Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Freemans Reach Public School, which has celebrated its 150th anniversary just this weekend. It was a privilege on Friday night to be at the school. This is a school that is older than most schools around the country, and the only place you can really get a flavour for what the Hawkesbury was like in my electorate of Macquarie at the time when Freemans Reach Public School became a public school is by going to Thompson Square, one of the oldest remaining public squares in the country. We cannot get a feel for what the school looked like 150 years ago, because it is now on its third site. However, what we can do is look at what the area was like. It was a largely rural area, and the schoolroom was completed in 1832. It was not until August 1866 though that a formal application for a school was lodged with the Council of Education—obviously, the forerunner to our current New South Wales Department of Education.

The school consisted of two rooms made of timber slabs with a shingle roof. There was no furniture, no equipment, no books other than scripture books, no toilets and no fences. So from very humble beginnings came a wonderful school.

It is now on its third site, and I think the number of students, past parents, past teachers and past principals that came on Friday night shows what a great school community has grown over that 150 years. I would like to pay tribute to all of those who have been part of creating Freemans Reach Public School.

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