Collection SummaryVictoria Street School
1930s
Repurposed DescriptionThis one-roomed schoolhouse reflects conditions in public schools in Australia in the 1930s, and was moved to the Village in 1984. It is probably an original schoolhouse, which was re-located to the premises of Smithfield Hire, a local business situated at Victoria Street, Smithfield and used as a tearoom and night watchman’s residence for employees.
The unfinished ceiling and simple furnishings evoke the character of many public schoolhouses in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia. Such schools had wooden desks and forms, on which the students sat and often engraved their names and messages. Blackboards and pull down maps often hung from the walls. A portrait of King George V hanging in the classroom suggests it was a time of great patriotism. From 1922, on Monday mornings, all Australian children were required to salute the flag, sing the national anthem, and to pledge ‘I honour my God, I serve my King, I salute my Flag’. Ceramic inkwells in the desks contained ink used for pen and ink writing. Punishment was meted out with the cane, learning resources were limited and teachers relied only on a few books and maps for aid.
In the 1920s and 1930s, pen and ink was used by the older children from Year 2 onwards. Younger children wrote on slates with slate pencils: ‘squeak, squeak, squeak, scratch, scratch was the classroom noise as the children wrote on their slates… ’
Public Schools were the basic elementary schools in the New South Wales education system, known as National Schools from 1848 to 1866, and as Public Schools since 1867. Public Schools required a minimum attendance of 25 children, otherwise they were known as Provisional Schools, where there were at least 15 children, for which parents provided the building and furniture, and the Department of Education paid the teacher and supplied books and equipment.
Smithfield’s first school began in 1843 in a bark hut, and the more substantial Smithfield National School was built in 1850. Morning lessons at the school were from 9am to noon and lessons began again at 1pm until 3pm in winter and 4pm in summer. Half a day of lessons was held on Saturday, and children travelled from neighbouring suburbs such as Canley Vale and Fairfield to attend school there.
As the population grew in the Fairfield district, the Department of Education provided several schools, which mostly consisted of one or two rooms, weatherboard walls, a corruguated iron roof, and one teacher. A Provisional School opened at Guildford in 1860, a Public School at Wetherill Park and a Provisional School at Cabramatta were both opened in 1882. Fairfield Public School was opened by Sir Henry Parkes in 1889. A Provisional School was opened at Bossley Park in 1890 and Canley Vale Public School opened in 1884. St Johns Park Public School opened in 1891, Cecil Park Public School opened in 1895, Mt Pritchard and Villawood opened Public Schools in 1924. Fairfield West Public School opened in 1925 and Horsley Park opened in 1931.
The Victoria Street schoolhouse accommodates up to 24 students, who can sit at the wooden desks and practise writing with pen and ink. They can inspect the cane once used for punishment and a copy of a 1930s School Punishment Sheet, as evidence of school discipline of the period.
