On Sunday 18 May 2025 former pupils of the Graham School are invited to gather at the restored school building on Graham Road, Hovells Creek, to commemorate its history and celebrate its rescue from an extremely dilapidated state.
An application was originally made on 14 May 1883 to establish a public school at Hovells Creek. At that time 26 children were living within 3-4 miles of a school site adjacent to St Joseph’s church, on what was then known as Reids Flat Road, but is now Frogmore Road.
Just over a year later, in September 1884, the NSW Architect for Public Schools reported:
“I have had the building erected at the above place for school purposes inspected, and I estimate the value of the same at £67.7.0. It is a substantial and well-built wooden structure, 13 x 15 x 9 feet; the roof is covered with galvanized iron with proper ridge capping; and the furniture consists of 4 desks and 4 forms, 8 feet long, 1 table, 1 chair and 3 small bookshelves.”
The school operated as a single teacher school and initially ran on a part-time basis in conjunction with Clonalton School.
Latest Stories
In 1929 the school was moved down the valley, it is said on the back of a bullock dray, to its present site on Graham Road, some 3 km (nearly 2 miles) to the north. This new site was closer to where most of the school age children lived, with most of them travelling to the school either on horseback, by sulky or by walking. The school operated there as a single teacher school until 1966, when it closed due to a lack of enrolments.
In 1984 150 former pupils and teachers celebrated the Graham School’s 100th anniversary at the Boorowa RSL Club, when many wonderful memories and stories were shared.
The school sat empty in a paddock on Willow Glen after its closure, gradually falling into disrepair over the next 55 years. Occasionally visiting shooters or shearers stayed in it overnight. The building survived surprisingly well until around 2013, when cattle knocked out several supporting verandah posts, causing parts of the roof to collapse. Also, as the external timber walls of the building had not been painted much of the building weathered badly.
In 2022 a proposal to restore the school building was raised. Nick and Pen Gay, who in 2015 had taken over operating the property from Nick’s parents, Barry and Penny Gay, were very supportive of the idea and fenced off an area around the school to protect it from stock.
Members of the Hovells Creek Landcare Group then spent a day in late-2022 shovelling and sweeping out debris and sheep dung from the school, loading it onto a tip truck and clearing the site ready for the building work.
Actual restoration work began in 2023 and has been very much a team effort. John and Liz Baker, who previously owned and restored the nearby Old Graham homestead, funded and planned the work program and ensured that it complied with Burra Charter heritage restoration principles.
Brian Beattie, assisted by his son Mitchell, did the carpentry and reroofing work. They jacked up the floor to level it, replaced quite a lot of wall boards, and stripped and refixed the galvanized iron roof. The verandah and lean to store were completely rebuilt.
The late Bede Morrissey, who renovated Old Graham and the former St Joseph’s Church Church in the 1990s, was persuaded to come out of retirement, and at the age of 89 repaired and remade all the traditional sash windows by hand. Finally, Aaron Morrissey, Bede’s son, working with his wife Michelle, repainted the building inside and out.
While the original desks had long since disappeared, it was possible to source some similar original desks from the old Tuggeranong Schoolhouse in Canberra, when it closed in 2023. These and other items will be placed in the school. An appeal is being made to locals who may have any items from the old school, so that they can be returned. It is hoped to set up a small group of locals and interested former students to be involved in helping safeguard the building into the future.
The commemoration event is being organised by Jan and Keith Hyde of Jerringomar. A chapter in the Hovells Creek Landcare Group’s ‘Changing Times Changing Landscapes at Hovells Creek, NSW - two hundred years of history and recollections’ includes a history of the school. Jan spoke with many former students of the Graham School while researching and editing this book, which was published in 2021.
Please contact Jan Hyde for further information about the 18 May Commemoration on 0409 037 117, or at hyde6697@gmail.com.
