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Among the many voices preserved in the children’s pages of the Weekly Times is that of Mary Alice Waring of Moonambel. Through her letters, stories, sewing competitions, and literary selections, we can glimpse the life of a thoughtful and talented rural schoolgirl in the Pyrenees district during the 1890s.

Mary Alice Waring was born at Moonambel in 1881, the daughter of John Robert Waring and Agnes Punton. She grew up at Middle Creek nearby, later described in local newspapers as Warrenmang, and attended the Kimberley State School. Although her life was brief, ending at the age of seventeen, her writings allow us to know far more about her than official records alone would ever reveal.

At twelve years of age Mary was in the sixth class and walking two miles to school each day. Her first letter to Uncle Ben’s Our Letter-Box column described everyday life at Middle Creek:

“My mamma killed a snake inside the house this year. We got a terrible fright. Papa has killed at least half a dozen, one of which was near our home.”

The letter also mentioned large ripe peaches and a thunderstorm. Uncle Ben commended her neat handwriting, an accomplishment greatly valued in Victorian schools.

Mary soon became a regular contributor. In 1894 she wrote of a serious accident in which her father injured his eye while fencing and feared he had lost his sight. She also revealed that the Weekly Times was a shared family enterprise: her younger sister Lizzie eagerly followed the children’s page, while Janey hoped to become one of Uncle Ben’s many “nieces.”

One of Mary Alice’s letters described a pet squirrel—probably a native possum—discovered beneath the family sewing machine when her brother Fred was two years old. The creature became thoroughly domesticated, climbing over its master and roaming the kitchen at night, before disappearing forever after an uncle attempted to carry it home in his pocket. The story remained part of family folklore and was later retold by Mary’s sister Janey in another newspaper.

Mary also displayed a keen eye for the landscape around her. In 1894 she described Middle Creek as a place of steep fern-covered hills, flowering wattles, violets along the creek banks, slate quarries, gold workings, and small waterfalls. Her description reads almost like a school composition exercise, reflecting both close observation and considerable skill in expression:

“There are plenty of wattle trees growing all along the banks of the creek, and when they are all out in blossom they look charming.”

Her education extended well beyond the classroom. Mary collected money for Aunt Connie’s cot at the Melbourne Children’s Hospital, joined the League of Kindness, and participated enthusiastically in the Weekly Times sewing competitions. In March 1895 she submitted a bed-jacket for the Children’s Hospital, and Aunt Connie later singled out her work as being only a little behind the leading entries. The half-yearly competition judges also awarded her a formal commendation among girls under sixteen from across Victoria.

Like many Victorian schoolchildren, Mary delighted in literature and moral instruction. In 1895 the paper published her selection of favourite quotations from Burns, Shakespeare, Douglas Jerrold, and Philip Henry. The same year it printed Evil Begets Evil, a fable submitted by the thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Whether an original composition or an adaptation of a familiar moral tale, the story demonstrated her mastery of dialogue, narrative structure, and the conventions of the fable. Its concluding lesson was characteristically Victorian:

“Sly persons are frequently caught in their own nets, just as the fox was.”

Mary’s letters also illuminate the life of Kimberley State School. An inspector’s visit in 1894 produced a commendable result of ninety-one per cent. The school building itself served many purposes: Sunday school met there every week, church services were held once a fortnight, and social evenings and prize distributions brought the community together.

Her farewell letter to Aunt Connie in 1897 provides one of the most detailed descriptions of school life. The school had been decorated with wattle blossom for a recent social evening, and prizes were distributed to the children. Mary received a copy of The Maid of the Storm, while her sister Janey won Little Eyebright. Janey and five classmates recited The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Fred performed Tom Long Smith, the Doctor. The school was crowded, and the event was pronounced a great success.

The Maid of the Storm by Nellie Corwall and frontispiece. GoogleBooks.

That same letter also reveals a tragedy. Early in 1897 Mary developed what she described as a cold that left her deaf. She spent nine weeks in hospital and was taken to Melbourne to consult specialists. She visited Cole’s Book Arcade, the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, and the Public Library, but medical treatment brought no improvement. She even tried remedies prescribed by a Chinese doctor, though without success.

Yet her response to this profound loss was marked by remarkable maturity:

“I used to imagine it would be worse to be deaf than what it really is.”

Weekly Times (Melbourne), 25 September 1897, p. 8

Our Letter Box
Deafness from Cold--Middle Park [Middle Creek], via Moonambel, Aug. 13, 1897.—Dear Aunt Connie,—It is such a long time since I wrote to you that I suppose you have almost forgotten me. I usually spend the evening in reading, but to-night I thought I would occupy the time in writing a farewell letter to you, and take the opportunity to wish all my cousins good-bye. After the 26th of next month I shall not be able to write to you any more. I shall then be sixteen years old.

I still take a great interest in the "Young Folks'" page and enjoy reading the numerous interesting letters, especially Louie Russell's. I would like to see her; I think she is a very amusing little girl.

Since I last wrote to you I have had the misfortune to become deaf. About the beginning of this year I got a cold, which ended in deafness. I was in an hospital up here for nine weeks, and then my father, seeing that I did not improve, took me to Melbourne to see another doctor. We went to one of the best doctors in Melbourne, but he said that he could not do me any good, so we did not stay many days. I went to Cole's Book Arcade, Zoological Gardens, Botanical Gardens, Library, and other places.

After we came back from Melbourne I went to a Chinese doctor, and got some pills from him to put in my ears. They made my ears very sore. I would not have any more pills like those put in my ears for anything, especially as they did not make me much better. The Chinese said, when I went to him, "No more harm; all right in a week"; but he was mistaken, for a good many weeks have passed, and I am still unable to hear. I used to imagine it would be worse to be deaf than what it really is. 

A lot of my cousins have been writing about the Jubilee celebrations. We only had a picnic up here to celebrate the Jubilee, and the school children did not get any medals.

I do not think I told you we have Sunday school every Sunday now in the Kimberley State School. Church is also held once a fortnight in the same school. A social in aid of the Sunday school was held last Friday evening, and the prizes were given out. The Kimberley State School, in which the social was held, was decorated with wattle blossom. I got a nice prize called The Maid of the Storm, and my sister Janie got one called Little Eyebright. My brother Fred and sister Lizzie also got prizes.

My sister Janie and five of her school mates recited The Charge of the Light Brigade, and my brother Fred recited a poem called Tom Long Smith, the Doctor. The school was crowded, and everyone pronounced the social to be a success.

The bush is lovely now that the wattle trees are in bloom. I have got Uncle Ben's and Cousin Connie's photos framed. Please put Cousin Florrie's in, so that I can get it framed also.

Once more wishing you, Uncle Ben, Cousins Connie and Florrie, and all my other numerous cousins, good-bye, I will conclude with love to all.—I remain, ever your loving niece,W. Alice Waring.

(I am sorry to hear of your loss of hearing, Alice. We all hope your hearing will be restored.—Aunt Connie.)

In August 1898 the Kyneton District Hospital acknowledged receipt of the balance owing for the treatment of John Robert Waring’s daughter, indicating that her medical care continued long after her return home from Melbourne. Her death certificate records that she was attended during her final illness by Dr John Tremearne of Creswick, who last saw her on 20 October 1898.

Mary Alice Waring died at Middle Creek, Warrenmang, on 20 February 1899, aged seventeen years and five months. Her death certificate records the cause as tubercular disease of the brain, of two years’ duration, together with general debility lasting five months. The chronology strongly suggests that this prolonged illness was connected with the deafness she described in 1897, although contemporary newspapers made no explicit link.

Her funeral notice in the Avoca Mail occupied only a few lines:

The Friends of Mr J. Waring, of Warrenmang, are invited to follow the remains of his beloved daughter, Mary Alice Waring, to their last resting place, Moonambel cemetery.

Without her letters, Mary Alice Waring might today be remembered by little more than a birth and a death registration. Instead, the pages of the Weekly Times preserve the voice of a bright and thoughtful girl who loved books, flowers, pets, family, and school life. Through them, her brief life is remembered more than one hundred and twenty five years later.

Wikitree: Mary Alice Waring (1881-1899)

Related Post: History of Moonambel and Kimberley Schools

The history of education in the Avoca district reflects the changing fortunes of the goldfields and farming communities. Schools were established where there were families, and adapted—or physically moved—when circumstances changed. Few examples illustrate this better than Moonambel and Kimberley (later Tanwood).

Moonambel developed from a modest Church of England school established in 1861 into a substantial brick state school that continues to educate local children more than 160 years later. Kimberley’s school building began life as a church on the Raggerty diggings, was hauled by bullock team to Kimberley as the gold population shifted, and later moved again by traction engine to Tanwood, serving three different communities over more than a century.

From Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria 1973, Vol 2: 1160 KIMBERLEY / TANWOOD (page 743)  

This building was first erected as a church on diggings known as Raggerty, in the Parish of Yehrip or Tehiree, County of Kara Kara. Built of hardwood with a pine ceiling, it consisted of one room and porch. Later it became a Common School. Two HTs [head teachers] were Ralph Gilsenan and W. Sutton. As the gold petered out in the diggings so did the pupils dwindle in numbers, and in 1876 (approx.) the building was shifted about 4 miles NE by bullock team to Kimberley, Parish of Warrenmang, County of Kara Kara, the contractor being J.J. Brown. Each of the walls was transported in one piece and re-erected. Among the teachers who taught at Kimberley were Misses Christy, Hogan, J. King; Messers J. Brown, P. Green, Heath, G. Coughlan, G. Tilly. The school remained for 39 years, and again the number of pupils grew less. In May 1915 the old building was again shifted NE about 2 miles to Tanwood, Parish of Warrenmang, County of Kara Kara, this time by a traction engine and jinker, owned and operated by George Walkly. The contractors for the re-erection of the school were Charles Astbury and W. Argall. The school remained on this site for 52 years and was then sold by the Department. When dismantled in May 1966 most of the timber was said to be in good condition.
The site at Tanwood is now controlled by the Moonambell School for the purpose of a School Endowment Plantation. Timber to the value of $240 was sold during clearing operations in 1966. Four hundred pinus radiata were planted in August 1968, and when fully planted the 31 acre site will accommodate approximately 2000 trees.

Tanwood Avenue of Honour

In 1918, Tanwood school students helped to plant Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) trees, extending about 300m along both sides of the Stawell-Avoca Road, to establish the original Tanwood Avenue of Honour, commemorating the service and sacrifice of local WW1 soldiers. The avenue has since been replaced with Red Flowering gums (Corymbia “Wildfire”).

The soldiers honoured included: World War 1: Robert Douglas Anderson Service No: 5612, William Charles Castleman Service No: 61256, Anthony Cudmore Service No: 478, Robert Luscombe Service No: 3263. World War 2: Arthur Percy Williams Service No: VX135327, Daniel Gethen Williams Service No: V240727, Gladwyss Evelyn Williams Service No: V502362, Kenneth James Williams Service No: V240728

From Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria 1973, Vol 2: 439 MOONAMBEL (page 656)  

The Church of England established this school on 14th of January 1861 with Thomas Granger as HT [head teacher]. The a.a. [average attendance] of 439 Moonambel was 63 in 1862. Under the Department a schoolhouse was built in 1875, on a site gazetted on 25th of September 1874, to replace the former leased building. No. 439 closed on 30th of November 1875 and Thomas Granger opened the new school, 1683 Moonambel, on 1st of December 1875.

From Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria 1973, Vol 2: 1683 MOONAMBEL (page 786)  

In October 1874 the Department called tenders for a school to be built at Moonambel. A wooden building was requested by the Mining Department, which had reserved the right to mine on the selected site. Assisted by DI Colin Campbell the Board of Advice obtained revoca-tion of the right to mine and the Department agreed to construct a brick building on the site. This is now known as Humfray St which runs parallel to the Avoca-Landsborough Rd; the school is directly behind the former post office in the main street. By October 1875 the new brick school was completed and opened on 1st December under HT Thomas Granger, who was in charge to 1882. There was an enrolment of 133 and an a.a. [average attendance] of seventy-one in 1875. This school replaced an earlier school No. 439 Moonambel - of Church of England origin dating back to 1861. No. 439, a State leased school, was struck off the roll on 30th of November 1875. Thomas Granger was HT of this school from 11th of February 1871 to 30th of November 1875. It had accommodation for 100 pupils, and a four room, teacher's residence provided. At present SS1683 has a total of thirty pupils, which requires a HM and an assistant. The active Mothers' Club and Committee have worked very hard over a period of years to equip the school very well. An endowment pine plantation, situated on the site of the old Tanwood School 1160, was planted on 22nd of August 1968.

Images from History, Moonambel Primary School website

On 24 May 1914, Empire Day, the pupils of Kimberly State School marched to Moonambel under the leadership of their teacher, Mr Tilley, where they were welcomed by Mr Forbes and the Moonambel school. The two schools shared festivities, speeches, games, and lunch.

Avoca Free Press and Farmers’ and Miners’ Journal, Wednesday 27 May 1914, page 2

MOONAMBEL.

Empire Day was fittingly celebrated at the Moonambel State school. The scholars at the Kimberly school were invited, and, under the direction of their head teacher (Mr Tilley) they marched in procession through the main street at Moonambel to the school grounds. The children carried flags, and seemed to revel in the festivities. The visitors were warmly welcomed by Mr Forbes, the master of the Moonambel school. At 12.30 o'clock luncheon was provided, and done full justice to.

During the afternoon the children saluted the flag, sang patriotic songs, and went through a number of physical exercises. Games and races were indulged in, and the successful competitors were presented with prizes. At four o'clock the parents and children sat down to tea, a bountiful repast being provided.

Mr Forbes, in a few well chosen remarks, thanked Mr Tilley, the parents and children of Kimberly for attending the function. Mr J. Fitzgerald, J.P., also made a neat speech, and Mr Tilley, in responding, expressed the hope that they would all meet again on some future occasion. As the Kimberly children took their departure, the Moonambel scholars gave three hearty cheers, which were duly acknowledged. The Kimberly juveniles were complimented on the excellent manner in which they carried out their exercises, and Mr Tilley deserved great credit for training them to such a degree of perfection.

The new flag at the Kimberly State school was unfurled on Empire Day for the first time in honor of the occasion.

In 1922, the Gippsland Times described the rural school as one of the Victorian Education Department’s greatest achievements. The article emphasised the close relationship between country schools and the industries that sustained their communities. Moonambel earned a special mention: its pupils learned the principles of eucalyptus-oil production through a miniature still set up by their teacher, linking education directly to the forests and livelihoods of the district.

Gippsland Times (Vic.), Thursday 26 October 1922, page 3

The Rural School

If the question were asked, What result of its education effort during the past fifty years represents the most distinctive achievement of the Victorian Education Department? the answer would spring to many lips would be the significant part that the rural school has come to play in the life of the community. Wherever a few families have settled in reasonable proximity to one another, be it in the Gippsland hills, or in the new wheatlands of the Western district, or in the still newer soldiers' settlements in the Mallee, there will be a school to be found among them! No country in the world has done more to provide efficient one-teacher schools for its outback population than Australia, and the Australian teacher has worked out a method of organisation and of teaching for such schools that is unique and effective.

In Victoria, where there is a sufficient number of children of school age, and where a suitable room is offered, a teacher is provided and a school opened. Where the average attendance is in the region of twenty scholars, a school is built. It is now quite common to find in remote districts school buildings of the latest pattern, well lighted, well ventilated, and equipped with dual desks, cloak rooms, hylo-plate blackboards, lunch cupboards, &c. These new or remodelled schoolrooms have quite replaced the old makeshifts—

“Battered, queer-old buildings that belong to other years,
With a dog-log fence around them and their hats about their ears.”

The needs of the most sparsely-settled districts are met either by correspondence tuition, or by subsidised schools in connection with which the department grants a subsidy of £5 per pupil in average attendance. The establishment of these subsidised schools enables school facilities to be provided for a small number of children much more freely than formerly. On 31st December, 1919, there were 2,235 elementary schools in operation in Victoria. No fewer than 970 of these had an enrolment of fewer than 20 pupils.

Once established, the rural school is not satisfied to be a mere “knowledge shop.” Instruction it does impart, but it does very much more. It ministers in the most vital ways to the well-being of the community, and its influences for good reach out in many and often unsuspected directions. More and more the school house is becoming the centre of community interest. No function brings together a larger gathering than those held at the school. This is in marked contrast to conditions thirty years ago, when the school was the “State School”—the concern of a far-off department and of State officials. To-day, it is “Our School,” and we all have duties and responsibilities towards it.

Thus the rural school affords one of the most readily usable channels for community service. Practically every family is represented in it, and the resultant benefits of such service are abundantly manifest. Hence we find school committees and parents keeping in closest touch with all the school activities, attending school functions in force, organising working bees to clear and plant the grounds and make the garden a fragrant mass of bloom, forming themselves into committees to develop plans for school decoration, and taking the keenest interest in the school sports. (In one district this year, an enthusiast on the school committee organised a football team of “has-beens” from among parents and others in order to give a final practice game to the school team competing for the district premiership). And what an excellent record in school improvement our teachers and school committees have made. Well-fenced and well-planted grounds, play pavilions, swimming baths, tennis courts, and agricultural plots are to be found around our schools to-day, while inside are the choice pictures, the school library, the piano and other aids to fine work.

The department’s attitude in regard to the subjects of instruction for rural schools in Victoria is worthy of note. In many countries, the course of study in elementary schools is differentiated for rural schools; in the latter, much lower standards than in town schools are accepted. In some cases, the rural schools are termed ungraded, to signify that the regular development of the subjects from grade to grade is not attempted. The Victorian Education Department has always insisted that the standard of education shall be as high in the rural school as in the city school. It was a sure instinct that prompted our early administrators to emphasise the necessity for sound education in the pioneer settlements. And the wonderful thing is, not only that this equality of standard is maintained, but that boys and girls taught in rural schools often show to advantage in scholarship competitions, and in their later progress in high schools and technical schools. It is interesting to record that every one of the leading administrative and professional officers of the Education Department received his early education in a small country school.

Then, in order to meet rural needs more fully, certain modifications in the course of study for rural schools has been made. To reduce the number of divisions to be taught at any one time teachers are permitted to group certain grades for simultaneous instruction, and portions of the prescriptions in history and geography are taken in alternate years. Further differentiation to meet special needs is provided for in nature-study, agriculture, gardening, and occupations. Wherever practicable, these are closely related to local industries. For example, in a potato growing district like Kyneton, the school activities in all these subjects centre around potato culture.

Pupils grow potatoes under varying conditions of tilth, manuring, and moisture; they compare yields from different varieties; they are kept in touch with the results of research elsewhere; and, sometimes, under an enthusiastic teacher, they even evolve new varieties of their own. In the rural school at Moonambel, surrounded by a State forest, the teacher has set up a miniature still, by means of which every process in the distillation of eucalyptus oil is explained. The needs of a fruit growing district are catered for by lessons and practice in budding, grafting, pruning, spraying, and other orchard operations. Many of the schools in Northern Victoria have their own miniature vineyards and orangeries. In dairying districts new grasses are tried out in the school plots, and the principles of milk testing are taught as part of the course in science. So, too, in wheat-growing areas, practical tests are made of the resistant powers of various wheats to rust and drought, and their suitability to local conditions is investigated.

This strong appeal to local interests accounts for much of the success attained by Victorian rural schools. Another most important factor has been the high professional and cultural standing of the teachers. In Victoria, the system of promotion and transfer practically compels young teachers, fresh from training and eager to try out the new ideas they have gained, to serve for a period in the country districts. Thus the man (or woman) in charge of a rural school is often a trained teacher with good academic qualifications, fired with enthusiasm for new methods, and fully seized of the fact that, to win his spurs, and qualify for promotion, he must make good both within and without the school. In some of the other Australian States, such young teachers with the higher training are at once appointed to positions in city schools, and thus the rural schools tend, more and more, to fall into the hands of teachers with lower qualifications.

It is of interest to record that the late Professor Green, of Sheffield University—a man with a wide knowledge of educational systems—said, after an inspection of a number of Victorian country schools:—“While you have done well in many fields of educational effort, there is one thing in which you have done supremely well, and that is in the development of your rural schools.”

The heritage of Kimberley and Moonambel schools remains visible in the landscape and the community, from the Tanwood Avenue of Honour planted by local students to the continuing operation of Moonambel Primary School.