Mt Kembla's first school, Violet Hill.
It's interesting how you can look at an image for years, see it and yet not see it, not recognise the importance of what it shows. One of the earliest depictions of the locality known as American Creek, which took its name from the creek that followed through the valley that is now the village of Mt Kembla, was this illustration published in the Illustrated Sydney News on the 16th of June 1865. The article was announcing the big news of the day - the discovery of oil bearing shale near Wollongong at a placed called American Creek. "The subject of our engraving is the place where the first oil-bearing shale was discovered." This image was shared onto the Kembla Jottings Facebook page by historian Dr Joe Davis in 2015.
Years earlier, historian Michael Organ had put together a fantastic list of landscape art titled 'Landscape Art of the Illawarra Region of New South Wales 1770-1990' in 2006 available online. In that publication Michael stated that this illustration "American Creek, Wollongong , the site of the 1st discovery in New South Wales of Kerosene-bearing shale" was "actually a view of Jamberoo Valley, though titled as above". Michael was asked about this by Joe but being almost a decade after the publication he was unable to recall what brought him to that conclusion (p.c. Davis 2015).
I've tried to find this same illustration perhaps titled differently in an earlier publication, or an original artwork that the illustration could have been taken from with a different title in a collection somewhere. I wanted to confirm the error and so discount this illustration as being of Mt Kembla, however, so far I've been unable to find anything to confirm this. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an artwork was mislabelled with an incorrect location as was the case with Eugene Von Guarard's artwork of American Creek.
Re-examining the illustration though, in light of various historical photos of the area and taking into account the errors in scale and perspective I found that: the curve of the road in its original alignment; the slope of the land gently sloping down to the right; the buildings only on the southern/left-hand side of the road and none on the other; the dip in the mountain range; that Mt Kembla summit would be out of view to the left; and the escarpment on the upper right looks like the slopes of Mt Burelli where Kembla Heights would later be built - even the little hump on that escarpment, all these are largely consistent with the Mt Kembla landscape, the Mt Kembla valley and saddle seen in photos dating circa 1890s.
Kembla Saddle - Museum of Applied Arts a& Sciences Collection
If this is true, and we can in fact take the illustration on face value, then it is very likely that the top building on the left is the very first depiction of the slab and shingle school room built 1859 by Robert Longmore. The Illustration was created circa 1865, six years after the school room was built, when American Creek was still a rural outpost of Wollongong and industry had not yet made its mark on the landscape. The name of the school would have been the American Creek school had it not been for Henry Gordon JP, one of the first land holders in the area, a teacher himself and the principle patron responsible for establishing the school along with residents John Buckland and William Stafford. He requested that the school be named Violet Hill school after the native violets that grew on the hill known locally as Violet Hill. And so it was until the name was changed 25 years later to Mt Kembla School.
Coloured detail of possibly the first depiction of Violet Hill School in Mount Kembla.
In March 1860, Henry Gordon requests the Board of National Education build a kitchen, affix a verandah and erect a fence around the school yard, but only the post and 3 rail hardwood fence was erected at that time. The illustration is consistent with this description as it shows a building with vertical slab timbers, no verandah and a 3 rail fence. It does not look like your typical pioneer cottage as the other building in the illustrations does. Mr G. D. Harrison, the school's third headmaster in residence by 1864, reported to the board that he had papered the walls, painted the door and carried out minor repairs at his own expense and now hoped that a small attached kitchen and verandah would be added to the building as it was "almost unsupportable in summer". These were not supplied and Mr Harrison gave his notice to leave in March 1865. He was replaced by Mrs. Burke in May 1865 who remained headmistress until 1871.
It would not be until a decade later in 1875 that a verandah would be added and in 1878 that a the slab kitchen was supplied. The children carried their own drinking water to school, they sat at long desks on long forms with no back rests, (possibly similar to this Getty Images illustration), and wrote on slates using chalk. (SCT 27.8.1959)
With the opening of the Mt Kembla Coal and Oil Mine in 1883 enrolments doubled. Major school modifications, rebuilds and extensions with extra rooms were carried out around this time and the name change to Mt Kembla School. It is believed that the slab building was converted into a weatherboard building around this time. These changes were not sufficient for the growing population and calls were made for a new school building to be built. It took another decade to pass until the stone and brick building still standing today was built in 1895.
If the 1865 illustration is of the Mt Kembla valley and the building depicted is the original Violet Hill School then this is truly a wonderful find for understanding the history and development of Mt Kembla.
Researched and written by Georgina, April 2019
Reference:
Mt Kembla Public School - an historical account prepared from Mitchell Library, government Archives and Department of Education sources by the Division of Research and Planning, New South Wales Depart of Education. June 1959.
ORGAN, Michael 2006 'Landscape Art of the Illawarra Region of New South Wales 1770-1990'
South Coast Times (SCT) 27.8.1959 'Elderly Ex-Pupil Visited School'
TROVE - newspaper articles Illustrated Sydney News 16th of June 1865
