Lower Light School
| Type of organisation: | Government
|
| Street name: | Gordon Road |
| Town or locality: | Lower Light |
| Date established: | c. 1860 |
| Ceased operation: | 1963 |
| Business or purpose: | Education |
Although these early settlers were well educated themselves such was not the case with the children. Coming to an area which was unsettled where homes had to be built, a living to be made and with their time and means thus expended, a school was a distant vision on the horizon. However, to overcome the difficulty Mr Jimmy Johnson at Korunye employed a governess as did Mr Town at Lower Light. Local children attended at these homes and a fee was charged for each child taught and this helped with the salary of the governess. Secondary education was rare until the early twentieth century.
Early in Lower Light's history there was a small wooden structure, built in the 1860s, on the church grounds. It was used for church, Sunday school and day school. From 1874 until 1890 the teacher's fees were paid by the parents, the children each taking so many pennies to school on Friday. A combined school and residence was established by the Education Department in 1881, the total cost being £505, 16 shillings and 3 pence.
In 1891 the first salary from the Education Department was received by Mr Alfred M. Stapley when a Bill was passed through parliament introducing 'free education'.
Children had attended at these schools as far away as Frosts in the Dublin area, from the Mallala road, as far as Mr Arthur Pratt's and all along the river to the west.
| Date of Taking Charge | Head Teacher |
|---|---|
| 1876-77 | Daniel Coleman |
| 1878 | Manton Jackson |
| 1880-89 | Duncan McNaughton |
| 1900-09 | Alfred M. Stapley |
| 1910-12 | Ada Langdon |
| 1913-18 | Kate M. Kaine |
| 1919 | Andrew G. Brown |
| 1920 | Victor Slee |
| 1821 | William J. Hahn |
| 1922 | Alfred W. H. Lockyer |
| 1923-30 | Phyllis M. Fisher |
| 1931-37 | Harold J. Donnelly |
| 1938-40 | George Geddes |
| 1941 | Florence Bigg |
| Leonard Vickery | |
| Dulcie Battain | |
| 1941-45 | Dorren Ware |
| 1945-49 | Sylvia Schwalbie |
| 1950-58 | Joseph Costello |
| 1959-62 | Kenneth Clare |
| 1963 | Closed 5 February 1963 |
Sources
- Life around the Light: A history of the Mallala District Council area compiled by Two Wells. Mallala and District History Book Committee. Community Development Board of the Council District of Mallala. (Mallala. S. Aust.) 1985.
- Mallala Museum research notes
Memories of Lower Light School
Kay Boon remembers: Mark & Kay Boon bought the Old School House in 1993, and renovated it extensively, particularly by building a new bathroom and laundry. The classroom, which had been partitioned many years before to create two bedrooms and a passage, was restored by removing the partitions, thus creating a kitchen/living room. They sold the property in 2014. The school house is surrounded on two sides by council reserve with hundreds of sheltering trees, and private property on the other two sides.
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