Stories and highlights

At Dora Creek Public School, there’s always something to be proud of. From special events and significant achievements to everyday successes, here are some of the wonderful highlights from our school community.

A year at our school

“As a parent, I love Dora Creek School because it has that warm, country feel where everyone knows each other. It’s a small school, but it offers big opportunities for our children to grow, learn, and succeed.”— a parent of Dora Creek Public School

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School History :

It was the Reverend John Shaw, a Church of England minister, who was the prime mover for the establishment of the first school at Dora Creek.

He wrote to the Council of Education, a forerunner of the Department of Education, enclosing a copy of an official application for aid to establish a Provisional School. This was dated 10th January 1870. On 18th January 1870, Inspector Allpass recommended that aid is granted from 1st May 1870 provided that not less than 20 children were in average attendance.

The school was said to be 24 miles from Newcastle and 3.5 miles from the nearest existing school. A total of 25 children promised to attend.

Early pressure

In the early years, the school's success was affected by the low and erratic attendance of pupils. When the average weekly attendance skipped below 20 in 1872 there was a danger that Mr Douglas, the teacher, would have his salary reduced. This was averted only because he was able to state his case strongly. The low attendance of pupils was not in his opinion his own fault. It was caused principally by three factors: namely, "work, rain and illness". He observed that it was the children over 7 years rather than those under 7 years who were kept at home, apparently due to their greater work capacity.

Pre 1900

Mr John Douglas, the first teacher, was born on Norfolk Island in 1840.

John and his wife purchased a number of adjoining allotments at Newport early in the 1860s. He had been a leading citizen in the early development of Newport. By 1866, the Douglas family opened a general store. They supplied the needs of nearby settlers. When in 1870 Douglas became the schoolmaster, his premises came to be regarded as the gathering place of the community. It came as no surprise to learn the Post Office was later established at his store also.

He had no previous teaching experience prior to his appointment as a schoolmaster. Unfortunately, teaching was not highly profitable and was not sufficient to meet the needs of himself and four dependents.

It was not only the attendance of the pupils which was at fault, but it was also their fee-paying capacity. Mr Douglas described the parents as "of the poorer class", he said that:

"not one of them pay for all the children sent by them, and some of the parents pay nothing whatever for any of their children, and will not send them unless I agree to such terms. I only received fees for eight children at 4s per quarter each, the parents asserting in nearly all cases their inability to pay the school fees."

Perhaps this is why John Douglas found it necessary to sell vegetables and fruit. On occasions, he worked with a horse and cart, and other times helped his wife manage the small store, all helped to support his four children.

1875-1883

In 1875 it became one of the teacher's special jobs to ferry children living on the south side of Dora Creek to school. This function had previously been performed by Mr H.R. Worley, but his boat had become old and leaky, and it was left to the Council of Education to supply the teacher with a new boat so that he could carry on the service. There was a new addition to the Douglas family in 1881 and Mr Douglas enlarged the premises at his own expense- a new schoolroom and kitchen were added on to the existing building. Apparently, the workmen were still there by 12th January 1882 so Mr Douglas applied for permission to close the school because:

"I soon found the confusion of noise and material all about made it absolutely impossible to carry on the school work."

In 1883 Mr Douglas decided to resign from teaching. He left on 30th June. In the month prior to this, he reported that:

"repeated inquiries have been made to me to know when the school is likely to open again."

He appears to have remained a local resident for possibly the rest of his life. His main sources of revenue were a grocery store and a 40-acre selection.

A Public School

The School during Mr Douglas' time as a teacher had been a Provisional School, i.e.: it had to support an average pupil attendance of 20 to 25 (Public Schools Act, 1866). The passing of the Public Instruction Act (1880), however, changed this. Schools with an average pupil attendance of 20 were not eligible for Public School status. This was granted to Newport School on 28th March 1885. School continued to be held in Mr Douglas' building and the Department of Public Instruction paid a rental fee of £20 p.a. for many years. Anglican Church services were also held there until a church was erected in 1885.

A New School

In 1895 the Department asked Mr Douglas to sell them the school building. Upon learning this, he said that his shock was:

"nearly as bad as Mr Barnam suffered on his first hearing the ‘Tea gong' down near Kansas City,".

He said he wanted to keep the building as a rental investment. He thought of offering the Department another 2-acre site from his selection but then agreed to sell the school and adjoining land for £250. The Department had a valuation done on the property, and, as it came to only £32, decided to look elsewhere.

On 16th October 1896, 1 acre of land was resumed from a 25-acre holding which two Sydney gentlemen, Messrs John Brown Watt and Walter Cumming Watt, leased to Mr James Walmsley. The land was on the north side of the Coorumbung Road, west of the railway station next door to the Church of England.

A new school building was completed on 8th January 1898 and the keys of the old school handed back to Mr Douglas. The contractor who built the new school was Mr M. A. O'Leary of Coorunbung and the work cost £195.10s. The wooden building was 28'8" x 17'4" and contained one schoolroom and a verandah. Later in the same year, the new teacher Mr Gardiner complained that the children's hats were being blown away, so one end of the verandah was boarded up to make a hat room.

Postal receiving Office

A postal receiving office was opened with the name of Newport on 16th July 1885 and in 1887 the location was raised to the status of a full post office.
Six years later the villages' Progress Association formally requested that the name of the post office be altered to "Dora Creek" which was the name of the new railway platform there. Another group of residents petitioned that the name Doree be retained. During April of 1885, John Douglas addressed a request to the Postmaster-General that a post office is opened at his store, which now occupied a building separate from the school, though next door. Douglas supplied his postal address at "Doree, Cooranbong", by which he intended that the post office should be known as the Doree Post Office. The postmaster was in favour of this application but commented that Newport was the correct name of the place, "Doree" is merely the name of Douglas' residence.

A postal inspector pointed out that the village of Martinsville, about eight miles distant had a post office under the name "Dora Creek" and he felt confusion would arise if any change was made in the name of the Doree Post Office. The railways refused to change the name of the then Dora Creek station and with the persistence of the Progress Association on the 16th January 1894, Doree Post office was renamed, Dora Creek.

On 1st January 1902, Newport School was re-named Dora Creek to avoid confusion with Newport, Pittwater, and because the local post office and railway station were both called this. It appears that in the 1890s the township was often also called the Village of Coree.

The school grows

Mr Adam reported in 1914 that the school had a library, tennis court, flower and vegetable gardens and manual training equipment. By 1921 there were 129 children enrolled at the school and the headmaster applied for a second teaching assistant and additional seating accommodation. The latter was supplied, but the former was not granted until 1926 when the two assistants were Misses H. Alcorn and A. McFarlane. By this time the enrolments had actually diminished to 96.

1916- The School Burns Down

"Children's Peculiar Escapade the Coroner's Enquiry," An abridged version of the original article that appeared in the Newcastle Herald - 19th June 1916.

An inquest was held at the Newcastle Courthouse on Saturday morning into the circumstances relating to a fire which occurred at the Dora Creek Public School early on Monday morning last, by which the building and its contents were totally destroyed.

Constable E. Genner, stationed at Cooranbong, stated that on Monday last he received a message, and went to Dora Creek, where he saw the late school buildings in ruins, having been destroyed by fire.

He was later joined by plain-clothes Constable Ryan and Constable Howard. On the following day, witness saw a lad named Charles Gunning at Sandy reek. Witness had a conversation with the boy and on the way to Dora Creek, the boy stated that he and his brother Tommy got into the school at night by raising a window.

The two boys, according to the boy's statement, got some books out of the press. They had had a candle and some matches. Tommy tore an exercise book up and set fire to it close to a press. He tried himself to put the fire out, but only put half of it out. He then said to Tommy "You put the rest out, I am going."

Charlie next stated that he left the building and waited alongside the church fence for Tommy. They went home and did not know anything of the burning of the school until the next morning. Both lads were later placed under arrest.

A Move

The school moved into the Church of England adjoining which was rented for 11.0s 6d per week. The teacher, Mr Adam, had to make the best attempt he could to carry on the work of the school with what materials which were at hand. Looking back Mr Adam said of the experience:

"There were between 70 and 80 pupils and 2 teachers in a single, ill-lighted, badly ventilated room 30' x 20' with insufficient seating and materials."

The church was vacated on 23rd March 1917, and everything was moved into the new school which had been built by George Simpson for the sum of £467.13s.6d. The new school had two classrooms, both 22'5" x 21', two hat rooms and a verandah 46' x 8'5". Initially, there was not enough furniture and Mr A. Lean, Secretary of the Parents and Citizen's Association, complained that:

"fully half the pupils in one room are seated on makeshift seats made from flooring boards, old palings, blocks of wood and such like."

The Playground Enlarged

The original playground was only about half an acre in extent. Moves were made in 1916 to buy two acres behind the school and Church from Mrs Gardiner for £200, but it was not till 1927 that 1.3.26 acres next to the Gardiners' land were resumed. The owners, Mr Archie Hillis Foster and Mrs Gladys Winifred Foster, who ran an orchard and market garden, received £300 compensation. In the centre of the land was a quarry hole which was filled with water in wet weather. Cattle had been allowed to drink from it. This had to be fenced for the children's safety.

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