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The old Bass school to the right of the hall is now part of the Bass Valley Community Centre.
Not so surprising when you hear that he had to make a monthly report to the nearest JP, at Cranbourne, 40 miles away and a three-day trip over impassable roads.
So we learn from a fascinating newspaper report on the centenary of the school’s founding in 1866.
The first move for a school at Bass – then called Woolamai – was made in 1865 by the Presbyterian minister at Cranbourne, the Rev Duff.
The Education Department met half the $400 cost of a building, on the present police station site, and agreed to pay the teacher's salary of $120 a year.
Twenty miles a day
When the school started, the 39 students, between 6 and 15, had to walk or ride up to 20 miles a day.
The nearest school was at Cranbourne. Children more than ten miles from Bass or Cranbourne went without formal education.
The original wrought iron fence around what is now the Bass Valley Community Centre still bears the SCHOOL NO 847 plaque signifying Woolamai Common School.
There have been so many incarnations of the site and school it can be difficult to follow.
Community Centre volunteer and local historian Lorraine Inbritsen says the old Bass school (one of the later incarnations) now houses the community centre.
The teacher’s house, where lessons were held in the front two rooms, is now the op shop.
The Bass Hall, formerly known as Queen Victoria Hall, was built in 1897 on Hade Avenue near the Bass Hall. It was shifted twice, first to a site opposite St Josephs Church then to its current location in 1989. It is heritage listed.
Hadden House Op Shop is the former teacher's house where lesson were taught in the front two rooms. Photo: Toni Cooper
The roof leaked, there was no drinking water, and snakes infested the school ground.
In 1890, the school was closed because of diphtheria. The doctor at Cowes attributed the outbreak to the conditions.
The department was forced to erect a new school on the present school site. By then, other schools had been built at five-mile distant Grantville and Kilcunda.
In 1914, the seven men on the school committee were replaced by seven women. Why? Nobody knows. It is not likely to have been because of the war, because two years later, the women were replaced by men!
In 1919, bad conditions and overcrowding caused another school to be built.
Parts of the old school were added to the teacher's residence, in which current headteacher Kel Edwards lives.
In 1955, the school was again overcrowded and leaking water.
In 1960, it was extensively renovated.
Today, it has 60 students and two teachers.
On June eleven, the Saturday of Queen's Birthday weekend, about 250 old students are expected to return for centenary celebrations.
It is hoped that these will include Miss Gray, ninety-one, of Auburn, daughter of the schoolteacher during the diphtheria outbreak.
The celebrations will be restricted to luncheon, a back-to-school, and a dance and social evening in the Bass Hall.
The original article was published in The Wonthaggi Express on April 6, 1966. Thanks to Lorraine Inbritsen for extra information.
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