The Nineteen Seventies

Toward the end of the 1972 school year Mr Alex Lowe accepted an invitation to transfer to the Wahroonga Adventist Primary School where he served as principal for fourteen years until his retirement. Of the seven years he spent at Mt. Gravatt, Lowe perceived them to be amongst the most rewarding of his experience as a school administrator. He recalled that they were exceedingly busy years, but made extremely enjoyable by the strong support he received from all associated with the school. Lowe’s replacement was Mr Wal Dawson. Dawson came to Brisbane from the principalship of the Primary School located on the campus of Avondale College. Like Lowe, Dawson had taught in small one-teacher schools— Ophir Glen and Mullumbimby. Survival in these small schools required a strong physical constitution, above average teaching skills, and the capacity to organise one’s program and energies. They made excellent training grounds for later administrative experience. Dawson led Mt. Gravatt for three years, 1973-75. There were no major building programs during these years, but there were improvements to the existing physical plant. These included excavating and enclosing the area under the 1967 extension to provide valuable storage space. Dawson did his best to improve the recreational amenities for the students. Small-scale tennis courts were painted on the cement area and bat-tennis was introduced.

A far larger project was the construction of the playing fields between the school and the creek. This required the removal of trees and their stumps. Dawson recalled the use of dynamite to remove particularly difficult stumps. This dynamiting took place on Sundays. Dawson did not state, however, whether the school ever received protests from the local residents at having their Sunday mornings punctuated with sonic booms. He did recall that the labour force came from the churches and were ably led by Ken and Barry Hiscox and Sing Poi Hung.

The strong emphasis at Mt. Gravatt on music may well stem from Dawson’s time. In addition to a school choir, Dawson also fostered the learning of musical instruments, including the piano, and violin. Visiting music teachers, such as Mrs Faith Overson, were employed to provide individual tuition. Dawson was proficient in playing the mouth organ and ukulele and offered instruction in these two instruments. Thus began the strong music tradition that characterises BAC today. In his teaching Dawson became aware that some students failed to realise their full academic potential because of specific learning difficulties. He felt that with remedial work these students could be helped academically and with positive spin-offs in self esteem and social development. He therefore proposed that a teacher be employed to work at Mt. Gravatt for three days a week and to spend the other two days at other Adventist schools near Brisbane. To his surprise and disappointment he received no encouragement from the educational hierarchy. Determined to provide some assistance to disadvantaged students, Dawson arranged for a friend at Mt. Gravatt Teachers College who worked in remedial education to provide before-school help. Dawson’s efforts in this regard were an early recognition that difficulties in learning were not necessarily an indication of below average mental capacity, but rather stemmed from problems in receiving and processing information. Furthermore, these problems could be overcome. The development of a Special Education unit at Mt Gravatt came later and for Dawson was a vindication of his dream.

Grade 1 and 2 - 1970

Grade 3&4 and 4&5 - 1970

Grade 6 and 7 - 1970

At the end of 1975 Dawson was asked to join the secondary department of the school at Avondale. He declined because he had no desire to be a secondary teacher. Furthermore, he had two children who wanted to pursue tertiary studies in Brisbane. The Dawson family elected to remain in Brisbane and Dawson transferred to teaching within the Queensland Education Department. Dawson’s replacement was Mr Irwin Low. Irwin Low was a Queenslander, having graduated from Kelvin Grove Teachers College in 1954. Initially he taught in the Queensland education system, but in 1959 joined the Adventist school system. He was successively principal of Adventist schools at Toowoomba, Mullumbimby, Ipswich, and Zillmere before coming to Mt. Gravatt. Low inherited a school with nine teachers and an enrolment in excess of 300 pupils. Such was the esteem in which the school was held that there was a waiting list of about thirty prospective scholars.

One non-Adventist lady, when told her son would be placed on the waiting list, declared: “Well, I am going to sit here and wait until he is enrolled.” How could such persistence be ignored? Frequently teachers permitted their classroom space to be filled to capacity to reduce the waiting list. Low recalled that one year Mrs Jenny Cooke, the Grade Four teacher, packed forty-two students into her room. Fortunately competent teachers can do that without adversely affecting any child’s education.

Low also recalls the tremendous demands made on his teachers. There were no teacher aides, no librarian, and no janitors. Each teacher was responsible for everything pertaining to their classroom, including the daily vacuuming. Fortunately, the School Board did employ cleaners to wash and maintain the school’s toilet blocks. Parents did not escape. Once each term they were expected to roll up and participate in a general school cleanup, including the washing of classroom windows.

As principal, Low carried an equally demanding work load. In addition to the administration of the school, he carried a full teaching load and, on the weekend was regularly scheduled for a preaching appointment in any one of the city churches. With his teachers, Sundays were also spent at the school in program and materials preparation. Teaching at Mt Gravatt required a high level of commitment and, even more so, a healthy work ethic. Low could not have maintained such a heavy work load but for the support he received from members of the School Board. He recalled that on one occasion, when the Board had to reluctantly decline his requests for clocks to be installed in each classroom, that the next day one Board member, Mr Doug Thorley, called at the school with a wall clock for each classroom. Thorley, a business man, paid for the clocks from his own pocket. In fact, over the next few decades Thorley was to prove a generous benefactor to both the primary and secondary schools. The Board did, however, ease Low’s load by employing a school secretary. Ms Eva Heath proved a valuable administrative assistant and used her best judgment in determining what phone calls to act upon herself and thereby keeping to a minimum the calls that interrupted the principal’s teaching. The 1970s were years of school building expansion. Three old demountables were replaced by an infants block running parallel with the original building. This new block was linked to the old by a walkway. When he arrived at the school, Low found his office to be a small room adjoining his classroom. During his tenure a more functional office, incorporating a staff room, was constructed on the Broadwater Road side of the school. Not only did the school expand its physical plant, but it also acquired more land. On the high side of the

property, a strip of land extending from Broadwater Road right through to Wishart Road was acquired for $125 000. This land now houses the Student Centre and the Bus Maintenance Shed and bus parking zone. On the lower side of the school a developer had proposed a subdivision, but this was rejected by Brisbane City Council due to drainage problems emanating from several natural springs. This land was purchased from the disillusioned developer for $75 000. The Mt Gravatt Adventist Church now stands on part of this land. The rest became playing fields. The rapidly growing school enrolment placed increased pressure upon the school bus program. One possible solution was to decentralise the primary schooling sector. To this end eight acres of land were purchased in Hall Road, Springwood, and a further parcel of land at Park Ridge. Ultimately, however, satellite schools were not constructed at either Springwood or Park Ridge. The Hall Road land was sold and the Park Ridge site is now home to the Park Ridge Seventh-day Adventist Church. When the school was first established the valley between Broadwater and Wishart Roads was a meandering creek replete with playful platypuses. Low described the creek as picturesque. In times of heavy local rain, however, the creek would become a raging torrent. Unfortunately that aspect of its nature was diminished when Brisbane City Council decided that the creek should be replaced by three large pipes to convey the storm water through the property. Because the creek was deemed to cross land owned by the Adventist church, the estimated cost of $500 000 was to be borne by the owners. Fortunately, church member, Mr Frank Connolly, was employed by the Queensland Department of Irrigation and Water Supply. In a compromise solution, Connolly designed the present open drain which halved the original estimated cost. While delighted at the saving, the school could ill-afford this expenditure when it had other priorities. When the job was completed, BCC added salt to the wound by advising that since the drain was part of the Council waterways, it controlled a chain (just over 20 metres) of land on either side of the drain.

Construction work at the creek where in a compromise solution with BCC, Mr Frank Connolly designed the present open drain which halved the original estimated cost of $500 000.

By 1980 Low felt the need to up-grade his teaching qualifications. He therefore advised the South Queensland Conference that he would like to continue on staff as a teacher, but that relief from administrative responsibilities would enable him to commence part-time studies at what was then Queensland Teachers Collge. The Conference agreed to this proposal and for the 1981 school year Cyril Hill assumed the principalship.