Yanco Agricultural High School Newsletter · prior to the end of term. When completing this data it...
Transcript of Yanco Agricultural High School Newsletter · prior to the end of term. When completing this data it...
8-13th
November
Yr 10 Exams
14th
November
Students leave for
Desi
15 - 17th
November
Fishing Club @
Tuross
17th
November
Students return from
DESI
18 - 29th
November
Year 10 Work
Experience
20 - 22nd
November
Year 7 2014
22nd
November
Orientation Day
Transition Program
23-24th
November
Shooting @ Bowral
29-30th
November
Prefect Leadership
Camp
2-6th
December
Excursion week
2nd
December
Yr 11 2014
Orientation Day.
Year 10 return from
Work Experience
2-12th
December
Yr 10 Leadership
Program
13th
December
Speech Day 10am
Parents collect
students for Xmas
vacation
2014 Wednesday
January 29th
Students return to
school
Private Mail Bag Telephone: 02 69511500
YANCO NSW 2703 Fax: 02 69557297
Email: [email protected]
Tuesday, 12th November, 2013
Term 4, Week 5
As you sow, so
shall you reap
Yanco Agricultural High School
Newsletter
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Prefects April Worland and Murray Smith presenting cheques to Friends of Luro representative
Mr Eric Hudson ($2000) and Careflight representative Mr John Ebbott ($1500) at the final
luncheon for Year 12.
The YAHS Sheep Showstock team at Royal Melbourne Show with the school’s Reserve
Interbreed Champion Ewe – this is the highest ribbon the school’s sheep flock has
attained in the history of exhibiting sheep.
Highest aggregate GEM scores for Term 3 – top two students from each year group
Yr 7: Bryce Johnston. Yr 8: Alison Treloar, Loren Gregory.
Yr 9: Cody Brown, Deanna Johnston. Year 10: Rebecca Ritchie, Caitlyn Beer.
Year 11: Grace Alexander. Year 12: Courtney Cheers, Lauren Pattison.
(Absent: Zoe Thomas Year 7, Jack Webster Year 11
Worldskills VET in Schools Riverina/Murray Regional Presentations held in Wagga:
Harry Carey, Georgina Murdoch, Teia Oliver and Jack Pippin proudly displaying their medals
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
The HSC is over for another year and the 2013
cohort of Year 12 have left us and many are hard at
work on properties throughout the state with harvest
well under way in the western parts of the NSW.
Speaking with most of them as they left Yanco for
the last time was indeed a great experience and to
see the many aspirations and hopes for the future
was very special. Let‘s hope all their plans come to
be in the very near. A few are taking a gap year but
a large proportion will enter tertiary studies with
some already being accepted into their courses by
early entry. All students agreed the Yanco
experience was something most unique and
although difficult at times something that will
remain with them for the rest of their lives. They all
agree they are better people as a result of the
opportunities and experiences. One indicated to me
that she had taken every opportunity offered to her
over the six years and did not have and regrets and
just loved her time here. There were lots of tears
from many of the students as they moved out and
waved goodbye. Even though all students finished
their exams on Wednesday the last Year 12 finally
made the break on Friday afternoon. We look
forward to compiling the exit data to see where each
one has moved onto it.
The new Head Teacher Agriculture will commence
at Yanco at the beginning of Week 7. The position
will be filled by Mrs Amanda Conley. Mrs Conley
is a highly credentialed agriculture teacher who has
taught at Mt Austin High School in Wagga. She has
extensive knowledge in many areas of agriculture
and we look forward to welcoming her to Yanco.
Some students who have achieved at a very high
level this term include
Worldskills VET in Schools Riverina/Murray
region
At a recent presentation four of our students
received medals for their efforts in these regional
finals.
Primary Industries
Georgina Murdoch (Year 10) – Gold Medal
Harry Carey (Year 11) – Silver Medal
Jack Pippin(Year 10) – Bronze Medal
Business Services Teia Oliver (Year 11) – Silver medal
It is hoped the our first and second placed students
will have the opportunity to contest the State finals
early next year but there is no assurance these will
be held due to the availability of staff to run such
events in the future.
Mehak Bhangu (Year 7) – NSW State under 15
Girls Cricket representing Riverina – Taree.
Daniel Guilford (Year 7) – Contesting the
Australian Team Roping Championships in
Queensland.
Reid Burley (Year 8) – Acceptance into the
Southern Sport Basketball Academy.
Jordon Burley (Year 11) – Continues his quest to
be selected in the Sydney Roosters Jersey Flegg
team by travelling to Sydney weekly to participate
in training and trials.
Jack Moran-Turner and Harry Carey (both Year
11) – selected to participate in ―Generation 2050:
Project Feed the World‖ at the University of New
England in the first week of December. These
students will be totally sponsored by the University
for this Event.
Erin Goldsworthy (Year 12) – will compete in
New Zealand in the first week of December at the
NSW representative contesting the Australian final
of the Sheep Meat Breeds Junior Judging.
Brittany Whiteley (Year 11) and Royce Johnston
(Year 12) will compete this week in New Zealand at
Canterbury Show representing NSW in junior
judging for in Beef Cattle.
Keejana Zhang-MacKellar (Year 12) has been
accepted into the ‗Latitude Volunteering Program‘.
She will spend four months in China commencing
in February, volunteering to teach conversational
English to secondary and tertiary students.
The Drum Corp has played at this last weekend‘s
Leeton Bands Spectacular with great success and
was the lead in group for the Kapooka Band which
was great news.
Our livestock teams have had fabulous success this
term with Cootamundra Show being a real
highlight. This show was a qualifier for Junior
Judging in many areas trying to qualify for Sydney
next year. All four teams participated – sheep,
cattle, poultry and equine. Yanco won the schools
team event for most successful school in Junior
Judging – winning the Southern Weekly Shield for
Overall Champion School in Junior Judging
Competitions for the seventh time since 2001. This
is a fine achievement.
At Albury Show the cattle, equine and poultry
teams again had great success with many
champions. The final show of the season was at
Holbrook with both the equine and poultry teams
competing and being very successful. Well done to
all involved and special thanks to the staff involved
as without their efforts and time given these
opportunities would not be available to our
students.
Next week sees our Transition Program take place.
This has been an enormous undertaking and I would
like to recognise the work of the team, led by Lisa
O‘Brien, who has made this happen. Having read
the program it is a mammoth undertaking and with
incoming students from Years 8, 9 and 10 joining
the previous run group of new Year 7s it will be all
go from the Tuesday to Friday, with the two groups
having parallel programs running at the same time.
Thank you in anticipation for the parents that will
be joining us over these few days. To see the
students entering years 8, 9 and 10 being part of the
program for the first time completes the initiative
that the school commenced four years ago and has
been so successful in improving our retention rates.
New Year 11 students for 2014 will have their
leadership program over the last two weeks of term
after the Year 10 students complete their work
experience or work placement. The school looks
forward to a great week with our new families
coming on board.
I would like to thank all parents for using the
exemption forms indicating students will be away.
The guidelines for granting these exemptions are
very clear and not being at school in order to work
at home is not among the reasons acceptable. I will
be circulating a letter of explanation to all parents in
the next week or so. I hope this will explain the
situation as I have had to not grant some requested
exemptions of late and now have a very clear
direction from the DEC after a period of
consultation. Having the exemption requests arrive
on the day the student is leaving does make it
difficult and I would request parents complete the
request, if possible, at least 2 weeks prior to the
commencement date. Any exemptions not granted
will go down in the attendance register as
unjustified leave. If you have any concerns please
don‘t hesitate to contact me at the school. I would
also request giving adequate explanations for these
exemptions so that parents don‘t need to be called
which costs more time.
Parents and students need to be aware that
exemptions from school do not give exemptions
from assessment tasks. This particularly applies to
Years 10, 11 and 12. Students not able to complete
their tasks on the due date will need to complete
misadventure appeals if they are going to receive
marks for that task. This policy is very clearly
explained to Years 11 and 12 and fully explained in
the assessment guide.
Last week the ‗Rural and Remote Education‘ paper
– ‗A Blueprint for the Future‘ was released by our
minister. After reading the documents it is unclear
how this will affect Yanco. It is great to see the
initiatives with early learning and younger students
and I fully endorse these as it is these early years
which format much of the learning in later years,
especially the love of learning. I would hope Yanco
has access to the ‗virtual school‘ as this could be
important in assuring our curriculum choices are
kept broad. Unfortunately Yanco is only classified
as a 1 point school and the surrounding government
schools have a much larger point scores. The
Principals of the Griffith area, which includes us,
are already talking about the future and working
together and I full endorse this initiative and
standing alone and continually reinventing the
wheel is not something we can continue to do.
We have recently received our proposed RAM
(Resource Allocation Model) for 2014. It is slightly
higher than 2013 funds but most of this is the on
costs of 19 ½% to support casual relief. In the long
run we really are only a small school and funding
does reflect that. Up to now the hostel has
contributed over $100,000 to support education in
the school on a yearly basis or about 28% of the
dollars spent on education in the school. The
greatest concern is that utilities funds allocated is
only about 14% of the actual cost which again will
place more pressure on the hostel. We have had
indicated to us the hostel funding for 2014 will
again have the reduction of about $160,000 so
much thought is going into planning for next year
but there will be reductions as we must make wise
decisions to continue our present programs which
we will do.
The total indigenous and equity funding in the
RAM is only $26000 which is disappointing. The
equity funding is based on the FOEI (Family
Occupation and Education Index). This is filled in
on the student enrolment form. Unfortunately we
have 80 families who have not completed this
component of the form and this has disadvantaged
our future funding. Those families are presently
receiving letters of request to complete the
information and return urgently so we can complete
the data on the school systems prior to the DEC
next harvesting the data which we think will be
prior to the end of term. When completing this data
it is important that parents accurately complete as
our equity funding is dependent on this data. The
lower the parent final education status and selecting
employment from the groups 3 and 4 the higher our
final funding. If you receive this letter please
complete urgently and return to the school. It is
most important.
The other area that the school will request support is
that if you are not intending to send your son or
daughter back to Yanco (Year 12 excepted) in 2014
could you please notify the school as soon as
possible. The school policy is that 4 weeks‘ notice
must be given and this will be enforced. Sometimes
this is not possible due to urgent family issues and
the school is most understanding of this. For 2014
we have very long waiting lists in most years and it
is most unfair as we need to consider those on
waiting lists and ensure they have enough time to
organise their entry into the school.
The year is drawing to a close quickly and
Presentation Day will take place on December 13,
commencing at 10.00 am in the Roxy Theatre in
Leeton. I hope to see all parents present to help
celebrate a wonderful year at Yanco.
A VISIT FROM AN OLD YANCONIAN –
LAURIE DICKER
On 24th Oct a group of year 11 students including
the prefect body and a few staff members were
lucky enough to spend the evening in the company
of old Yanconian and author of ‗We are
Yanconians‘, Laurie Dicker. Laurie came down
from his home town on the Queensland coast for a
trip back to his childhood hometown of Barellan
and a visit to our school. We started off with dinner
in the dining room at the teachers table where we
spoke to Laurie about our school back in Laurie‘s
day compared to now; Laurie shared stories, and
answered all of our questions about his time at
Yanco Ag.
After Dinner we all headed over to McCaughey
mansion where we sat down to tea and biscuits,
after Laurie pointed out his old sleeping quarters in
McCaughey and told us a few more stories from the
old days, he started a conversation on Leadership.
Laurie spoke about what it takes to become a good
leader and he gave us his four key element of
leadership; Power, Authority, Status, and Influence.
Laurie asked us questions where we identified areas
of strength in our leadership abilities, and also
pointed out some areas where improvement was
needed. I found Laurie to be a very inspirational
speaker, and I learnt a lot from his wise words. I
have no doubt that every one of us in that room
learnt something that day, whether it was about
leadership, communication, problem solving, old
Yanco traditions or the mischief that the old Yanco
Boys used to get up to. It was an absolute privilege
to meet Laurie, and I hope that he will be able to
return in the future so he can inspire more future
leaders of our school.
Jessica Power
MELBOURNE ROYAL SHOW - CATTLE
Melbourne Royal saw Miss Weller leave for
England and Miss North our music teacher join the
highly awarded cattle show stock team. With yet
another early morning rise we headed down to
Melbourne with 8 head of cattle. A change in the
show timetable saw the animals settle into
Melbourne for a few days before competition
began, which gave both the steers and students
ample time to prepare.
Paraders was the first event to be contested, with
Logan Manwaring, Darcy Booth, and Rebecca
Ritchie all receiving first place. Laura Harris and
Zoe Howe received second place in their respective
heats. Toby Commens and Odette Mara placed in a
close third and Caitlyn Beer and Mitchell Cattle
both received fifth and sixth place.
The following day started off with our live classes
for animals which saw three of our steers being
awarded ribbons. We received two second places
with Limousin steers, one of which was donated by
the Fairley family and the other being bred by
YAHS. Panda an Angus X Simmental steer that
was donated by Hardy Family, based at Tarcutta
was judged 5th on the hoof.
On the last morning all the boys got up at 2:30am
to load out the animals on to the truck, heading to
the abattoirs. The animals hung up well with a
shorthorn steer from Nagol Park Shorthorns scoring
over 90 points and was
awarded 2nd place in the
medium domestic section.
Our own Limousin steer,
Big Wheels placed third in
the Export section, which
is a great achievement.
A big Thank you to Miss
North for joining our team
and being a great cook, you
are welcome any time.
To Mr Collins we
appreciate your time
and dedication to the
team. Also many thanks
to the supporters of our
cattle show stock team
who donated animals,
those being the Hardy
Family, Nagol Park
Shorthorns, Fairley
family, Kingsley Vale
Shorthorns and Yarrandabbie Herefords, without
your support none of this would be possible.
ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW - SHEEP
SHOWSTOCK REPORT
This year we took six students and seven sheep to
the Royal Melbourne Show. The students were
Zachary Liley, Max Booth, Simon Miller, Chantelle
Gorman, Emma Gale and Will McLean.
The show was over the first three days of the school
holidays. We all received placings and ribbons in
the School‘s competition, where we had to judge
Short and Long Wool Meat Breeds of Sheep and
Junior Handling. We did extremely well with our
White Suffolk ewes, winning several first places
and the Champion and Reserve Champion ewes.
The Champion ewe went on to compete in the
Interbreeds, against some of the top studs in
Australia. This ewe, number 12093, handled by
Emma Gale, won the Reserve Champion Interbreed
ewe, narrowly beaten by a superb Poll Dorset ewe
from Armdale Park. This earned us a prize of $250,
and overall it was the best prize the sheep team has
ever received. We also came second in the School‘s
Competition and second in the School‘s Best
Maintained Team.
The students had comments from the public on how
well dressed and polite they were. We led out the
show rams and ewes to let kids and tourists pat
them, take photos and ask us questions about the
sheep and the school. During the show, when
weren‘t showing our own sheep we helped other
breeders prepare and show their sheep in the arena
which we all enjoyed.
The sheep show stock kids thanked Mrs Quinn and
Ms O‘Brien with flowers and presents for taking
them to the show and for devoting their time for us,
it is greatly appreciated.
Emma Gale and Will McLean
MELBOURNE SHOW - CLYDESDALES
On Saturday 28th
of September, during the holidays,
my mum and I travelled down to Melbourne Royal
Show to show the two school Clydesdales, Tess and
Georgina. On Sunday was the parade which I just
had to lead Georgina around with all the other
Clydesdales in the show arena. It came to Monday
when I had to lead Tess in her class which was
Mare in Foal; she placed 6th
. There was Georgina‘s
class in the
afternoon, the
class was
called ―3 years
old‖; she
placed 3rd
. On
the Tuesday
we didn‘t have
any events but when it came to the Wednesday we
had to get ready for Tess‘s ―Driven‖. In the Driven
Handler class I placed 3rd
and in the Mare Driven
Tess won that class. Once all the excitement was
over we had to quickly help pack up the truck, say
our goodbyes then travel back home.
Erika Quinn
Toby Commens
Pictured is Gerald Spry (Sprys Shorthorns)
congratulating Yanco on their success at the Shorthorn
Youth Expo – Photo courtesy of Clear Vision Imaging
The Shorthorn Youth Expo Team
SHORTHORN HEIFER SHOW
On the last weekend of the Term 3 School holidays
a group of 7 students and Mr Collins took time out
of their holidays to attend the 2013 Shorthorn
Heifer show in Cootamundra, with our team
consisting of 5 heifers and one steer. The weekend
was great fun and a huge success for the students
and cattle coming away with multiple awards.
Every student received a ribbon; Toby Commens
winning 1st in his class and Champion Intermediate
Parade; Odette Mara receiving 2nd in her Paraders
class; Keiley Obrien came 1st in her Paraders class;
Andrew Thorn received a highly commended;
James Littlehales received 3rd place; Darcy Booth
received a
High Accolade
being an
encourage-
ment award
and Brittany
Whiteley came
5th
place in
Intermediate
Junior Judging.
The weekend culminated in Yanco being awarded
Champion School, which was a huge honour with
the prize being a
registered stud Heifer
donated by Spry‘s
Shorthorns. Overall the
weekend was a huge
success and the
students enjoyed a
great weekend before
their return to school.
NATIONAL SHORTHORN YOUTH EXPO -
COOTAMUNDRA
Yanco Agricultural High School students recently
travelled to Cootamundra to attend the 27th
National
Shorthorn Youth Expo. Yanco had a successful
weekend with students participating in a range of
activities from Paraders to Junior Judging. Our
students performed well on an individual basis with
a number of ribbons being awarded, particularly to
Toby Commens being crowned Champion
Intermediate Parader. The students also performed
well as group with the weekend culminating in
Yanco Agricultural High School being awarded
Champion School, which was calculated as an
aggregate of our student‘s individual performance
from all activities throughout the show. This was an
outstanding achievement from our students with the
prize being a registered short-horn stud heifer
kindly donated by Sprys Shorthorns, Wagga
Wagga.
Mr Collins, Toby Commens and Darcy Booth
Prefects demonstrate teamwork, communication and
balancing ability on some low ropes.
PREFECT CAMP REPORT
It was Wednesday 16th
of November when the
newly elected prefect body left for the first
instalment of prefect camp as we travelled far, far
away, to the Wagga Scout Camp. Well it‘s not that
far away but it took a lot of time as Mr Press
purposely and frustratingly took the longest
possible route. Upon arrival we worked late into the
night cooking our meal, half of which Dustin burnt
onto the barbeque, and unpacking Mr Press‘s vast
array of leadership materials and technological
aides. An anonymous member of the prefect body
(Stephen) also discovered that is always, always
helpful to pack a towel and toiletries when going
away from school.
After our meal of barbequed chicken on Wednesday
night, we begun the process of learning how to be a
good prefects as we brainstormed our opinions
about why there should be a prefect body at YAHS
and what we thought a good prefect should do, as
well as what we thought the roles of the captains,
vice-captains and prefects were. There were many
complaints when Joshua took his turn at being
scribe but these brainstorms inspired a never ending
train of thought as all of us went to bed considering
the ideas thrown up by other prefects and the staff.
Thursday saw us continuing on from the previous
night discussions as well as the commencement of
Mrs Rolfe‘s human statue and minute speech games
which were very difficult as they could be on
anything your fellow prefects found interesting. Mr
Press gave us a task involving a partner and a short
rope held by each partner which they had to
untangle without becoming disconnected from the
rope. This was to test our problem solving skills and
certain members of the prefect body still found this
particularly challenging even after the activity was
fully explained by Mr Press himself. After our
lunch break we did some of the team-building and
leadership activities that were placed around the
scout camp, that is to say the activities that weren‘t
old and broken. These built up our team work and
communication skills as well as showing us who
had the best balance, who could hold someone on
their shoulders and who could best fit through a
human sized spider web. Thursday evening saw us
organising our meal for Friday night which we were
to have in Wagga. This frustrating process which
had the staff with us making sure we had every
single little detail organised eventually took one
hour. Although this may seem like a long time
apparently the record is 4.5 hours so we did pretty
well in our opinion.
The 2013 Prefect body:
Joshua Beer Grace Alexander
Steven Butler Zoe Dunn
Dustin Manwaring Melanie Guttler
Lachlan Pellow Lilly Serafin
James Rapley Brittany Whiteley
BARELLAN HEAVY HORSE
MURRUMBATEMAN FIELD DAY
A visit from the NSW Mounted Police
Former Yanconian, Richard Post, talks about old times with
Thomas Kimpton
Tom gets a kiss
Tom gets held up
Grace admires the rugs
Horse tricks
Let’s talk horses
Chris and Montana with a
special friend
YEAR 11 BIOCLIP EXCURSION TO HAY
On Tuesday the 29th
of October Mr Collins and Mrs
Quinn took their Year 11 Agriculture classes on an
excursion to ―Warrendale‖, a property near Hay,
owned by Ian and Stacey Lugsdin. We were going
to spend the day learning about Bioclip. Bioclip is
an innovation in
wool harvesting by
Heiniger, where the
sheep are injected
with a protein and
fitted with a net, and
the injection causes
the wool to break.
After six weeks of
having the net on, the sheep are then brought back
to the wool shed for the harvesting of their wool.
Ian and Stacey Lugsdin invited us over to watch
and help with the harvesting the wool from their
weaner lambs.
Some of the students, and occasionally Mr Collins,
worked in the yards pushing the lambs up and into
the Bioclip trailer, where more students were
stationed to roll
the lambs into
the cradles
where all the
action was
happening. At
the two stations
the nets were
cut and re-
moved from the lambs, the fleeces and lambs were
weighted and each lamb checked for impurities and
given a wrinkle/skin score. Ian and Stacey
explained that the reason they use Bioclip on their
weaners is to class and
breed sheep with flat
skins, and high density,
pearly white wool with
a high comfort factor,
and to cull out any
sheep with black spots.
Any sheep that don‘t
meet the standards are
removed from the wool
breeding program and
used for breeding
prime lambs instead.
We all took turns at removing the fleeces. Those
who weren‘t removing the fleece from the sheep
were, with the
help of Ian and
Stacey, removing
the fleece from the
net and pressing
the wool.
The whole process
was pretty mind
blowing as Bioclip
was a new experience to all of us and we all learnt a
great deal from our excursion to Hay. Hopefully the
Lugsdins will have
the Year 11 classes
over again next year
so they can also be
blown away by this
strange technology
called Bioclip. I
would like to say a
big thank you to Ian
and Stacey for having
us over and teaching
us all about Bioclip, it
was a great hands-on
experience and I think every one of us came back to
school a little more educated than we were the day
before.
Jessica Power.
Emma Cullen
Abbie Hurst, Hannah Kolve
and Loren Gregory
Loren Gregory & Hayley Dowling
Jake Smyth &
Rose Nevinson
Cameron Saul
Jack Moran-Turner
NO FOWL FOR DIXIE CHICKS
The Poultry Show
Team has had another
very successful term
competing at the
Leeton, Junee and
Cootamundra Shows.
There were many
firsts and seconds at
the Leeton Show but
unfortunately the team could not bring as many
chickens to Cootamundra due to a trailer shortage.
The major results for Leeton were:
• Champion Junior (Emma Cullen) and Junior
Bird (Gertrude)
• Champion Soft feather Bantam Male (Cyril)
• Champion Soft feather Bantam Female
(Cuddles)
Cootamundra was the
most successful show
of the year with the
Poultry Team winning
Champion and Reserve
Champion Bird in
Show. The results
were:
• Champion Bird in Show (Superman)
• Champion Soft Feather Bantam Male
(Superman)
• Reserve Champion Bird in Show (Hercules)
• Champion Soft Feather Large (Hercules)
• Reserve Champion Soft Feather Large
(Gertrude)
• Champion Breeding Pair (Pip and Lucy)
A special thankyou goes to Peter Irvine for his
experience and help with our Old English Game
Bantam.
COOTAMUNDRA SHOW
On Friday 18th October,
Poultry, Cattle and Sheep
Show teams travelled to
Cootamundra to participate
in junior judging qualifying
events for Sydney Royal
Show in 2014. Judging
categories included Fruit
and Veg, Merino, Fleece,
Beef Cattle and Grain.
Those who qualified were
Laura Harris, Caitlyn
Beer, Jack Moran-Turner,
Breanna Carr, Adele
Ruigrok and Rose
Nevinson. Students who
qualified for cattle
paraders on the Saturday
were Hayley Fairfull, Troy
Kylstra, Odette Mara,
Caitlyn Beer and Logan Mainwaring.
After a freezing night,
the show teams got up
at a more reasonable
hour, with poultry,
sheep and cattle being
penned, paraded and
judged.
The Poultry Show
Team won Champion
Soft Feather Bantam
Male and Best Soft
Feather in Show with
Rosecomb, Cyril, as
well as Champion Soft
feather Bantam Female
with white Pekin Cuddles. The Sheep Show Team
received Champion White Suffolk Ram, Ewe and
Ram Lambs.
The Cattle Show
Team won
Champion with
their Shorthorn
Cow.
Reports by Breanna Carr
COOTAMUNDRA SHOW
YAHS SHEARING
A & G ENGINEERING OPEN DAY
On the 16th of
October 2013,
23 of Yanco
Ag‘s best and
brightest, along
with ‗Careers-
Advisor-in-the-
making‘ Mr
Cassilles, took a trip to Griffith for A & G Group‘s
open day. A & G - Griffith is a huge operation,
encompassing a John Deere dealership, an
engineering division, and a retail sector. The
engineering section is also responsible for
manufacturing tanks for the local wineries, up to 3
million litres in capacity.
Flavour Tech is also owned by A & G, and again
based in Griffith. They design, build, and
commission favour extraction machines to be sent
all over the world.
On arrival, the group were taken for a tour around
the engineering site, and saw the amazing computer
controlled machines the workshop has to offer. The
whole production line can be controlled from a
laptop, from the
machine that
unrolls the
stainless steel,
the plasma
cutting bay, and
even the
welding bay.
The result is
consistent,
quality results. Next up was ‗FlavourTech.‘ The
intricate electrics, pipe-work and mechanics of the
flavour extracting machines had the students in awe
of the engineering genius required in their design
and manufacture.
The John Deere dealership was next, and students
were taken through the frontline retail section and
the machine monitoring section where information
is sent from all John Deere machinery in the area to
the central net-work at the dealership. A tour of the
parts inventory was to follow, before a tour of the
maintenance workshop. This was followed the
customary sausage sizzle, before embarking on the
trip back to school.
Overall a great day was had by all students involved
and I am sure A & G Engineering will be on the
radar for some
students‘ future
career plans.
Written by
Steven Butler
Safer Divers Course
This Safer Drivers Course has been designed by the Roads and Maritime Services (formerly the RTA) to establish safer driving practices for learner drivers under 25 years old who already have 50 hours real driving experience.
It will assist young learner drivers to: - Improve their own levels of safety when
driving, by learning how to manage road safety risks. - Increase current driving skills and acquire new ones through a combination of classroom learning and practical supervised instruction from a professional driving instructor.
After the successful completion of module one and two of the course the learner will receive a twenty hours reduction in their log book (from 120 hours to 100 hours).
NRMA Safer Driving is facilitating this course on the following dates. November 14th and December 5th. The course will be held at the Leeton Shire Library for a total cost of $140. Course numbers are limited to twelve people with a minimum of nine people required to run the course. For further information and booking visit the NRMA Safer Driving website at: http://www.nrmasaferdriving.com.au or visit the NRMA office.
Darcy Booth
Steve Burrows
PRIMARY INDUSTURIES – “KOOBA
STATION”
During Terms 3 and 4
students studying Primary
Industries have had the
opportunity to take part in
industry visits to nearby
Kooba Station to
undertake livestock
handling skills and to
complete competencies.
The students found this to
be a positive learning
experience, with state of the art facilities and a
strong focus on their business objectives.
Through visiting Kooba
to help draft, mark and
move cattle, our students
are being exposed to
range of industry
practices and personnel.
The techniques they learn
are key to them being
able to transition into the
workforce easily. We
look forward to a
continued partnership with Kooba Station and the
benefits that this provides to our students.
KIDZFIX CAR RALLY
On the 16th
on
September the
Kidzfix Car Rally
came to school. The
rally was a
fundraiser for
critically injured
children and they
were driving from
Bathurst to Temora via
Broken Hill. We were
supposed to have a BBQ
out on the front lawn of
McCaughey but the
weather wasn‘t nice for
the occasion with it
raining so we just
had lunch up in top
McCaughey. They
were all very
friendly people
from the city that
were interested in
our country lives.
There were twenty cars all up that came and they
were all painted and fancied up. We were very
fortunate that we were part of their rally. They also
gave the school a donation that we were very
thankful for.
Deanna Johnston, SRC Representative
ALBURY SHOW – EQUINE
On Saturday November 2nd
at around 5am Paul,
Sheri and Courtney left the school with three
horses, to compete at
the Albury Show. First
we had the Lead
Classes and were very
successful with a 2nd
and 1st place from
Courtney leading
Wallawest Kaos and
Sheri Leading Willow
Crest Dreams. Rayma
Justa Doll received
2nd
place, a 1st place
and overall Open Lead
Champion. In the breed ring she achieved a 1st and
another Champion. We then had the Ridden
Classes and received a 3rd
place in the Stockhorse
Hack, 2nd
in the Stockhorse Working and 1st in the
Junior Stockhorse Hack (working with Courtney
and Wallawest Kaos). In the Open and Breed Rings
Rayma Justa doll was 1st in her Open Hack Ridden
then Reserve Champion Ridden Hack. Willow
Crest Dreams won Best Novice pony and 1st in her
Open Ridden Pony and then was Reserve
Champion Ridden Pony. Overall we had a great day
and would like to thank Paul Bandy.
By Courtney Stubberfield and Sheri Hammet
Meg Potter and Adam Saul with Mr Gifford
THE AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICS
COMPETITION 2013
On the 4th August 2013, 181 Yanco Agricultural
High School students entered the Australian
Mathematics Competition, one of the world‘s great
competitions.
Students were treated to a smorgasbord of
Mathematics, testing their knowledge in fields such
as arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus,
combinatorics, probability, sequences, series and
topology.
In an eventful hour and fifteen minutes, students
watched a gripping game of hockey, watched on in
horror as Earth collided with the Moon; they
listened to Dan lie about a two digit number and
visited a Llama and Alpaca ranch in Peru. Along
the way they learnt a lot about Mathematics and,
indeed, themselves.
Students who achieved a Credit Award were placed
in the top 50% of the candidature Australia wide.
Congratulations to the 31 students who achieved
this level.
Credit Awardees:
Year 7:
Cameron Saul, Mehak Bhangu, Jayden Pippen, Zoe
Thomas, Daniel Kimpton, Daniel Guilford, John
Mullins, Michael Bensley, Bryce Johnston, Brianna
McAuliffe, Will Barnes, Annabella Thorpe.
Year 8: Charlotte Butt, Matthew Young, Zac Saddler
Year 9:
Chelsea Pratt, Kymberley Brain, Matt Guttler,
Cambell McMaster, Grace Armour, Amber Arthur,
Justin Bolam, Liam James
Year 10: Breanna Carr, Natalia Henderson, Sarah Oost,
Colleen Head, Phoebe Priestley
Year 11: Grace Alexander, Steven Butler, Brody Macdonald
Students who achieved a Distinction Award were
placed in the top 15% of the candidature Australia
wide. A special congratulation is extended to Meg
Potter (Year 10) who was successful at this level.
An excellent level of achievement was awarded to
Year 11 student Adam Saul who was been
recognized with a High Distinction Award, this
level of achievement placed Adam in the top 2% of
the candidature Australia wide. This is a truly
momentous achievement from a talented young
Mathematician. Well done Adam!
For those of you playing at home, the final question
from the Senior Division paper this year was
presented as follows:
“An acute-angled triangle lies in the plane such
that the coordinates of its vertices are all different
integers and no sides are parallel to the coordinate
axes. If the triangle has area 348 and one side of
length 29, what is the product of the lengths of the
other two sides?”
Of the tens of thousands of candidates in this year‘s
senior division, not one achieved the correct answer
for this question!
By exposing ourselves to Mathematics, such as in
these competitions, we begin to understand that
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only
perfect truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold
and austere, like that of sculpture.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr
Gifford for his organisation and management of this
year‘s competition, it was conducted under very
trying conditions with students involved in many
different other activities and excursions that were
also running concurrently with the competition day.
Maths Department
YAHS STUDENT RAISING FUNDS FOR
STARLIGHT FOUNDATION
Year 12 Student, Emelia Keenan, is looking for
financial support for her fundraising effort for the
Starlight Foundation.
On December 4th
she will shave her beautiful, long
golden hair for the cause and would sincerely
appreciate your support – no matter how large or
small! If you would like to support Emelia, details
can be found at the following website:
http://makingadifference.gofunraise.com.au/Page/ke
enanE
AUSTRALASIAN TEAM ROPING
Early in September I travelled to Capella in Central
Queensland with my family and four of our best
horses to compete in the Australasian Team Roping
National Finals. I qualified by placing at the
Regional Ropings during the year.
At the National finals I roped in the 7s, 9s and
junior team roping as a heeler. As a heeler my job is
to rope the two back legs after my partner (header)
ropes the steer around the horns. I had a good first
round with a few fast times but had no luck after
that.
After leaving Capella we travelled to Tamworth
where I competed in the Australian Round in the
World Series of Team Roping to defend my 2012
title. Unfortunately the competition was too good
this year and I had no luck there either.
Daniel Guilford
NSW UNDER 15’s CRICKET - TAREE
On Friday 4th
October we left our coach‘s house
around 7:00am and arrived in Taree around 5:30pm.
On Saturday we had our first two matches. The first
match was at 9:00am against East Coast, it was a
35/35 over match and it was a draw.
The second match was at 2:15pm against Illawara
North and was a 20/20. We won this match.
On Sunday we had our second two matches. The
first match was at 9:00am against Central North,
this match was a 20/20. We lost this match but only
just. This match decided who we were playing the
last match with and if we were playing for 1st and
2nd or 3rd and 4th. Since we lost this match we
were playing for 3rd and 4th. Our second match
was a 20/20 against Central North again. We lost by
a few runs and we came 4th in NSW. On Sunday
night we left Taree to go to Port Macquarie to
watch the NSW Women‘s Country Team play
against the NSW Women‘s City Team. NSW
Country won.
We left Port Macquarie around 7a.m. and arrived at
the coach‘s house at 6pm on Monday. My parents
came and took me back to school that night. This
was a great experience for everyone involved.
Mehak Bhangu
VOLUNTEERING IN CHINA 2014
My name is Keejana Zhang-MacKellar and I have
been accepted into the ‗Latitude Volunteering
Program‘ in 2014. I am part of an organisation
called The Smith Family, in which I have a sponsor
who supports me with any needs that I may have
involving my schooling i.e. supplies, uniforms etc.
During Term 3 of school, the coordinator of the
branch of The Smith Family that I fall under
contacted my mum to ask me whether or not I
would be interested in applying for a chance to
volunteer overseas, all expenses paid and all I
needed to do was apply. Let‘s just say I was
interested before I even knew I was interested.
Towards the end of Term 3, I applied to Lattitude:
Global Volunteering for an opportunity to go and
volunteer in China, India or Vietnam. I had the
choice of teaching conversational English in China,
teaching conversational English or sport coaching
in Vietnam or just general volunteering around a
community in India. Being half Chinese, I chose
China as my first preference. During the first week
of the holidays I received an email telling me that I
had been shortlisted and my application had been
submitted into the next stage of the selection
process. A few days later I was called by the co-
ordinator of the Asia/Pacific for Lattitude to set up
my interview time. In the second week of the
holidays I had my interview over the phone and was
told that I would find out if I had been accepted or
not the next week. On the following Monday I
received the email saying that I had been accepted
to volunteer and teach conversational English to
students ranging from secondary school to
university. The placement takes place for four
months starting in February.
YANCO HIGH SCHOOL IN THE 1930’S
By Russ Godden
Introduction
I was born in 1920, a ―Baby Boomer‖ after World
War 1 and reared on a small family farm in the
Tocumwal district. My parents had only received a
Primary School education, but saw to it that each of
their seven children, of whom I was the eldest, had
the opportunity of a Secondary education.
Our local Primary School was a one room, one
teacher weatherboard building set in a two acre
block. Enrolment in my last year had dropped to 11
students.
In those days there were few country High Schools
and Yanco, some 100 miles away, was probably the
closest. In 1931 I was enrolled as a boarder. School
fees were £25 per year. It was not till much later
that I realised how poor we were in the depths of
the depression, and what sacrifice my parents must
have made for me.
School work was hard going, partly I think because
I had lacked competition in Primary School, and
partly because I was almost the youngest in the
class. However, determination eventually paid off.
On gaining the Intermediate Certificate I was
awarded a Scholarship which took me to
Hawkesbury Agricultural College (now a campus of
the University of Western Sydney), and so on to a
career in the Department of Agriculture.
Early Impressions
As I recollect them after 80 years the first was the
magnificent dense line of weeping willows along
the original McCaughey canal from the Euroley
Road to the bridge across it south of the school hall.
The willows were probably at their prime in those
days though the waterway was obstructed by fallen
branches, some of which were growing in the water,
and by the leaf fall of some twenty to thirty years.
McCaughey House was set in what were then very
beautiful grounds with lawns, gardens, trees and
lakes, all superbly maintained. The lawns, as I
learned in due course, were mown with a horse
drawn mower and the main lawn was irrigated from
the brick drain along the driveway. Water level in
the lakes was maintained at a fairly constant level,
which promoted reed growth and a waterfowl
population. The islands were connected by
footbridges. I recall a Norfolk Island hibiscus in
front of the Headmasters residence, lovely lemon
scented Gums on one island and two long pergolas
covered by rambler roses, which I doubt had ever
been pruned. When in flower they were truly
beautiful.
Buildings
McCaughey House remains in my mind an
architectural gem. My first year dormitory was the
large ground floor room at the north east corner. Of
the foyer I recall the staircase and stained glass
window, as well as the oil painting od Sir Samuel.
The dispensary was on the southern side towards
the rear, whilst in the 1935 measles epidemic the
ground floor, south eastern room became a sick bay.
I became one of its occupants.
The kitchen, dining room and Mutch House were
well established. Opposite was a locker room with
the laundry behind it. A little further along the road
was the gymnasium with a boxthorn hedge between
the two buildings. A room in the gym building was
used by one or more senior boys as a barber shop.
I‘ve long since forgotten what they charged!
Dining room furniture comprised tables for the boys
with stools along opposite sides, a ―high table‖ for
teachers and another to one side for field staff. All I
remember of the menu is boiled rice and prunes one
day a week – the rice was a gluey lump, no
absorption method of cooking then! Prunes were
commonly known as ‗depth charges‘. We were
generally healthy so I suppose the diet was
adequate. There seemed to be plenty of bread,
butter, jam and golden syrup. The syrup came in 7lb
tins, which when empty made good ‗billies‘ for tea
making and cooking crays in the bush. A good deal
of bread left the dining room under clothing for
making toast over camp fires.
A footbridge over the canal at the end of the
roadway was replaced in1935 by a bridge for
vehicular traffic. Across from the bridge and over
the road was the blacksmith shop in the corner of a
sports field. A brick paved path along from the
sports filed led to the class rooms.
Four classrooms had originally been station
quarters, each room having once comprised of four
bedrooms. When 4th
and 5th
years commenced they
used what I now presume had been the field staff
kitchen/dining room. A 3rd
year classroom and
chemistry lab had been added to the original
building. It was all a bit primitive by modern
standards. One of the features was the complete
absence of any form of heating or cooling. A few
boys were known to heat bricks after tea on cold
winter evenings to use as foot warmers during prep.
(a regular two hour evening chore on week nights).
To the west of the sports fields was a huge hay
shed. There was a similar one in the vicinity of the
water tower, and both were demolished in 1935.
Material from them was used to build stable etc..
The dairy was west of the hall. I think there were
four or five bails. Hand milking was a new
experience for many city/town boys, until milking
machines were installed probably in 1934.
Further along, near the bung (is that term still used
for the creeks?), was the piggery. Pens ran down to
the bung to provide wallows.
When I arrived at the school the vegetable garden
was located near the water tower. Everything was
done by hand, and I remember how hard the
digging in that heavy soil was for a small boy! It
was probably in 1934 that a new and much larger
site was established to the north of the classrooms,
and horse power replaced some of the manual
labour. As an aside, the Riverina Welfare Farm was
a source of supply of meat and, I think, vegetables.
As a matter of historic interest there were two
earlier homesteads on site then. The original was a
slab hut permanently closed and seemingly
neglected. The second was a substantial
weatherboard building to the south of McCaughey,
which was used as maid‘s quarters and which, of
course, was strictly ‗out of bounds‘. I believe it was
destroyed by fire years ago. My mother had photos
of all three which unfortunately have been lost.
On the riverbank was the remnant of a pumping
station which supplied water for the original Yanco
Station irrigation development. Two quite large
diameter suction pipes remained. Associated with
the pumping installation had been a saw mill, of
which little remained. A short distance along the
riverbank was the Blacksmith‘s cottage. He and his
wife ran a tuckshop at their front fence. As this was
on the way to the school beach it was well
patronised through the swimming season.
Teaching Staff
For my first year the Headmaster was O T (Ollie)
Gardiner, whom I remember as a sort of fatherly
figure. Kindly Mrs. Gardiner ran the dispensary.
They left at the end of that year when he was
promoted to Inspector of Schools in the Mudgee
area (I think).
The new Headmaster was Percy Hindmarsh, who
quickly earned the dislike of many of the boys, and
a very unflattering nickname, for his bullying
manner. As I think back my year seemed to bear the
brunt of his most trenchant criticism. The boys
became particularly critical when he enrolled his
daughter, a lone girl among the boys. I wonder how
she felt? At some stage later he was transferred to
Hurlstone Ag. High School.
I think all members of the teaching staff were single
men at that time. Those I recall were: Edgar Smiles,
who taught Botany and probably Agriculture. He
correctly forecast nearly all of the questions in the
1935 Intermediate Certificate Botany paper. When I
came to Tamworth he was Principal of Farrer
Memorial Ag. High School and I came to know him
afresh. L A (Darky) Proctor taught French (which I
did not do). He was a neighbour when we lived in
Albury and became Principal of Gunnedah High
School in the 1970‘s. F N (Frank) Buckley taught
Maths; I remember him as a stern disciplinarian and
a good teacher. I remember ‗Frosty‘ Monaghan
only because he once gave me ‗six of the best‘,
which I richly deserved and perhaps one of the best
lessons I learnt at Yanco!
Outdoor Staff
If memory serves me correctly K T (Kerry) Thomas
was responsible for farm work. ‗Bluey‘ McBean
was dairyman and left the school on appointment as
Administrator, Lord Howe Island. ‗Sos‘ Kenny was
vegetable gardener and I seem to remember he
smoked an evil smelling pipe. ‗Willy‘ Bible was the
Blacksmith. Short of stature and a no-nonsense
man, he was an artisan as was evidenced by the
ornamental entrance gates made without the
convenience of oxywelding. ‗Paddy‘ Drury was the
gardener – he left for Sydney, but I do not know if
it was on transfer.
Personal Matters
I was not the only boy to experience homesickness,
which did not last long for me. One lad in my
intake, from Berrigan, absconded and was not seen
at the school again.
A continuing embarrassment was the very limited
amount of pocket money my parents could afford to
give me, compared to what others had. I may well
have been thought to be mean.
I soon had a couple of friends, one of whom I
maintained contact with till after the war. Another
was a dubious character and I think left school
early. In my final year I joined with two other boys
in cutting bee colonies out of trees in the bush. (I
had been interested in bees from primary school
days). We collected the honey and strained it in out
lockers, boxed the bees in packing cases and hid
them in secluded places on school grounds.
Towards the end of the year we robbed the hives,
about ten from memory, and then moved them
before the bees had time to settle down again. As a
result they took off in one huge swarm! We had a
spot of trouble with a rival group at one stage, as a
result of which we undertook an after ‗lights out‘
escapade in the bush, and got away with it!
I am no footballer, cricketer or athlete, but I did
learn to play tennis. Swimming was a popular
summer pastime at the school beach, above Euroley
Bridge. It was teacher supervised and I did not hear
of any problems. I was a near casualty though,
before I could swim, by dashing into the water
when the beach contour had changed after a flood
and getting out of my depth. One of the boys saw
my predicament and pulled me out. (Soon after the
war, as a member of the School Council, I was
involved in the first School Fete to raise funds for a
swimming pool).
The river provided the venue for a good deal of
weekend activity. Unauthorised swimming took
place upstream and well away from prying eyes.
Fishing and walking upstream and down were
popular recreations in which I took part. At one
time two or three of us made a crayfish trap which
worked well, but it soon disappeared, presumably
stolen.
Many lads, and I was one, were involved in
building log cabins in the bush. One even built his
up a tree. Naturally we selected the straightest
saplings for building, which of course was not
appreciated by the Forestry Commission officers.
Roof material was scrap corrugated iron, which I
imagine was frequently recycled over the years.
It was probably in the spring of 1934 that the river
came down in a rather big flood, with water deep
enough to cover the flats and float a canoe. I recall
three of us paddling a canoe made from a sheet of
corrugated iron, across open ground and a bung on
the boundary near the Euroly Road, to a group of
boys on the opposite bank. All went well until on
our return someone gave us a push, the bow went
under and we had to swim across and wade the rest
of the way back to dry ground.
It may have been in the following autumn the
school experienced a grasshopper plague. They
were in such vast numbers that they ate out great
patches of the lovely buffalo lawn along the
driveway.
I remember being envious of boys whose mothers
seemed so young and pretty compared with my
own. I guess they were a deal younger and probably
had not experienced tough conditions and hard
work, the lot of my mother.
Epilogue
My three years at Yanco were a very significant
period in my life. Not only was I growing up and
gaining a wider appreciation of life and human
nature in a generally enjoyable environment, but it
provided a base from which my career in
agriculture developed. The school played a
significant role in the moulding of most unlikely
material!
On the down side, and this only became evident to
me many years later, the male only society,
followed by a further 3 years of the same, became a
social handicap. I sense that the same problem still
occurs with some boys and girls who do not
experience co-ed schooling. It was a surprise to me
when I learned that it had been adopted at Yanco,
since it was rejected at Farrer.
G.R. Godden
Tamworth
September 2013
Kevin Piddington & Don
Lewis “catching up”
THE YANCONIAN 49-ERS ANNUAL
WEEKEND GET TOGETHER 2013
Ballarat - 13th
through 16th
September 2013.
September has come and gone yet again, and with it
another successful Yanconian 49-ers Weekend.
Early announcement last January of plans for our
annual gathering for 2013 in Ballarat (because very
few of us had been there before!) was necessary to
get planning underway. Initial responses were most
encouraging with 17 Old Yanconians, plus our two
stalwart ladies, Betty Oag and Pat Tout, expressing
interest, a potential attendance of 36 people!
Of course, as is the nature of these things, some had
to drop out for various reasons and we eventually
got cancellations from six Old Boys who had
expressed interest – four in the last week! Of these
late withdrawals, one (I understand due to an
assertive shearing contractor) had to decide whether
to have the sheep shorn or come to the gathering,
and three others had illness strike their spouses.
Lillian Crane was hospitalised a week before our
event, Ann Goddard fell ill on the Thursday, whilst
en-route, and I understand Betty Kirkup succumbed
to some sort of malign bug on the Friday morning.
Maybe starting our gathering on Black Friday13th
wasn‘t our best idea? Happily, my recent enquiries
indicate all who had been on sick parade were well
on the way to recovered good health within the next
week.
Everyone drove to Ballarat and all but one couple
arrived at the Begonia City Motor Inn, Sebastopol,
on Friday afternoon, the balance of which was spent
―on who is here‖ as they arrived and catching-up
with those who had. The final adjusted count was to
be 25 in total for our Annual Dinner on Saturday
evening. Steve and Cheryl King were still driving
through South Australia on Friday but they had
confirmed their arrival on Saturday afternoon.
Happily the motel fully met our expectations – the
rooms were clean, spacious and of a good standard,
with friendly and helpful owners, who willingly
provided advice on what to do/see in Ballarat and
who also offered and arranged discount seniors
tickets for entry to Sovereign Hill.
Needless to say, with the last minute loss of several
couples, there was a bit of housekeeping that
needed to be done - rejigging the bus tour and
Saturday dinner arrangements for our reduced
numbers & etc. Happily, despite our needing only
13 rooms rather than the originally required 16,
which had ―booked out‖ all of the motel‘s rooms,
our hosts were most understanding that regardless
of what is planned, individual‘s situations can and
do change. A minor adjustment to the bus tour price
covered the fixed quote price and the Club was
advised of our reduced numbers for the Saturday
evening dinner.
Despite our initial gathering of the group occurring
on Friday 13th - and threatening rain being
encountered on our drive between Bendigo and
Ballarat - the weather gods decided ultimately to be
kind and pleasant weather, conducive to our being
―out and about‖, prevailed for the rest of the
weekend.
Our choice of motel
had been based both
on ability to meet our
original requirement
for 16 rooms and
reasonable proximity
to a suitable venue for
our Saturday dinner.
However, despite the good restaurants to be found
in the city centre, the easy walking distance from
our motel to the Sebastopol Bowling Club proved
an overwhelmingly powerful attraction to everyone
on Friday evening. It seemed that, after a full day of
travel, most were more interested in a quiet meal,
some catching up and a reasonably early night of
rest, rather than any serious partying.
Whilst there were many interesting things to do in
Ballarat, the idea of doing everything as a group
activity was deemed inappropriate – we are all too
old to be ―joined at the hip‖! So it was decided that
the only ―official group activities‖ would be an
introductory overview of Ballarat and the dinner,
both on the Saturday. The first of these was by
means of a two hour guided tour by bus on the
Saturday morning, which everyone acclaimed to be
a great success. Our two guides were not only
knowledgeable and interesting but also very
professional, covering in the two+ hour tour the
majority of Ballarat‘s significant historical
buildings and other points of potential interest to
interstate visitors. They especially pleased ―the
ladies‖ (and a few of the blokes) with the inclusion
of several of the old residential areas of Ballarat and
Albert Jones & Steve King
Our Lady Diners
providing a very informed running commentary on
the many interesting old homes dating from the
mid-1800s, quite a few of which are of historical
significance. This bus tour was a success in that it
provided us with not only an entertaining several
hours but also a very good basis for individual
couples to plan the rest of their weekend activities.
These options included, but were not limited to,
visits to Sovereign Hill and its‘ associated
attractions, the Gold Museum, the Historic
Tramway and Museum, the Botanic Gardens
adjacent to Lake Wendouree, the Ballarat
Observatory, the Mill Markets and the Australian
Ex-prisoners of War Memorial.
I know that others of the group visited most of the
above points of interest on the Saturday afternoon.
It seems the majority of us left visiting Sovereign
Hill and Gold Museum for a Sunday activity.
Personally, I can vouch only for the Keelings and
Piddingtons, who had lunch at Craig‘s Historic
Hotel and then spent the rest of Saturday afternoon
together with:
to start of the Ballarat Eisteddfod)
Wendouree and visit to the Tram Museum,
ough the blooms in the Botanic
Gardens and Glass House, and
After that full-on foray, it was back to the motel for
a bit more catching up and rest in preparations for
the envisaged riotous evening to come - our annual
group dinner at the Bowling Club.
As is becoming
traditional, The
Piddingtons de-
clared it was
wine and cheese
time in their
room before we
headed off for
our ―get-to-
gether dinner‖. Somehow, almost everyone found
somewhere to sit/stand and there was plenty of
animated conversation as we exchanged stories on
what we had been up to for a year - or maybe the
last 15 or more!
Despite the Club initially indicating they were not
very happy with
the late reduction
in final numbers
for our dinner,
after some
negotiation with
the management,
we were able to
revise the
numbers for our Saturday evening dinner from the
original booking for 33 to 25 without a price
penalty. The Sebastopol Bowling Club proved to be
a good choice for our 2013 function – the private
room venue gave us privacy for our gathering and
the meals met with general approval and were of
such good size that, to my knowledge, no one opted
for dessert.
Our dinner comprised a pre-selected menu of two
courses (two dishes of each Entrée & Main), both
50/50 alternate serve (dessert an optional extra):
Sunday was another fine day and the majority
seemed to head for Sovereign Hill. I had anticipated
Diana and I might spend an hour or so there but, to
my surprise, the time passed quickly and we had
lunch at one of the eateries in the Sovereign Hill
historic village and then spent yet more time
wandering the past in the village streets before
heading over to the Gold Museum
By the time we had spent an hour at the Gold
Museum, it was time to go into town for a caffeine
fix and look at the photographic exhibition at the
Mechanics Institute.
The 49er Diners
R > L - Front Row: Albert Jones, Roy Brain,
Neale Obst, David Stewart, Kevin Piddington.
R > L - Back Row - Merv Kohlhagen, Steve
King, Norm Alexander, Don Lewis, Les
Southwell, Ken Keeling
Our final evening at Ballarat was spent, yet again, at
the Bowling Club, this time a little better organised
than the Friday night as, this time, we had requested
they set up several tables to cope with us as a group.
A quiet evening was a fitting finale to our
Yanconian 49-ers Annual Weekend 2013 at
Ballarat.
Worthy of comment is that of the 35 names on the
current contact list, I received 25 responses to the
invitation to attend our Ballarat get-together,
comprised of 19 initial expressions of interest and 6
apologies, which I believe is a record. Of particular
note is the fact that this year we had 4 ―first time‖
Old Boys responding positively: Roy Brain, Brad
Fawns, Ted Goddard and David Stewart. As is the
way of these things, inevitably other events
somehow intervene so that some people cannot
come. Unfortunately, this year we had 6
cancellations from those intending to attend,
including Brad and Ted. The list of attendees,
cancellations and apologies is attached for your
information at the end of this report.
Of course, the final bit of ―official business‖ was to
agree on a location and sponsor for our function for
2014 - 13th
- 16th
September 2013. And – as they
say for the Olympics – THE WINNER IS ….
MERIMBULA! A very picturesque choice too,
with historic Eden nearby - We may even get to see
some whales!
The 2014 gathering will be co-ordinated by Albert
Jones and Barbara and Kevin Piddington, who will
contact you all in due course. However, I am sure
they would appreciate early indications of your
intention to attend.
In closing, our accommodation and the Sebastopol
Bowling Club both fit for purpose and very
satisfactory, the food was good and wine (and other
refreshment‘s) more than enough – and the
camaraderie was, as is usual, excellent! I believe we
all enjoyed yet another successful Yanconian 49-ers
get-together.
IMPORTANT Message – 2014 is the 65th
Anniversary for the Yanconian 49-ers. This coming
year's YAHS Reunion is on Friday 14th
March with
Gala Day on Saturday 15th
March 2014. Neale Obst
has volunteered to co-ordinate our attendance. In
preparation, Neale has reserved 9 double rooms for
Friday & Saturday nights at the Motel Riverina in
the name of Neale OBST (so as not to be confused
with other Yanconians wanting to book for the
reunion). Neale is hopeful that 9 rooms will suffice
as that is all that are available! If you are intending
to go to the YAHS 2014 Reunion, please make your
booking direct with the motel ASAP and advise
Neale. Contact details for the motel are:
Motel Riverina, 1 Yanco Ave, Leeton, NSW 2705
(02) 6953 2955. Hosts: Jan & Gary Eagles
We hope to see you all once again in 2014!
Old Yanconians - Ballarat Get-together
Friday 13th
- Monday 16th
September 2013
List of Attendees - Updated 17 Sept 2013
1 Alexander, Norm & Juanita (2)
2 Brain, Roy & Anita (2)
3 Jones, Albert & Marion (2)
4 Keeling, Ken & Diana (2)
5 King, Steve & Cheryl (2)
6 Kohlhagan, Merv plus 2 (3)
(Joyce & Kevin)
7 Lewis, Don & Pat (2)
8 Piddington, Kevin & Barbara (2)
9 Southwell, Les & Bev (2)
10 Stewart, David & Jan Mills (2)
11 Obst, Neale & Robyn (2)
12 Oag, Betty (1)
13 Tout, Pat (1)
Total 25
Absent Friends
1. Alexander, Malcolm & Ann Peacock dates now
conflict with shearing contractor
2. Crain, Ralph & Lillian Lillian in hospital
3. Fawns, Brad medical appointment
4. Goddard, Barry & Janet Janet unwell
5. Goddard, Ted & Ann Ann taken ill @ Deni - 15
Sept
6. Kirkup, Warren & Betty Betty taken ill 16 Sept
Apologies received
7. Barber, Alan & Gillian Apology – can‘t attend
8. Donaldson, Bill & Babs Apology – conflict of
commitments
9. Huon, George & Judy Apology – still consulting
10. King, Bruce & Laurie Apology – can‘t attend
11. Seberry, John & Pauline Apology – can‘t attend
12. Tickle, Alan & Jan Apology – too far from WA
Best regards,
Ken (& Diana) Keeling
Tel: (02) 6251 0966
Mobile: 0427 510 965
e-mail: [email protected]
LEETON REPRESENTATIVE BASKETBALL
TRIALS FOR 2014 TEAMS
Girls and Boys
U12 - Born 2003 & 2004 – 4.30pm
U14— Born 2001 & 2002 – 5.30pm
U16— Born 1999 & 2000 – 6.30pm
U18— Born 1997 & 1998 – 7.30pm
Tuesday 12th
November, 2013
WHAT TO BRING – A basketball and drink bottle.
INQUIRES – Lisa Schmetzer 02 6953 6365 or
Kerren Barnes 0428 516 690
Round 1 - Feb 22nd – 23rd Riverina
Round 2 - March 22nd – 23rd Bathurst
Round 3 - 12th & 13th April Riverina,
Finals - Orange date TBC
Arrive 10 minutes before start time please.
(Players MUST attend if interested in playing in
teams for 2014 season)
SCHOOLS SPECTACULAR
Schools Spectacular welcomes the Nine Network!
The 2013 Schools Spectacular will be broadcast
nationally on Channel 9. You can watch our
students on:
Channel 9 Saturday 30 November 2013;
with a replay on GO! Sunday 1 December 2013.
Stay tuned for an update on broadcast times.
The Schools Spectacular features 3,600 students
from 400 NSW public schools. It showcases the
amazing talents of our students and teachers in an
epic production of music, song and dance. This year
is the 30th year of the Spec – one of public
educations most colourful and inspiring
entertainment events. Tickets to watch the Schools
Spectacular live at the Sydney Entertainment
Centre are available from Ticketmaster
www.ticketmaster.com.au.
For more information on Schools Spectacular,
check out www.schoolsspectacular.com.au .
Elyse North