The Society apologises for the website being off line for so long. Our name was used by some hackers and our site taken off line. All seems to be well now

The Year of Centenaries has started.

• This year is the centenary of secondary education in Leongatha being 100 years since the opening of Leongatha Agricultural High School on February 6^th. The centenary reunion will be on April 28^th and 29^th and will celebrate the history of Leongatha High, Tech and Secondary College. Lyn Skillern’s book ‘From Inkwell to Internet ‘ will be launched at the reunion.

• 2012 is also the centenary of our Mechanics’ Institute and a function to celebrate this will be organised later in the year.

• The courthouse is 100 years old and celebrations will occur in October. Hopefully a production of ‘Trial by jury’ will be performed in conjunction with this celebration

• The Jersey Breeders Association will celebrate 100 years this year. Arthur Mesley the founder of Leongatha High School was an agricultural scientist and a great supporter of the breed. He founded the association to promote jersey interests in the area.

• The Masonic Lodge building opened in 1912.

February 6^th marked 100 years of state secondary education in Leongatha

February 6^th marked the 100^th anniversary of the opening of Leongatha Agricultural High School. On that day in 1912 a group of 57 students and three teachers gathered at the Leongatha State School (primary school) then on the corner of Jeffrey Street and Hassett Street. The new high school building had not yet been started so the high school was given a large room at the State school to use for the first year. Mr Arthur Mesley had been appointed as headmaster and he and his family moved to Leongatha to live in January. Arthur Mesley was born and bred in Omeo and he started his teaching career there as a 15 year old.  He attended Melbourne Teachers College and then taught at Warrnambool Agricultural High School. After studying at Dookie Agricultural College Arthur Mesley was appointed to found Leongatha Agricultural High School. The students in the first year came from Leongatha and district and many areas of South Gippsland including Korumburra, Yarram and Mirboo North. The students were allocated into classes and levels according to their score on the entrance exam rather than age and were mostly over 14 years old.

The curriculum was basically academic with an agricultural stream provided for boys. A farm was established at the school site and Mr Mesley and the students set about making a fine mixed farm designed to teach modern agriculture to the farmers of the future. Other talented students wanted to be able to attend university and teachers college and they were able to do so in their own community for the first time.

In 1930 the school farm was closed and the word agricultural was removed from the name. From then on Leongatha High School successfully ran until 1989. Leongatha Technical School was established in 1967 and amalgamated with Leongatha High to form Leongatha Secondary College in 1990.

The centenary of state secondary education Leongatha will be celebrated on the weekend of April 28^th and 29^th this year with a grand reunion. Everyone with a connection to the three schools over the past 100 years are welcome to come along and enjoy the events.  Please register your contacts with the school if you wish to be part of this once in a lifetime celebration.

New book available – “From Ink Well to Internet:  A century of State Secondary Education in Leongatha“

 This is the title of the book written for the centenary celebrations on April 28^th and 29^th. The book details the history of Leongatha High School, Leongatha Technical School and Leongatha Secondary College and tells those stories, which give us a greater insight into the educational journey taken by the youth of our region over the past century. There is a chapter for each decade detailing the developments of the time and the major events that occurred. Leongatha High School has eight chapters, Leongatha Technical School two chapters and Leongatha Secondary College two chapters. The introduction details the development of state education especially secondary education with some reference to developments in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The other chapters tell us about the events and people that made the schools unique.

In the back of the book the authors have tried to name all the students and staff from the three schools as well as school council officials, school captains and house captains.

The authors are all past teachers. Lyn Skillern wrote the introduction and high school section, Clive Lynn and Ian Snell the technical school chapters and Gaye Hutchinson the secondary college chapters. The book was designed by Joanne Marchese (Rowlands) a past student and edited by Kyra Bae Snell also a past student. Many past students have contributed to the book by writing their own stories. There is something special in every chapter.

The book will be available at the reunion and can be ordered before by contacting Leongatha Secondary College 0356624333. A book like this will probably never be written again.

From Inkwell To Internet (click image to enlarge)

First school Dec 1912 (Click image to enlarge)

Heritage building 90′s (Click image to enlarge)

The Sloyd room is believed to be the last one in a secondary school in the state. These rooms were once common and were used for the teaching of woodwork. At the rear of the Sloyd room is a metalwork room which has a brick floor.

The 1934 building was erected as a replacement for the original 1912 school. This building was similar in design to the original but was larger. There are very few early weatherboard high schools left in the state and none in Gippsland. The original Warragul High School was demolished some time ago and the original Sale High School c 1910 was built of brick.

The oak tree was planted in 1912 when the school was opened and has been a landmark feature of the school ever since. Countless students will remember it fondly.

The Jubilee Park was planted to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the school.

There were some beautiful exotics planted in the park and the majority are still there. Some died and were removed, some others were removed for the building of Mesley Hall and the recent Mesley Hall extension. It was considered a planting of significance because it marked an important event in the community’s history.
The buildings and the trees belong to our community and need to be preserved for the future.

Correspondence can be sent to:

The Secretary
Leongatha and District Historical Society
P.O. Box 431
Leongatha 3953

The society’s phone number is:

03 5662 2492

The newsletters feature information on the society, updates on new and ongoing projects, historical articles, and reports from guest speakers.

The newsletters were prepared in MS Word format and saved as PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format) for easy viewing on the web. If you don’t have the PDF reader installed, a link is available from the archive page to download the reader.

The archive will be kept up-to-date, and newsletters will be freely available as new issues are published.

(Please note: As the original was photocopied for distribution, and some images were pasted in at the time of photocopying, there may be some blank spaces on pages where photos were later added.)

By John Murphy

One Bag in Six — $20.00

No Parallel: The Woorayl Shire 1888 to 1988 – $20

The Meeting Place: The Leongatha Memorial Hall 1924 to 2004 – $15

The Leongatha Labour Colony  –  $10

Leongatha Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library 1891 to 1991 – $6

Knox’s Rockhill Farm – $5

Faith of Our Fathers – $10

Town Water – $15

The First Century : 100 Years of the Leongatha Butter Factory – $15

By Ellen Lyndon

Mossvale Park – $6

By Eulalie Brewster

Looking Back at Inverloch – $5

By Mabel Sharrock

Stories of Waratah and The Ten Mile – $6

Also available

En Avant: Leongatha High School 1912 to 1987,  by Lynette Skillern  – $6
The Significant Trees of South Gippsland  – $15
Gathering at the Mount, By Pat Spinks  – $20
Stony Creek, a history – $6
Lord Brassey Lodge No 180  – $5

Send a cheque and request to:
Leongatha and District Historical Society,
P.O. Box 431,
Leongatha 3953

Postage and handling  – add $5

References used in the kit include “The Land of the Lyrebird”, published by the Korumburra Historical Society; and “Mountain Forests of Gippsland”, by the late Phyllis Reichl, published by Nelson Australia Ltd in 1968, and now out of print.

Work on preparing the Pioneering kit for this website was performed by Andrew Cantwell.

As with any work, there may be some errors or omissions, or the information may be awkward to access — and we need your feedback to make it better.

Please make your comments and corrections through the form below, and we’ll make the changes needed as soon as possible.

Funding for the website has come from the Local History Grants Program of the Public Records Office. The society is sincerely grateful to the PRO for the grant.