Historical Society - Hawkins Creek School

Hawkins Creek School

In the early 1880s an upright slab school was erected at Hawkins Creek, 8 kilometres from Barraba on the Trevallyn Road.  Although there was no township at Hawkins Creek, the school provided education for the children of settlers in the area.          
The sawn slab school, built by Mr. Philip Smith, consisted of one classroom, 24 feet by 18 feet.  A six-foot-wide verandah on the northern side of the building was closed in, with wash-basins along one end, and hooks on which hats and coats were hung, along the wall.  Another verandah on the eastern end of the school provided shade in the summer and shelter from rain, and doubled as a stage on which the children performed their annual open-air concert.
Each morning the children marched into the classroom and down the one centre aisle to their desks.  Six children sat on a stool at each desk.  At the front of the room stood the teacher’s desk, blackboards, fireplace, cupboard and book shelves, which were well stocked with good books.
The school property consisted of a two-acre schoolyard, in which the school building and tennis court stood.  There was plenty of space for the children to play in, and for the horses, which some children had ridden to school, to graze. 
In the years immediately following the opening of the school up to 50 children attended daily and were taught by only one teacher.  Gradually numbers dwindled, until in the 1920s the daily average of pupils attending the school fluctuated between 12 and 25.
Children walked up to three miles to school, or rode a horse, or drove a horse and buggy.  The children did not wear uniforms, but they had to be clean, neat and tidy at all times.  The teacher regularly inspected hands, fingernails and shoes to ensure their cleanliness.  The fact that a child might have taken a short cut through a neighbour’s ploughed paddock on his way to school was not considered sufficient reason for having dirty shoes.
The discipline at the school was very strict.  Breach of the rules meant that the child, boy or girl, was caned, or made to stand in the corner.
The teachers who taught at Hawkins Creek over the years were: Messrs. Anstey, Armitage,
Fletcher, Hooper, Mace, Sinclair, Wooley and Misses Duff, Halloran, Haywood, Leagh, McCrone, Mulheron, Wade and Williams.  (Mr. Gallagher taught Cec. Taylor)
Memories of some of those teachers are still vivid in the minds of former pupils.  Some teachers are remembered for their general popularity, while others are remembered for being “cranky” and fond of using the cane.  One teacher made history live as the children listened spellbound to him.  Another teacher, who came to town once a week, gave each child a halfpenny lolly the next day.  Their memories of her are very sweet.
By 1928 the average daily attendance of pupils had fallen below the minimum requirement of ten, so the school was closed.  The building deteriorated, due to its age, and some years later was sold to Mr. A. J. York for the sum of £10.
In 1929 a second school was erected at Hawkins Creek.  This school was a very small,
prefabricated building.  In 1934 this school also was closed, due to insufficient numbers of
children attending.  However, the following year it was again opened, this time as a subsidised school.  This meant that, because less than ten children attended the school, the parents had to pay a small sum towards the cost of their children’s education.  Again, in 1936, the school closed, this time permanently, for lack of numbers.  A few years later the building was moved to the Cobbadah School grounds.  The old school bell, which had summoned the children of Hawkins Creek to lessons, was moved to Plumthorpe School.