NEWS DESK
Students past and present review school’s 150 years Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au SEVENTEEN past students were back at Sorrento Primary School on 1 December as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations – some being amazed at changes to buildings and grounds. “Many memories were shared,” principal Meg Dallas said. “Including how trenches were dug for World War II. “One visitor remembered jumping over the Norfolk pine at the front gate in the 1950s – making it over 70 years old.” Nepean Historical Society displayed memorabilia and photo albums provided by the school. “Those who attended the function enjoyed a trip down memory lane and will be sharing further information about the school with the society,” Ms Dallas said. Last week, students and staff entered the spirit of the “olden days” by dressing up and taking part in activities linked to the history of the school and illustrating how education was conducted then. They played old fashioned games, ran relay, egg and spoon, and sack races, learned calligraphy, and took part in a radio show and a past students’ reflections event. Here is how Nepean Historical society described education at the southern end of the peninsula in the years leading to the establishment of Sorrento Primary School No 1090: “In 1855 in a tent in Franklin Road, Portsea, nine boys and two girls attended a Church of England school which closed at the end of the year. The next year a national school opened on the site of the present Portsea Hotel with 15 pupils. It closed in 1861 and, for 10 years, there was no school in the area, with a sizeable minority of residents being “apathetic about education.” Eventually, thanks to the efforts of concerned parents, Common School 1090 opened in an
Glimpse of the past: Sorrento Primary School teacher Angela Sorbara with students Clara, Coco, Elise and Arie. Picture: Yanni
existing house at 3557 Point Nepean Road on 18 September 1871 – halfway between Sorrento and Portsea. It was possibly of wattle and daub construction with a brick well at the rear. This was the predecessor of Sorrento Primary School in Kerferd Avenue. The initial enrolment of 30 boys and girls aged four to 16 increased so quickly that in 1890, a new school was built and the old one became the teacher’s house. These early school buildings are now holiday houses.
Within four years the school building proved inadequate as the closure of Portsea School 2929 led to 32 ex-pupils enrolling at the Sorrento school. The inspector’s report of 15 October 1900 stated: “The school is inconveniently crowded with furniture and all the classes (averaging about 85) have to be taught in one room.” The pressure was relieved by adding another room. With the population increasing after World War I new schools were built at Portsea and Sorrento, with both opening in January 1925.
Most of the students began the year at Sorrento School No 1090 in Kerferd Road, where Harry and Keith Redman had built three classrooms and an office. Over the years the present school expanded around this original building. Sorrento Primary School officially turned 150 on 16 September, but due to COVID-19 the celebrations were postponed until last week. A book celebrating 150 years of education at Sorrento Primary School will be published next year.
Politics peninsula-style Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE Mornington Peninsula is facing possibly the biggest ever change to its political landscape. None of the familiar faces of multiple past elections will be contesting next year’s federal or state polls. Chris Brayne, first-term Labor MP for Nepean, is the only current MP on the peninsula who will be contesting the election. First-up for voters (possibly as early as March) to decide will be the federal seat of Flinders, left vacant by the
retirement of Greg Hunt, who has held it for the Liberal Party for 20 years. The Liberal candidate will not be officially endorsed until early next year, but the frontrunner favoured by Mr Hunt is Zoe McKenzie, a former adviser to former trade minister Andrew Robb, an NBN director and board member of lobby group Committee for Mornington Peninsula. Ms McKenzie says she is “stepping back [from her own business] over the summer” to seek Liberal Party preselection. She has also “ceased” her roles on various boards, including the Committee for Mornington Peninsula.
The Labor Party has endorsed Surbhi Snowball as its candidate for Flinders while Voices of Mornington Peninsula on the weekend announced it would back Claire Boardman and former Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Despi O’Connor is standing as an independent. Cr O’Connor, a teacher, announced her decision to stand after being ruled out (from a short list of six) from being backed by the Voices group. To clear the way for campaigning, the group’s choice, Ms Boardman, has resigned as deputy public health commander of the state health and human services department’s infection preven-
tion and control COVID-19 team. Ms Snowball, Labor’s candidate, has a background in small business, including banking and agriculture. While long held by the Liberals – former defence minister Peter Reith “handed the baton” to Mr Hunt two decades ago – Mr Hunt’s margin has been whittled down to 5.6 per cent. Threats to the peninsula’s physical landscape through climate or planning regulation change are likely to figure strongly in candidates’ campaigns. Coincidentally, Mr Hunt’s father Alan Hunt, is credited with being an architect of the green wedge, seen as one of the peninsula’s greatest protec-
tions against over-development. Although the state election is not until November, the Liberal Party has already preselected candidates for the seats of Hastings and Mornington. Perhaps the biggest shock to peninsula political watchers came last week when Chris Crewther was chosen as the Liberal candidate for Mornington over the incumbent, David Morris, who has held the seat since 2006. Mr Crewther was elected to the federal seat of Dunkley in 2016 after the resignation of 20-year incumbent Bruce Billson but lost to Labor’s Peta Murphy in 2019 after one term. Continued Page 10
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Southern Peninsula News
15 December 2021
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