Stories

Marion Kossatz (O'Hara) YHS 1947 Wrote thanking the committee for their work and attached the following: VISE (Volunteers for isolated Student Education) - During 1999, I spent five months as a volunteer teacher in the Northern Territory, and recommend the activity as an alternative to a dull retirement at home. Oenpellie in Arnhem Land is an aboriginal settlement of about one thousand persons, about two hundred of whom are white, or "ballanders", (Ballanders, bollanders, hollanders. the first white people exploring along the northern coast there, were Dutch sailors, Hollanders, so ... )… more

Arthur Webb YHS 1944 sent in a poem written by Mrs Aileen Lazarus and presented by her at a party in 1997 to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of her marriage to Bert Lazarus. Arthur says the poem reminds us of times now gone when life was not as easy as it is so often today. Bert & Aileen were long time residents of Yallourn, lived in Stzelecki Road and shifted from Yallourn to the Mirboo area when Bert retired from the SEC in 1975. They are the uncle and aunt of the Webb's, ie Dot (Harten) of Brunswick Heads, Mavis (McAllister) of Yallourn North, Vera (Amos) of Glen Waverley… more

Dr John Lewis, who is now senior lecturer at the Hong Kong institute of Education. John started at YHS in 1954 and his younger brother, Bruce, commenced YHS in 1955. John wrote the following: "My memory goes back to the war years when I was just two or three years old and recall towns people lining up for ration stamps at the Primary School. I remember lining up with my mum (Alice Lewis) in 1947 in order to enrol in the 'bubs'. My first teacher was Miss McKenzie. Miss Williams was our teacher in Grades 5 & 6. She was fairly strict and had us doing lots of parsing of sentences. We… more

Stefan Tomasz YHS 1957 wrote:
For all those who can remember….and what I remember:
I was interested to read Richard (Dickie) Bush’s eulogy for Miss Jones in the Yoga Newsletter - June 2013.
As YOGA is about nostalgia, I thought not only of her, but of others who had an impact on our lives those many years ago in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While time tends to mellow and/or distort the memory, the following I remember with general affection. By the way, if what I write does not match what is in the memory of others, then I apologise, in advance, to the living and dead… more

Peter Blythe YHS 1954 wrote: I remember – Newborough East and Yallourn. Reg Penkethman’s article in the January 2013 newsletter, with many experiences similar to my own, suggested it was about time I added to the vast array of correspondence contributed to YOGA.
My father, John (Jack) Blythe, left England in March 1950 following a job offer from the SEC to work as a carpenter building houses at Newborough East. He came on the SS Ranchi as a £10 Pom and our family joined him later that year. Hilda, Jack’s wife, and their four children Barbara, Peter, Eddie and David also came to… more

In the Clermont Community & Business Group April 2013 Newsletter, the member profile was written about Olga Dunn (Tabaczynski) YHS 1958 and here is an excerpt: Olga was born in Germany of Ukrainian parents and came by boat to Australia in 1949 as displaced people after the war. Her father built their home in Yallourn North Victoria, which was like ‘little Europe’ with all the immigrants. Olga has two sisters and a brother and she is a member of the Yallourn Old Girls’ Association (YOGA). Olga started YHS in 1958. She and Barry married in 1966 ‘my ballroom dancing boilermaker’, who… more

Memories of a Junior Postie in Yallourn in mid-1960s…Neil Crawley (great grandson of Yallourn’s Dad/Pop Brewer)
I finished Grade 4 at Yallourn Primary (although the first year was held at the High School in a room near Strzelecki Road) and then shifted to Morwell, but came back a few years later and worked at Yallourn Post Office in my first ever job, soon after decimal currency came in.
My Junior Postal Officer (JPO) duties included telegrams, collecting mail from roadside boxes, collecting money from public telephones, riding a bike to Hernes Oak to either carry out house… more

Judith Jerome (Andrew ) YHS 1938 - was born in 1926, the oldest daughter of Dr James Moore Andrew and nurse Catherine Dorothy Mawson. She was raised in the town of Yallourn with her sister Margaret Noel and brother David Bradbury. Judith attended Yallourn Primary School and then Yallourn High School until she went to school in Melbourne as a boarder for forms four and five. After her schooling, Judith entered her nurse training at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She completed her general nursing in 1948 and continued her studies to become a midwife and infant welfare sister. As children… more

Helen Fischer (Hender) YHS 1967 (equiv): Jenny Foster and I first met at Kindergarten in 1960. We both have vivid memories of being put on the "Kinder Bus" by ourselves and waving nervously back to our mothers through the bus window!!! Jenny still remembers clinging to her mother’s leg, not wanting to get on the bus. I witnessed nearly everyone going through this as I got on at Railway Avenue and the bus travelled all around Yallourn picking up the kids. I loved the bus trip after a while. We were friends at Yallourn State School up until the end of grade 5 (1965). I can still remember the… more

PATRIOTISM, SQUARE PEGS AND ROUND HOLES - Yallourn High School in the 1950s and 1960s by Stefan Tomasz YHS 1957
(Photo attached)
There were two contributions to the June 2007 edition of the YOGA Newsletter which caught my eye back then. One was from John Lewis, the other from John Goold. While both of them were 2-3 years ahead of me at Primary and Secondary school, their reflections resonated. Not surprisingly, they were about their remembrances of our beloved Yallourn High and it got me to thinking about my own time there between 1957 and 1963. Firstly there were John Goold’… more