Final bell: Katunga South Primary School’s last day

“I’ve taught in lots of schools and the atmosphere here has always been wonderful,” Katunga South Primary School principal Elizabeth Oudeman said.

“It’s been a lovely school.”

The school was established in 1880 after 17 residents in the area requested a primary school near the Katunga Parish, and was originally named North Katunga Primary School.

Just seven years after the school opened, it had to be shifted to make way for the construction of a rail line to connect Numurkah and Cobram.

The present building was completed in 1907.

During the next few decades, the school continued to grow.

A residence for the teacher was constructed on the property, and a few years later a bore was sunk with a windmill to provide water for the students and staff.

By the 1950s, there were 66 children enrolled at the primary school.

Christine Berry was one of those students from 1953 and was one of many to visit the school to say farewell last month.

“When I was here, the main building held Prep right through to Grade 6,” she said.

“It’s just so different now.”

Elva Harris was the first of three generations to be educated at Katunga South Primary School.

She sent her son, Dan, who in turn chose the small school for his two boys, Jackson, 16 and Aiden, 15.

The family members all have fond memories from the school.

“For our swimming days, our families came down, picked us up in the car, took us around to one of the students’ parents’ place and we’d swim in the irrigation channels,” Elva said.

Dan recalls their school camps were a little different to regular schools as well.

Former principal Shaun Kelly would take the kids for their school camp at his mother-in-law’s house near the beach.

“We were country kids in the city, we’d never been down there before,” Dan said.

Like many who went to school at Katunga South, Jackson said small schools offered students a unique environment.

“Most of the time when I was here we had about 10 kids, so we knew everybody,” he said.

Shaun Kelly, principal of Katunga South Primary School from 1972 to 1994, said the closure was inevitable with the town’s changing demographics.

“Where there used to be 100-acre dairy farms, 50-acre orchards, they’ve all just been amalgamated now,” he said.

For him, the informality of small schools is something that will be missed.

“It’s all changed unfortunately, and it’s all geared around big schools,” he said.

“The things I got to do here, you’d never get away with anywhere else.”