Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Hill End Public School with schoolchildren and teachers group

Hill End Public School with schoolchildren and teachers group

1872
Glass photonegative

The wooden school in Tambaroora Street gained a brick extension in 1872. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1872:

The additions were badly required, as the attendance is large — the average at present being 209 children. Mr. Thomas Yates is the master, with four assistants. The three schoolrooms are well furnished, and the carpenters were busily employed at the time of my visit, completing the desks and interior arrangements.

From G.H. Reid, 'An essay on New South Wales', 1876

An increase in the decade of 45 per cent, in schools, 66 per cent, in teachers, and 123 per cent, in scholars, without any compulsion whatever, is one of the most gratifying facts in the progress of the Colony. There are many children not yet overtaken by the schoolmaster; but the desire that every child in the land shall acquire at least the rudiments of mental improvement is so general that the means are sure to follow, except perhaps in the least inhabited localities. [G.H. Reid, ‘An essay on New South Wales', 1876 p109-10]