Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is nothing fair about stealing from my children, nothing at all—the Bicheno Primary School on Tasmania's beautiful east coast recently celebrated its 75th birthday. For a small country school of nearly 100 students, it was a big day made possible by the dedicated school association: president Phil Sliskovic, secretary Alison Oliver, vice president Kate de Boer and treasurer Allison Whelan spent a number of months organising the anniversary school fair which I was most pleased to be asked to officially open. It was a huge success, with nearly 500 people turning up to the school's activities and cake cutting.

Mrs Oliver has been associated with the school for a long time. Both she and her husband Ricki are former students, and their children, Aaron and Ria, also attended to school.

Bicheno opened as a school in 1939 after Mr Aub Bailey and a couple of helpers relocated an unused schoolhouse at Runnymede. It remained a one-teacher school until the late 1950s.

Local bus driver Bill Bailey was given the first contract to transport children to Bicheno from the nearby Llandaff school after it closed. A new school was built in 1957 to accommodate a steadily increasing number of students.

Lisa Neubecker is the current acting principal and presides over a primary school now complete with kindergarten and prep classes also co-located with the Little Penguins Child Care Centre.

Congratulations to the community at Bicheno and the school association on what was truly a wonderful community event supported by the east coast community.