Rowville Primary School - Paul Quinlivan Remembers

Paul was promoted to the position of principal of Rowville Primary School in August 1972. He was teaching at the time at Greenslopes Primary School in Dandenong and remembered coming out to Rowville at lunchtimes with a car load of teaching colleagues to check on the progress of the building program. They drove up the rough track from Stud Road and could not see the building site until they were right upon it, so dense was the bush surrounding it. He recalled his increasing anxiety as the end of 1972 approached with the school still far from completion.

The school was not ready for use at the commencement of the school year so the children continued on at Scoresby and Mulgrave Primary Schools for a few weeks but with their new teachers.

First Day

When the school was ready for occupation (though far from finished) the children gathered at Mulgrave and Scoresby for the last time and then were brought by buses to Rowville. They went off to their classrooms with their teachers and everyone was absolutely thrilled to be finally moving in after so many months of anticipation.

There was no sound system so Paul indicated that it was recess time by blowing a whistle in the corridor. He recalled what happened next with a smile. "The first recess at Rowville Primary School is one I shall treasure for the rest of my life. The teachers went off for their cup of tea but the children, after being restricted to an acre of asphalt at Scoresby, exploded into the bush. When I blew the whistle to end recess I realised that we'd 'lost' half of the children so I had to get in my car and take my first drive down the track - now called Tirhatuan Drive - almost to the kindergarten before I'd rounded all of them up".

There were broken trees and branches and pieces of building timbers everywhere so the children were soon busily constructing cubby huts all over the place. Others started tunnelling into the mounds of dirt cleared from the building site. Ray Sims, the District Inspector, advised Paul not to be too concerned about the children climbing trees as hebelieved that children had enough common sense not to climb to dangerous heights So there was never a 'No Climbing Trees' rule and Paul couldn't remember any child suffering broken bones. A single wire 'fence' was strung across the southern perimeter of the property and the children respected this as the boundary.

Throughout Paul's three years at the school the building program continued. In the winters, the constant traffic of builders' vehicles made the difficult ground conditions even worse.

The Teachers

There were about 130 pupils spread across all grades from Preps to Grade 6. Jan Gough was in charge of the Infant Department with Claire FitzGibbon, Beth Eagles and Wendy Olney. Lyn Barker and Ann Kettle taught in the Grade 3 and 4 area while Lindsay Martin took Grade 5 and Rhonda Benbow Grade 6. Rhonda drove an old Morris Minor to school each day. She said that one of the ways she celebrated her birthday each year was to have the Morris serviced. So there were seven women and only two men on the staff. They were a small group and became a good team. The teachers worked very hard and were conscious of the need to ensure that the children knew their tables and could read and write well. Like Paul, Lindsay Martin was from the country and was a great support to Paul in many ways - but particularly when it came to dispatching the many snakes that appeared around the school in the early months. Paul always kept a rake inside the office door for this job and he or Lindsay would answer the call of "Quick Sir, there's a snake". The children didn't seem to have a fear of snakes and on one occasion when Paul asked a grade one boy to point out exactly where he'd seen the snake, the little fellow started burrowing into a clump of blackberries saying "It's in here somewhere" before Lindsay plucked him back.

Paul acquired the use of a piece of cleared land to the west of the school with enough space for the boys to kick a football or play a game of cricket. One warm day he was summoned by a snake call to this area and looked around dubiously at the bare ground for signs of the reptile. "It's under here Sir", said his informant, lifting a rubbish bin lid he'd removed from the 'wicket' to trap the snake.

The Bush Setting

The 25 acre site was probably the biggest primary school ground in the state. It was a wonderful setting for the children's education and Paul is sure that they still must treasure the memories of their time there in the early days. At one time the Gould League set up sound recorders in the bush around the school and identified the bird calls of 35 different species. One of Paul's happiest memories is of walking down the track at lunch times with groups of children to collect the mail from the letter box surrounded by their cheery talk and the cries of the bell birds.

Parents

Paul had a lot of contact with Cr Bernie Seebeck in 1972 but the School Committee was not formed until after the school commenced. The School Committee were a great bunch of people and the school soon became a major social focus for the community as many parents drove their children to school and then often sat around on the tree logs talking with each other.

The parents were very supportive of the school and there was a great family feeling of caring among the children themselves. Discipline wasn't an issue. Paul remembered with a laugh that his biggest problems were with the pranksters on the staff. One day when the inspector was due to arrive, Paul found that the teachers had propped up a large stuffed image of their principal on a couch behind his desk.

After three years in the country atmosphere of Rowville Paul took promotion to a large Frankston school. However, he maintained his involvement with Rowville as a foundation member of Churchill Park Golf Club and, since 1989, as a resident on the Tirhatuan Estate.

Since his retirement Paul and his wife Ruth have taken up lawn bowls and at present he is the President of the Dandenong Club Bowls Club. Paul and Ruth have three sons: Daryl, Ian and John and seven grandchildren.

Rowville Primary School celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a '70s Party and a Family Day at the school in November.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

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