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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-15 Daily Xml
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EDITHBURGH PRIMARY SCHOOL

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:28): I follow on from the member for Taylor in thanking a group of people. In my case, it is the Edithburgh Primary School. Last Saturday I had the great honour of attending the centenary of the school's location at its current site. There were about 270 people there and when you think of the fact that the school currently has about 15 students and that as little as 10 years ago it had about 90 students, it shows some challenges that regional communities are facing. It also shows the level of pride and spirit that still exists.

Many of the people who came back were from the 1950s onwards. There was a really large number between 1950 and 1980. Many of the names I recognised because I had grown up in the region. I was lucky enough to have my mother with me on that day. My mum had not gone to school there; she went to school at Coobowie which is about three miles away, if I can use the old term. I went there for my first couple of years. She knew a lot of the people because there had been a lot of sporting teams and that sort of thing. When you walked around, even though they were all much older (and we are all much older), you could see the pride they had in the place.

The events started on Friday. It involved school visits. Each of the students at the school were involved in all three days, and I commend them on the fact that they gave up their weekend to be part of the event. Walking around you could see groups of people talking to each other, and in many cases they probably had not caught up for 30 years. They relived their memories: they talked about their first smoke out behind the playground, or their first kiss, and all of the sorts of things that occur in primary schools.

It was congratulations to them, especially in a difficult time for the school when numbers are critical. Last year they got down to about 15 students again, but if they had everyone who could have gone there they would have had 28—but other families had chosen to move to different areas to educate their children. It shows that even though it is their last few years (and I hope it is not as it is probably a challenge for them to continue) they still have great pride in what they do.

It would have been easy to say that it was all too hard and that they did not need to do this, but there was strong support from the governing council, very strong support from the staff who work at the school, and an exceptional level of support that came from old scholars who still live there and who wanted to live the glory days from when they were children. So, they put in the effort and they had great support from community groups who did the catering for the various afternoon teas, lunches, and a dinner on the Saturday night. It was wonderful to be with people who forgot about every care they had in the world, whatever financial pressure they had, or health issue they faced, as they came together.

There was one really stark case for me. It concerned a family from Edithburgh called the Jordan's. I know one member quite well as I lived in the same town as him—Yorketown. The were 15 children in this family; seven have passed away since, but the other eight siblings were all there. They are scattered all over the place, so for them it was like a family reunion, and they treated it like that. I think there were a lot of brothers and sisters who came back and saw each other probably for the first time in quite a few years. No doubt the local economy would have boomed from that because accommodation needs were quite high in the area.

I know of one family, the Stehbens, whose father was a builder in the area. He passed away probably 30 years ago. He was a very good friend of my late grandfather, so I am certainly aware of the family. There are four daughters in that family. The old workshop that their father operated has been turned into a B&B by a Mr Keith Molyneux who lives in Stansbury. Even though they are all married, the four girls decided to stay where dad used to operate his business. It had been done up. For the girls it was a special occasion not just for them to be together but to be where their father operated his business.

That is an example of the spirit that exists and it is something that I want to commend, because they showed what country towns—no matter how big the town is—and all communities are about when they come together. It was especially interesting when the speeches were being held. All events involved speeches, and politicians were given the great honour of speaking. When the principal, Mrs Helen Jolly, was talking a flock of birds in a perfect V formation seemingly hovered above the crowd for the time the speeches were going on, and everybody suddenly got their cameras out and took photos. It showed that, no matter what you believe in, a high spirit was involved in helping that town celebrate.

I commend Edithburgh Primary School on its work for the last weekend and all our schools for everything they have done forever. To be at a site for 100 years and to have a lot of challenges in that time through the ups and downs of the community and to celebrate it so well is an absolute credit to them, and I wish Edithburgh Primary School well.

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