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The Education Department had difficulty maintaining teaching numbers in rural communities. Teachers’ salaries were tied to attendance figures, so this might have deterred applicants, but above all else, the remoteness of these communities was the most common complaint from teachers.
Document - Letter, 1921, Public Records Office Victoria
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Rural schools were a thorn in the side of the Education Department: expensive and hard to staff. One-teacher schools were the mainstay of government-funded education for children in the bush. Part-time schools and itinerant teachers were common in remote areas.
Clement Baker was one of these itinerant teachers. In 1910, he taught at three schools: Genoa, Wangrabelle and Mallacoota. Each school operated for two-and-a-half days a fortnight, with lessons left for the children to finish under their parents’ supervision. It was a busy working life. Baker rowed a boat 24 kilometres to Genoa, then rode a horse 16 kilometres along a forest track to Wangrabelle. His living arrangements were basic; he and his wife lived in a tent in Genoa.
Document - Letter, 1912, Public Records Office Victoria
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Unsurprisingly, schools such as the one at Otway Saw Mills attracted less-experienced teachers. This did not benefit the students.
For example, seven-year-old William Wilkinson was locked in the schoolroom, after school-hours, by his teacher, Edward Prendergast. Concern over the boy’s safety arose; he finally appeared, injured, having escaped through a window. Prendergast was admonished by the Education Department for ‘gross carelessness’.
