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Did anyone know that a film was made in Lae about 1955-56 using some of the students? I was the "Bat". I remember the bright sun reflectors, cameras and lots of retakes, I didn't have to say anything, just sit in a tree. This film section was shot just around the bottom of the old Lae airstrip. Sorry, I don't even know the title of it but I still have most of the costume that my mother made for it. |
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So how did we begin the week at school? Everyone lined up on the gravel area in front of the main office, sang the anthem "God Save The Queen", recited the code and listened to the speeches, the oldest students filing out first then followed by us younger ones to our classes. Punishments, oh oh! It ranged from "don't do this or that" to having the "cuts". I only ever got the cuts once. I was pushed into a wall and the government clock fell down and broke, oops! Got sent to the headmaster's office - the verdict was six of the best. The cane was flexed in front of me, my heart beat faster, fear gripped my throat, I almost stopped breathing. The cane was raised over the big man's right shoulder and the hand pulled forward with great force. The cane whooshed through the air at tremendous speed in a huge arc. I chickened out and pulled my hand back, the cane continued forward, missing my fingers just by a whisker and it landed with a great crash onto the plaster cast on his own leg. The Head Master fell over. I couldn't laugh as I was rooted to the spot (but it was funny). Yes, I did get one cut, eventually, and it sure hurt, I thought he had broken my hand. I was very good after that. The fear of the cane kept us all in line, that's for sure, we never spoke back to our peers or anyone else, and always watched our P's & Q's. |
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Scott Martin, student 1964-70: When I first went to Lae Primary for Prep in 1964 the School consisted of a wooden "U" shaped building comprising classrooms for Prep through to Grade 6. If you stood in the front assembly area, facing the office, the classrooms were Prep in the top left hand corner, and then grades 1, 2, etc through to Grade 6 in the top right corner. The tuckshop was at the back right, alongside the road that entered the school from Coronation Drive and exited onto, I think, 9th Street. The toilet block was as described by Jim. The playing field at the rear of the classrooms had metal swings and monkey bars on the left, and up the back were the gardener's two sheds. he back of this area then merged into the park that stretched from 12th Street down to at least 4th Street. |
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Jim Dudgeon (cont'd): I remember when the school consisted only of the Office block and the verandah, which connected the two single schoolrooms either side of the office. At the back of the office were the Boys and Girls' toilets, separated in the middle by the children's lunch area. A couple of years later, more school rooms were added, two single schoolrooms either side of the office, and in my last year there a small shed was built way up the back of the school playing field. Between the Grade 1 room and the Head Master's house there was a central pole, this had chains and steel rings which one could grab hold of and swing around. Later on more playing equipment in the form of monkey bars appeared but these were placed further away from the school. The grass had to be kept cut low, this was achieved by a Massey Ferguson tractor, which pulled an assortment of cylinder roller cutter lawnmowers behind it. As this contraption was pulled along, the blades cut the grass, throwing the cuttings upwards at a great rate. |
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St Mary's Catholic Church Lae, which |
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For most of my time at Lae Primary my family lived on 11th Street so going to school involved a short walk to the end of the street, through the above-mentioned park, and then to school via the playing field. We later shifted to Cassia Crescent, next to the Roundwater (street behind the Fire Station) and walking to school became longer, and a lot more fun. In 1968, when I started Grade 4, a new high-set building comprising two classrooms was opened behind the main school complex. Grades 4 and 6 were shifted to the new classrooms and I was fortunate enough to spend my Grade 4 and Grade 6 years in the new, and much larger, premises. The area under this building became a shaded lunch and meeting area. Main assembly continued to be held out the front of the main classroom block, on what was then the basketball/netball court. |
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