Transient School Communities: Education of 'The Great Wandering Class'

This paper makes a study of the education of children living at the Lock 7 and 9 construction camps between 1923 and 1935. While completing a Masters Project through the University of New England in 2010, I discovered the unusual situation whereby the children of men employed on a South Australian construction project were enrolled in Victorian schools for a period of time. The archival record of correspondence between the teachers and the Victorian Education Department at Lock 7 and 9 made fascinating reading as they tussled to obtain the necessary supplies and to administer a school with a finite life. School 4156, which began at Lock 9 near Kulnine Station in Victoria closed in 1926 and reopened six years later at a new location near the Rufus River in 1930. It finally closed at the completion of the works in 1934. Who were the teachers and what struggles did they have teaching the children of the great wandering class? This paper tells their story