By Tanya Steele
The little school that could celebrated its 125th anniversary this past weekend, with much enjoyment from the school’s current and former staff, students and families or as they are known to each other “Chummies”.
A full day of celebration was held by the school on Saturday 4 March and included a drone photo shoot, potato sack racing, a sausage sizzle and an amazing display of historical memorabilia that was enjoyed by the school community.
Former members of the school were invited to come for the day to celebrate the milestone and see how the school has changed over the years.
Chum Creek primary has gone from its original one building timber classroom built in 1922, to a much larger site, but has retained its close knit community feel.
Principal Micahel Corr was delighted to see the older school students visiting and catching up with each other on the day.
“People bumped into old schoolmates that they had when they were here 50, 60 years ago,” he said.
Some former students travelled from all over Victoria for the event, enjoying the chance to point out where they sat in their former classrooms.
“So the library is now the original classroom. People were commenting ‘that was where I sat’ and there were people here that attended in 1961 and 1965,” Mr Corr said.
The school has survived two major bushfire events, low enrollments and almost closed once or twice in its lengthy history.
The most severe disruption occurred during the Second World War. The school was closed in 1941 and did not reopen until 4 March 1946.
Parents and students put a large amount of work into assembling an array of photos, maps and information from the school’s archives to make historical displays for the event.
On one of the displays a former student, Elizabeth (Beth) McMillan recalls her time at Chum Creek from 1950 to 1953 remembering a time of swapping jam for meat or cheese sandwiches and hot cocoa on freezing mornings boiled on the open fire.
She also remembered “catching yabbies and eels in the creek, and taddies in the pools on the way home from school, and absences in Winter due to the flooded creek”.
“There were no exciting camps or trips like the kids get today,” she wrote.
The school also unearthed a time capsule ahead of the event that had been buried twice, most recently in the 1990’s.
Current students got to examine the contents of the capsule, remarking with teachers on the way things have changed over time.
Previous items unearthed in the old capsule included journals, a flame baton from the 2006 Melbourne Olympics, old film scrolls from royal visits and even a bottle of Reynella port from the 1980’s.
The capsule will soon be buried once again, once current students decide what should go into the artefact.
Mr Corr anticipates that Covid as subject will definitely be included.
“It’s been interesting to have conversations about sorts of things that would be included in the next capsule,” he said.
Mr Corr appreciates the hard work and dedication of everyone involved with the school and hopes the school can continue to deliver quality education in the area for many years to come.
“I really want to thank the whole community for the support, not just for Saturday, but for the last 125 years. It’s a little school, you know and it has had its ups and downs, but it’s still here and we the community make it work.”
