Isobel Bennett on school at the Menindee Mission

Isobel Bennett grew up on the Menindee Mission where she attended school. She remembers some of the teachers, like Mr and Mrs Whatman. Mr Whatman was the first trained teacher at the Mission’s school, arriving in 1944.

Mr Whatman wrote an article for the Barrier Miner where he said that in those days tracking was the chief pastime of the children. “They are taught the rudiments in their early childhood and are constantly at it,” he said. “We find it a disadvantage, because wherever we go they track us down.”

The mothers teach the boys the first lessons in tracking. This is probably a survival from the early tribal days when the men had to be free to hunt for food as the tribes moved about. Later on the boys learn from the men of the tribe.”

Isobel recalls attending the mission school every day. “They could only teach up to Grade 4, and I was in Grade 4.” The children came barefoot to school.

They occasionally had combined sports days with the public school.

The schoolhouse at the mission contained two rooms and a big veranda. The bigger room was for the older students. Before an open-sided shelter was built, the large room at the schoolhouse was sometimes used as a dance hall for the mission residents, with Hero Black playing the piano accordion.

when the Menindee Mission closed in 1949 all the buildings there were demolished, so all you can see today of the schoolhouse are a few of its foundations.

Isobel Bennett with her grandson, Marley Darrigo.
Isobel Bennett with her grandson, Marley Darrigo.
Taken from the book School Days — Education in Menindee by Menindee Central School, 2011