Ellis Reynolds

THE HISTORY OF ASQUITH BOYS HIGH SCHOOL AND THE LOCAL AREA

By Ellis Reynolds, Deputy of A.B.H.S.

4th March, 1980.

Ladies and Gentlemen: just a few words about the history of this part of the world.

The railway line, that is the main line, was built from Strathfield to Hornsby and opened in 1886. Incidentally, the chief engineer was a man called Rhodes, after whom one of the stations on the southern end of the line was named. It was not until 1890 that the North Shore line was constructed, and because of that, Hornsby became a railway junction, and like a lot of other railway junctions, notably Junee, and I suppose you could say Valley Heights, although it’s not a junction, it became a railway town. Valley Heights, of course is the on the Blue Mountains where in the early days of steam, a second engine was coupled to the train to enable it to haul up the steep Wyndham grade which will be graded in the ‘30’s. It was very steep.

So, Hornsby started off as a railway town. It was named previously as Jack’s Hollow, but, because of the political pressure brought to bear by a number of Hornsby residents, who had quite a deal of pull with the government of the day, the name of the station was changed to Hornsby Junction.

Now, the first industry that started in Hornsby was essentially agricultural. It consisted mainly of orcharding, mainly citrus and stone fruit crops, and this area included Citrus Avenue, Mildred Avenue and the School; were all part of an orchard owned by Hugh and Janice Fear. Eventually, Citrus Avenue of course gets its name from the type of product that was grown there. Now, interestingly enough, the Fear home is still in existence and it is the weatherboard construction on the corner of Bouvardia Street and Pacific Highway. So that building is actually over 100 years old. Previously, the Fears lived in the spot, but in a bark hut and that was before that weatherboard house was constructed.

I talk about the construction of the North Shore line. Of course, in those days it terminated at Milson’s Point, and if you look, you can see where a branch line goes down to what used to be the ferry, and people alighted, if they were going south, at that ferry, and caught a ferry across to Circular Quay. It was not until the opening of the Sydney harbour Bridge, in I think, 1932, that one was able to go from the city to Hornsby without getting out of the train.

So, when you sing the School Song and hear those words, ‘In former days when sheep and cattle used to graze on the site’ that was literally true. Prior to 1960, when I passed the spot, it was a horse and cattle paddock and it was also used for the site of the travelling circuses. One could go on from there, but I won’t.

Another park near us, is Storey Park, which was the site of a pottery works – Fowler and Company – manufacturers of Fowler ware – had their factory there, or their workshop there, until the Depression. That factory was killed by the Depression. They made a variety of pottery things, mainly toilets.

Another interesting one is a gentleman called Sirus Homechair – I think that is how he pronounces his name. He lived at Hookhams Corner, and he dealt in wool. He used to buy wool, and he took it down to the wool wash, which was a stream that flows at the bottom of Bridge Road intersected with Sherbrook Road, but the stream flowed down across Sherbrook Road. It is disguised now by the fact that a road has been constructed over it. But, when I first came to live in Hornsby, about 28 years ago, there was a wooden bridge across Bridge Road and a dirt track that led up to Palmerston Road. I think King Road was not in existence then, nor was the road where most of the heavy industry has developed within the last 25 years, so Hornsby which was very like the Galston area in that it was essentially a fruit growing area, has now become less so, and has turned to secondary industry.

Now, coming to the School itself. In 1940, forty years ago, there were only 18 high schools in the greater Sydney area. I define the greater Sydney are, as bounded in the north by the Hawkesbury River; in the south by the Georges River; the east by the Pacific Ocean and in the west by Penrith. Here were only 18 full high schools in existence. By to-day’s date, which is forty years hence, there are 175. So, it would be almost a tenfold expansion in the number of high schools in the greater Sydney area, and the peak of this expansion took place in the 50’s and 60’s, when there was not only an enormous building programme in schools, but a great expense on the part of the government to recruit teachers from the local workforce. This was not easy to do, to find inducements to offer to them, because remember that this was the time of very full employment. There were other opportunities to teaching, and governments found it so hard to supply sufficient teachers for these schools, that they were forced to send representatives of the Education Department overseas, notably to the U.K. and U.S.A. to recruit teachers, with certain inducements, and to bring them to teach in schools in N.S.W.

Now, it so happened that in December, 1957, a disastrous fire swept up the Hornsby Valley, near where the swimming pool is today, and destroyed all the buildings associated with Hornsby Public School that were on that side of the road, where the Tech. College is situated at the moment. Now, these buildings consisted of buildings belonging to the Hornsby Home Science School, which was a lower type of secondary school for girls and the Infants Department, which was a two storied brick structure. That Infants School, incidentally was burnt out within 5 minutes and one wonders how the children would have coped if that fire had happened during school time. I am afraid to say that it would have resulted in very serious loss of life.

Well now, this precipitated a number of things. With the destruction of the Hornsby Junior Tech., which had been on that site and the Hornsby Home Science School, urgent facilities were required for secondary education in Hornsby. Now, at this time, Normanhurst High School was under construction, as funds had to be diverted quickly to complete Normanhurst high School, so that it would be ready to take in boys from Hornsby Junior Tech., in the next year, which of course did happen. So, in a sense, Normanhurst started with the old Hornsby Junior Tech. providing a nuclear source.

(Question from the audience which I could not decipher.)

Mr. Reynolds answered – They probably did, until such times as Normanhurst School was built, but don’t forget that this fire took place right at the end of thee school year. I think it was in December, so there would have been only a couple of weeks of the school term to go, fortunately. Also, to accommodate the girls, Asquith Girls High School was commenced. This had been on the books for some time, but as I say, a problem emergency had arisen, and Asquith Girls High School accommodated the girls from Hornsby Home Science. Now, at that time, a spot had been acquired for Asquith Boys High School and it was where the present Hornsby Tech. (now Hornsby TAFE) is situated. The Hornsby Tech. actually owned this piece of land, but by a mutual agreement, the site was swapped; the Tech. College feeling that the site on which the Tech. College was built, was far more appropriate for a Tech. College because of the proximity of Hornsby Railway Station, than this site would have been and the Education Dept., having no really strong feelings on the subject for a high school. So work commenced here in the late 50’s and Asquith Boys High School actually commenced operation in 1960.

In the early days at the School, some of the classes were conducted here and some were conducted at Hornsby Public School. The only phone was at Hornsby Public School and this created a bit of a problem, because teachers had to commute from one site to another, and all phone calls, and in fact, administration was run from Hornsby Primary School. This lasted, I think, for about 6 months. When I came to the school in 1962, that was in the 3rd year of operation of the School, and in the 1st year in which the Education Department would appoint masters of Subject Departments. So I came here in 1962 as the first Maths master and with me were Austin Hayes, who was the first English/History master and is now Principal of Turramurra High School. Puggie Pugh, the first Science Master, long since retired and Lance Bennett, who was the first Social Science Master, and unfortunately died of cancer. Rushby Riddett was the first Industrial Arts Master, and he is now in the A.C.T. The following year, 1963, the first Language Master was appointed – Mr. John Wheeler, whom some of you may remember.

Now the first Principal of the School, and he was here from the word, ‘go’, was Mr Mervyn Brown. Mervyn Brown was a very fine humanitarian – you could say that at the outset. He was the composer of the School Song and also instituted the system of houses, named after four native trees. One of these was planted in the Jersey Street frontage of the School. John Holme was the first Deputy, and the subsequent headmasters, after Mervyn Brown – there was Norm. Bowles, followed by Les Rodgers, followed by our present Headmaster, Mr. Hughes. The line of deputies ran from John Holme to the same Les Rodgers who was Deputy before he became Principal here. Bob Smith, whom you may know, and of course, myself. So, there have been four principals and four deputies. Thee other two people on the staff who started here at the beginning of thee school were Ray Kench and Barry Wilson, both whom are now elsewhere.

When I came to the School, thee School Oval had not been constructed. That was still, I won’t say in the original state, but in its original cultivated state. It was very rough; it was wooded; there were shrubs, growing there – blackberries, lantana, thee lot! And it was not until a couple f years later that it was bulldozed and prepared as the School Oval. All the existing buildings were there, with thee exception of G Block, which was constructed a couple of years later.

Now, the drawing area of the School in those days was from Killara north, to the Hawkesbury River and it also included the Galston area. So, you can see that it was a very large drawing area indeed, but with the building – I think this is in the right order – at first St. Ives High School, then Turramurra, then Ku-ring-gai, then Killara and then Galston; in our drawing area was depleted. So, nowadays we draw from roughly,

Bridge Road to Mooney Mooney and do not draw at all from the Galston area. If there are a few exceptional people around, who come from one of those areas it will be because they had a brother attending the School at one stage and the Department bends sibling rights under these conditions.

The population of the School currently, that is pupil enrolment, is about 960 and at its maximum, it would have been about 80 more. So, it has not fluctuated by more that 80 to 100 over the 21 years of the existence of the School. Incidentally, when the School started in 1960, it started with Year 7 only. In 1961 we had a new Year 7, plus the Year 8 and it gradually built up a year at a time until the first Leaving Certificate year. There was no Higher School Certificate in those days. One sat for the Leaving Certificate Examination at the end of five years and the Higher School Certificate Examination was not instituted until 1967.

Now, naturally within a school with a tradition which goes back 21 years, there have been some outstanding staff; there have been some outstanding pupils and will be some outstanding events in the life of the School. I’ve mentioned the four principals and the four deputies who have been in the School. Let me say, about all of the, with the possible exception of myself, that they set a very fine tradition for the School. Don’t get the idea that all high schools are more or less the same, because they’re not! A great deal depends on the administration of the school and through Mervyn Brown, Norm Bowles, Les Rodgers and our present incumbent in the position, a fine tradition was set. The School has always looked to learn, as time went past and to a lesser extent, sport – a physical education. But all of these men were men of vision and men who established a very good tradition in the School.

Other outstanding people we’ve had on the staff, whom I will mention, are Mr. Wheeler who was the Language Master here for many years. He wrote a textbook in conjunction with Mr. Horan, the Language Master at Fort Street, (they taught together for many years) which was well received; it being a very good text book in its time. No doubt, better ones have been written since. Mr. David Kingsford-Smith, who was the nephew of Sir Charles and the son of an eminent Australian film produce and director. Mr. Kingsford-Smith has at least two notable contributions He was on the Ball’s Pyramid Expedition with Dick Smith and some of the others and they climbed about three quarters of the way up Ball’s Pyramid, before they were compelled to give it up, at the minimum time and minimum resources. Subsequently, Ball’s Peak was completely conquered. David Kingsford-Smith introduced to the School, a fifty-mile walk and the competitors, the pupils of the School, used to line up a Kurrajong and start their walk in the evening. They would finish it the next day with one lap around the School Oval. Many boys achieved this and it was quite a significant thing to do. Meanwhile, members of the staff used to take up vantage positions on the route, so the hot coffee and soup (and the hike which was always done in May) could be served to the tired and hungry and thirsty troops. So, it was an all night affair and I feel it was a most enjoyable experience for all it served. What happened to it? I’ll tell you what happened to it. Unfortunately, a number of our fellows in the declining years of this, were set upon by gangs of hoodlums and beaten up – beaten up, and we were forced to cut the otherwise marvellous feature of the School life out.

Greg Hancock was on the English/History staff here, was a very remarkable dramatist. He not only wrote plays himself but he produced some superb plays and not the least of which was ‘Specialist in Madmen’, which you probably saw and which I will talk about later. On the Art staff we have had two quite remark able art teachers – Lawrence Beck, who was an artist in his own right and his father was an artist and he used to do a number of line drawings for the Australian newspaper and Martin Coleclott. Examples of his work are on the far side of the bridge in the green plot, where you can see these square tiles on the wall. They were done by Martin Coleclott who was a top name potter of his day. We’ve had three ex-pupils on the staff- Mr. Langford, and Mr Gay who is still with us. Mr. Ruggles and some of you may remember he was on the English/History Staff. A recent sad loss to the staff, was Mr.Kench, whom I regard as the best teacher and best organiser and the person with the best rapport with pupils, that I have met in 30 years of teaching – a highly gifted teacher and organiser.

When I come to outstanding pupils, it is very difficult to gauge them, because once pupils leave school, you just don’t hear about them any more. Except through the public media. So, if their names happen to be Jones or Smith and you read about a Jones or Smith 10 years later or a Brown, it doesn’t mean really much, but I’ll just mention a few – Jim Richardson, was undoubtedly the best pupil that this School has ever produced. In the Intermediate Certificate, he got the absolute in Latin, 150 out of 150, and yet he was forced to drop Latin in the Senior School in favour of other subjects. In the Higher School Certificate, in the days when excellence determined the high marks, you had to virtually do 3 Unit courses in those days to do well. He got an aggregate of 874 out of 900, which I am sure has never been achieved, never been beaten, never been equalled. He, of course, topped the state in 1968, went on to do pure mathematics at Sydney University and

took out the University Medal. He was also, to the best of my knowledge, the only person in the School Mathematics Competition to take out the top award in both junior and senior divisions – a very gifted man. In the same year, was Kim Sorrellney1. Now, Kim Sorrellney in his own way was equally gifted. He went to Sydney University at the same time and topped the School of Philosophy Unfortunately, he was not awarded the University Medal, which many people believed that he should have received, and it was thought that this was because of the rather reactionary views of the then Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University and thee rather radical view that Kim Sorrellney held. Throwing modesty aside, I’ll mention the University Medal in Physics. Bruce Miller, who took up Japanese by correspondence, when he was at this School did so well that he made an open competition. He won 1st prize, that was a trip to Japan for the excellence of his work in Japanese. He also, in the same year, won an economics essay prize – I am sorry – he came 3rd in that, and of course last, but not least, Peter Robinson, who topped the state last year and also topped the State Mathematics Competition and was presented with an award by the Governor General; no mean feat, by any means. One other – I’m sorry – Kim Carpenter, an outstanding pupil in art, became Artistic Director of Covent Garden and is now the Artistic Director of the Nimrod Theatre which is the principal theatre in Sydney.

Some outstanding parents. I hope I do nobody offence if I just refer my wish to the deserving people of the School. Martin Royal had a son at the School. Martin Royal, well known ABC newsreader, and a broadcaster of soccer, Chairman of the Joint Coal Board, also had his son at the School in the very early days, and was the Managing Director of Farmer & Co., now Myers. Dallas Stivens, who lived in Manor Road had a son at the School, Dallas Stivens, will be known by most of you, I hope, as one of Australia’s greatest short story writers. Jule Hellier, who lived at Mt. Colah, was one of Australia’s foremost poets, had a son at the School and Judge Burns who (space) Judge in Italy and lived at Mt. Colah, also had a son at the School. He was a very fiery judge and a very outspoken one on civil liberties and a number of other things.

The School Dodge. Well, we ran a School Magazine from 1964 to 1978 inclusive. The last issue was edited by Mr. Mead and in the opinion of most, my own included, it was the most outstanding – a very remarkable production. It was given up after that, partly because of the enormous increase in the cost of production, and partly because of the decline in pupil interest. What started off as a very (space) sort of thing, declined over the years. But a great deal of the history of the School can be found by going back over those early magazines, most of all, if not all of which will be in the School Library. It is quite interesting to go back to the earliest ones and find there, pupil’s translations of Latin verse – verse written in Latin – translations from the Italian and various things of that sort – quite nostalgic. Let us hope those days are reviving.

Drama. In the early days at the School, every Form put on a play, and no little plays too. In recent years though we varied it to have a variety musical type of play one year, and the more serious drama, the next. Last year, the serious drama of Othello; this year it’s ‘The Music Man’ and of course the year before Othello, in 1977, we had the melodrama in which Bruce Miller played a magnificent role. Prior to that, we had a very serious play, called, ‘Specialist in Madmen’, produced by Mr. Pulsford and in which four of our students, who acted the parts of madmen, Ian Chaussivert, Stephen Horney, Nick Carroll and Paul Fox, put on a most magnificent display of acting that I think I have seen anywhere, professionally or amateur. It was a magnificent performance all round.

Debating. Well, you know the success we’ve had in debating. What you probably don’t know is that this School won a Hume Barbour Trophy in 1965. Mr. Bob Petherbridge on the English staff was the coach and it was the only time that the highest award for debating was won by the School. I was shocked to read, only a few months ago, that girls are prohibited from participating in the Hume Barbour field and that any team that fields girls in it cannot be awarded the Hume Barbour prize. I think this is really something and the sooner that the Education Department gets rid of that kind of sexism, the better we will be for it.

In the field of Sport, we’ve had some successes, but I don’t think that the School can boast of the sort of success that other Schools in this zone could. I doubt if we have had any truly outstanding sportsmen. One of our P.E teachers of a few years ago, Bob Twible, played hooker for Gordon Rugby Union; and one of our early pupils, Rodney Williams, who was Vice-Captain of the School, not only played hooker for Gordon but also hooker for Sydney University. A boy, whose Christian name I’ve forgotten, called Wilkinson, who was

1 This editor cannot find a ‘Sorrellney’, enrolled in Jim Richardson’s year in 1968. There is a, K. Sterelny in 5A, with Jim Richardson.

with the first batch of pupils trough the School, was an outstanding tennis player. His family ran the shop at Bridge Road near the bridge and he won a scholarship to the United States where he coached in tennis for a number of years. One of his brothers, Terry Wilkinson, was here a few years ago and is now also a professional tennis coach. Those of you who bothered to read the programme for the School Swimming Carnival will notice that Peter Reeves was mentioned there as a swimmer. He was a remarkable swimmer as a schoolboy, as was Buddy Poitier who came from the United States, and was here about the same time. In more recent years, of course, Graeme Carroll was a CHS representative in Rugby. But, I’m afraid that I can’t boast of anybody who played in the Sheffield Shield or a Test side for Australia, or in Davis Cup matches, or in either the state teams of metropolitan teams in rugby, or any other sport for that matter. Of course, we’ve got present swimming stars such as Darren Wilson.

Well, I think that is all I’d like to say at the moment, so if you’ve got any questions I’d be very happy to answer them in the time available. And, I’ll not only say this too, I don’t expect this to be a one period show. If you’ve got any thing relevant to this college, you’d like to take up with me, to-day, tomorrow, or in a week’s time or a month’s time, don’t hesitate to ask. I may not be able to answer it for you, but I think I could probably get the information and relay it to you in due course.

Questions for the audience: was it true that there was a cemetery in Hornsby? I was asked this one yesterday. I wasn’t aware of this. I know that down in Old Man Valley, near where Farley & Lewis mine now, there were a couple of graves, but in fact there was a cemetery of about 30 odd graves, all of which have been vandalised in recent years. Farley & Lewis themselves have restored one of the headstones, which were just knocked over, and they’ve fenced the plot in, and re-erected the headstones and care for those graves but the others were just completely vandalised. The Higgins family, incidentally was the main name in the Hornsby valley.

Another question:………Is this the last segregated high school? Oh! yes, this School has the dubious honour of being the last segregated high school built by the Education Department. All schools built since this one have been co-educational.

Another Question: ………. Are there any plans for co-educational? There have been plans for Asquith Girls and Asquith Boys to become co-educational since 1960 – since I think, the day the School first opened, and there were rumours it was going to happen next year - - it’s going to happen next year, and of course it’s never come to anything, and it’s not going to come about in your lifetime at the School or my lifetime with the department. There are plans for the School at the department.