This parody is a tribute to the staff of the Teachers’ Training College, which Ray Kelley attended in 1947-48. Located at Kelvin Grove, it shared premises with the North Brisbane Intermediate School. In “To Us Then” there is a description of the College and its Principal, ex-Lieutenant-Colonel James Alexander Robinson, fondly know as “Rocks”. With some others of his staff, “Rocks” was a product of the Queensland pupil-teacher scheme. Such people had moved into the state teaching service from primary school ["Taught one day, teaching the next"] and had served, like all pupil-teachers, a rigorous apprenticeship during which their special talents were noted.All lecturers at the College had been State School classroom Teachers whose special interests were made available to budding teachers. Some returned to the classroom from the College as they were subject to the usual conditions of transfer.
This institute for higher learning changed its name a few times over the years after its re-location on the bare plateau at Kelvin Grove…
1942 Teachers’ Training College [sometimes Q'ld T.T.C.]
1950 Queensland Teachers’ College
1961 Kelvin Grove Teachers’ College
1974 Kelvin Grove College of Teacher Education
1976 Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education
1982 Brisbane College of Advanced Education, Kelvin Grove Campus
1990 Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus
A prominent staffer was Philip Walker Radcliffe previously a pupil-teacher at Breakfast Creek. “Raddie was remembered as a short, slightly humped man with closely cropped grey hair and nicotine-stained teeth and fingers, brown hair and hazel eyes, clad in an ill-fitting, crumpled suit. He lacked self-importance [‘please stay seated I'm not royalty'], and addressed staff and students alike with unhurried courtesy” said Doris and Geoff Swan in Telling Tales [Bris.1992], edited by Sue Pechey and Paul Thomas. His knowledge of English and classical literature was quite profound. Once he had fulfilled all academic requirements for promotion within the system, he did not contest any degree or bother with pre-arranged courses of study. A complete student, he free-ranged over Greek, Latin, English and Australian literature. He is remembered as being responsible for the first school broadcast by the ABC in 1937 and for the arrangement of the Queensland Readers, where pupils enjoyed the stories and poems that he had selected.
While a classroom teacher at the Central Practising School in Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill, Ezra “Boxer” Wyeth represented Queensland cricket as a left-arm slow spin bowler. At TTC, he lectured in Psychology. A general favourite, he came with the College from Turbot Street to Kelvin Grove, the first to arrive during the change-over. He left the College for a while to obtain a doctorate at Berkeley University, California. In 1949 he joined the staff at Melbourne University, then Portland State University and California State University at Northbridge where he stayed for 22 years until retirement. He re-visited Australia a number of times, once as a US Lawn Bowls representative in a world tournament in Sydney. He became a world authority on lawn bowls.
As a classroom teacher, rotund Jack Corkery had gained a reputation as a rugby player, swimmer and athlete. He conducted the Physical Education program for male students and taught Speech. He is remembered for his famous, “‘Round the plateau!” a finale to some physical activities and a torture for malingerers. “Cork” returned to classroom teaching. In his eighties he could usually be found at the Spring Hill Baths where he swam five or more kilometres regularly during week-days and followed rugby league intensely on week-ends.
J.C. Greenhalgh a slow speaking friendly man lectured on School Method. He was the first lecturer to drive a car to College in the post-war period. He speaks of these days, “College went out at 3.30 pm and the then Principal and Senior Lecturer used to gather outside my door at 3.35pm and, if I wasn’t quick off the mark and loaded them into the car, I was not popular, because that was their way of getting to the city, for a particular purpose which I will not mention.” “Jack” completed his doctorate and moved to Regional Director [South West] based at Roma, then to take the place of “Rocks” as Principal of Kelvin Grove Teachers College and then as Director of Teacher Education within the State Department. His ability to snooze at meetings and public lectures and to awake at the right moment was remarkable.
Jenny Gilbert was the doyen of the lady lecturers. As a favoured College song of the period said, “…with her Mother Hubbard ways, making button holes and stays”, she was feared and respected. She was a stickler for proper dress and good manners. Unlike “Raddy”, she expected the male students to stand as she entered the lecture room and insisted on the usual courtesies and genteel manners from the female groups.
Fanny [Julius] Ryland, lecturer in science and botany, always wore a red brooch in the shape of a star. It must have been a show of pride that she was one of a non-orthodox Jewish family, six of whom were members of the Communist Party of Australia during a time when Australians, generally, were preoccupied with the ‘communist spectre’. The general public was not supposed to approve of Communism during this era and Fanny’s brother Max, a prominent solicitor, was constantly in the news. When legal colleagues opposed his entrance to the Bar because he was a communist, he successfully challenged their opposition in the Courts. He was an unsuccessful CPA candidate for the House of Representatives in 1946,54,55,58 and 1961, unsuccessful Senate candidate in 1949, 51, 63, unsuccessful candidate for the Queensland Legislative Assembly on 1947 and 1950, and unsuccessful mayoral candidate for Brisbane in 1947, 52, 55. To the naïve students of the forties, who whispered about ‘reds under the bed’ and the like, Fanny seemed to bear her brother’s reputation with pride.
Clare Van Homrigh controlled easy-on-the-eyes Claire [Hunt] Glazebrook and Mina Laing in the Arts Department. It was “Van” who compiled a most useful book on the teaching of Art that was distributed to all schools during this period, and the girls were as enthusiastic about their teaching as one could get. Claire started as a lecturer in her late teens and, in retirement has had some successful showings. The three Art folk kept in close contact following their retirement. “Van” and Charlie Hall telephoned each other a couple of times each week.
Charlie Hall was an exciting teacher of music. His love for it was infectious and the conduct of his classes is long remembered. For many years after retirement he could be seen catching the bus outside the then Treasury Building each week, heading for Newstead Special School or Narbethong where he taught the recorder until he was 91 years of age. Even then he gave the task away only because a change of school time-table was inconvenient for him.
Irrepressible Mollie Woodward lecturer in Speech and Drama had, according to Ray, a clarity of voice rivalled only by the purity of diction of Julie Andrew’s singing. Mollie is said to have completed her Ph.D. at age 91 years.
Jeanie [Bennett] Wobcke used a black pointer in class that had a history of its own. It was Colonel Reed’s baton that he carried when his troops broke the 1891 shearers’ strike in Barcaldine. She played bowls at Weller’s Hill Bowls Club where she was made a Life Member for her work as Secretary.
OUR PASTORS AND MASTERS
[Tune: "Bless ‘Em All"]
Bless ‘em all! Bless ‘em all
Dear Rocks and his warriors withal!
Andy and Raddie and Thelma and Stan
Boxer and Fanny and Vera and Van!
With the Grace, Mac and Claire we recall,
For auld Laing syne bless Charlie Hall;
Bless Greenie and Queenie
And Jenny and Jeanie,
Bless Mollie and Cork, Bless ‘em all.
J.A.Robinson
A,J.Nimmo, P.W.Radcliffe, T.B.Robinson/Farley, A.Krebs
E.R.H.Wyeth, F.Ryland, V.H.Cottew, C.M.B Van Homrigh
G.L.Davies, K.McKenzie, C.L.Glazebrook
J.C.Laing, C.Hall
J.C.Greenhalgh, Q.D.J.Wendorf
J.A.Gilbert, J.F. Bennett/Wobcke
M.A.Woodward, J.M.Corkery.
THE PROCESSION OF PERIODS
Grace Davies
First comes, equipped with gruesome box of bones,
The lecturess in Physiology:
She speaks of leucocytes and of hormones,
Descants upon the cardiac systole,
Performs on frogs an appendectomy,
Elucidates to brains mostly obtuse
Pyloric sphincters, vitamins A and B,
Secreted enzymes of the gastric juice,
And foods that make us fat, or help us to reduce.
Fanny Ryland/Julius
Next enters one acquainted with the zoo;
Complete or partial metamorphoses
Are what she’s constantly referring to -
She glibly prates of sea anemones,
Coelenterates and platyhelminthes.
In Botany alike she teaches well:
She speaks of pedicils with obvious ease,
Knows the full sex life of the pimpernel,
Explains funiculi in manner nonpareil
Queenie Wendorf
Fast following then comes one, a nympholept
[A crank, that is] in psychologic lore,
At mouthing polysyllables adept,
And so possessing a prodigious store
Of terms akin to those told heretofore,
Like passive algolagnia and conation,
Reflexes, motives, trends, and many more
A great deal harder of pronunciation,
All meant to extend the educator’s education.
Mina Laing
Anon comes yet another, to impart
Her share of knowledge; and she says her piece
On Lewis and his vorticistic art,
The fauvism of Rouault and Matisse,
The Doric architecture of ancient Greece,
The noble classic Pantheon of Rome….
Nor will the conscientious lady cease
Until she fancies she has driven home
At least one-half the facts in some tremendous tome.
Jack Corkery
But see! We turn from matters of the brain
At last, and pay attention to the brawn,
Assuming what appear to be insane
Unnatural contortions on the lawn.
Or flying with the fleetness of a fawn
Around the “Plateau”. ‘Tis undoubtedly
A pleasant change; but notice, you can yawn
And loaf in other periods, AND go free ….
You can’t, try as you may, do the same in P.T.
