Caulfield South State School
Caulfield South Primary School
I became a pupil, briefly, at Caulfield South Primary School when I was five but then spent some six months at home with a variety of illnesses including mumps, measles, chicken pox and rheumatic fever. I returned to the school and remained there until grade six when, at just 12 years of age, I was turfed out and went to Brighton High School which had only been open for a year or so. I remember the final three teachers very well, Mr Mitchell, Mr Taylor and Mr Feehan.
Memories of the school from Russell Witt
Former Caulfield South State School pupil, Russell Witts, who attended the school from 1951 to 1957 has many memories of his schooldays. His brother, Terry, also attended from 1950 to 1952.
I remember the large bitumen 'playground', which was where our Monday morning assembly was held, the raising of the flag and the 'pledge'. In sixth grade I played the kettle drum for the march into class and although I had been having lessons in the shelter sheds for some weeks I totally 'stuffed up' and caused the whole band to go out of whack. I got the cuts because I was told I had deliberately misplayed.
Marching was almost a sport. I was in a marching group that practiced and practiced until we were considered good enough for some intra-school competition that was held at the Gardenvale Central School. We surprised everybody including ourselves when we won a blue ribbon.
Remember the iron roof shelter shed, hot as hell in the heat of summer and icy cold in winter, and all of us being forced to sit along its hard wooden bench seats and drink little bottles of warm milk that had been left out in the sun for much of the morning. One year a very enterprising boy brought to school some of those flavored straws ( I believe, Frank Sedgman, the tennis player, started producing them in Australia after he had seen them in America) and started selling them for a halfpenny each to all the kids who were sick of drinking that revolting tasting milk. He made a small fortune until a teacher confiscated them.
Phantom rings were extremely popular amongst us boys. I saved my pocket money and sent away for one via a cut-out coupon on the back of the Phantom comic and made the fatal mistake of wearing it to school the day after it had arrived by mail. I was so proud showing it off to my class-mates but a teacher spied it upon my finger and confiscated it. The other playground beyond the shelter sheds I remember being merely some form of gravel and not very kind to a young boy's knees particularly when British Bulldog was being played with unreserved vigour. (Mercurochrome was a badge of honor for us boys, after, of course, the tears had been wiped away)
Ah...those stairs! I got the cuts and a lecture about how dangerous it was to run up and down them.
I remember well the water fountains that were outside the toilet block and how I and some fellow wags thought it was extremely funny to jam an icy-pole stick into them and watch some kid lean over to take a drink only to find themselves squirted in the face. I too, walked to school. Across Princes Park, where at times, one got distracted by the playing with a mate and forgetting the time and being late and then having to rush across Bambra Road. Fortunately, traffic was not a big problem in those days. Although, I have fond memories of most of the teachers, there were a couple that were very unpleasant, however, their names are just faded memories, and unfortunately, the same can be said about the majority of my class-mates names.
Russell's parents bought a newsagency at the corner of Hawthorn and Glenhuntly roads and it was one of my (Diana's) favourite places to the extent I dream of it continually over the years, even now, in my late 60's it features in a big way. I am always looking for the Australian and never find it, but of course it didn't exist back then.
Back to Diana's memories
I used to walk along back streets to get to primary school and still, fifty years later, have dreams about those streets. At that time, in the 50's the school was backed by a huge open area.
In the 1880’s a private railway line, called the Rosstown Railway, had run down that huge vacant allotment from Rosstown, now called Carnegie, where there was a sugar beet processing mill, to Elsternwick. The mill never produced sugar and the railway, apart from a run by a ballast rain in 1891, was never used. The railway was eventually removed around 1916 and what was left behind was an open area that acted as a playground for countless children. At school we were all told the story of the Rosstown Railway and I was convinced sugar beet was simply beetroot by another name.
Although we did not have a uniform at Caulfield South Primary School in those days, (they do now), we did have school colours which were blue and gold and our motto was Play the Game. During my early years at school I understood this to refer to school breaks when we played all sorts of games. It was only in my later years that I truly understood the meaning. Today the motto has changed to Children come first at Caulfield South, but it doesn’t have the same ring as our motto did.
The school was a double storey brick building, as above, which to a small child was most impressive. Even now, as an adult, the building leaves most schools for dead. I remember the huge stone steps between the first and the second storeys and continue to have dreams about them although often the stairs flatten out and it is impossible to get to the higher floor.
Today the school has moved into the technological age and has a website on the Victorian government education portal. There is onsite child care and all classrooms have networked computers. A new hall and staff rooms have been built, in my day we didn't have a hall but met on the bitumen area. There are also relocatable classrooms and plans for a new building with six classroms.
We had an annual school fair which consisted of a few stalls set up on the large bitumen area. I remember the awful toffees in pattycake papers, and the fact we could take decorated bikes and go in costume. We also had an end of the year function held in the Caulfield Town Hall. As far as I remember I only went to the one in sixth grade, which would have been in 1956. I danced a solo, Sugar Plum Fairy, and then took part in the grade six performance/dance of "Oh how we danced on the night we were wed!" Not the most appropriate music for twelve year olds.
I would love to hear from former students, particularly those who attended from 1950 to 1956. Please write to