Leaning to oblivion

The importance of recording and digitally preserving abandoned buildings before they too succumb to the elements is indisputable.

Dinyarrak Hall in March 2013

This was no more obvious than approaching the Dinyarrack Hall to find it collapsed onto itself.

Remains of the Dinyarrak Hall in December 2016

'Border Chronicle' 4.4.1933

The Dinyarrak Hall was the center of the community for many years, which had a racecourse, a hunt club, the Dinyarrak Bush Fire Brigade was formed in the hall, and the Wild Dog Club was just one group which met in the hall.
It also housed Dinyarrak State School No. 4178. The school opened on a trial basis in October 1923 for the children of soldier settlers (the number of pupils was insufficient to warrant the establishment of a school for the district close to the South Australian border) in the Dinyarrak Hall leased from the Trustees of the Hall Committee from July 1923. In 1926, a proposal to move to a more central site was defeated. It was the opening of the new school at Cove Estate that reduced the number of pupils, and Dinyarrak closed under ministerial direction in November 1930 in favour of the more central SS4457 Cove Estate. The school furniture & equipment went to Cove Estate.

Interior of the Dinyarrak Hall

Further down the road at Diapur, it was a similar situation for the little grain receival/sampling shed at the railway siding. After adopting a definite lean for some years, it finally toppled over.

The Diapur shed in January 2008

Diapur with the Melbourne-Adelaide rail line behind, December 2016

And so it was with some trepidation to continue on to Boyeo, knowing that it was only the sturdy construction with extra rafters and internal bracing that had prevented it from collapsing earlier.

Had the wild weather affected Boyeo too?

Boyeo School in March 2013

And in December 2016

Fortunately not, apart from a greater degree of incline it was still upright. A few more weatherboards were missing, the door was no longer swinging on its hinges and someone had propped it against a wall, but essentially it was much the same - for now.

The message though is don't expect abandoned or neglected buildings to remain or be saved and restored. Capture them while you can because tomorrow may be too late.

Boy-O Boyeo

It was from my mission to record and photograph the schools or school sites across the Wimmera region, that I discovered the Boyeo School building earlier this year (see the post which quipped my interest). Taking photographs didn't portray the full atmospheric feel of the place, so I returned to make it the subject of this video.

The Boyeo School opened in February 1884 in a temporary building on a 2 acre site. In 1885 the Department erected a timber schoolroom with an attached 4-room residence. Finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and finally closed in February 1944.
The old abandoned, derelict structure has stood for 127 years on a rise above a timbered swamp, part of a Crown Land red-gum reserve.

A lesson in teaching

Have been collating information on the local schools, chiefly from "Vision & Realisation" (the history of state education in Victoria), and have come across all sorts of snippets of information and have found a new appreciation of the trials and tribulations for the children and teachers in some of those rural schools.

from Victorian Government Gazette 15 May 1885

The best one so far concerns the Boyeo school -

Boyeo School No. 2577 (formerly Tarranginnie North became Boyeo in 1888) opened in February 1884 in a temporary building with an iron roof, timber floor, 2 doors & 1 window built by selectors, on Patterson’s selection. A 2 acre site was gazetted 15.5.1885, near the southeast corner of a block largely taken up by a large swamp. In 1885 the Department erected a timber building with an attached four-room residence. An underground tank was provided in 1887. In 1898 permission was given to construct an underground room to combat the excessive heat. By 1910 in an unusually wetter year, the school was completely surrounded by water. Children arrived in boats or waded knee-deep (the school closed from September until January). It finally closed in February 1944. 

This is essentially the published article submitted by Joan Pickering. Fortunately the Library also has her book "Tarranginnie Schools" which has a section devoted to the Boyeo school.

The swamp - interesting to park a school near it - in 1909 the teacher Janet McVicar found "the school is almost surrounded by a swamp and the flies and other insects are often so troublesome that the children have to work in a state of torment", she was requesting a wire door & wire windows.

The flood of August 1910 led to the school becoming an island, some parents refused to send their children till the water receded. A month later the school closed when the water rose to cover the schoolhouse floor, entered the outlet pipe of the underground tank, polluting it. The water fell at the end of the year, but rose again with February rains. There were several attempts to shift the school but with no agreement, it remained perched on the edge of the swamp.

The Boyeo Swamp with the school site circled

At the other extreme - The underground room was requested by the teacher Thomas Posser as his wife and child had found the heat so intense he had been obliged to send them away to Western Port. He proposed to excavate 8' square by 6' deep with wooden steps leading down, a roof of iron with hessian beneath, with a draught pipe, and whitewashed walls. The Department did not object, provided he filled the hole in should he cease teaching at the school.

Boyeo School in the late 1880s

Like many other small schools Boyeo suffered from bouts of measles, whooping cough and scarletina. The children (with assistance) tended a school garden and trees for Arbor Days (they won the prize for best garden). And finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and closed in 1944, and the school building was sold at auction in Kaniva.