Early History

To and from Raukkan School

1890s

To	From	To and From
Freeling (service) 1 Maloga 1	Milang 1 Alice Springs 1 Poonindie 5 Goolwa 1 Pt Pierce 2 NSW 1	Brompton 2

The AFA’s troubles were by no means over with Garnett’s appointment: within months, a petition was presented, with twenty five Aboriginal signatures, asking the AFA to remove Holman. His relations with the children and their parents had deteriorated significantly, and he was using physical punishment more than parents liked. Holman continued under a caution.

New regulations were introduced towards the middle of 1900. They included:

• 
  Meat no longer would be part of rations – this would be offset by slightly higher wages to make up the difference in effective income. This regulation meant that men not on a wage would be worse off;
  

• 
  Only orphan children and girls under the matron’s control would in future be boarded at the dormitory. Children with parents at the Mission would stay with them, not in the dormitory, so this measure threw a good deal more costs onto families, not to mention increased pressure on accommodation.
  

Pressure must also have been building on the AFA’s ability to raise funds. There were more demands being put on them all the time: the Rev. Matthews, lately retired from Cummeragunga, was seeking to open up a Mission at New Residence, across the river from present-day Gerard. David Unaipon was asking the AFA for money for Sunday clothes, books, and other purposes, which was a bit cheeky since he had just been thrown off the mission for serious indiscretions.

In 1901, there were fifty three children on the school roll, but the quality of teaching to have dropped markedly: only twelve children were in Class II or higher, and Class V had been abolished. In other words, the great majority of these children, who a few years before had been described as ‘ordinarily intelligent, and if placed at a State School, would compete freely with the average white child’ were now in the two lowest grades that the school offered. Mr Holman may have had outstanding musical skills but he was serving the children very poorly. The school was open for an average of only four days each week, for less than forty weeks, which would have contributed to the poor level of education of the children. For some obscure reason, from about 1900, boys and girls had separate dining rooms.
For all that, the mission struggled on: a dairy had been opened, with a separator; the boot-shop was still operating, although without an instructor (again, it seemed out of the question to hire one of the more outstanding young men as an instructor, such as Edward Chester or Jonathan Sumner or George Rankine). Four more cottages had been completed. Seven young people had been found positions as apprentices. More families had been settled on the land, including that of Matthew Kropinyeri on Section 1079 near Wellington, where they joined the families of George Karpany, George Muckray and William McHughes. In the view of the AFA, putting families on the land was a means of ‘solving the half-caste problem’, although it is pretty certain that the families themselves did not see it that way.
At some cost, a thirty-thousand-gallon tank had been erected, served by two windmills, to irrigate crops. However, the lake water that they pumped was usually too salty by 1901. Other resources were in short supply: timber for fuel had to be brought from some distance; the jetty was badly in need of repair. On the other hand, it was not all doom and gloom: in the two years of 1900-1901, births had exceeded deaths by almost twenty.
In September 1901, a petition was circulated at Wellington to exclude Aboriginal children from the school there. The petition was forwarded to the Minister of Education:
It cannot be expected that white parents will tolerate the mixing of their children with Aborigines. If they must be schooled here then we suggest a separate room in which they are kept to themselves – But we most respectfully point out that they have a school at Pt Mcleay & to that place they should be sent. Hoping you will do something in the matter as soon as possible. I remain, etc. H.M. Cross. (GRG 18/1/1901/885)
A month or so later, the Chairman of the Wellington Board of Advice sent another letter to the Minister:
Dear Sir, We should be glad to know if you have done anything in regards to the Black children attending this school, as the parents feel very strongly about the matter, & object to have their children crowded in with the Blacks as chn have no idea of our way of living many of whom are camping & living in wurlies & those that have small huts are half their time with the others, or they are with them. We most respectfully point out that they have Pt Mcleay to go to & then to another Mission above Mannum presided over by the Mathews family where they could be taught something. (5.10.1901)
Inspector Stanton asked the teacher to provide information about the accommodation for each Aboriginal child, house or wurley and received the reply that they all lived in stone houses. The teacher added: ‘I let all the aboriginals sit together in one form to keep them from the white children as much as possible.’ The Minister advised that the children should be allowed to attend the school ‘so long as they are clean and tidy’. Two of the Aboriginal families had also been attending the Tailem Bend school.
In November 1902, Garnett demanded that both the farm overseer and Holman be dismissed: the farm overseer was ‘always looking after his fowls rather than his duties.’ In December, during his regular inspection, Inspector Smyth was so appalled with Holman’s performance that he urged the AFA to let him go. Holman was ‘persuaded’ to give up the position, with his salary ceasing at the end of February 1903. He was replaced by Mr William Chapman for the 1903 school year. The curriculum was revised to include religious education, and the dormitory was extended.