From Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria 1973, Vol 2: 1042 Percydale (pages 724-5)
Early in 1869 William Sutcliff, on behalf of eighteen parents with 32 school age children, sought aid for a proposed school in the Parish of Yehrip at Fiddler's Creek. The Committee, which consisted of J. Dowe, T. Ward, C. Ebeling, J. McMahon, W. Harris, E. Townsend, W. Sutcliff, had collected £31 5s 6d 'towards the cost'. DI Elkington [District Inspector of Schools] reported on 16th of March 1869 and recommended aid. Meanwhile the Committee erected a wooden building 30ftx18ft, with a shingle roof and deal floor at a cost of £102 12s (with furniture). Mrs Caroline Morman conducted a private school in this building during 1869 when the a.a. [average attendance] was about 40. She unsuccessfully claimed salary from the Board from 1st of January 1869. DI Bolam [District Inspector of Schools] again recommended aid in March 1870. The Board granted aid on 31st of August, salary to be paid from 1st of January 1870. The Committee appointed Elijah Gilsenan as master in November 1869. The 2 acre site for a school Allotment 2, Section 9 - was gazetted on 13th of June 1873. By January, however, the NE [net enrolment] had reached 113 and the Wesleyan Chapel next door had to be leased for 5s a week. In 1874 an old residence built by the teacher was bought by the Department for £9. A 30ft x 18ft addition to the school built by Whitty & Co. for £279 10s 3d was completed by October 1877 and a 4 room wooden residence, built by Chas Ludbrook of Ballarat for £280, completed in 1877. In the 1890s the school building also housed the post office and the Registry of Births and Deaths, apparently under the charge of the HT. P.J. Haly was the Correspondent of the 1911 Committee. The school closed officially on 26th of February 1942.
Wikitree:
- Thomas Ward (abt.1830-1885) : School committee member
- Claus Ebeling (abt.1831-1907) : School committee member
- John Simeon Elkington (1841-1922) : District Inspector of Schools
- Elijah Gilsenan (1819-1895) : teacher
- Dorothy (Jolly) Turpin (1931-2017), her husband Leslie, Alan Leslie Turpin (1927-1990), attended Percydale State School
