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Genevieve Breene, student from 1952 to '56 : My family and I moved to Lae in 1952, after an initial six months in Port Moresby, and I started school at Coronation in 1953. My father, Frank was a "meteorological observer" or weatherman, with "the Met", i.e. the Dept of Civil Aviation (DCA) Met Section. My mother, Sheila, (nee Collins), played Elaine in "Arsenic and Old Lace" with the local theatre group, directed by Arthur Strachan, whom my parents knew well as they moved in the same social circles. Their son Tony (I think) was in my class. We lived in 5th Street, opposite the Duncans' Meg and Eric, in the same sort of house (Hawksley?) as in Wendy's PNG photos. |
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During my time at Coronation primary, about 1955? the inspectors came to the school - from Australia! We knew next to nothing about Australia! We gave the answer "Victoria" when asked what the capital of Australia was - which gave the teachers apoplexy as it was their teaching that was being inspected! I still recall preparing that answer beforehand with the "Brains Trust", two other girls whose names I can't recall. I also remember getting "the cuts" from the dreaded "Breakspeare", who had (I thought) one broken leg but it seems there were two. The whole class was caned for something one person had done - it was my first experience of injustice! Speaking of getting the "cuts", the boys had a theory that, if you rubbed orange peel on your hands, the cane would bounce off and wouldn't hurt. We tried that but, as you can imagine, to little effect. I stopped thinking boys were so smart after that! I remember lining up out the front of the school to have TB shots - which really hurt! The irony for me was that the year we returned to Australia was inoculation year in my new school, and they didn't believe that I'd been inoculated in so savage a place - I had to have the TB shot again! I still have both scars on the same shoulder/upper arm. Crazy! I also remember a class - not regular I don't think - called "Empire Songs", held in the grade 5-6 classrooms. "Britannia Rules The Waves" was one, but the one I remember most fondly was "Advance Australia Fair", probably because I was one of the few people I knew who could sing it when it became the national anthem - a bonus, which, I guess, made up for the TB shot fiasco! Does anyone else remember the "Busy Book"? This was a book in which we wrote little essays which had to be illustrated at the top; I guess we were very busy in them, hence the name J. We had to put a finger space between the words, and when I broke my left arm (another whole story), because it was in a sling I couldn't put my finger space in. My "Busy Book" suffered as a consequence, and I lost marks, which was a major tragedy to me, as my "Busy Book" was my pride and joy. I also remember when the Queen came to Australia in 1954; I would have been in Grade 1, I think, and we were devastated that we would not get to see her! We were asked to bring pictures of her for a display from magazines, etc, but NOT to colour them in under any circumstances. I couldn't resist - I thought the Queen was SO beautiful that I just had to colour her in. Mrs Womersley went ballistic and my pictures weren't used in the display. I've been off the Queen ever since!! I just noticed "Patricia Hayes" on the student list. She was known as "Trishy" and her mother was a well-known artist, named Bette or Betty. Watercolours I think; I can picture them now! They lived not far from us but on the main road (name escapes me) opposite the end of our street.
Some other names from the list that are very familiar to me: Joanne Osborn, Pam Oakley, the Strachans, Wendy Tingwell and "Dell" and the Womersleys. The Womersleys lived at the corner of our street, and we used to play with Jonathan. His mother was a teacher at Coronation Primary, and she filled me with dread and awe as both neighbour and teacher - she once rescued my sister Lindy from the garage roof. If ever there was a problem in the street we took it to Mrs Womersley - we knew she would know what to do. We actually took a snake down there once on a stick, and she was horrified! I also remember Ken Grey very well, and his mother. The "M. Atherton" on your list was, I think, Martin Atherton, half-brother of Julian Collins, who contributed to my book, "Territory Kids", about growing up in PNG and how it made us different from our Australia-raised counterparts. Their father (and stepfather) was Kit Atherton, a well-known figure in Lae. Margot Herriot also contributed to my book; she was living in Brisbane in 2000 when we launched it and I met up with her there: a colourful character who had some great stories to tell. Like everyone else, I loved my time in Lae. We left in August 1956, and Gail Paton's parents, Harry and Betty, replaced us with the Met when we moved on. They also took over our house in Fifth Street, and our dog! We had given it away before we left but we heard it just kept coming back to the house and eventually the Patons adopted it.
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