Finding a class photo
We love to hear your stories when you or your family appear in the archives. This story is from Kathleen, who was one of the little girls in this Kindergarten photo from Cooks Hill in 1951. Kathleen’s parents came from Rockhampton to live in Newcastle during the War. Her grandmother was worried about the ‘Brisbane Line’ – a proposal to concede the northern portion of Australia in the event of an invasion by the Japanese and later rejected by Prime Minister John Curtin and the Australian War Cabinet.
Kathleen’s family moved to Newcastle to be near her grandmother’s sisters and lived across the road from the Cooks Hill Public School. She attended the school between 1950 and 1953. Kathleen told us this photograph started her finding lots of memories, such as the children bringing beach buckets of coal to school to warm the classroom. In 1953 her other grandmother won the Queensland lottery Golden Casket. This win gave Kathleen’s parents the opportunity to move back to Rockhampton and settle.
Kathleen was delighted to come across this photograph as she doesn’t have many photos from her childhood. We would like to thank Kathleen for sharing her story with us, and allowing us to share it with you.
School class photographs are usually taken by contractors and as such are not usually State Government archives. However, the History Unit of the Department of Education did collect photographs between 1963 and 1991. Most photographs show school buildings, pupils, teachers, or educational activities, with most including an identifying caption and date. The photographs themselves date from around 1850 to around 1991. These are part of our Collection and many dated earlier than 1955 can be seen in our catalogue. You can check if we hold photographs from your school days. Search the catalogue by the series number NRS 15051 and the name of the school.
