff particularly, spent many hours every evening, doing this work, as well as planting and providing most
of the plants. Heather Downe used to take Geoff’s dinner over to him at the school many evenings, as he was too
busy to come home!
Geoff Downe and Peter Ponsford were the main driving forces behind an energetic committee at this time,
and Mr Grandy had two trees planted beside the small gate in their honour. 5 All this work enhanced the obvious
historical importance of the school.
The sixties and early seventies evoke many fond memories amongst ex-pupils of Sassafras Primary. Janis
Lee (now Boal) remembers both Mr Grandy and Mr Tipping, along with Mrs Brain, Mr Peter Amor and others. She
"thoroughly enjoyed" her years there. She remembers Mrs Peg Hampton, the conductress of Sassafras' successful
choir bringing her baby, Paul to attend practice in his play pen, and the choir making an appearance on the television
show, "The Magic Circle Club". Nicholas Alexander likewise, recalls appearing on television about 1965 or 1966 as
one of the choir singers.
The coming of the television era saw Debra Banner (nee Crichton) and her mother produce a children’s
show for the A.B.C. on “plastics”, and the whole school fitting into one class room to watch it on TV. Debra also
remembers being allowed out of class with the other children one year, when it snowed, to build snowmen.6
Janis Boal has
1 Christopher Lee 1994.

3 most of this information supplied by Hilary Dewar 1994.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid and Heather Downe 1994.
6 Debra Banner 1994.
47
" ...a not so funny recollection of our fear of an old man called "Old Tom", who used to live in a tin shack...We truly
believed he would eat small children and the boys would throw stones on his roof as we walked to and from school.
We seldom saw him, but no doubt he was a very lonely, poor old man, and quite harmless"
Jan Diamond also remembers "Old Tom" as
"a feared local identity...He was the local drunk and...there was a sad story behind his situation. He lived in an old
tin shack just below the Tourist Road opposite what is now "Pancakes at Sassafras"...known as "The Thistle" in the
50's and...one of the hills' original Devonshire tea houses."
Gwen Horner recalls that “Old Tom” did odd jobs and gardening for Misses Ella and Zoe Glanville at their
home “Glemmalure” on the Tourist Road opposite “Lorna Doone”.
Another ex-student, Meredith Greenwood, at school during John Tipping's time, remembers the choir and
Peg Hampton, playing outside, and barbecues "up amongst the rhododendrons above the oval".1
Bushfires continued to be a hazard in the Hills during the 1960’s. They directly affected Sassafras students
and their families.
Hilary Dewar’s family moved to the area in 1960 and lived at “Rostrevor”. She has striking recollections of
both the 1962 and 1968 fires, as a girl at the time. She submitted a vivid account of these for the Quality Provision
Taskforce Working Document in 1993.
Hilary wrote:
“...the ‘62 fires began about noon on Sunday...I was sitting on the hill above the last Cadby cottage...waiting for the
Bye boys...as their father was taking us swimming...
An enormous cloud of smoke was billowing up which was getting redder.. by the minute. This was my first
“real” bushfire...Every man who was available had to fight the fire.
Sirens rang throughout the hills, fire engines, cars and people were racing all over the place. The fire was
tearing up the hill at great speed..It was unbelievable. The next minute, it was at the top of the hill...The flames were
lighting each tree like a torch...
I ran from the house... (The firefighters) discovered that the tanker was out of water and had to fight the
fire with knap-sacks and fire beaters (a pole with a piece of Hessian attached)...
I used a branch of a tree to try to beat the fire, which had become much worse. The fire was fought late
into the night...(One of the locals) made a fire break with a grader (and) he did a wonderful job (down amazingly
steep descents)...
The police told the women and children, that they must evacuate from Sassafras...My younger brother
went.. (He, being only a toddler, had been emptying buckets of water that had been filled to put out bark and
burning leaves. Nobody then had mains water, and water was scarce.)
The rest of the family, being older, stayed, because my mother felt that her house (“Rostrevor”) had
survived all the other bushfires, so it would survive this one (...being built around the turn of the century and...still
there).
People were very good...(the) Nicholas Aspro people came up to help and...went through Sassafras
shouting their motto of the time, “Aspro will ease it!” Concrete trucks came up full of water, pouring the water
along the roads...
By Tuesday night we had to give up. There were only a few women and children left. We had to go as it
looked hopeless. We left my father and two older brothers protecting the house...and left the hills blazing...
When we came back home, everything was black; the only things standing were burnt trees; no bush; no
grass and some houses gone...”
Hilary relates her experiences during the 1968 bushfire. She was not at home, but in the suburbs “off the
mountain”...
“My younger brother was still at school at Sassafras. Was he safe? We did not know.”
As during the 1983 bushfires, the police had road blocks set up on the main roads leading to the Dandenongs and
refused to let the family through...
“They had sent police from the suburban areas,...so we used the back roads...and finally got home, discovering that
the rest of my family had had to do the same thing, even although some of them were members of the (fire) brigade
and were needed to relieve the weary few, still out fighting the fires.
Some how we found out that my brother had been evacuated to the local Technical School safe area. The
only problem was that they had driven through one of the most dangerous parts of the fire, where it had jumped the
road in two areas. Everywhere there was smoke (and although) my brother Philip was (only) nine years old...he
remembers smoke and fire everywhere, and being very excited as they approached the fire (that they) had to drive
through. ..They should never have been evacuated with the fire cutting off their path...
I shall never forget these experiences):..the excitement; the choking smoke; flames dashing...to devour
1 Meredith Greenwood 1994.
48
everything in their path, and the fear of loss. Most importantly, the way the community pulled together to overcome
this monster that had taken over the hill. Fire brings a closeness that (you have to experience in order to truly
understand).”1
Heike Butten recalls the 1962 bushfires coming right up to the back of her parents’ milk bar at the corner of
Prince Street and Main Road, and evacuating up the road in our small car. She found all this “very scarey”.
Nicholas Alexander, who lived at “Jack and Jill Stores”, Main Road Sassafras, remembers being evacuated
twice from the family home during the 1962 bushfires. The first time because the fires were coming up from Ferny
Creek, and the second time a day later because of a wind shift burning the fires back from the direction of Olinda...
“an alarming sight to see fire balls shooting hundreds of metres across the night sky.”
Linda Martin (nee Crichton) and Kim Gealer (nee Tipping) both remember being evacuated during one of
the 1960’s bushfires to Ferntree Gully Tech.
Meredith Greenwood has a somewhat better recollection of the 1969 bushfires. She writes:
"I have very vivid memories of...seeing the hill at the back of the then Methodist Church all aglow. We were
transported to Ferntree Gully Tech. in buses- (which way we went, I've no idea because anywhere near the National
Park, Tourist Road and "one-in-twenty" (Basin Road) were razed!)
It was so, so hot and very frightening (but exciting at the same time!)"
After the 1960’s bushfires, Philip Johnson recalls the reserve water tank being installed near Mason Grove
in the school grounds, as a further safety precaution.2 This was converted into the “Dreaming Centre” in 1988.
A fitting end to the decade was when Sassafras teacher, Miss Vicky Stevens was crowned "Sassafras Gully
Fiesta Queen" on Cup Eve (November 3) 1969 at the Hideaway Restaurant. She had been sponsored by the Sassafras
Primary School Mothers' Club to aid local charities.3
The concrete reserve water tank installed on the school grounds, as a result of the 1960s bushfires, was converted
about 1988 to “The Dreaming Centre”. In the foreground in the rope bridge.
1 Hilary Dewar, written submission to “Quality Provision Taskforce Working Document” SPS 1993.
2 All these informants recorded their memories of the 1960’s bushfires in 1994.
3 Based upon various local newpaper accounts supplied by Gwen Horner.
49
The time of expansion for the school began in the 1960Ìs. Fred Bye on his bulldozer. The current library is in the
background.
The Seventies and Eighties:

In April 1972, the old Mechanics Institute burnt down,1thus closing a chapter on the history of the school and the
community. In that decade and 1980s, however, growth was to continue at the new site of the school based upon the
pattern established in the 1960’s.
John Tipping began the decade as Head Teacher, followed by Donald Steele(1973-1977), Maxwell
Bennett(1978-1979), John Ure(1979-1982), Charles Crooks(1983-1984), Brian Kent(1985-1986) and Brian
Allen(1987-1989). Mac Craig finished the decade.
In the early 1970’s, Fred Bye bulldozed some more flat areas as playgrounds for the children at the school.
A Playground was added to the school, close to the current site of “Girira”. Peter Ponsford was largely responsible
for both these projects, with the assistance of Ted Greenwood and Geoff Downe. Gwen Horner and Heather Downe
informed Hilary that the School Council wished to name it in his honour, as the "Ponsford Playground", however his
modesty caused him to decline the honour. A scramble net was added in 1981. A rope bridge was added in Don
Steele’s time and other attractions were later added to the playground, including a fitness track when Brian Kent was
Head Teacher, paid for by the students with competition spelling Bees.2
So the improvements went on. The outside toilets were demolished and inside toilets were built. Many of
the rooms with previously bare floors, were carpeted, and linoleum was laid in the hall.
To cope with the increased numbers there was growing agitation for more permanent classrooms. Kath
Sanders, President of the Mothers Club and active on the School Council in Don Steele’s time, believes that the
school may have approached an enrolment of nearly two hundred. This would have been necessary for it to justify
receiving the two additional relocatable classrooms added near the front entrance of the school.3 The two new rooms
were placed where the portable classroom had been in the late 1950’s.
A larger module was later moved in to house the Glanville Library from September 1981 until 1989 when it
was removed to make room for the construction of the fire refuge "Girira".
Kath Sanders remembers that the new additional facilities only came about through much lobbying,
negotiation, many letters and requests sent by the School Council and members of the school community to the
Education Department.4 This success is testament to their commitment to the children and the Sassafras State School,
1 Bob Horner 1994.

2 Audrey Edmondson op cit.
3 Kath Sanders 1994.
4 Ibid.
50
which has been typical throughout the school’s long history.
In 1974 the school was fortunate to receive a shared librarian with Ferny Creek, Olwyn Brooks. About the
same time, the current Head Teacher, Mrs Audrey Edmondson, arrived at Sassafras and is fondly remembered by
scores of former pupils for over twenty years. She is the longest serving staff member at the school since its
establishment.
Mrs Edmondson has some wonderful anecdotes of earlier days at the school. Some of the highlights indicate
the warmth and good humour that characterise her two decades of teaching at the school. Mrs Edmondson
remembers that animals have been important for the children at Sassafras over the years. Sheep were often used as
“lawn mowers”, and “adopted” by the children, until the heartache for the children caused by predation from
uncontrolled packs of dogs made it necessary to get rid of the sheep.
More light-hearted reminiscences include the time around 1974, when, in response to the childish
fascination in things military, Mr Steele built a scale model battle field based on the North African campaign. For the
desert, he used real sand, in a metal tray approximately 1.5 metres square. It so happened that at the time, the
children had adopted a stray cat named “Samantha”, who slept at night in the kiln shed, and was brought into the
school during the day. A distraught boy appeared at the staffroom door one day (David Fitzgerald, uncle of Sonja,
who exited in 1993). He announced to the staff that,
“Samantha had - - - - ed in the Alamein Desert!”
Mrs Edmondson remembers Lorraine Garnett and the students hatching a pet duck in the library. Stephen
Elliot was fond of it, and constructed a pen for it next to a heater inside the building. The students used to give it
flying lessons by throwing it off the embankment! What became of the duck and whether it finally learnt to fly, I do
not know.
On another occasion Mrs Edmondson recalls that the school retained a pet billy goat called “Charlie”, who
became rather too territorial. He “bailed up” the entire school and prevented them from entering the building. Jillian
Payne heroically tried to placate Charlie by offering him some oak leaves to eat, only to be chased by him. She had
to “flee for her life” on her bike, only to fall off it some time later!
Poor old Charlie had to go, and went to a nearby property. Apparently he maintained his unpleasant
disposition for all, except the teacher, Elaine Brain. For her, he was like a lamb!1
Again there are some interesting recollections from former students such as Jillian Payne. Mrs Jill Carter
(nee Payne) was at Sassafras in the early 1970’s, and remembers Mr Tipping, Mr Steele, Mr Amor and Mrs
Edmondson. She remembers the arrival of portables at the school to aid the overcrowding. A visit by the Governor is
recalled by her, as she joined the Brownies and Cubs in uniform to welcome him, much as previous generations had
done for Royal visitors to the Hills.
Jill relates changes and innovations such as the Swimming Sports held at the new Monbulk Pool: going next
door to Downes in 1969 to watch the first moon landing; and the Grade 5 and 6 camp to Lake Eppalock with Mr
Hall in 1975. A movie was apparently taken of it.
She also recalls the making of a movie "Ned Kelly", when she was in Grade 6. She wrote the script.2 The
Knox Sherbrooke News covered this event on August 19, 1975. Mr Hall produced the film. It was in colour and of 15
minutes duration. The students held a stall to raise money to hire the horse and cart for the film. It was scripted by
Jillian (then 11 years old), and Colin Brown(12) played Ned. The students organised their own very authentic
costumes.
Another former student, Felicity Grasset (now Harvey) has memories of this period at Sassafras school. She
remembers particularly Mr Steele ("He was lovely"), and Mrs Edmondson ("in particular...she was lovely & caring,
especially in grade 3"). Felicity went to the Lake Eppalock camp and recalls the Ned Kelly film. She and three other
students represented the school and went to see the Queen on her 1977 visit to Australia.3
Elise Szczudlo (nee Winter) remembers two hundred students at Sassafras Primary in Mr Steele’s time. She
well remembers Mrs Edmondson, Mrs Brain, Mrs Ure, Mr Kehayas and Mrs De Brona, and found them to be very
kind and helpful. She also enjoyed the Lake Eppalock camp and sports days.4
From the mid 1970’s until the 1980’s, the students produced their own monthly newspaper called The
Lyrebird Chronicle. Existing copies still make an interesting read!
A monthly newspaper called The Bulletin was also published during the late 1970's and early 80's. It ran a
trivia quiz in autumn 1986, on the history of the school. One question was: "When did the school have to close
because of heavy snow falls?" I wonder if anybody knows the answer? It was edited first by Margot Dunne and later

2 Jill Carter 1994.
3 Felicity Harvey 1994.
4 Elise Szczudlo 1994.
51
by Libby Gulford.1
In 1978 Sassafras started developing a real interest and pride in its long past history, and contributed to the
"Sassafras Gully Old Time Fair" in that year. It recorded many of the memories of "old timers" like Syd and Stan
Storrie to preserve them for posterity.
In 1985, Sassafras celebrated Heritage Day, and buried its own time capsule with due care and ceremony.
This included copies of school rolls, a school newsletter, photographs of the school and samples of student work.2
In the 1980’s new facilities were further added to the school and some were removed.
Many of the current members of the school community perhaps have little idea of the origins of the
Glanville Library and the Hallebone Trust, both so important to the school over the years. Hilary Dewar knows the
story. She wrote in 1994:
"Miss Zoe Glanville, after the tragic death (from asthma) of John Hallebone, aged seventeen years, a brilliant
student and son of Norm and Kath Hallebone, established a trust fund for the library for the purchase of books in
the memory of John...
Each year following she made a monetary donation (equivalent to) her age, until she died (at the age of
102 years). She was a good friend of the (Hallebone) family, the school and the community."3
In the 1970’s, Miss Zoe Glanville approached Geoff Downe to organise on her behalf, something positive
for the school as a memorial to the late John Hallebone. Miss Glanville was very interested in encouraging children
to read. After Geoff conferred with a solicitor, it was decided that the most beneficial way of assisting the school was
to establish a Trust, and each year the school would receive interest from the Trust, and this, combined with a
government subsidy, meant that the school could establish a library with the annual purchase of books. A committee
of five School Council members became the Trustees.4
The Hallebone Trust continued for many years, and eventually only two of the original trustees. Ron
Riddiford and Geoff Downe remained in the area. Thus with poorer government funding, the invested principle was
paid to the school on maturity, and the remainder of the Trust still exists as an interest-bearing deposit in the school’s
budget.5
Thus, on September 11, 1981 as a result of the Hallebone Trust, the school library was opened and
dedicated to Miss Zoe Glanville, in recognition of her generous donations to the library. The children dressed as
characters from their favourite books. Lyndel Rech and Hilary Dewar organised this valuable resource.
The Dedication Ceremony was attended amongst others, by Mr J. Ure, The Hon. Mr Norman Lacy,
Minister of Education, Mr and Mrs Hallebone, Mrs Bill Borthwick (wife of the local MLA), Mr Ted Greenwood
(School Council President) and Mr John Tipping. Mr Lacy unveiled a plaque. This plaque may still be seen attached
to the door of the school’s libray, although it is now inside the main school building.
Mr Hallebone planted a magnolia on behalf of Miss Glanville and a rhododendron to commemorate the
Hallebone Trust. The children also made plantings and luncheon was provided for children, parents and guests.6
In 1982 Mr John Ure, the then Head Teacher, in a request for urgent works including a walkway to the
Glanville library and shelter over the outdoor seating, stated that, “the weather is wet and misty two thirds of the year
and the children have no covered area". 7 Weather conditions at Sassafras had not improved since George Jackson
made a similar request in 1897 for more shelter for the students at the Mechanics Institute.
The covered walkway was constructed by parents and improved conditions for the students. A very popular
ex-pupil Shaun Mitchell, who was idolised by the children, had to pick up the hallway sections from Port Melbourne
in his meat truck. Shaun was tragically killed on his motorbike at Ferntree Gully when he was twenty-one.8
Parents and students "got with it" to construct the 'Sassy' monster, "Nessy" in 1981. 9 Also, a flat area that
was to be used as the school oval was “ploughed” with a brilliant device. A little car pulling rakes at the back
weighed down by human ballast, spent many hours ploughing and re-sowing the area with donated seed. The parents
rigged up a watering system during the hot summer vacation, and the Dewar children took turns in turning this on
and off during the school break.10 The tennis court was re-surfaced, and an ex-army scramble net was erected as an
added attraction for the children’s playground.
1 Jan Diamond op cit. There is no answer to the question, as we found out!

2 Helen Niven 1994.
3 Hilary Dewar and Gwen Horner 1994. Zoe Glandville was the oldest living ex-pupil of Sassafras and P.L.C., where she did her
secondary schooling (Audrey Edmondson op cit.)
5 Heather Downe op cit. Dagmar Smith, Treasurer SPS School Council 1994.
6 based upon the programme of the day courtesy of Jan Diamond.
7 E.Wootton loc cit
9 Barbara Ure 1994.
10 Hilary Dewar op cit.
52
In 1984 when Mr Charles Crooks was Head Teacher and in 1985 when Mr Brian Kent had that position,
two highlights were the construction of the "Commando-Course" fitness track, and the ceramic wall mural depicting
the school and its surroundings in the school's entrance. Together they indicate the breadth of endeavour and interest
promoted at the school.
The Knox Sherbrooke News reported both events. The 500 metre long fitness track cost $500 and was paid
for with money raised by the students through running a spell-a-thon. The News stated of the mural that
"The Sassafras Primary School will boast one of the most picturesque school entrances in the district by the end of
the year."
Mr Kent was interviewed and said that the mural had been two years in preparation as part of an extensive
ceramics programme completed with parent assistance. A parent, Lindsay Wilson, spent some time each week
assisting the children with their ceramics, and the mural had been his idea.1 Jan Diamond wrote that Lindsay Wilson,
"instigated the ceramics program and spent many hours revealing the mysteries of clay to students, parents and
teachers. I believe it was begun prior to 1984."2
Mr Crooks had begun it in 1983.3
Mr Kent contributed much in the short time that he was here.
The tradition of wonderful school productions put on over the years at Sassafras was maintained. A
particular highlight was the production of "The Piper Man" in 1984.(Recently several of the 1984 Grade six students
re-lived old memories by reviewing the video made of it, at a twenty-first birthday party. How time flies!)
1989 was a big year for changes at Sassafras Primary. Brian Allen was the Head Teacher.
The teacher's residence, built in 1949, had fallen into disrepair and was demolished in 1989. The School
Council had tried to purchase the residence for the use of the school for Art-Craft or an after-school programme. The
Department denied the request as it was divesting itself of the maintenance responsibilities of such buildings across
the State.
The relocatable module that had been home to the Glanville library was removed to make way for the
construction of "Girira". "Girira", the quarter of a million dollar fire refuge extensively used by the local community
today, was Victoria's first primary school fire refuge built after the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. It was paid for
by the Federal and State Governments, and opened by the then Deputy Premier, Joan Kirner, on Thursday, 23
November, 1989 at 1.00 PM. It was "covered" by the Age, the Herald and the Sun as well as the local papers. The
Herald education reporter wrote(Nov 21)
"Twelve months ago the students at Sassafras Primary probably didn't know what Girira meant. Now the 90
students realise it could save their lives. Girira is the Aboriginal word for children's refuge-and the name given to
the recently completed building in the Sassafras school grounds which will double as a multi-purpose room and fire
refuge...the building is designed to withstand hurricane strength wind and can accommodate 150 people."
One might wonder what Miss Boyd in the long-ago Shelter Shed would have thought of this!
In 1989, Mac Craig became the Principal and stimulated a renewed interest in music and drama at the
school. Mr Craig’s first production, “Kids in Space” has been followed annually by a grand musical. This has
recently been produced by Margaret Waldeck, and has revived the earlier tradition at Sassafras, of the fondly-
remembered end of the year concert.
1 Jane Jones 1994.

2 Jan Diamond op cit.
3 Hilary Dewar po cit.
53
Ned Kelly comes to Sassafras in 1975.(see text)
Universal Children’s Day, 1983, where the children dressed up in various national costumes. The children stand in
front of the Glanville Library which had been dedicated in 1981.
54
“Nessy”, being constructed in 1982. Sassafras students pictured are, Kitty Dickie, Roanne Dewar, Daniel Anderson,
Dean Askham, Nathan Anderson, Fiona Dewar, Brett Askham, Mac Dickie, Cameron Dickie, Richard Symes and
Kylah Dewar.
55
Sassafras students Amanda Tomada and Jeanette Harvey work on the ceramic mural with parent Lindsay Wilson in
1983. This was begun in 1983 and took two years to complete.
56
57
The Nineties and Beyond..A Hundred Years On...
The Sassafras Primary School remains as it has always been: one of the few constants in today's society; a small
school backed by a School Council and community committed to the best education for their children through fund-
raising, voluntarism and effort.1 In 1993 it survived its second closure/merger attempt, (the first being in 1903),
through parent action in preparing a submission to demonstrate just how well Sassafras "delivers the goods".
The School's dedicated and hard-working Council President, Mrs Jane Jones, wrote in 1994 that in 1993
there was a State-wide review of schools leading to the closure of over one hundred and fifty schools.
"Sassafras, along with Ferny Creek and Olinda, was placed in a "Quality Provision Taskforce", which
recommended that one of these schools should close. Many people assumed that Sassafras, being the smallest of the
three schools, would be the one to close. However any closure of the schools was strongly opposed by the
community, who were galvanised into action to prevent this.
At Sassafras, a Working Party set about producing a document which would demonstrate that, not only
was the school viable, but that it also provided an excellent education for its students and met the needs of its
community. A group of parents at Olinda tackled the question of bushfires and the importance of retaining all three
schools, with fire refuges, as part of a chain of safe havens along the Mt Dandenong Ridge in the event of future
bushfires. Ferny Creek parents became involved and eventually "The Document" (a copy of which is in SPS library)
represented a statement by all three school communities emphasising the value that each community placed upon
the schools and their relationship to the three communities.
..A Public Forum (was) held ...(and) a rally to gain support for the schools...on the Sassafras Village
Green, along with letter writing campaigns, visits to the local Member of Parliament and other activities aimed at
pushing the case for retaining all of the schools. The senior students of Sassafras took it upon themselves to contact
the local papers and ring radio talkback programs to express their concern...The local Taskforce, after reviewing
all the material and hearing expert witnesses on the Bushfire issue, recommended the retention of all three schools.
Finally, after an agonising wait, the school received a letter from the Minister of Education, Mr Don
Hayward, announcing that he was accepting the Taskforce recommendation and all three schools would remain
open. Sassafras (along with its neighbours) was safe!"2
Alan Siggers, a concerned parent, was the driving force behind behind the Task Force working party. Alan
spent hundreds of hours co-ordinating and preparing the submitted document to save the school.
Sassafras Primary School goes from strength to strength!
After “Girira" was built, the undercover shelter was built in the early 1990’s to give the children somewhere
to play on wet and dismal days. According to Hilary Dewar, this only happened after ten years of deliberation!
Dealing with the weather at Sassafras has been a hundred year tradition.
The school received the State Garden Encouragement Award for the Best State School garden. The Free
Press photographed Sassafras students Martin Cox, Meaghan Dewar, Lorren Stevens, Glen Stevens, and Kylah
Dewar, tending the school garden in 1990. The efforts of the school community led to the Award in that year.
The school also began innovations and improvements such as computers from 1985 and the Perceptual
Motor Programme (PMP) established in 1986.
An excellent instrumental music programme was begun about 1991 (through the help of a parent, Sue
Salter). Sassafras Primary School students, Benjamin Goudey, Sarah Francis, Kate Lock and Jamie Tarling, put into
practise the skills learnt in the Programme, to celebrate the anniversary of the Country Women’s Association in
1994. The CWA president, Mrs Irene English came to the school for the occasion and maintains a long connection
with the Sassafras school.
A successful Art/Craft programme commenced about 1992 (thanks to parent, Cheryl Cox), and a German
language LOTE programme continues from 1992 (run by another parent, Dagmar Smith). The long tradition of
Religious Education was also continued through the 1990’s.
In 1994 this small school comes closer to providing quality education through such efforts than most other
much larger schools, so amply illustrating its special characteristics.
The Sassafras Mothers’ Club (now known as the Parents’ Association) remains as active as ever, since the
1920’s. Noted recent presidents include Lorna Chapman, Susie Askham, Julie Stevens, and the current president,
Nola Gallagher.
At the time of writing, a wonderful new community playground is being built in the school grounds courtesy
1 "Girira" is used by the Girl Guides, the Electoral Commission and other local clubs and societies upon request. It illustrates the
close connection of the school with the community. Voluntarism by the community has many examples such as the current
LOTE Programme, Music(paid for by the parents), Religious Education, Art and PMP Programmes. These are all staffed by
parent volunteers as well as DSE employees and exist only because of community input.
2 Jane Jones op cit.
58
of a grant from the Shire of Sherbrooke of $10,000-00 and due to the work of many volunteers from the community.
The plan reflects the wishes of the students themselves. For many years a favourite of generations of Sassy students
was an old blackwood "climbing" tree. This had become unsafe, and so its stump is to form the base of a new tree
house. Other student ideas that may become possibilities include slides, a tunnel, an abseiling wall and other exciting
ideas.
Further ties with the wider Sassafras community were established with a greenhouse erected on the school
grounds by the Friends of Sassafras Creek. This group will share their expertise with the children, teaching them how
to care for the local environment, and how to propagate native plants.
A community market is planned to take place in the school grounds on Sundays commencing in October
1994. This will hopefully give the school a much needed source of extra income to pursue new projects to enhance
the educational environment for our children now and in the future.
Many of Sassafras Primary School's proud traditions continue, such as the annual presentation of a pen to
all graduating grade six students at the end of the year concert. Jan Diamond received her's in 1961, just as our
present students will receive their pens at the end of 1994.
Sassafras children have gone forth into the world and had great success. Lindell Bromham is one such
example of the success of many former Sassafras students. She was Victoria's 1993 Rhodes Scholar. At the time of
writing, there are at least five ex-Sassafras students currently studying for PhD’s.1 This might be seen as a fitting
triumph to the end of Sassafras' first century.
Sassafras Primary School celebrates a century of this success, and my daughter Jessie and son Raymond, six
and eight years old respectively, will share in this bond with ex-pupils of Sassafras Primary such as Mr Harry (Mick)
Dahllof, now in his eighty-sixth year. Too high a value cannot be placed on such a special and rare continuity as this.
We look forward to the school's second century of success.
The last word should go to Mrs Elaine Barrile (nee English), who attended Sassafras Primary School in the
1930’s and 40’s. She wrote in 1994:..
“I loved my days at Sassy...I read some letters in the Free Press a while back from students who attend
school there now. It was nice to see that they all love their school too. Let’s hope it’s there for many more years, so
other children can enjoy it as well.”
1 Audrey Edmondson op cit. Further examples of the success of ex-Sassafras students, indicate the strength of the little school in
giving a good educational grounding to their students. In 1994, Brie Phelan is beginning her secondary schooling at the
Presbyterian Ladies College, on a scholarship won by her to that prestigious school. She joins other students who have also won
scholarships in the past such as Graeme Downe (doctor), John Alexander (tutor at the Swedish Film Institute and author), Genet
Edmondson (Applied Maths & Computer Science Hons. (Melb), BA (ANU), MA (ADA Canberra), Ph.D Cambridge) and Emma
Greenwood (doctor). Their sucesses indicate a long tradition of excellence at SPS.
59
60
Sassy one hundred years on!.
61
Appendix 1
62
Head Teachers and Principals
at Sassafras State/Primary School 3222 1894-1994
HEAD TEACHER/PRINCIPAL YEARS ENROLMENT IF KNOWN (*Approx.)

24 plus
William J.Angwin 1894(Oct-Nov) 24 plus
Theresa M.Boyd 1894 32-46
William H.Grigg 1895-1896 52
George Jackson 1896-1900 40
James McCann 1901-1902 46
Henry W.French 1903
Henry J.Cole 1903-1906 27-30
Ralph R.Curry 1906-1916
John Harrison 1916-1918
Florence M.Parker 1918-1920
27
Jessie Reed 1920-1924
30-35
Dorothy Humberg 1924-1925
38
Johanna Holden 1926-1928
30-41
Ernie Jones 1930-1935
39
James R.Smith 1935-1938
Edward G.Follett 1939-1942 }c.30
Roland M.Hill 1943
August Harvey 1944
49-52
Philip Smyth 1945
c.40
Nellie Lillis 1945
c.60
Norman K.Hallebone 1946-1952
G.M.Callaghan 1952-1957
60-100?
Mary Walters 1957
120
Geoffrey Lloyd Pepperell 1958-1961
140-200
Robert H.Grandy 1961-1964
John D.Tipping 1965-1972
Donald C.Steele 1973-1977 130 plus
Peter Hall 1977
Maxwell L.Bennett 1978
John C.Ure 1979-1982 78-86
Charles M.Crooks 1983-1984 78
Brian P.Kent 1985-1986
Brian L.Allen 1987-1989
Mac Craig 1989-1993
Audrey J.Edmondson 1993-
63
WOORILLA: Sassafras Primary School: “The Heart of the Hills”
On 23 October 1994, Sassafras Primary School is one hundred years old. This special event will
be well celebrated by the Hills community, of which this school has been the heart since its very
beginning. The little “Sassy” State School Number 3222 has been a golden strand through the
century, becoming part of the common memory of those many generations who attended it.
Memories of the nurturing, family-like atmosphere; of friendships made, good humour and
learning; of school picnics and concerts, and of the scores of individuals who dedicated their
energies to the Sassafras students over the years. The story of the school is indeed the story of
Sassafras, and the many characters who made this community.
At the beginning, the Victorian Government opened up the head of the Sassafras Creek for
selection to relieve the Melbourne poor, the victims of the 1890’s depression. The first
courageous settlers walked, or came by pack horse, up the track from Bayswater into the
wilderness. Their barefoot children were educated in a leaking and draughty surveyor’s shelter
shed amongst the ferns on Sassafras Creek. The first teacher, Miss Boyd, despaired at the
conditions they had to endure. In 1895 the philanthropist James Griffith, tea merchant, built
better accommodation for the children and later in 1915, the school moved to its present site. Life
was still a struggle, with primitive conditions, hard work eking out sustenance, long winters and
frequent bushfires. The survival of the little school, and the Sassafras community is ample
testimony to the resilience of these pioneers, and is an amazing story of struggle and success.
A book published by Sassafras Primary School and launched at the school on September 7, tells
this story. It is written by Rowan Smith in collaboration with many helpful local identities and
titled: “The Heart of the Hills”..
64

Sassafras - Heart of The Hills - Rowan Smith

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"The Heart of the Hills"..

The Centennial History of

"The Heart of the Hills"..

The Centennial History of

Its wall were of tree ferns

The place leaked in buckets

T’was the first in the ranges

(from Jack Lundy “Ballads From the Dandenongs” No.11, reprinted

Rowan Smith, Ferny Creek, 1994.

"The Heart of the Hills"..

Background: Before 1893-4..

Establishing the School: 1893.

The First School Site: 1894-1895.

1 Public Records Office(PRO) Laverton Vic.Letters Ref.VPRS 195/1806 1/10/1893

Sassafras State School at The Mechanics Institute 1895-1915.

1 PRO VPRS 640/1910 23/10/1894 copy of letter on file at SPS

1 copy of letter on file at SPS

9 Avis Smith 1994.

1 J.Schauble op cit p13

1 M.Jones op cit. p138

7 PRO VPRS 795/1806 12/6/1912 R.Neal op cit

The Education Gazette in 1902, ordered that:

1 A.P.Winzenried op cit p135.

1 L.J.Blake loc cit 1973.

When I close my eyes,

Just the one Room

Oh, how my heart yearns-

1 Shirley Bye 1994. J.Larkin op cit pp127ff

1 Elaine Barrile 1994.

1 H.Coulson op cit p36 Jack Earney 1994.

World War Two at Sassafras State School:

1 M.Jones op cit p217

1 It is still there today!(1994)

1 J.Schauble op cit pp30ff

1 A.P.Winzenried op cit pp197 and 209

1 courtesy of Jan Diamond.

1 Alister Cannon “Recollections” unpub. 1994.

1 Christopher Lee 1994.

The Seventies and Eighties:

1 Bob Horner 1994.

1 Audrey Edmondson op cit.

1 Jan Diamond op cit. There is no answer to the question, as we found out!

1 Jane Jones 1994.

HEAD TEACHER/PRINCIPAL YEARS ENROLMENT IF KNOWN (*Approx.)

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