Coronation Primary A Lae, Linda Dang, Carol Taylor, Xavier Chang

Linda Dang, student from 1955

My family moved to Lae in 1955, where we lived in Air Corps Road for a time before moving to Mangola Street. My father, David, was a builder and my mother, Gwen, a dressmaker. They owned the Red Rose Café building, though the restaurant was run by my uncle, Dang Kam Hong, proprietor of Kam Hongs opposite the Commonwealth bank on Coronation Drive. Wendy Phillips' classmate, Genevieve Dang, was one of my cousins. Like everyone else, I loved my time at Coronation Primary and Lae in general. I remember Mrs Stevens with much fondness, and other teachers too. Later, when I left school and married James Seeto, my children also attended Coronation in turn when Tony Sadgrove was headmaster.

A bit of trivia (though maybe not so trivial): I was admitted to The Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Wahroonga (Sydney) - can't remember the exact dates but it would have been about 10 years ago - and who should the volunteer Library lady turn out to be? None other than Mrs Grey herself!

Carol Taylor:

I started at Lae Primary before 1951, when the school building was next to the single men's dongas, beside the old Administration buildings. My older sister Barbara and I remember watching Coronation being built; we lived in nearby 12th Street. In 1956, in my Grade 6 class, Sue Noblet (who later became a teacher at Coronation), Barbara Mohr and Robert Seeto were some of my classmates. My Dad was Jack Taylor; he worked at the hospital, and Mum was May Taylor. Barbara, who also went to Lae Primary, married Lawrie Kelly and they didn't leave Lae until the 70's; their children all went to Bulae. My brother John was working in the Education Department then, and involved in the Drama Group. My younger sister Linda, born in Lae in 1953, left with Mum and Dad in '63 to return to Mackay in Australia. As for me, I married Gordon Equid who worked at DCA in Lae - I worked with Ansett from 1961 to 1963. Gordon and I were married in 1964 and went to Port Moresby, then Manus Island, and then back to Port Moresby. We finally left New Guinea for Melbourne in 1978.

Note from Wendy Phillips: the old Admin complex, as many of you would remember, sprawled through from 1st to 2nd Street, more-or-less opposite the Lae Club and RSL Club and encompassing what has since become a proper road connecting the Coronation Drive end of Second Street to Huon Road. The old school itself, going by a rough map Carol was kind enough to sketch for me, may even have been in 3rd Street.

I grew up in what was known as Chinatown where we lived in post war reconstructed houses made of rusted tin sheets, no lining on walls or ceilings, no running water, outside loos, one electric light and extension cords and double adaptors all over the place.

I started my schooling in 1953 at the Chinese School in Chinatown (see photo left). We had Mrs. Duncan and Mr. Tuohy as teachers. In 1957 when I was in Grade 3 it was decided to close the Chinese School, so along with my fellow Chinese and Mixed Race students I was transferred to Coronation Drive.

To be "relocated" from Chinatown to Coronation was a dramatic change for us. For one thing, European kids ate different food, and we of course wanted to copy them. It was difficult for my parents to understand why I wanted a sandwich in waxed sandwich paper, tupperware lunch box, etc. At little lunch we would watch all the European kids eat their cakes, slices, biscuits etc., and had no idea what they were. At that stage Soccer and soft-ball games were always Europeans versus Chinese/Mixed race, though in later years teams would be integrated. I did Grades 3, 4 & 5 at Coronation with teachers Mrs. Slattery, Mrs. Gray, and a Miss Reid, who would not allow us to use any ball point or fountain pens. We used a sort of a quill with a nib, ink and blotting paper.

In Grade 6, in 1960, I transferred to what later became Bulae (next to Eric Woo's Store, later Andersons Supermarket). There I hooked up again with Mrs. Duncan. We were the first batch of students ever to inhabit Bulae; I remember the playing field still had a lot of tree stumps etc. It was like the end of the earth - at that point, beyond us, there was nothing but miles of kunai.

She had a son, Jonathan, who was in my brother's class, and I think it was third grade she taught me in. I had no trouble recognizing her: she hadn't changed that much! (No, really, I mean it). Her voice is still as soft as it ever was. Needless to say, she stopped by each day whilst I was confined to bed, and we meandered together most pleasantly down memory lane...