It probably seems to some that I spend every idle moment thinking of a new journal to write but that's not how they come about. They usually come about from a chance discovery. Right now I could be writing a new journal called Mr Roger's Tramway at Blackwood because of such a discovery while I was trying to find out when Greendale State School was established to verify my suspicion that Greenvale State School had kept its Common School number in 1872. Instead,one side-track being quite enough,the article was emailed to Margot Hitchcock.

This journal had its genesis in about March 2014 when I heard that the Dromana Historical Society and R.S.L. had received a joint grant for a Centenary of the Gallipoli Landing project. Rosebud's Anzacs were not to be included in the research so I wrote the ROLL OF HONOUR,ROSEBUD journal. I showed it to the Rosebud Primary School Principal, Tony Short, and he thought it would be great for the school captains to carry the Roll of Honour in the Anzac Day march but it was too hard to get off the wall.

Today I called on Tony to see if the Roll of Honour would be carried this year.Like myself, Tony hadn't realised just how tall and heavy it was and thought some sort of cross bar arrangement would be needed but that even then it might still prove too difficult for children to carry. He loved my suggestion of a large photograph of the Roll being carried instead.I showed him my ROLL OF HONOUR, ROSEBUD journal and later he asked me about how long Red Hill had existed. I replied about 1862 and he asked me what the school number was. I said that I didn't know and he had to ring the bell to end recess.

While I was reading Barry Wright's memories of Red Hill, I saw the Red Hill State School number and immediately realised that Tony must have assumed that school numbers (like car regos)could indicate vintage, which they would, FOR SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED AFTER 1872. But it may be no guide at all to the respective ages of say, the Ascot Vale and Wonthaggi schools if both became state schools in 1872. Indeed,if the Ascot Vale school was called Bank St State School,it would have a completely different number!

Some people may wonder why their historic school has a high number while relatively new schools have a very low number. Greenvale Primary school, built in recent decades on the subdivision of Hughie Williamson's "Dunvegan" has a very low number, No. 890. This was a rare case where a brand new school was given the same number as its predecessor (at the west corner of Somerton and Section Rds.)

In nearby Tullamarine, there were three old schools: the former Wesleyan School 632 at the bend in Cherie St, the Tullamarine Island school(number 519 but given as 619 in a source quoted later) and the Seafield school No. 546. Tullamarine Island children attended the Bulla or Holden schools when a reduction in numbers caused a closure;it operated twice so that might account for two different numbers (or 619 could be a typo.) The Island children used Paul Tate's Ford to cross Jacksons Creek on their way to the east end of McLeods Rd where the Holden School stood and when the second Island school on Bulla Park closed they crossed Deep Creek on Bedford's swing bridge to reach the second Bulla School in School Lane.

In 1884 schools 632 and 546 were replaced by S.S.2613 Tullamarine on the north corner of Bulla Rd and Conders Lane (north corner of Melrose Drive and Link Rd.) Again in 1961, this block being acquired for the airport,a new school was opened at the corner of Broadmeadows Rd and Dalkeith Avenue, occupying two LTC (Light timber construction) buildings which were clad with brick a decade later. Once again a new number was employed. Such a high number might lead people to believe that Tullamarine children had been uneducated for about 106 years!

Without wanting to present a history of education in Victoria, I will give a very short summary.Anyone could open a school in early days. Probably one of the earliest on the Mornington Peninsula was on Jamiesons Special Survey near Wallaces Rd (Melway 160 J 4)in the 1850's. Churches opened their own schools in populated areas and when they started asking for state aid only one of them would be chosen as a NATIONAL school based on the Irish model with a curriculum agreed by most denominations. In 1862, with schools coming more under state control, this time called Common Schools, Robert Quinan's school at Dromana was chosen over Daniel Nicholson's but when Quinan committed suicide through shame at not being able to balance the Shire's books (in his part time second job)Nicholson ended up with the job anyway. The Moorooduc school opened as a Common School in a church building near the south east corner of Mornington-Tyabb and Moorooduc Rds. Its number was 825 but its replacement at Jones Corner in 1880 or shortly after was called State School 2327.
Moorooduc Port Phillip Eastern region 825 3 308
Moorooduc Port Phillip Eastern region 2327 3 374

In 1872, the Education Department was established under the leadership of the revered Frank Tate. Schools were called State Schools and numbered in alphabetical order. Common schools probably kept their numbers. Did Greenvale keep its Common School number,given to it in 1869? Yes,or its number would have been higher than Greendale's school,which became a state school in 1872.

The following has saved me a visit to the Rosebud Library to consult VISION AND REALISATION.
No Title
The Bacchus Marsh Express (Vic. : 1866 - 1918) Saturday 14 December 1872 p 2 Article
... in consequence of the bad attendance; third, to the Sunday school, at which, he stated, only two ... . Messrs. John Brady and William Courtney are gazetted members of the Greendale School committee.

It is likely that the Greendale school was a private affair until after the Greenvale Common School opened in 1869, and that it became a Common School in about 1870,retaining its common school number in 1872.

GREENDALE,
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
The school opened in Mr. Graham's barn by Mr. Chamon on Monday last, has been fairly attended during the past week, and will doubtless be a large school ere long.(P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express,15-2-1868.)

Greendale Central Highlands region 918 2 708
Greenvale Port Phillip Western region 890 3 50
In the alphabetical index of Victorian schools the first number is the school number with the second and third numbers being volume and page numbers in VISION AND REALIZATION.

Vision and realisation : a centenary history of state ... - Trove
trove.nla.gov.au/work/8440127
Headteachers of all the schools in existence in 1971 were asked to submit a history of their schools. The boss at Tullamarine's Dalkeith Avenue school was lucky to have plenty of descendants of pioneering families, and the Methodist Church centenary souvenir of 1970,to tell him about all the early schools in the area. All schools in existence in 1972 were given a copy of VISION AND REALISATION. Hopefully all copies from now-closed schools were donated to municipal libraries.

ALL Victorian Schools by name AND number
genealogyworld.blogspot.com/.../all-victorian-schools-by-name-and-nu...

Select this website and then choose one of the two alternative links down the page a bit:

Victorian Schools sorted by name
Victorian Schools sorted by number

Just to wrap up, what do these tell us?
Yabba Yabba Goulburn region 2483 3 817
Yabba Yabba South Goulburn region 2609 3 822
Yackandandah Upper Murray region 692 3 914
Yackandandah Upper Murray region 694 3 914
Yundool Goulburn region 1833 3 787
Yuroke Port Phillip Western region 548 3 41

Here's my guess.
The third,fourth and sixth schools started as Common schools in the 1860's and if they became state schools, they kept their common school numbers. The third school closed and later reopened,perhaps in a new building, as the fourth school. Yundool was probably the last school (alphabetically) to be established as a state school in 1872. Yuroke was established very early and was probably National School 548. Originally known as the Chalmers Institute,it was situated on Mickleham Rd across the road from the Dunhelen gates and was the venue for the meeting in 1857 at which the Broadmeadows Road District was formed. The first and second schools were probably established in the late 1870's or early 1880's.

Okay that wasn't all guesswork. Twenty seven years of local history research allows information to become a story. Like this one.

Jessie Rowe was a much-loved teacher at the Holden school and was given a big farewell circa 1903,when she left to teach at Tullamarine S.S. 2613. Within a few years she was resigning from the Department because she was marrying Frank Wright of "Strathconan" and was given a fond farewell again but with less sadness because she wouldn't be leaving the district. However before she left she had the unenviable task of telling her pupils of the drowning of William Mansfield and his son Willy at Bertram's Ford near Keilor in 1906. A Mr Rodgers took over from Jessie; all the pupils disappeared one hot lunchtime for a swim at the bone mill and, behaving stupidly, Colin Williams cracked his head open near the end of 1908. Colin was still recovering when school started the next year and was dismayed by tales of the new very strict teacher. The same teacher who organised community picnics on Alexander McCracken's Cumberland in 1909-1911,was secretary of the Tullamarine Progress Association 1924-1954, sent him a post card when Colin was serving overseas thirty or more years later,presented Broadmeadows Shire with the Tullamarine (Melrose Drive) Reserve, organised the Pioneers Roll still proudly displayed in the foyer of Tullamarine Primary School and has been honoured by the City of Hume with a plaque attached to a boulder at the Melrose Drive Reserve,a teacher named Alec Rasmussen.