Construction work at South Lismore Public School

Construction work has officially commenced on the new flood-resilient buildings for South Lismore Public School, marking a significant milestone for the 100-year-old institution. For many locals, the sight of the rebuild brings back powerful memories, particularly for those of us who grew up in the area. I had the privilege of attending the school in the 1970s, and with this new chapter beginning, I joined ABC Radio Lismore today for a brief local history spot to share some recollections of my time there.

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Transcript: South Lismore Public School Memories

What do you remember about your primary school? Was it the teachers that stood out to you, the cute little buildings, perhaps even the canteen and what you used to order for lunch?

Construction is underway on new flood-resilient buildings at South Lismore Public School, a school with over 100 years of history. And the ABC’s James O’Brien attended the school back in the 1970s. He’s here to share some of his stories and memories about the amazing things he remembers learning about, and the people who came out of there.

Good morning, James. Thanks for coming on.

Hey there, Bridie.

What do you remember most about the school? What sticks out as the most prominent part?

Well, I think at the moment, because the construction is underway, I remember back in the 1970s, the school was rebuilt then. And it was about the time of the ’74 flood that they saw the need for a new school. So, my strongest memories of going to South Lismore Public School between ’71 and ’77 was the reconstruction of the new school.

So, those buildings that were recently pulled down, they date back to the ’70s. There were a couple of older buildings that were still around. But yeah, it was the sound of jackhammers and pile drivers and the fact that we kept staying in our classroom. And I do remember one day when one of our teachers just got so annoyed by all the sound that she just stopped the class for half an hour.

She just couldn’t take it anymore?

No, she was completely over it. I remember we had some new demountable classrooms at the time, and there were some students in those. And it was a couple of years of really quite difficult times at the school in terms of the whole construction work. But then when the new buildings arrived, the strongest memories I have, first of all, is we had carpets. We had fans.

I remember the library was this little tiny part of one of the old wooden buildings, and all the books moved over, and the library was too big for the books that we had. But it was this huge transformation of the school.

Can you remember primary school age James’s face walking into, for the first time, the carpeted classrooms?

Look, I remember we all were allowed to go and have a look, and I actually spent Sixth Class in one of the carpeted classrooms. And I think we were all just amazed because, you know, before that it was wooden buildings and wooden floors and all of those sorts of things.

Any air conditioning back in those days?

Look, I’m trying to remember now if it was air conditioning or fans, but certainly we had some fans. I remember when the fans were installed. And just to give you an idea of how old I am and how old things were back then, we used to have these radios on the walls that weren’t quite high up, or maybe they weren’t so high. They were high for me, you know, seven or eight year olds. And we used to listen to ‘Kindergarten of the Air’ on the radio every morning, I think about 10 o’clock.

Wow. I wonder if anyone else remembers listening to, was it ‘Kindergarten of the Air’, the program, James?

‘Kindergarten of the Air’. It might have had a few name changes, but it was on the ABC, and I remember the ritual of the teacher turning on the radio every morning, and we’d sing along to the songs.

So sweet. And was it an educational radio program?

No, it was songs.

Just songs? Just music?

Kids’ songs. Yeah, nice.

James, any significant alumni, even if it’s just locally famous?

Oh, look, some of the names that people would know pretty well locally. In my year at school, Tracy Bowen was in my year from Bowen’s Cake Shop in South Lismore. Lynne Youngbury, the well-known real estate agent, she was in my year at school. The year below us is a guy called Adam Worling. Now, Adam’s really interesting. He helped a couple of years ago. All the flood kids get clothes, and he waits for their year to all fall. But he’s also, I think, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney now. He’s certainly part of the Clover Moore team, and I reckon he could end up replacing Clover in a couple of years’ time. So yeah, they were all famous alumni. But, you know, I remember all the kids really well. I was looking at some class photographs last night, and I could name every one of them.

And how does it feel knowing that kids will continue to go to this school site, even though it is on the floodplain, and the school culture and history will continue?

Yeah, well, I really like… you know, I was born in South Lismore, raised in South Lismore, and until, you know, my sister got the buyback a couple of years ago, was a proud Southie all the way, and I used to walk to school. I remember walking up and down Casino Street to get to the school. Two of my sisters, who are no longer with us, both went to South Lismore Public School back in the ’40s and ’50s. Their children, who were born in the ’70s, went to South Lismore Public School. The grandchildren also went to South Lismore Public School, and one is still in Fifth Class, I think, years in now. And in a couple of years’ time, probably another great-grandchild, whoever it is, will also be going to South Lismore. So, you know, I stay very close to South Lismore Public School.

Quite a strong family connection. Do you remember what your uniform used to be?

Yeah, I vaguely do. It was a grey shirt and grey shorts, and I’m sure the girls’ uniform was a green check sort of uniform. Gee, you’re making me go back now. And we wore desert boots. All the boys wore desert boots.

Desert boots? What are those?

Look, this kind of suede shoe. You know, they were the popular shoe at the time.