A Not - So -Typical Day

Historically the most a-typical day during my time at Westleigh College was when Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11, visited Australia.

She had had her Coronation on June 2nd, 1953 and then embarked on a tour of the Commonwealth.

This trip included places like Bermuda, Jamaica, Uganda, New Zealand and Australia to list just a few.

Her schedule included Melbourne and it also included tours down many suburban streets, including High Street Northcote, so that school children could see their new Sovereign.

It generated a lot of excitement as the only mass-media covering this event was radio, the press and newsreels that were shown at the cinema later. No television as yet!

For this occasion we had to look as perfect as possible as we were going to be lined up in High Street opposite the Northcote Town Hall.

We were asked to bring a pair of clean white socks to change into just minutes before the event: not the usual tan ones.

We were helped to get ready by our teachers and were also given a small plastic or paper Union Jack to wave as the Queen drove by.

We walked down James Street to High Street and took our places. A large black car drove by and stopped just a few feet away from where I was standing.

The Queen and Prince Philip got out of the car and our head-prefect curtseyed, and presented her with a bouquet of flowers that were bound by pink and green ribbons: our school colours. There were miniature silver school badges on each ribbon. A nice touch!

I recall vividly how the Queen looked. She wore emerald green. Her hat and coat were a perfect match. She seemed to be wearing a lot of face powder and pink lipstick. She looked very pretty and I think she made a huge impression on all of us! I suppose it had the same impact as a visit by Princess Diana would have several decades later.

The Royal Family was very big news then. There probably weren't many little girls who didn't have dolls dressed as the Queen, or as her daughter, Princess Anne.


Almost everyone I knew had a picture book relating to the Royal Family. I still have two of them. Sadly the dolls are no longer in my possession.

The pupils were all excited and happy and Miss Clarice really seemed delighted and proud of us all.


Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Britain's Longest-Serving Monarch

A Typical Day

Since I had an older sister I was at the school daily for two years before I actually became a pupil at Westleigh College.

My mother would take both of us and pick us up at the end of the day until she considered us old enough to go by ourselves.

In the very early fifties I recall there were still doubledecker buses that went along High Street from Preston, to Northcote and into the City of Melbourne.

They were green and yellow, as were the other buses and trams back then, and some still are!

I only recall one trip on a double-decker bus. I was quite disappointed when they took them out of service and replaced them with a single-decker bus, and then eventually with trams.

For a short time there were also "pram buses".These literally shadowed the other buses but not in the same ratio.

Since it was very much the era of the post-war baby boom it was necessary to have buses to accomodate all the young mothers with their prams.

Very few, if any young mothers drove cars back then so public transport was about the only option, and road traffic was light.

We would walk from our home near St George's Road in Preston to the bus stop in High Street. We passed through Croxton and Thornbury until we reached the closest stop to James Street, Northcote where the school was located.

Further historical information can be found here, and this link has an excellent map and additional information.

After a day of learning and social interaction with class mates we would go home with our mother.

Sometimes we would walk down to Separation Street, rather than catching the bus at the Northcote Townhall.

This was always a bit of a treat as we often went to the Junior Shop for additonal clothes and items of school uniform, or we were bought a cake or some sweets from the local cake shops or milk bars.

Cream horns and eclairs were very much a favourite from the Dutch bakery. Amazingly I am now friends with the daughter of the people who made these excellent treats!

The local newsagency was a great source of pens, pencils and other essential school stationery items. We often looked longlingly in the window at the box of 72 Derwent pencils until the day we were given them for our respective birthdays.

I recall there was a Woolworths shop on the corner of Separation Street and High Street, but it was nothing like any Woolworths store today. We still enjoyed going to it, and we also enjoyed going to the Coles shop in Preston which was located just where our bus stopped. Both shops sold just about everything from clothes to stationery and personal items like cosmetics.

There was no self-service, or check-outs back then. That was the main difference. Self-service supermarkets came into being in the later part of the 1950's.

Most of the cheaper items were made in Japan, not China like they are today.

Although we used the High Street buses for many years they were eventually replaced by trams that looked like this one.

When we arrived home we usually changed out of our uniform and went out to play with the other children in the street. No television as yet so we had to create our own entertainment.

Some of us had bikes, roller skates and scooters but generally we went to the park in St George's Road to use the swings, monkey bar and slide.

Needless to say very few of us were overweight from sitting too much!

This all began to change when the first neighbour got a television set in 1956, just in time for the Melbourne Olympic Games.

The temptation of a small black and white television set a few doors away was quite irresistible for both the neighbourhood kids and their parents.

I am quite sure the owners of the first television sets had a few regrets! No one ever wanted to go home.

Miss Lillian Everard

Miss Lillian Everard was simply addressed as "Miss Everard". She was the oldest.

We all knew her name was "Lillian" because that is how Miss Clarice addressed her, even in front of us!

Miss Clarice usually did this when she was correcting something Miss Lillian had said or done, and you could easily sense the displeasure and irritation in Miss Clarice's voice.

She was never able to disguise her emotions when she was speaking and we all learned this from a very early age.

I don't recall Miss Everard actually teaching me for a whole year, but she certainly taught some of the classes I was in.

All the class-rooms housed composite classes of three levels: grades 1, 2, and 3 and 4, 5, and 6 and so on. I think there were 4 main rooms, and a separate Kindergarten. (The Preparatory grade).

I think her speciality was history and I enjoyed these classes a lot. In later years this provided some familiarity with much of the history I studied.

Most of the history we did was British History and we used the "Kingsway History" books written by Rhoda Power. I wish I still had them. These books were definitely not part of the Victorian State School curriculum back then, but since Westleigh College was a private school we were not bound by these rules. I think we were fortunate to have used them.

I think Lillian was the most overtly religious of the Everards.

Whilst the school was not specifically denominational we recited "The Lord's Prayer" every Monday morning at assembly, and I recall her reading us psalms, proverbs and other passages from the Bible.

I think all the Misses Everard attended the Church of the Epiphany which was almost next door to their home. The building is still there, and is still an impressive sight when driving (north) towards it along High Street, Northcote.

Like Matron and Miss Clarice she also had long grey hair parted in the middle, braided and in some kind of chignon/bun. The main difference was that Miss Lillian had a fringe. None of the Everards changed their hairstyle in the whole time I was there.

She also dressed appropriately for her age, if not a tad older, and I think she must have been well into her eighties. She was certainly the most frail of them, and with hindsight I am guessing she was getting senile, or even in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

Like the others she would dress up for Speech Night and sport a fur stole or cape.

She didn't frighten or intimidate us like Matron or Miss Clarice.

Miss Lillian Everard was more gentle, caring and empathetic.