Page 335 - Kimihia School Vol 3 (1998-2023)

Sandy MacDonald’s Reunion Address

stove to put out as much heat as possible. This was
measured by how high up the internal chimney the red-
hot glow could be encouraged!
The stove was used to heat the free milk supplied by the
government (in glass bottles) so that warm cocoa could
be available at playtimes. In summer the milk, which
was stored in a box by the school gate soaking up the
warm sun until playtime. Each pupil was required to
consume their bottle of milk, but in the summer the
milk was so warm that much of it was secretly tipped
out by the pupils when the teacher was not watching.
In the mornings, before leaving home, I breakfasted on
a plate of Weetbix, then prepared my lunch which was
mainly a couple of jam sandwiches and sometimes a
piece of fruit. Occasionally my lunch box was boosted
I was born in the Huntly Maternity Home in Upland by left-overs from the previous evening meal. I took no
Road and was taken by my mother to the family’s drink to school as that was supplied by the tap from the
Quanset Hut on the southern shore of Kimihia Lake to school tank.
join my older sister Stancy. My father had secured the
job as a heavy machinery operator at the Lake as The trek to school was generally west along the road
Downer & Company had the contract to expose the parallel to the railway line and then via the shortcut up
underground coal workings by constructing a coffer and across the paddock to the school.
dam to enable the draining of a large section of the lake
and opening up a pit down to the 10m thick sloping
layer of coal.
I lived in the hut until 1948. The home was close
enough to the lake edge to be able to fish out of the
north-facing windows. In 1949 our family, along with
others who had work at the lake excavation, moved
400m east along the mine railway line into a 7-house

village built exclusively for the miners.
We lived at house #4, about 400 meters away from the
school which sat on an area of land that overlooked the
lake. Mine village pupils preferred route to and from school.
th
I vividly remember my first day at school on July 10 Travelling along Kimihia Road was potentially
1950 as my mother chased her reluctant 5-year-old son hazardous as the traffic could be a danger to us from
(me) to school with a stick pulled out from the hedge, coal-trucks, taxis and service vehicles travelling both
along the village access road and up a farmers field ways on what was a very narrow gravel roadway. The
(which was a better way than along the gravel road) and taxi that we as a family utilized to get into Huntly was
up to the school fence. driven by the legendary Tommy Williams.
When I looked through the school fence I recognized In the cold of winter we looked for the chance of
one of my older sister’s playmates, Joyce Davidson, warming our freezing feet while travelling through the
and I was through the fence and gone without any paddock by hunting for and locating fresh cow-pats,
removing our sandals or shoes, and standing in the
goodbyes to Mum.
sloppy fresh droppings until our feet had warmed up.
My memories of being in the single-room school
amongst all class levels and being taught in succession The only disadvantage to this method of warming up
by a Mr Parsonage, a Mr Whaley, a Mr Bartlett and a was having to wash the manure off our feet under the
Mr Pat Lawless are obviously scarce. The room was cold-water tap outside the school cloakroom, dropping
unclad and depended on its warmth in winter from a pot the temperature of our feet back to square one!
-belly stove situated just inside the classroom door. To If we failed to do a good job with the washing of our
keep the temperature down in summer, the windows feet we would carry the smell with us into the
were slid up, allowing the breeze to cool the room. classroom, which did not go down well with the teacher
The senior boys in winter were given the duty of firing and other class-members.
up the stove before 9am utilizing the coal supplied by In class I recall the daily chanting of both the alphabet
the mine. There was a competitive spirit in getting the and the times tables from two-times up to 12-times as