Snapshot of the past: Robinson's Creek Mill School

A photograph of students at Robinson's Creek Mill School c1891.
In our fifth and final instalment of our "Education in Longwarry" series, we reflect on the difficulties mill families faced in accessing education across the district.
The 1872 Education Act proclaimed education was to be free to all who wanted it and compulsory for all children up to a certain age. If a child was not attending a recognised school, parents had to show suitable alternative arrangements were made.
This Act posed a particular problem for sawmill owners who had established mills in the huge timber stands behind Labertouche. Whole family communities lived around these mill sites.
Travel to and from Longwarry each day was not viable for children of these families. At the time, roads barely existed and those that did were little more than tracks impassable in winter.
This meant providing a room or building a school for the children of their workers.
Finding teachers to live and work in these communities was also very difficult.
Further adding to these problems, mills and their workers would often move. It was not unusual for everything to be relocated to a new site. It was easier to do this than drag logs back to the mill.
Of course, this also meant the Education Board in Melbourne could never be absolutely sure of the location of a school.
The hapless teacher William Steele discovered this upon being appointed to Freeman's Mill School in 1882. He arrived at the site to find it totally abandoned.
Mr Steele walked further out along the timber tramline for another three-and-a-half miles, only to find the school being dismantled for its next move. He conducted classes in a private dwelling until the school was reopened.
Another example of the mobility of the mills and their schools, was when William Henry (Harry) Collins, detailed in last week's Snapshot, moved his Labertouche Creek mill to Robinson's Creek in 1891.
The school also moved. With just 17 pupils, it operated part-time with the Labertouche School. As a result, the kids along with the poor teacher were back to a seven kilometre walk or ride a couple of days a week.
Then there was the example of Donald Fraser's mill school. Teacher Pat O'Donnell was in charge of the youngsters and, in 1893, the school began to operate part-time with the Collin's mill school at Jindivick North. Mr O'Donnell had to travel between them, no doubt a slow and very uncomfortable trip in the dead of winter mornings.
Living in the bush was difficult, and the fires that often raged made it dangerous. These mill communities finally closed down after the horrendous 1926 fires.
Photograph courtesy of photographer R. Bishop and Mike McCarthy Collection. Information courtesy of the Longwarry and District History Group who gratefully acknowledge the work of John Wells in his book "Gippsland – People, A Place and Their Past" and Mike McCarthy's book "Settlers and Sawmillers".
The Longwarry and District History Group focus on the 3816 postcode, including Longwarry, Labertouche and Modella.
For further information, visit longwarryhistory.org.au