Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Catherine Hill Bay is one of those unique places in Australia. It was an old mining town and it has maintained its character over the years. On Saturday, 26 September, I attended the centenary of the Catherine Hill Bay Public School. I want to thank both Grant and Sandi Bourke, along with their daughter Candice, for opening up the school—which is no longer a school because Catherine Hill Bay is quite a small settlement these days—to the public. It was a celebration of the Catherine Hill Bay Public School.

During the celebration, we heard about the history of the school, we visited the classrooms and we learnt that, at one stage, there were 90 students attending the school. It was closed in 1984. There were rumours that, at one time, there were as many as 127 students at the school. I was talking to Deadre Ham, who told me that her husband Bill attended Catherine Hill Bay Public School. She told me tales about how he used to jump over the back fence. His mother would then take him back to school, but he would be back home again before she got home. Catherine Hill Bay is a unique place and the school is a unique part of our history.